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  But what was really shocking was the sky. It wasn’t blue anymore. It was red.

  The sun looked like a red ball in the sky. Sort of like how it looked during the worst forest fires in the mountains. I had forgotten I still had the magical environmental bubble around me, but I was grateful for it. If the smoke smell coming through was any indication, it had to be really awful.

  I looked over to California Street and saw that a light rail train blocked the intersection. Even from a couple of blocks away, I could tell people had trashed it. I walked northwest on the mall in the hopes of seeing someone or something as I headed toward Trader Vics. As I passed by an alley, I saw a handful of scraggily looking wolves eating what appeared to be the remains of a human or Elf. One of the wolves snarled when he saw me.

  Where the hell have you been? I heard Luna’s brother, Jimmy, in my head.

  “Jimmy?” I stared in shock. The emaciated wolf looked like he had mange and fleas, with large parts of his fur missing. “Where’s Luna? Where’s Alaric?”

  The wolf scratched and shook his ears. The bastards took Alaric out in a raid. Luna died from distemper a month ago. The Drow didn’t know weres have natural immunity to plague, so they modified distemper to take us out.

  “Oh gods. How long have I been gone?”

  Where have you been? It’s been two years.

  The enormity of the words hit me hard. “The Drow?”

  The Drow won. We’re all that’s left of the Denver Wolfpack. They’ve destroyed our world like they destroyed theirs.

  I didn’t argue the point. The two Universes of Svartalfheim and Nidavellir caused both worlds’ destruction when they collided. I doubted the Dark Elves and Dwarves had anything to do with that, but I didn’t say anything. Sometimes it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie. Or wolves, in this case.

  The other wolves started gathering near Jimmy. They growled and snapped at me. Jimmy glanced at them and then back at me. I’d get out of here, if I were you. This has been our first meal in over two weeks and the pack is hungry.

  “Got it.” I started backing up and one of the wolves leapt at me. “Ascendit quoque scuta!” I spoke and a shield appeared between me and the wolf. The wolf bounced off and yipped. The other wolves attacked. I threw fireballs at them, and what little fur they had lit up. They screamed and ran, leaving the body behind.

  I turned and ran, even though I knew it wasn’t my best idea. Predators focus on movement, and yes, these were apex predators. I slowed down to a walk as I approached another alley. What would I see next? Vampires looking to pick off humans? Even though the light was dim, it was still daylight. My guess was nighttime would be downright terrifying.

  “Oh, it is. It is.” I heard an older woman’s voice behind me. I turned around with my Glock in my hand, only to see an old woman rummaging through one of the trash cans that lined the mall. “Pity, there’s so much waste here.” She eyed me with a glassy stared.

  She hadn’t been there a moment ago. That, I was sure of. I holstered the Glock. “Who are you?”

  She smiled and showed a mouthful of missing teeth. “Just an old lady here to give you some advice. Think of me as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.”

  “Are you Eir?” I demanded.

  “Heavens, no. Do I look like a Valkyrie?” She cackled and dug into the garbage. I wondered what, if anything, she’d find edible.

  “Eir’s a Valkyrie,” I muttered. I kind of forgot that. A goddess and a Valkyrie, which made her doubly dangerous.

  “Yeah, but she tried to warn you as to the outcome. Sure, she brings Odin half of the fallen dead, but she also brings Freyja the best.” She winked at me. “Never think that females are the weaker of any species. There’s a reason Freyja gets first pick.”

  “Okay, I get it. Women are powerful.”

  “No, you don’t get it. Without you, the Light Elves failed to defeat Vindar. This is the result.” She waved a hand.

  “This is our future.” I looked bleakly over the Mall.

  “One of possible futures.”

  “It hasn’t happened yet?” I looked at her hopefully.

  She sighed. “It has and it hasn’t.”

  “What?”

  “A very wise time mage said that time is ‘more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.’” She grinned at me. “Every event has a cause and a reaction. Every single thing that makes a choice creates a new universe by their actions. It’s mind-boggling, really. But everything has already happened—you’re just perceiving the world linearly.”

  “Stop. You’re making my brain hurt,” I said.

  “You never took quantum mechanics in high school, did you?” Her voice sounded reproachful.

  “They don’t offer quantum mechanics to high school students.”

  “That’s what’s wrong with kids today,” she grumbled. “That and they throw out everything instead of recycling.”

  “So, what’s the point?” I said. “You’ve just told me that we lose in this reality.”

  “True. But it’s this reality, and not necessarily, your reality.”

  “You mean I can stop my Universe from ending up like this?” I motioned at everything around me.

  “Yes, you can.”

  I looked at her closely. “Do I survive the encounter?”

  “That’s up to you.” She shrugged. “Some instances you die; other instances you live.”

  “Which one will I remember?”

  “Depends on your actions, doesn’t it?” She grinned.

  “You’re giving me a headache.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

  “Hang on a second.” She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a bottle of Tylenol and an unopened bottle of water. She handed it to me.

  I stared at her. “Tylenol?”

  “Yeah, works on my headache. Oh, and be sure to recycle the plastic bottle.”

  I took two and downed them with the water. The water tasted awesome, so I looked at the bottle. It said Well of Urd Water on the label. “Verthandi.”

  “I told you I was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.” She winked. “So, what do you want to do?”

  I looked up at the red sky and sighed. “Can you send me back to the time I left?”

  “I can do that.” Verthandi said. “Just close your eyes and click your heels three times and say ‘There’s no place like home.’”

  I smiled wryly. “Seriously?”

  Verthandi patted my arm. “No, not really. But a girl has to have some fun now, doesn’t she?”

  “Okay, send me back. And just for you: There’s no place like home.”

  She cackled. “Good luck.” She paused and looked hard at me. “One word of advice: be careful whom you trust. Friends can be enemies and enemies can be friends.”

  With that, the world shifted and I spun into nothingness.

  Chapter Ten

  I woke up to Garik pouring water on my face. I almost gagged but it felt cool in my parched mouth. “Wha-what happened?”

  “You were looking at the magic book and you fell over,” Garik said. “I thought for a moment I saw a shimmer of something like a portal, but it disappeared when you collapsed.”

  “The ghosts have done it all in one night,” I muttered.

  “Ghosts? You’ve seen ghosts?” Garik looked around. The other Light Elves looked around as well.

  “Yeah, I had a glimpse into the future.” I took the canteen from Garik’s hand and drank some more water. “It was ugly if we don’t succeed.”

  Silvar tapped a rock with his finger. “Yeah, and we’re saddled with a Drow mix who can’t stand the heat.”

  “Lay off him.” Garik bristled as he stood up. “He didn’t ask to be here, but so far he’s the only one who has been able to do anything useful in this hellhole.”

  I blinked. I didn’t expect the Captain of the Guard to stand up for me. “Thanks.”

  Garik nodded. “Get your atmosphere shield back up. It’s going to get hotter.”

&n
bsp; I did and slowly stood up. I half expected the headache, but Verthandi’s acetaminophen had done its work. To my surprise, I was gripping a water bottle. It said Well of Urd Water.

  ~ * ~

  Once I felt well enough to go, we continued down the tunnel. I cast a quick Ignore Me spell on the entire group so unless someone was actually looking for us, we wouldn’t attract attention. The Ignore Me spell is somewhat like an invisibility spell, only it doesn’t take as much power and it works for a fairly long time.

  The ground shook every so often, as though the planet was trying to rid itself of inhabitants. Most of the temblors were minor, if I were a judge of such things, but a few got my attention. The Light Elves, too, looked dismayed the first time we had a medium earthquake here. But the shaking was quick and stopped just as fast. I suspected it was from all the magma coming up to the surface.

  I wondered how any humanoid could live down here. I knew even the Dark Elves and Dwarves had their limits when it came to temperatures, and while the Drow might be tougher in some ways than humans, even they would have difficulties on this planet. I wondered if other planets in their solar system were capable of supporting life, now that this planet—or pair of planets, since they tore each other apart—were anything but hospitable. It was amazing that anyone had survived the Cataclysm. I had to hand it to the Drow: they were tough creatures.

  We soon discovered that Drow weren’t the only creatures that inhabited these tunnels. There were these rat-like things that scurried around that were about the size of a small cat. They were dark, like the tunnels, with large luminescent eyes and six legs. Their fur looked between tawny gray and black. The Light Elves took great pleasure in trying to shoot them. I left them alone. They seemed to exist solely for the purpose of scavenging, which meant that any waste—and I mean any waste—quickly got gobbled up. It might explain why the tunnels looked so clean. Nothing was spared; not even urine. They lapped the stuff up like soda pop. I started thinking of them as “Drow rats” for the lack of a better name to call them.

  I shut off my light to conserve the batteries and conjured up a light orb instead. Yeah, it would alert the Drow to a wizard among us, but they’d know when I started throwing fireballs anyway. Garik looked at the light orb with envy. “I wish I could do that,” he said at one of our rests.

  I glanced at him. “Seriously? I though all Elves were magical.”

  Garik chuckled. “And all humans die before they’re twenty.”

  I laughed. “Okay, good point. I always thought you used magic like wizards, especially after meeting Elryn.”

  Garik nodded. “Elryn is a special case because she’s a warrior with magic. Most Elves who don’t have magic end up being recruited as warriors.”

  “But you are magical beings.”

  “True, but not all Elves have magical powers the way not all humans are mages. There is some magic that is natural, but most isn’t. Making a light orb, for instance.” He pointed to my orb. “I’ve tried to cast a light spell I don’t know how many times. I just don’t have the power.”

  I looked at Garik’s aura. It was unremarkable even for an Elf, being a deep shade of forest green. Light Elves tended to have green auras and the ones I had seen do magic had telltale flashes of magic in them. Sort of sparkly, but without vampires. But there were some dark spots along the edges of Garik’s aura. Something that said he had trauma in the past or had fallen under a dark spell at one time or another. “Yes, but you’re good at what you do. I wish I were, but that’s how it is. I lucked out having Elryn, Luna, and Tobias help me.”

  “Luna and Tobias?” Garik took a swig of water.

  “Luna is my girlfriend. She’s a werewolf.” I thought about her cheerful smile. “Tobias is a vampire. Not exactly a friend, but he did give me the Vorpal blade.”

  “A vampire gave you a Vorpal blade?” Garik arched an eyebrow. “Do you know how rare those are?”

  “No clue.” I shook my head. “I’ve only heard of them being used on Jabberwocks.”

  “They’re ancient blades forged before the Light Elves and Dark Elves separated. Imbued with ancient magic from the Dwarves, Drow, and Light Elves, there are only three in existence that anyone knows of. One for each race.”

  “Why would a vampire have one?” I partially drew the blade from its scabbard and looked at it closely. Even here in the dark tunnels, the blade glowed softly with purplish light.

  “Who knows?” Garik shrugged. “He could’ve stolen it from a dragon’s hoard, he might have bought it from one of the ancient families that may not have known what it was, or he could’ve killed the owner of it, unlikely as that may be. What amazes me is that he gave it to you, knowing what it was.”

  “He gave it to me to stop the Drow,” I said. “Said that even a hunter cares about his prey, or something like that.”

  “Callous but accurate. Vampire glamor doesn’t work on Fae, since we have our own version of it. Not that I or any of my men can cast a decent glamor, but we do have the benefit of not being easily snared by it.”

  “I assume the Drow have the same type of immunity.”

  Garik nodded. “And many other Supernatural creatures have guards against vampirism. Humans are one of the few races they can prey on easily. And since they make their own children through their blood sucking, the vampires look at the human race as their future. They have to have humans exist if there are to be more vampires.”

  “But they’re immortal…”

  “Not exactly. They’re dead, which makes them harder to destroy, but they do eventually succumb to the laws of the universe. The one law they dread and they cannot stay off indefinitely is the Law of Entropy. Eventually it comes for us all—mortals, immortals, and gods. Everything goes from a high energy state to a low energy state.”

  “And the vampires already have one foot in the grave, so to speak.”

  “Aptly put.” Garik nodded to my sword. “That Vorpal blade must recognize your bloodline for you to be able to use it effectively.”

  I raised an eyebrow, Spock-like. “Can’t anyone use this blade?”

  “Well, sort of.” Garik pointed to the glowing blade. “It’s a fine sword for just about anyone, but to harness its powers requires someone from one of the oldest lines.”

  “What powers does it have?”

  Garik shrugged again. “I don’t know. Maybe you can contact an Elven historian for facts. There are legends on how it could make the wielder invincible. How it could piece any armor or hide. There are other more outlandish stories about how it has a spirit and can change shape and even assume the form of another person.”

  Despite the air conditioner spell—as I mentally called it—I still sweated beneath the armor. My scalp itched, so I pulled the helmet off and lowered the coif so I could scratch it. “I don’t know how you get used to these things.”

  “You don’t—you just put up with them.” Garik stood up. “Come on, we’ve had enough rest. Let’s find Vindar and his laboratories.”

  ~ * ~

  As we walked, I recalled the fight we had with the Drow three days ago—or was it only yesterday? Despite me knowing next to nothing about sword fighting, I had fought pretty darn well, but it had felt more like the sword was guiding me than me actually wielding it. How much of the stories were true? Maybe there was more truth to old legends than the Elf was willing to admit.

  The tunnel leveled out and we could now see a light from what appeared to be a larger cavern somewhere ahead. We shut off our flashlights and I extinguished the light orb to avoid alerting anyone to our presence. While we looked like Drow, none of us really wanted unnecessary attention especially this early on.

  The tunnel grew hotter to the point where I had to renew the air conditioning spell every fifteen minutes. At first, the light at the end of the tunnel didn’t get larger for a very long time. I expected it, given that you can see lights for miles away in pitch darkness. Eventually, the doorway looked less like a patch of light and more like a
tunnel exit. That was good, because I really didn’t want it to be the light from an oncoming train.

  It got hotter, as unbelievable as that was. My air conditioning spell was only marginally working—we soaked through our gambesons beneath our armor. No matter how much magic I dared to pour into the spell, it barely kept up with the heat. When we arrived at the door, I knew why. The tunnel emptied into a chamber.

  Within the chamber was the largest dragon I had ever seen.

  Chapter Eleven

  I had dealt with dragons in my short term career as a DPDS cop, but this one was downright terrifying. I had made friends with the Denver Zoo’s dragon named Smog, first by “taming” him, and then by helping him take revenge on a possessed mage. Again, that dragon was in no way my fault. Smog wrecked a good portion of the zoo when he was under the mage’s influence, and even though he did eat the mage while I was riding him, I swear I didn’t give him directions to do so.

  But, I was awfully glad Smog did eat the guy. Possessed mages aren’t something I want to deal with. The idiot thought he had summoned Aleister Crowley and instead called in some dark demon from who the hell knows where. The demon took over his body and casted a confusion spell on Smog. Smog went ape-shit—or rather, dragon-shit—and attacked everyone. Yours truly managed to free him from the spell, only to have the DWTF take credit for it.

  I seriously hated those guys, which is a wonder why I wanted to be part of their team. I didn’t want to think about it too much, so instead considered my options when it came to the dragon here.

  Garik and the other Elves flattened themselves against the tunnel’s walls on seeing the dragon. Nice thought, but if the dragon wanted to fry us, his flame could reach farther and faster into the tunnel than we could run. My shield was strong, but not strong enough to hold off dragon flames. Not for the first time did I wish Tuzren was with us. The little demon was incredibly handy.