Cameron pulled Selena through the backyard as they tried to walk quietly through the grass. As they reached the fence, they heard the front door being knocked down then shouting. Cameron put his hands around Selena’s waist and lifted her so she could climb over then she dropped to the other side. She saw the brown and gray hair of Mrs. Granger bobbing near the top of the fence then she swung her leg over and Selena helped her onto the ground.
She held her breath as she waited for Cameron to join them. She could still hear shouting from inside the house then one of the gods knocked the backdoor down and yelled in a language she couldn’t understand. She didn’t wait for Cameron to crawl over. She blew the fence down and grabbed his hand as Thor joined Tyr on the back porch, scowling at the demigods who thought they could outrun them.
“Where’s your crow now, little girl?” Thor shouted at her.
Selena kept running down the alley that led to a different street. She heard Mrs. Granger panting behind them and realized the woman wouldn’t be able to keep up with them, but they couldn’t leave her behind.
“Seriously,” Selena hissed, “where is our crow?”
Cameron sighed and let go of her hand so he could grab the older woman. “Hold on, Mrs. Granger. And don’t worry. I’m not into May-December romances.”
Another section of fence crashed to the ground behind them as the Norse gods marched into the alley. Thor’s lips curled into a cross between a smile and a snarl. His fingers flexed around the handle of his hammer as he eyed Selena.
“Run, Cameron,” Selena whispered. “Get her out of here.”
“No way. I’m not leaving you.”
Selena threw the pieces of broken fence at the gods, but they only laughed as the shards of wood splintered against their bodies and fell to the ground.
“That didn’t work,” Cameron pointed out. “Try something heavier.”
“You try something,” she snapped.
“Ok,” Cameron said with a shrug. A wall of fire ignited in front of Thor and Tyr and the demigods were able to run a few more steps before they heard the Norse gods laughing at them again as Thor conjured the rain to extinguish the flames.
“I’m getting really tired of these weather gods,” Cameron complained.
“Selena,” Thor called, his voice singing her name. She looked over her shoulder at the god’s broad frame, his reddish-brown beard dancing on his chin as he continued to taunt her in the same sing-song voice. “Have you met Mjölnir yet? Because she’s been dying to meet you.”
Thor lifted his hammer and threw it toward her. Cameron pulled her to the ground as the hammer flew above her head then returned to Thor’s hand. He grunted at them and threw it again.
Selena buried her face in the mud of the alleyway as she waited for the blow of Thor’s hammer to fracture her skull. She heard the sound of metal slapping against skin and flinched but nothing hurt and she was pretty sure she was still alive. No, no, no, please. Thor’s hammer can’t have killed Cameron instead.
Thor’s voice thundered over the rain. He was no longer taunting her; he sounded pissed. She peeked between her arms, and Cameron grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. He held Mjölnir in his other hand.
“How…” she started, but she couldn’t ask him how he’d caught Thor’s hammer. He backed away from the angry gods and held it up for the thunder god to see.
“Fair trade, asshole. I’ll give you your hammer back if you give us Nuada’s Sword.”
“I am going to crush you!” Thor yelled.
“How? You don’t even have your weapon. And let’s face it. You’re not exactly known for being the smartest of gods. If this comes down to a battle of the wits, I’m pretty sure I’ve got you beat.”
Thor growled at him and took a few steps closer but Tyr reached for him with his good hand and stopped him. “Nobody should have been able to catch Mjölnir. There must be some powerful enchantment on them. We should be careful here.”
“No enchantment is that powerful,” Thor argued. His pale blue eyes burned with a ferocious hatred as Cameron continued to walk backward toward the street, pulling Selena along with him. Mrs. Granger followed beside him, but she seemed hopelessly lost and confused.
“And no god is that powerful either,” Tyr countered, his voice still calm as he attempted to rationalize with his friend. “And he’s not even a god.”
“He has something to do with the Tuatha Dé’s prophecy, doesn’t he? He’s supposed to be the next sun god. That’s close enough,” Thor insisted. His round face turned red as his eyes kept flickering to his hammer that Cameron still held above his head, clearly teasing the angry thunder god.
“Make the rain stop,” Tyr sighed. “And Cameron… we don’t know where the sword is. Give Thor his hammer back, and we won’t pursue you from this town for twenty-four hours. You have my word.”
Cameron laughed and shook his head. “A god’s word means nothing to me.”
Tyr gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. “What does mean something to you then?”
Cameron smiled at the war god and nodded toward Selena. “She does. And you assholes tried to kill her. There’s no compromising now. I’ll trade weapons, but neither of you are getting out of this war alive.”
“Cameron…” Selena whispered. The rain had stopped, and he gripped her hand tighter as a car passed on the street behind the alley, splashing muddy water onto their feet.
“How ironic would it be if Thor were killed by his own hammer?” Cameron asked. “What killed Odin, by the way? Any chance he was slain by his own spear?”
Tyr and Thor both growled at him with the mention of their fallen leader’s name, Thor’s father and the most powerful of the Norse deities. “You should ask the Dagda,” Thor spit out.
“You know what, Selena? I take it back. I think I may have finally found a god I like,” Cameron said.
If there weren’t two extremely pissed off gods advancing on them who wanted to rip their throats out, she would have told him she didn’t find that surprising at all: the Dagda laughed at his jokes and gave him free reign in his kitchen with the magic chef.
Cameron held Mjölnir in front of him and smiled at Thor. “So the Dagda killed Odin, presumably with his own mace though.” He looked at Selena and asked her, “What kills Thor at Ragnarok?”
“Jörmungandr, which is an even worse serpent than Quetzalcoatl,” Selena said quietly. Her eyes kept darting between the hammer in Cameron’s hand and Thor’s ruddy face.
“That’s right,” Cameron said, his smile pulling a little higher. Selena suspected he hadn’t forgotten the myth at all, but was deliberately trying to provoke an already angry god. She couldn’t imagine how this could end well. “It is going to be a shame to kill you, honestly, because I really don’t like snakes and if you’re not around to battle that bastard, then I just hope I’m dead before the Apocalypse is triggered.”
“Ragnarok and the Apocalypse aren’t the same thing,” Tyr scowled.
Cameron shrugged. “Close enough. Twilight of the gods, right? Isn’t your war supposed to destroy the world, including most of the humans who live here but had nothing to do with your problems? But you burn them with you anyway.”
“Ok,” Selena said, “I get it. You think the gods are going to destroy the world and innocent people are going to get caught in the middle, but what the hell are we supposed to do about it, Cameron?”
Cameron kept smiling at Thor as he told her, “We change their prophecies. Free will, Selena. How will they trigger the end of the world if they’re all dead?”
Selena wasn’t sure if he was just trying to agitate them further or if he was serious. She believed he wanted to kill them both for threatening her, but all of the gods? Even the Dagda, whom he’d just admitted he actually kinda liked? He would be no better than Ukko. And she was certain he was a better man than that.
As if he could read her mind, Tyr brought his good hand to his chin and studied her, a sly smile pulling at his lips. Apparently, he’d decided they were in a battle of wits after all. “We should call Ukko. He’s been looking for this girl for quite some time. I say we let him take the girl in exchange for his help in retrieving Mjölnir and killing the man.”
“Let me get this straight,” Cameron said. “It takes three supposedly powerful gods to kill one demigod firestarter? Dude, that’s weak.”
“I don’t need my hammer,” Thor growled. “I can crush your skull with my bare hands.” He moved toward Cameron and Selena, his massive hands flexing as if they anticipated squeezing Cameron’s head between them.
“You have a pretty limited vocabulary,” Cameron told him. “That’s the second time you threatened to crush me. How about pulverize? Squish? I kind of like that one. Makes me sound like a bug.”
“Cameron,” Selena whispered, “I think the time for being a smartass is over.”
Cameron shook his head. “The time for being a smartass is never over.”
“Remind me again why I opened my door?” Mrs. Granger asked.
Thor’s steps quickened toward Cameron and Selena, and a black crow settled on the ground in front of him. He stopped walking and blinked at it. His hands balled into fists and his gray eyes glared at the bird as the crow blinked back at him, cocking its head so that its yellow eye could reach the entire length of the tall god’s frame.
Tyr approached the bird and it flapped its wings and repositioned itself so that it had a better view of both Norse gods.
Thor clenched his jaw and told the crow, “I don’t have your sword. Tell your demigod to return Mjölnir, and we’ll let you all go for now.”
The crow cawed in return. It sounded like Badb laughed at him.
Thor growled again and reached for the bird but it disappeared. Beside Selena, the same white mist that had materialized in the Basin before the battle with the Aztec gods rose from the ground and as it dissipated, Badb stood in its place, her long golden hair flowing over her shoulders, her spear in her hand. She smiled at Thor and goaded him, “You want your hammer so badly, Jötunn? Come take it from him.”
“Badb!” Selena hissed. “What the hell are you doing?”
She had been relieved to see the crow landing between Thor and Cameron, thinking perhaps she wouldn’t have her skull squished like a bug, but she hadn’t expected Badb to be just as reckless as Cameron.
“Get behind us, Selena,” Badb said. “And make sure Mrs. Granger stays with you.”
Selena shook her head because she didn’t want to let go of Cameron’s hand, she didn’t want him to get crushed, pulverized, or squished, but he let go of her and moved in front of her.
Tyr pulled the sword from the sheath on his belt and twirled it in his good hand. He kept his golden brown eyes on the war goddess. “I watched you kill Freyr. I wish his sister were here to see her vengeance.”
“Remind me,” Badb said, “who killed Lugh and took his Spear?”
Selena never found out if Tyr was planning on answering her. Thor charged Cameron, a low guttural growl in his throat as he reached for the demigod’s head. Selena didn’t have time to panic. Cameron dodged Thor’s massive hands and lifted his hammer, swinging it toward the giant, fearsome thunder god. The force of the impact against Thor’s shoulder shook the ground, and Selena stumbled but remained on her feet. She gripped Mrs. Granger’s arm to keep the woman from falling.
Thor cried out in pain and the metallic clanking of Tyr and Badb fighting stopped as both war deities turned their attention to the thunder god, his shoulder a bleeding mangled mess of exposed muscle and bone. Selena swallowed the bile that had risen from her stomach and looked away.
“Impossible,” Tyr muttered.
Badb backed away from Thor, and Selena could only guess that the surprise injury had constituted another temporary truce in their battle. For the gods who respected the rules of their warfare, she begrudgingly admitted they at least liked to fight fair.
“Decide quickly, Tyr,” Badb warned. “Are we finishing this now or are you going to get him to your doctor?”
Tyr’s eyes flashed to Selena and his lips curled into a snarl. “Considering we don’t have the advantage of a healer, I suppose we’ll have to finish this later.”
Thor’s eyes still registered his confusion that not only had be been injured, but he’d been taken out of battle with his own hammer. He kept touching his bloody shoulder then looking at his fingers as if he still couldn’t believe Cameron had inflicted this wound on him.
Tyr sheathed his sword and nodded toward Thor to indicate they would be leaving, but he gave Cameron one last pointed look. “Just remember Badb: if you’ve found someone who knows the secrets of your druids to place enchantments on people then you are cheating. Humans aren’t supposed to become involved in our wars.”
Badb tried to protest by telling him he was being ridiculous, but Tyr didn’t give her the chance. He and Thor vanished, the only reminders of the fight between them the hammer Cameron still gripped in his hand. They may have hidden the Unbreakable Sword, but the Tuatha Dé now had Mjölnir, which meant the Norse would have to choose: lose one of their strongest warriors or lead Cameron and Selena to Nuada’s Sword.