Magnus: i don’t know what’s wrong with me, i can’t eat, can’t sleep. Maybe im coming down with something

Sam: oh i know what you’ve got.. the “L” word

Halfborn: yeaaa, leprosy

Ways Magnus Chase Has Definitely Died

• Playing with Alex’s gorrote
• Trying to get out of bed but strangled by sheets
• Of embarrassment when Alex walks in on him singing Katy Perry in his underwear
• Trying to help TJ by cleaning his gun
• Trying to climb to the top of a tree
• Eating Mac and cheese that he got from someone on floor 96
• Forgetting to shut off the bath and falls asleep
• Gets his foot stuck in a toilet, cuts it off, and bleeds out
• Playing darts with his hall mates
• Tripping down the stairs that he didn’t even know Valhalla had
• Getting trampled in the yearly fire drill
• Falls asleep while watching a movie with Alex and Alex wants him out of her room
• Attempting to get to the top floor of Valhalla (killed by people in the elevator)
• Wondering what it’s like to be a bird… and then trying to fly
• Seeing how long it takes to starve to death
• Yoga to the Death
• Ping Pong to the Death
• Golf to the Death
• Mini Golf to the Death
• Forgetting Mallory’s birthday
• Eating so much that his stomach explodes
• Giving Halfborn a hug
• Falling from a balcony
• Accidentally angering Jack

Feel free to reblog with more!

Spreading my genderfluid Magnus Chase agenda through poorly drawn memes

milfdiangelo:

MCGA Characters as things I’ve said

Magnus:I was bitten by the asthma wolf

Samirah:This is why your son doesn’t love you

Hearthstone: I’m giving out unsolicited death prophecies

Blitzen:Oh? So fuck gay rights then?

T.J:Your lucky I already gave *insert name here* my rabies

Mallory:Wanna be extra patriotic and hate on the English?

Halfborn:I’m home of phobic

Alex: Do you you want me to pee on the floor to prove it??

magnus you pansexual dumbass

Fandom: Trials of Apollo/Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
Rating:Teen
Genre: Adventure, Friendship
Characters: Will Solace, Magnus Chase, Apollo, Nico di Angelo, Alex Fierro, Meg McCaffrey

More Valhalla time, because mortals in Valhalla is fun and so is writing Floor Nineteen :D

Reminder that there’s now a discord server for all my fics, including this one!  If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

<<<Chapter 23

WILL (XXIV)
Try Outrunning The Living Dead

Honestly, a large part of Will was still reeling from his short exchange with Apollo before leaving Jotunheim.  The bow was warm in his hand, nothing like the scorching threat it had been the last time he’d held it in Boston but instead the same sort of warmth he associated with life thrumming beneath his fingertips and sunshine caressing his face as he left his cabin to get breakfast every morning, and he kept tightening his fist around it far more than the longbow warranted, terrified that it would disappear on him.

Then there was the fact that, despite the occasional anecdotes the einherjar had been dropping, Will had been woefully unprepared for the reality of Valhalla.  He was no stranger to violence, even in training – being the head healer didn’t leave him with much choice on the matter – but he was a definite stranger to demigods slaughtering each other in cold blood for no reason.  At least in Manhattan it had been a war, even if it had been far from pleasant and the justification heartbreaking.

Alex beheading a man he and Magnus seemed to know by name, and vice-versa, with no hesitation at all, fit perfectly with everything they and his father had been saying about Hotel Valhalla, but seeing it in person instead of just hearing about it was different.  Possibly because stories had room for embellishment.  Somewhere, not very deep at all, he hadn’t believed Valhalla was really like that.

The headless corpse they’d left outside the elevator on floor thirty-three told a very different reality.  Surely there had been other ways to stop him raising the alarm – knocking him out, for example.  Something a little less fatal.  Even with Apollo’s reassurance that the man would be fine in a few hours, his mind struggled to settle.

As much as anything – everything – else, seeing for himself just how ruthless an einherjar could be was eye-opening.  Will hadn’t had a chance for the implications to sink in after Angrboda and the glimpses he’d got of Alex and Magnus’ fighting mentalities, and he suspected that Magnus, at least, hadn’t been quite fighting to kill then, but now they were leaving imprints he couldn’t ignore.

A war between the Greek and Norse gods would almost certainly expand until it was einherjar against the Greco-Roman demigods.  He didn’t know how many einherjar there were, but if they were all the honourable dead since Norse mythology began, they certainly outnumbered the mostly-teenage Greco-Roman demigods.  They were also more experienced, and more ruthless.

Not even someone from the Ares cabin would have cut someone down in cold blood like that.  Not without any hesitation at all.  They were trained to fight monsters, not humans. Not people they could look in the eye and immediately sense that they were the same, just on the other side of the battlefield.  If Reyna and Nico hadn’t got the Athena Parthenon to Camp Half-Blood in time, they would have had to go to war against the Romans, and Will still got chills thinking about how close it had been.

He still got nightmares about Octavian’s fate, despite knowing that Nico had been right and there had been no saving the Roman legacy of Apollo.

If the einherjar ended up their enemies, it’d be an absolute slaughter.

That terrified Will. He didn’t know which gods would win, if it didn’t end up being a mutual destruction, but he knew which demigods would win, and he’d seen enough of his siblings, cousins, family die already.

He didn’t want to lose anyone else.

Was it really a surprise that, all in all, he was struggling to keep it quite together anymore?

Meeting the rest of Magnus and Alex’s floormates – Lester’s floormates, for a while – didn’t help his thoughts, either.  He knew that the einherjar were looking for help to keep them safe and was grateful that they weren’t taking any more risks than they had to, but it was instantly obvious that the three new faces were battle-hardened in a way he associated with the likes of Percy, Annabeth and even Nico.

The ones that had gone through literal hell and back.

Magnus, and even Alex, seemed almost naïve compared to the others, and Will wondered how long they’d been in the hotel, fighting and dying day after day after day in preparation for the end of the worlds.  Next to him, Nico was eyeing all of them with the same curiosity he’d applied to the rest of the hotel.

“You’reinsane,” the redheaded girl, who bore striking similarity to Rachel in some aspects, Will noticed, said.  “What the Hel have you gotten into now, Beantown?”  Since meeting Angrboda, it had become clear that when the einherjar said hell, they were actually saying Hel, the same way Greeks said Hades.

Magnus and Alex were too busy dying with laughter to answer.  Will stepped forwards, not quite sure what to say, but knowing they needed to explainsomething.

His dad beat him to it.

“Long story, they’ll fill you in later,” he said.  “The basic gist is that I – we – need to go talk to Odin, now, or Ragnarok’s going to start.”

“No pressure, then,” the dark-skinned boy in military uniform commented.  He glanced across all of them, ending up with his eyes locked with Will’s.  “Nice to meet you.  The name’s Thomas Jefferson Jr; call me T.J.”  He stuck out the hand not holding the rifle, and Will clasped it automatically.

“Will Solace,” he said, biting back the instinct to add on his parentage.  “Sorry about this.”

T.J. laughed.  “Don’t be; we’re happy to help.”

“Happy to shake things up a lot,” the girl corrected; Will couldn’t confidently place her accent but at a guess he’d say Irish.  “Mallory Keen, and this buffoon’s Halfborn Gunderson.”  Halfborn grinned at them from behind his beard.  If any of them looked like a Viking, it was Halfborn, and Will got the horrid suspicion he didn’t want to know how long he’d been in Valhalla.

“We appreciate the help,” he said.  “This is Nico di Angelo,” he gestured to his boyfriend, who shrugged, “and Meg McCaffrey.”

“Just so you know,” Apollo added, “these three prefer to call me Apollo.”

“Weird name,” Mallory scoffed, “but sure.”

Halfborn looked thoughtful. “Apollo?” Will heard him muse quietly. “I’ve heard that name before.”

Will wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.  Sure, lots of things had been named after his dad over the years, but as an actual name it wasn’t common.  People generally knew better than to name their kids after literal gods.

“Enough chit-chat,” Alex cut in, apparently done with laughing at last.  Will wasn’t entirely sure what he and Magnus had found so funny in the first place.  “We need to move.”

“Right,” T.J. said, straightening his back.  There was no way that military uniform was just for show, Will realised.  Whenever he’d been alive – and however he’d died – T.J. had served in an army.  “Let’s go.”

“Puny mortals in the middle,” Alex declared.  “Chop chop, we don’t have all day.”

“You made you boss?” Magnus muttered, but he was already yanking the door open and leading the way back out into the hallway.

“Magnus, I’malways the boss,” the shapeshifter said with a smirk, sounding as though he was talking to a young child.  Will decided not to get involved in whatever dynamic that was, remembering the ambiguousness of their relationship status, and followed the son of Frey out of the room, dragging Nico with him.  When they got a moment, he was going to sit his boyfriend down and get out of him everything he’d found fascinating about the hotel and its inhabitants, as well as make sure he was okay.  There was no way Nico’s death senses weren’t going absolutely haywire.

“So what are we calling you?” Mallory asked from behind him.  Glancing over his shoulder, he saw her walking on the other side of Meg to Apollo, and addressing his dad directly.  T.J. and Halfborn, who had come up to flank him and Nico, turned their heads towards Apollo, too.  “Lester or Apollo?”

The god shrugged.  “I answer to either,” he said, and Will remembered how shaken he’d been back in January, when he’d appeared out of the woods half-dead and very much not okay with his mortality and human identity. He’d been nothing but Apollo then, despite appearances, but come their final advance on the Tower of Nero – and, technically, Will’s first quest, even if all he’d been there for was to keep Nico under control and provide underground lighting like some sort of portable lamp, or so the Troglodytes had seemed to regard him – he’d seemed comfortable in his mortal identity.

He still didn’t know what, exactly, had happened to his dad in the intervening months, and he likewise wasn’t sure what he thought of the change.  That was something he’d have to work out once the quest was over, and Apollo back in Olympus where he belonged.  Maybe even after the talk his father had mentioned intending on having.

If we succeed, an unwelcome voice reminded him in the back of his mind.  Will forced himself to ignore it.

“Lestollo, then,” Mallory decided, causing Meg to break out in cackles.  Next to Will, Nico snorted quietly.  Apollo’s jaw dropped and he blinked a few times before apparently deciding to let it go.

He’ddefinitely changed.  Six months ago, he’d have been offended at someone messing up his name, especially doing it on purpose.  His godly pride wouldn’t have been able to let him accept anything different.  The question was, what would this change mean once he was back on Olympus, both for him and for the demigods?

Will tightened his grip on the – his – bow and told himself to stop thinking about the future. They had to get there first.

“Lestollo,” Meg echoed, still cackling, and Apollo sighed.

“Thank you, Mallory.”

“Magnus,” T.J. said suddenly, drawing Will’s attention back forward, towards the blond head ahead of him. “Which door are you heading for?”

“Floor seven’s the nearest one I know,” Magnus replied as they reached the end of the hallway.

“That’ll get you near Odin’s home,” Halfborn confirmed.  He was sneaking glances back at Apollo, and Will hoped he wasn’t coming to potentially-correct conclusions, even if he wasn’t sure how a Viking would know about Greek gods.  The less Valhalla’s occupants knew about the existence of other pantheons, the safer everyone would be.

“We’ll have to hurry,” T.J. added.  “It’s almost time.”

Time for what?  Will blinked, confused, but he heard curses from ahead and behind.  Magnus and Alex seemingly needed no more information.

“At least it’ll be different this week,” Mallory pointed out, still with no explanation as to what itmeant.

“Different doesn’t always mean better,” Magnus muttered.  “Not when we have three mortals with us.”  He jabbed a finger on the call button for the elevator, and groaned when the doors didn’t immediately open.  “Dammit, someone else took it.”

“Do we wait or do we take the stairs?” Alex asked from the rear.

Stairs sounded risky if they were trying to minimise contact, but Will was conscious that they were running out of time to get into Asgard if they wanted to beat Zeus to it. “How long is the elevator likely to take?” he asked.

“Depends on the floor,” Magnus sighed.  “If it’s one of the top floors, ten minutes.”

“And we don’t haveten-”

T.J.’s comment was interrupted by a battle horn reverberating through the hotel, ear-splittingly loud.  Will covered his ears with his hands, but even that didn’t block out the noise.

“-minutes,” the dark-skinned einherji finished after the blast ended.

“Probably don’t have ten seconds now,” Alex said grimly.  “Stairs, or elevator?”

“There’s a lotof movement above us,” Nico interrupted.  “More than I can count, and they’re all coming this way.”

“Will?”  Eyes turned to him suddenly, and he shook his head immediately.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, shaking his head.  Apollo and Alex’s words from earlier came back to him, about the type of leader he was, and he focused his attention on the other blond.  “You haven’t taken us wrong yet, Magnus.”  Magnus’ shoulders slumped, but he didn’t seem particularly surprised.  Just resigned.

A sound like thunder reached his ears from above them.  It was gradually getting louder, and showed no signs of easing.  The elevator likewise showed no signs of reappearing.

“Stairs,” the son of Frey said.  “Run.”

They ran.

Stairs were difficult things to run down.  Neither Will nor Nico were slow, camp training saw to that, but just like when they’d fled from Ratatosk on Yggdrasil it was blatantly obvious that they had nothing on Odin’s super-soldiers.  Behind them, Meg squawked, but Will didn’t dare turn around to see what had caused it. If he stopped looking ahead, he was almost guaranteed to misstep and go for a painful tumble.  No-one needed him to have a broken ankle now – even if they had three healers with them, including himself now his abilities seemed to be back up to par at last.

“What’s going on?” Nico gasped.  “It feels like the whole hotel is on the move.”

Fear clenched Will’s heart. Had they been discovered?  Were they about to have to fight their way past the entire hotel?  There was absolutely no way they’d survive.

Halfborn let out a chuckle next to the son of Hades.  “It’s battle time.”

“Valhalla’s daily battle,” Apollo clarified behind him.  “All the warriors are heading for the battlefield.”

“So why are we running away from them?” Meg demanded.  She didn’t sound out of breath at all, and Will realised the squawk must have been Apollo picking up the smaller girl so she didn’t get left behind or trampled the same way he had done as Lester on Yggdrasil.

“We’re running with them,” Magnus corrected.  “Don’t ask me why, but most of the hotel likes these battles.”

“You just don’t like them because you always die early,” Alex scoffed.  “They’re fun.”

“Except Thursdays,” Mallory allowed.  “Thursdays suck.”

“Thursdaysabsolutelysuck,” Magnus grumbled.  “I hate dragons.”

They reached a corner in the stairs and Will almost skidded face-first into the wall.  T.J. caught him by the elbow and swung him around. “Thanks,” he wheezed.

“Mortals are slow,” Mallory commented.  Will tried not to pay attention to the fact that none of the einherjar were struggling to breathe as they ran.

“Mortals don’t have Odin-blessed bodies,” Apollo reminded her.  Or godly ones, Will added mentally.  His dad was, of course, equally fine and despite the runes on his wrists, Will didn’t think that had anything to do with Odin.

Behind them, the sound of thunder had gradually shifted to the sound of hundreds, if not thousands, of feet bearing down on them.  They were going to be caught up with imminently, and Will didn’t think they’d run their way down twelve flights of stairs just yet.

Magnus cursed and suddenly dived off down a side corridor as they reached another landing.  Once again, T.J. had to stop Will from careening into a wall, and from the grunt next to him, it sounded like Halfborn had had to catch Nico, too.

As soon as they were out of sight of the stairs, Magnus stopped.

“Stupid elevator,” he grumbled.  “Whoever took it, I hate them.”

“Where are we?” Will asked, glancing around as he tried to get his heaving chest under control again.

“Thirteenth floor,” Magnus said, leaning back up against the wall.  Back in the stairwell, the stampede had clearly reached their floor and was continuing down without a pause, much to Will’s relief.

“You mean we’re only halfway?” Nico sighed, resigned.

“Once everyone’s passed, we’ll try the elevator again,” Magnus promised.  “Once the battle starts, the halls will be empty.”

“Unless the ravens or wolves realise there are mortals here, Beantown,” Mallory corrected. “Then they’ll all be hunting us instead.”

Will did not like the grin on her face at that idea, as though she was looking forwards to potentially taking on the entire hotel.  Even T.J., who at first glance had seemed the most level headed of their new companions, seemed more thrilled than terrified at the prospect.

“We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Apollo said bluntly.  Meg was clinging to his back like a koala, although she didn’t seem particularly happy about being carried.  “Nico, how long until the stairwell’s clear?”

Will’s boyfriend closed his eyes, frowning.  The new einherjar looked at him in confusion, clearly wondering why Apollo thought he could tell.  Mallory even got as far as opening her mouth before Magnus caught her eye and shook his head.  Her mouth shut with a clack, but the look she sent him was easily translated as you’d better explain later.

“About a third of them have passed,” Nico said after a moment.  “I’d say the same again, twice over, before it’s clear.”

“You’re not mortal.” Mallory’s patience for answers rivalled Meg’s.  Will understood why Apollo had said Meg would get on with her.  “Who-”

“I’m not dead yet,” Nico interrupted her.

Will couldn’t help but add a “despite your best efforts,” under his breath, and got a scowl in response.

“They’re all demigods,” Magnus stepped in, before Mallory could say anything else.  “Don’t ask who their parents are.”  Something passed between them, and the redheaded girl’s shoulders eased slightly.

“Fine,” she said. “But I want to know what he did.”

“I can sense the dead,” Nico shrugged.  The son of Hades had always been pretty blasé about his abilities, even though he’d mistakenly thought people were pushing him away because of them.  Will had come to suspect it was a defence mechanism; if he was upfront from the start, there was no room for people to start to like him before being freaked out.

As though anyone who actually knew Nico would freak out about what he could do.

Magnus chuckled. “Well, there’s a lot of those around here.”

“I’d say that’s rather an understatement,” Apollo added.  He was looking around the hallway they were in.  “Magnus, are you certain none of these doors go to Asgard?”

“I think one might,” Magnus admitted, “but I’m not sure, and even if it does, there’s no guarantee it’d get us anywhere near Odin.  The door on floor seven is our best bet.”  He paused, as though listening to something.  Will couldn’t hear anything except the ongoing thunder of einherjar warriors on the stairs.  It wasn’t a particularly comforting sound, especially when he found his thoughts drifting to the possibility of a war between pantheons and the knowledge that if the Greco-Romans had to face that…

“Jack says-”

“You’re still alive?” Whatever Jack had told Magnus went unheard as a voice Will hadn’t heard since leaving Midgard interrupted from further down the corridor.  As one, they all turned to face her.

Carrie leant against the wall, arms crossed.  She didn’t seem to be at all concerned about the fact she was outnumbered, which raised a major red flag for Will.  True, she’d only ever faced them alone, but that had been outside Valhalla, away from reinforcements.  To be alone inside the place she had allies struck him as decidedly odd.

“You-” Alex snarled, stepping forwards.

“Now, now, sister.  Or is it brother right now?  It’s hard to tell,” Carrie shrugged.  “I was simply surprised you all survived Ratatosk with your sanity intact, let alone Jotunheim and our step-mom.”

“I thought you could sense the dead,” Mallory muttered, standing next to Nico, who glared at her.

“I can,” he said. “She’s not dead.”

“How did you know where we went?” Magnus asked the Valkyrie, his hand clutching at the runestone pendant he wore.  Jack, his weapon.

Carrie scoffed.  “You weren’t exactly subtle,” she despaired. “Bandying names around like that. Anyone who tried could hear you.” She straightened up, and her javelin leapt to her hand.  “I see you’ve regained your memories, Lord Apollo.”

“Lord?” Mallory hissed, disbelieving.  T.J.’s reaction was similarly shocked, while Halfborn started muttering under his breath.

“Iknow that name. Where did I read it?”

“You don’t seem surprised about that,” Apollo observed.  He set Meg down and pushed her back, towards Will and Nico.  Will gripped her shoulder when she tried to return to his side.

“Your amnesiac phase was rather inconvenient,” Carrie rolled her eyes.  “It’s difficult to incite a war when the lynchpin doesn’t remember who he is.”

“You mean, when the catalyst is too suppressed to be detected?” Apollo asked, deceptively mildly. “I suppose that would make things a little complicated.”

“What’s going on?” T.J. asked quietly.  Will could feel his eyes on him, but kept facing forwards, where Apollo was standing a little in front of Magnus, clearly shielding the rest of them.  “What war?  Ragnarok?  What’s Lester got to do with triggering Ragnarok?”

“Apollo,” Halfborn muttered again.  “Where did I read that name?”

“No matter,” Carrie replied, obviously ignoring the muttering and focusing her attention on the god standing before her.  “It was a minor setback, but one that’s resolved itself.”  She smirked at them all.  “War is coming.  Zeus has crossed the Bifrost and Heimdall has alerted the Aesir.  And you-” she paused, raised a horn Will hadn’t noticed to her lips, and blew it “-have done your part.”

Chapter 25>>>

Fandom: Trials of Apollo/Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
Rating:Teen
Genre: Adventure, Friendship
Characters: Will Solace, Magnus Chase, Apollo, Nico di Angelo, Alex Fierro, Meg McCaffrey

It’s time for Hotel Valhalla; of course I was never going to pass up the chance to throw the mortals into it!  Some familiar faces reappearing at long last…

Reminder that there’s now a discord server for all my fics, including this one!  If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

<<<Chapter 22

MAGNUS (XXIII)
Hotel, Sweet Hotel

“What took you so long?” was Alex’s unsurprising greeting when Magnus’ feet hit the familiar carpet of Hotel Valhalla’s many hallways.  To Magnus’ astonishment and relief, he was leaning against the wall, green hair brushing one of the too many wolf reliefs with one foot on the wall and arms loosely crossed against his chest, no sign of trouble in sight.

Nico was looking around at everything curiously, as though he found the corridor one of the most fascinating things he’d ever seen, barely even giving his boyfriend any attention even though Will was standing right next to him, new weapon clenched in his hand and, in Magnus’ opinion, impossible to miss.  Magnus wondered what the Hotel felt like to someone would could sense death.  Overwhelming, probably.  He didn’t know just how sensitive Nico’s death-sense was, nor did he know exactly how many dead people were in Valhalla, but there were definitely a lotof them.

Meg was almost mirroring Alex on the opposite wall, although she had both feet planted firmly on the ground and none of his fluid relaxation.  Then again, if Alex died here, he’d wake up in a few hours in bed.  If Meg died here, she was ending up very much dead.

She was also one of the most impatient people Magnus had ever met.

“Which way?” she demanded the moment the door closed behind them, shutting all six of them inside Valhalla. All eyes immediately landed on Magnus, which he thought was a little unfair when Alex and Apollo – okay, maybe not Apollo, considering Lester had spent his two weeks in the hotel moping in his bedroom – also knew their way around.

“Yes, Magnus,” Alex grinned, seemingly enjoying the fact that he was once again in the limelight and not liking it, “which way?”

Valhalla was an absolute maze, and Magnus still didn’t know all its corridors that well.  In all likelihood, he probably never would.  He looked around at the corridor, not too dissimilarly to the way Nico had been trying to take everything in – still was, his eyes flickering between Magnus and their surroundings and all but ignoring Will’s light touch on his arm.  Until he knew where, exactly, they’d arrived, he didn’t have a clue which direction to go in.

“The elevator,” he decided, when his cursory scan didn’t give him any clues.  At least then he’d know what floor they were on, and they could go from there.  It was risky, but hopefully no-one would realise that three of them weren’t supposed to be there.

Hopefully.

“You know that’s the most likely place to meet people, yes?” Alex rolled his eyes but kicked away from the wall into a standing position in one fluid movement.

Magnus huffed. “You’re welcome to come up with a better idea.”  To be honest, he wasn’t even entirely certain which way they needed to go to find that, either, but if there was one thing in Valhalla he tended to stumble across relatively easily, it was the elevator.

“No, no,” the child of Loki waved away.  “You’ve been here the longest.  We’ll follow your lead.”

He was definitelyenjoying this.

Magnus decided that didn’t warrant a response and stuck his hands in his pockets before striding down the hallway in a random direction.  “Don’t open any doors,” he warned.  “Some of them lead to other worlds, the same way we got here from Jotunheim.”  He still remembered Gunilla getting partially barbequed on his first day, which was immediately followed by a pang of muted grief.  True, he’d never liked Gunilla, not after the blooper edit she’d made of his death, and her animosity towards Sam, but that didn’t mean he was pleased she was dead.  Far from it. The daughter of Thor had deserved better than her death at Surt’s hands.

“Won’t some lead to Asgard, then?” Will asked, bringing Magnus’ thoughts away from his near-disastrous visit to Lyngvi and back to their currentquest, with equally high stakes.

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “But some lead to Muspellheim.  Or Niflheim.  Or Helheim.”

The last world name had Will’s eyes widening a little.  “Is that-”

“Where Angrboda’s daughter lives and rules?” he finished.  “Yup.  World of the dishonourable dead.  Not somewhere you want to go.”

He did not like the sudden interest that lit up in Nico’s eyes.  Didn’t he have enough death areas to play with within his own pantheon?

“If we’re not opening doors, how are we getting there?” Meg interrupted, following right on Magnus’ heels. She was close enough that he kept thinking she was going to stand on them and make him trip.

“Through a door I don’t have to guess where it leads,” Magnus told her, accelerating a little to try and get some distance between her bright red shoes and his own heels. She sped up right along with him.

“You’ve been to Asgard before?” Apollo asked, sounding taken aback, as though he hadn’t expected that. “Last I heard, the Aesir were pretty strict on who entered.  Admittedly, it’s been a few centuries since I last spoke to a Norse god, but even so, that doesn’t seem like them.”

A few centuries?  How often did the different pantheons interact each other, anyway?

“They are,” he said out loud, deciding against asking that question.  The answer probably wasn’t important, as long as einherjar didn’t get caught up in those interactions.  “We’ll probably get blasted the moment we try to enter.  Although I do have permission.”  As long as Odin wasn’t annoyed about him attacking his wolves in Boston, or was the guy responsible for this whole mess in the first place and didn’t like the meddling.

If any of those were true then Magnus was probably as screwed as the rest of them.

“You didn’t mention that one,” Nico commented, although he didn’t seem particularly bothered by it. Will, on the other hand, was clutching his new bow quite tightly.  “Not that I’m surprised.  Olympus is much the same.”  He sent a look at Apollo, who shrugged.

“We gods are possessive creatures,” he admitted.  “We really don’t like people trespassing on our domains.  Our reactions tend to be… rather extreme by your mortal standards, I suppose.”

Magnus thought about Rán, and Njord.  That sounded about right.

“Even you?” Meg asked. Apollo’s laugh echoed through the hall, but it was hollow.

“Even me, Meg,” he agreed. For some reason Magnus couldn’t quite fathom, none of the Greek demigods looked particularly convinced.  Nico even went as far as pointedly looking at the golden bow Will was carrying, although having witnessed the conversation that had gone along with that exchange, Magnus was reasonably sure Apollo had done it to protect something else he considered his – his son – and therefore was genuinely being the exact possessive god he claimed he was.

If Apollo noticed their differing opinion, he didn’t acknowledge it.

Magnus decided it was better for his sanity if he didn’t try and work out what they were thinking. Instead, he returned his attention to the Hotel, hoping he was leading them the right way towards the elevator and trying to remember which floor the door to Asgard was on.

Alex sidled up next to him, despite the fact that he’d been taking up the unofficial position of rear guard until then.  “You know what you’re doing?” he asked quietly.  Magnus gave him a bright, fake, smile.

“Not a clue.”

Heterochromatic eyes rolled and Magnus found himself watching them.  No matter how used to Alex he got, sometimes little things caught his attention and wouldn’t let go.  He wouldn’t have it any other way, even when Alex realised what he was looking at and rolled his eyes again.

“Eyes on the road, Magnus,” he scolded, although there was the faintest bit of colour in his cheeks.

“This is hardly a road,” he retorted, but dragged his eyes away from his fellow einherji anyway.

“Eyes on the hallway, then,” Alex corrected without missing a beat.  “I definitely think we should stop by floor nineteen,” he added after a moment.  “We both know we’re lucky no-one’s attacked us yet, and let’s be honest, I’m the only one of us that stands a chance if we are.  Well, aside from the literal god.  And Jack.”

He wasn’t wrong. Tuesdays were great proof of that.

Depending which floor they were on, it could be a bit of a detour, but it would certainly be worth it if it meant that the mortals didn’t die.  Annabeth would probably be a bit miffed if he got her friends killed.  He didn’t want to face a miffed Annabeth. Then again, if it was too much of a detour, going to floor nineteen might be the more dangerous option.

“I’ll think about it,” he said.  Alex rolled his eyes again, but Magnus kept his own eyes firmly fixed on the carpet ahead of them.  “Shouldn’t you be guarding their backs?”

“Fine,” Alex huffed, although there was no genuine complaint in his voice as he slipped back, behind where Will was having to coax Nico to keep moving, and leaving Magnus to spearhead their little group.

Meg was still threatening to step on his ankles.

He wasn’t sure if it was luck or something else at play, and nor did he particularly care, but the end of the hallway opened up in front of them to reveal the familiar sight of the elevator.  Of course, it would be too much to hope for that it was already waiting for them, so with a sigh he jabbed the call button.  Hopefully it wasn’t too many floors away.

“Is it normally this quiet?” Will asked.  He was looking around warily, as though expecting someone – or something – to appear out of nowhere and jump them all.  To be fair, in Valhalla that wasn’t a particularly unusual occurrence, and Apollo in particular had been very vocal about how dangerous the hotel could be.

Magnus shrugged. “Depends what floor we’re on. Some of them are quieter than others.” Also what time of the day it was; he wasn’t sure how long they’d been at Angrboda’s, or how long they’d been travelling before reaching there, but if they were lucky, it was around the middle of the day.  The general lack of einherjar committing murder in the hallways suggested that, for the time being at least, they might have a bit of luck.

On the downside, if all the einherjar were in battle, that would include floor nineteen and left them fresh out of backup.

Well, Magnus figured, they’d survived this long without backup.

With a clatter, the elevator came to a stop in front of them, opening its doors.  Unfortunately, with it came a break in their good luck; it wasn’t empty.

Magnus ducked as an axe swung through the hair, approximately where his head had been a split second earlier.

“Nice to see you, too, Erik,” he grumbled.  The advantage of most of Valhalla having the same name was that if in doubt, he could guess and probably be right.  In this case, it was a familiar Erik, one from floor thirty-three.  Well, that probably answered the question about what floor they were on.  Not too terrible – at least it wasn’t one with a three digit number.

“Get off my floor, Magnus,” the older man snarled, lashing out with his axe again.  Jack jumped up to catch it before it made contact with his shoulder.  “And you, argr.”

Well, at least they didn’t have to worry about Erik raising the alarm.  Magnus dodged to the side out of instinct, narrowly missing the garotte that lashed out from behind him.  One day, they’d stop underestimating Alex, and maybe even learn not to use that particular term.  In the meantime, Erik’s head parted company from his body with a spray of blood that Magnus didn’t get back fast enough from, and his body fell to the ground with a wet and familiar thump.

It was good to be back, Magnus thought with maybe a little more sincerity and less sarcasm than he’d ever admit.

On the down side, it wouldn’t be long before the ravens came circling with the wolves on their tail feathers to clean up, and Magnus was not going to be anywhere near the body when that happened.  “Get in, now!” he ordered, grabbing the nearest demigod – who happened to be Meg – and shoving her into the elevator.

“He’sdead.” Will swayed a little on the spot, and Magnus wondered if someone who had been through as much as Will claimed to have done was actually bothered by the death of someone he didn’t even know. Then again, he wasa healer, and in places other than Valhalla, they probably did their best to keep healers away from the worst of the action, otherwise they might end up in need of healing themselves.

Magnus could say from experience that that wasn’t a great situation to be in.

“He’ll be fine in a couple of hours,” Apollo assured his son, putting a hand on Will’s shoulder.  The blond didn’t look away from the headless corpse.  “Magnus is right, we need to move.”  The god pushed Will in after Meg, Nico following hot on their heels and reaching to brush pale fingertips against his boyfriend’s arm.  Magnus and Alex were the last to enter, and before Magnus could decide where they wanted to go, Alex had pushed the button for floor nineteen.

“If Erik’s skulking around, there’s no battle going on,” he pointed out.  Magnus couldn’t particularly argue with his logic.

“You didn’t even hesitate,” Will blurted out as the doors rattled shut, cutting off their view of floor thirty-three and the decapitated body leaking blood sluggishly from the neck.  It wouldn’t stain the flooring – the wolves were far too thorough for that – but it was still a disturbing sight if you weren’t used to it, Magnus supposed.  The son of Apollo was slightly wide-eyed as he focused on Alex.  “You-”

“Welcome to Hotel Valhalla,” Alex grinned, spreading his arms.  “Everything here is to the death.  Even conversations in the hallway.”

Frank Sinatra started singing, again, as the elevator descended.  Magnus could recite the song off by heart in his sleep by now.  The hotel reallyneeded to spice up their music selection occasionally.

Will did not look particularly reassured – in fact he looked more horrified, if that was possible – and Magnus began to wonder if it wasn’t the death itself that had got to him, but rather Alex’s ruthlessness and callous attitude about it.  The son of Apollo really wasn’t cut out for Valhalla, although Magnus wouldn’t do him the disservice of thinking he’d be more at home lazing around in Folkvanger, half-heartedly messing around with weapons and waiting to die in the first wave of Ragnarok.

He also definitely wasn’t suited for Helheim, so it was probably a good thing he was Greek, and not Norse.  Magnus hoped their afterlives were more suited for the son of Apollo, when Will’s time came.

It had better not come today.

In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a long descent from floor thirty-three to floor nineteen. Barely a minute, in fact, which was probably a good thing.  The elevator wasn’t small, but with the six of them inside it, at least one of which was struggling to come to terms with the reality that was life in Valhalla, it was feeling a little claustrophobic.  Nico, Magnus noticed, was sticking very close to Will while keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the doors.

It was a relief when Frank Sinatra stopped and the doors opened, spitting them out into the familiar hallway of floor nineteen.  Even more familiar was the sounds of arguing; Mallory and Halfborn were once again flirting the only way they knew how.  Magnus just hoped they didn’t kill each other in front of Will – the healer probably wouldn’t be able to take it.

It was a far cry from the unflappable demigod he’d first met in the Chase Space a week or so ago, but if he was honest, this was definitely the version Magnus preferred.  Will felt so much more genuine now, a human rather than some unshakeable figure with a smile fixed permanently to his face.

Then again, after Angrboda, anyone who could stay that calm would have sent his paranoia skyrocketing, so it was a good thing Will had lost that mask.

“Are they always like that or is it just when I’m around?” Apollo asked, wearily but also slightly amused.

“Oh, they’re always like that,” Alex shrugged.  “If we’re lucky they’ll kill each other rather than start making out.”

“Lucky?” Will’s voice came out strangled.

“Blood is way less gross than watching them make out,” the child of Loki told him.

“I can see that,” Nico observed lightly.  Magnus wondered how he was getting on, slap bang in the middle of an afterlife.  If he could sense Magnus and Alex’s states of not-living, he was probably sensing all the einherjar… and there were a lot of those.

Will whacked his boyfriend on the arm.

“Mallory’s also ruthless,” Alex continued with glee.  That was certainly an apt word to describe the daughter of Frigg.

Will didn’t seem to think that was a compliment.  “We’re here to get back-up?” he prompted.

“They’re good back-up,” Magnus promised him.  They were also good people, who he knew from experience would help without any questions – or at least without getting any answers.  “Come on, let’s introduce you.”  He hurried forwards, past all the bedrooms, but not fast enough to prevent the Greeks from spotting the name Lester Papadopoulos on one of the doors.  Apollo had to grab Meg by the scruff of her dress to keep her moving forwards.

“There’s nothing interesting in there,” he promised.  Magnus wondered what was in there; what home comforts had the Hotel tried to provide for an amnesiac mortal who was formerly a god from the wrong pantheon? He’d never seen inside Lester’s room, and if all went well he suspected he never would.

“But-”

“Let’s go meet the rest,” Apollo said firmly.  “I think you’ll like Mallory.”

That was a match Magnus hadn’t considered until he said it, and was suddenly very nervous about. He was glad they were on the time limit of get out as fast as possible, because extended exposure to the pair of them together was probably not a good thing.

From the way Alex was cackling behind them, he thought it was a very good match.

The screaming was still going on when Magnus put his hand on the lounge door and shoved it open, and neither einherjar seemed to notice their entrance.  T.J., watching from a sofa with a look of amusement on his face, did.

“Magnus!” he called. “You’re back!  Where’re Alex and Lester?”

Alex slithered past him and sent the other boy a jaunty wave.  “Right here, T.J.  He/Him right now.”  He reached back for the others and grabbed two of them seemingly at random.  Nico and Meg glowered at him as they were dragged into view.  “And we brought friends!”

That was enough to snap Mallory and Halfborn out of their latest flirt-fight.  T.J.’s smile wavered a little.

“Uh…  Those are mortal, aren’t they?”

“Beantown!” Mallory scolded, interrupting him.  “What did we learn the lasttime?”

“That you guys are fantastic floormates and the garbage chute is a great way to get to Midgard without using the front door?” he offered.

Will and Apollo edged into the room, trying and failing not to draw attention to themselves.  It might have worked, if not for the bow Will was holding.  T.J. spotted it immediately.

“Isn’t that Lester’s bow?” he frowned.  “And where isLester?”

Apollo cleared his throat awkwardly.  “It’s a long story,” he admitted.  “And probably not one you should hear.  But… hi.”

All three einherjar squinted at him suspiciously.  “Are you a shapeshifter, too?” Mallory asked after a moment.

“But he’s mortal,” Halfborn corrected her.  “He’s not a son of Loki.”

“Luckily,” Alex muttered darkly.

“As I said, it’s long story,” Apollo said a little sheepishly.  “Shapeshifter isn’t totally inaccurate, though, so we can go with that.”

“And the other blond has your bow because..?” Mallory asked expectantly.

Apollo shrugged.  “I gave it to him.”

“We’re in a bit of a hurry,” Magnus said.  “A lot of a hurry, actually.  Very long story very short, we’ve been dragged into another quest and we’re using Valhalla as a between-worlds cheat instead of clambering through Yggdrasil and meeting Ratatosk. Again.”  His floormates winced in sympathy.  “But Will, Nico and Meg are mortal,” he gestured to each one in turn in lieu of formal introductions, “and well.  Valhalla.”

“You’re taking too long,” Alex interrupted.  “We need people to keep those three alive until we get out of Valhalla.  You lot game?”

T.J. snatched up his trusty rifle and bayonet at the same moment Mallory drew her knives and Halfborn fingered his axe.  “You have to ask?” the son of Tyr asked.

“Honestly, Beantown.” Mallory rolled her eyes.  “You know us better than that.  The garbage chute?”

Magnus shook his head. “Not this time.  We need to get to Asgard.”

There wasn’t time to laugh at the looks of horrified astonishment on their faces, but he and Alex did anyway.

Chapter 24>>>

Fandom: Trials of Apollo/Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
Rating:Teen
Genre: Adventure, Friendship
Characters: Will Solace, Magnus Chase, Apollo, Nico di Angelo, Alex Fierro, Meg McCaffrey

Unfortunately for you guys, there’s going to be a longer wait for chapter 26 than normal because I’m busy irl.  I’m not yet certain if the next update will be next Saturday, or the Weds after that; it’ll depend on rl.  In the meantime, enjoy~

Reminder that there’s now a discord server for all my fics, including this one!  If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

<<<Chapter 24

WILL (XXV)
Some Unplanned Nap Time

Nico jerked upright. “People are coming,” he said urgently. Dead people, the son of Hades no doubt meant. Einherjar.

“Where from?” Will asked, looking around.  He let go of Meg so he had a free hand to pluck an arrow from his quiver.

“Behind us,” Nico clarified. “From the stairs.  There’s too many to fight our way through.”

“Can you stop them?” Will hated asking it, because he was certain that the effort of controlling that many dead would leave Nico incapacitated, but incapacitated was marginally better than dead.

Nico shook his head. “I don’t think I can control einherjar,” he admitted.  “I haven’t tried, but it doesn’t feel like I can.  Maybe because they’re under Odin’s domain instead of my father’s?”

Apollo nodded.  “That would do it,” he admitted in a low voice, as though he didn’t want Carrie or the new einherjar from floor nineteen to hear him.

“Then we’ll have to keep running,” Magnus said, tugging on his pendant.  Jack materialised.  “Lead the way, Jack.”

“Right, señor!” The sword started forwards, only to block a swing from an axe.

Carrie smirked again, the expression twisting what was a reasonably pretty face into something ugly and cruel.  “You’re not going anywhere,” she told them.  “I told you, Lord Apollo – you’ve done your part.  As for those two-” she sneered at Nico and Meg, “-their deaths will add a little more fuel to the fire, wouldn’t you say?  A son of the so-called Big Three and a daughter of one of the elder Olympians – their parents don’t usually get involved in wars, do they?”  She flung her javelin straight at Nico, who barely dodged in time.  “The deaths of their children should incite them nicely.”

“Olympians?” T.J. asked, turning to face the approaching stampede behind them.

“Like the Olympics?” Mallory sounded equally confused.  Halfborn, on the other hand, let out what sounded like a very colourful string of expletives in Norse.

“The stories… the gods of Greece… they’re real?”

“Of course they are, you oaf,” Carrie rolled her eyes, before returning her attention to Apollo, who looked as taut as a bowstring.  “As for your son, Lord Apollo, well, I don’t think anyone will miss him.”

Nicosnarled and lunged forwards before Will could even process what she’d said.  Stygian Iron flashed, a void in the hallway of Valhalla, and clashed against an axe.

A warm hand rested heavily on his shoulder, squeezing tightly.  It was trembling minutely, and Will glanced at his dad, whose eyes had shifted a hue or two closer to burning gold.

“What is going on?” T.J.’s voice had climbed half an octave.

“We’ll explain later!” Alex’s voice cracked through the air.  “Run.”  A jaguar launched itself at Carrie, shoving Nico out of the way of a swinging axe and swiping deadly claws at the Valkyrie, who dodged backwards.  “I’ll handle my sister.”  He snarled the term as though it was the deepest insult he could give.

With the hoard of einherjar almost upon them, they needed no more encouragement.  Jack shot past where the jaguar was suddenly wrestling with a wolf, before it turned to a bear and a wolf, and if it wasn’t for the streaks of pink and green in the bear’s fur, Will wouldn’t have had a clue which one was Alex as he followed Magnus and the others in darting past, barely noticing when Apollo’s hand fell away but aware of his father keeping pace with him in his periphery.

The wolf snarled and tried to snap at them as they fled, but the bear flung it into the wall before picking it up again and hurtling it at the oncoming einherjar.

Will didn’t look to see what happened as he kept running, bow held at the ready in his right hand and an arrow in the fingers of his left.  Behind them, there was noise, animals howling – wolves, and more than could be accounted for by the two shapeshifters – and battle cries in multiple languages.

He really hoped their exit wasn’t far, because they were being gained on every moment.  Alex was no doubt in the thick of the fray, but there was no way the child of Loki could keep their pursuers all at bay; Carrie alone was a dangerous threat, and she wasn’t even an einherjar, by the sounds of it.

The same thought must have run through the minds of the rest of them, because without warning the rest of floor nineteen, barring Magnus, stopped running.

“Go!” Halfborn bellowed when Will faltered.  “We will hold them back.”

“This is what Beantown asked us for in the first place,” Mallory reminded them, a sharp grin on her face.  Her thin knives flashed as she twirled them in her fingers.

“Make sure you do whatever it is you need to,” T.J. added.  “Floor nineteen!”

The trio’s war cry was at least as impressive as anything else Will had heard from behind them as they charged back the way they’d come.

“I owe you guys!” Magnus yelled back at them.  Unlike the rest, he hadn’t slowed at all.  “They’ll be fine,” he urged, a lie because Will knew they were going to die, but there was enough conviction in his voice nonetheless that Will found himself speeding up again, running alongside Nico with Apollo and Meg now immediately ahead of them.  Magnus himself ducked back until he was covering their backs, taking up the position that Alex had held all the way through Valhalla.

Unlike Alex, Magnus didn’t give off quite so much of a comforting air, as though nothing could get through him.  Then again, Magnus was primarily a healer, not a warrior, despite his current situation as one of Odin’s honoured warriors.

Will found the energy to run a little faster, keeping his eyes studiously on the glowing sword hurtling through the air ahead of them and trying very hard not to think about who they’d left behind, how much time the four members of floor nineteen would be able to buy them, and the fact that they were going to diefor them.

“Nearly there!” Jack promised.  He wasn’t even singing, which Will registered as an unusual occurrence.  Not that long ago, he’d have thought a talking sword was unusual, but Jack had come through for them enough times that he was just part of the group now.

Three to start, and six to end.  They’d thought the six of them were the same six that had been travelling through Jotunheim together, but Alex had fallen behind, and Jack wassentient…

But that meant that Alex was going to be killed by his own sister, and Will wasn’t desensitised enough by his exposure to the einherjar to be able to think of death as anything less than final, despite everything he’d been told to the contrary. To have it at the hands of family – by the definition of shared blood, because Alex and Carrie certainly didn’t seem to consider each other family the same way Will thought of Austin, Kayla, Jerry, Gracie and Yan, to say nothing of Lee, Michael and the others he’d lost during the last two wars.

He shook his head fiercely. Now was not the time to think about his dead siblings, who were very dead and not secretly squirrelled away in an afterlife hotel in preparation of a battle.

“Just around the next corner!” Jack encouraged them, before disappearing around said corner himself. Without an einherjar to help him make the turn, Will almost stumbled over his own feet trying to decelerate enough to make it without crashing into the wall.  His shoulder still knocked it, and he dropped the arrow he was holding.

A moment later, something large and heavy crashed against the wall behind him, narrowly missing Magnus. It was pink and green and red, a deep crimson that smeared the wall as the bear pulled itself back upright and shimmered into a far more familiar face.

“The others are down,” Alex reported, running bloody hands through his hair as they kept running. “There’s wolves right behind me.”

Wolves?  Will remembered the wolves outside the Chase Space, aggressive but weak to the same things as any other canid.  “Just wolves?” he asked.

“Just wolves,” Magnus muttered, his voice a little higher.  “Just wolves, he says.”

“They’re the closest,” Alex confirmed.  “By the way, she and her now.”

Will did not have the mental capacity to react to that and their situation at the same time, so he left that unacknowledged.  “Run on ahead,” he said, slowing and drawing another arrow from his quiver.

“Will!” Apollo and Nico yelled immediately, slowing in turn.  Will shot them both his best I know what I’m doing and you will shut up and listen or so help me glare, perfected from years of dealing with problematic patients.

“Keep running,” he demanded. “And cover your ears.”

He couldn’t stop the einherjar.  But he could slow down the wolves.

Apollo made a pained noise and Nico yelled at him again, but Will refused to cave.  “I know what I’m doing,” he promised, vocalising the words because clearly his glare hadn’t been good enough, “Dad, you need to get to Asgard.”

“Ineed to stay with you,” his father disagreed, neatly dodging Meg’s attempt to grab him as Magnus yanked Nico along despite his protests, collaring the daughter of Demeter when she seemed determined to hang back with Apollo, too.  The god returned to Will’s side so fast he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d actually teleported.  Part of him wondered if Apollo just didn’t trust that he could hold the wolves off alone, but then he remembered what his father had been like during his trials, adamantly refusing to let anyone else put themselves in danger if he could help it.

He remembered hearing about Jason, and realised that maybe his dad wasn’t slighting him at all.

Will slowed down further, Apollo matching him in his periphery.  Alex hung back with them, too, but before Will could turn his glare on her – she didn’t need to hang back, too - she turned into a snake. He flinched as scales coiled around his leg, dropping another arrow, and then the smooth texture disappeared to be replaced with something small and leathery in that way tough skin had.  A glance he couldn’t really afford showed a small mole clinging to him instead.

Well, at least he wasn’t alone in case the plandidn’t work as he hoped, Will accepted in some relief. He stopped running entirely, turning back to face the corridor after one last glance at the trio still running – or rather, Magnus dragging the other two along.  There was a door immediately ahead of them, and Will hoped that was the one they were after.

Taking a deep breath, he turned his attention back the way they came, aware of his unarmed father – who was a literal god and could fend for himself, he had to remind himself – next to him, and held his bow at the ready, first arrow nocked and waiting to fly.

The first wolves rounded the corner barely half a second later, teeth bared in snarls and stained red. Will carefully didn’t let himself wonder which of the floor nineteen’s einherjar the blood belonged to. Standing his ground as the creatures advanced was nerve-wracking, every instinct in his body screaming for him to run, but he locked his muscles and refused to give in to the instinct.  Instead, he shot arrow after arrow, feeling more than hearing the golden bow sing, as he both thinned their numbers and waited for them to close in.  Next to him, he couldn’t see what Apollo was doing, but there were more wolves dropping than the number of arrows flying dictated there should be.

The closer they were, the more effective the whistle would be.  The closer they got, the more wolves would be in range.

The closer they got, the better chance they all had.

Warmth flooded through his whole body, a golden glow shimmering into existence in his periphery. It wasn’t his own doing – he wasn’t the biggest fan of turning on the light, so to speak, and had no reason to it right then anyway – although he didn’t think he’d ever be able to mistake a blessing from his father for anything else, anyway.

He’d been blessed a few times in his life, although until today it had always been during particularly intense healing sessions, but never twice in the space of an hour.

It was a quiet comfort, that Apollo was helping him out in more ways than one, but that still didn’t make it much easier to stand his ground as time slowed – not literally, thank the gods, but in the way that battles had, with all his senses working overdrive and his reflexes honed in tandem.  The first time he’d felt it had been the Battle of the Labyrinth, when he’d lost Lee.  Then it had been Manhattan, and he wondered if this was how Michael had felt, standing his ground on WilliamsburgBridge, covering everyone’s retreat as he stared death in the face.

Will could really do with his big brother’s sonic arrows right about now, but that was Michael’s speciality, not his.  All he had against this pack was his whistle, and as the first wolf got close enough to make a flying leap for him, he dropped the latest arrow he had been about to nock, put his fingers to his lips, and let the ultrasonic noise pierce through the hallway.

The effect was as effective as it was instantaneous.  The wolves dropped like flies, bloodstained snarls replaced by heaps of stunned fur and the occasional, pitiful whimper.  The lead wolf landed barely an inch short of Will’s feet, and he stumbled back before it tried to take a bite.

“That’s useful,” Alex said, human again next to him.  Will barely had a chance to notice her change of shape before she was gripping his arm and all but dragging him towards the others.  Apollo’s warm hand caught his other arm, hauling him forwards with godly strength that almost yanked Will’s shoulder out of his socket.  “Bet Magnus wishes he could do that.”  She flashed him a bloodstained grin, not too unlike that of the wolves.  Were her canines always that sharp?

“Hurry!” Nico’s voice sounded strangled with panic, and Will stumbled a little as Alex increased her pace. His boyfriend’s face was white, even compared to his usual complexion, and his grip on his sword was white-knuckled. Both he and Meg looked a hair’s breadth from abandoning their position by the door and running back towards him.

Even without looking behind him, Will knew from their reactions that there was something dangerous on their heels.  Not a wolf – too quiet for that.  Probably not one of the einherjar, either, for the same reason.

“Will!” Nico screamed, and something slammed into him, knocking him sideways into Apollo, who caught him in a tight, bruising grip.  His shoulder, already smarting from the previous collisions it had suffered, complained loudly at the contact.  Drawing his bow was going to smart.

He tried to push himself upright again and winced at the protest of his bruised shoulder but couldn’t let that stop him.  Apollo’s hold was just getting tighter but Alex wasn’t holding onto him anymore; he didn’t know what had happened to her, but he had to keep going.  His dad barely gave him a chance to find his balance again, clutching him close and half-dragging, half-carrying him towards the door.

Will wished he hadn’t, not because he didn’t appreciate the help – he did, his legs were tired and trembling from fear, adrenaline, and exhaustion – but because it gave his eyes the opportunity to wander.

The wolves were moving again, slow and unsteady but finding their way to their feet nonetheless. Numerous einherjar and girls wearing the same uniform as Carrie – other Valkyrie, no doubt – were advancing on them, slowed by the wolves in their way but picking their way around with single-minded focus and murder in their eyes.

In front of it all was Alex, swaying where she stood with a familiar javelin through her chest at a skewed angle.  Realisation crashed over Will, and he almost threw up as he realised the javelin hadn’t been aimed at her at all.

She’d pushed him out of the way.

Right behind her was Carrie, perfect ringlets in disarray and weighed down with crimson matting. If she was still mortal, there was no way it was all hers, although her Valkyrie uniform was in tatters.

Alex cursed her weakly, blood erupting from her mouth, before her mismatched eyes glanced over Will and focused on someone ahead of him.  He knew without looking that it had to be Magnus.

“Get them out,” she ordered, voice a rasp, a grin curling across her mouth even though she looked pissed.  Bloodied hands gripped the garotte tightly.  “If I wake up to Ragnarok…” she coughed, more blood spurting from between her lips, “…I’ll kill you myself.”

Will watched in horror as she turned back to face the advancing enemies, barely able to stay on her feet but refusing to go down without one last fight.

It was barely a fight. Carrie lunged forwards, dodging the garotte that slashed her way, and got her hand around the crimson-stained shaft of the javelin, yanking back until the weapon slipped out of Alex’s body with a disgusting squelch.  Faster than Alex’s injured body could react, Carrie whipped it around and the point impaled her neck.

Alex went down and didn’t get back up.

Apollo’s arms tightened around him further, if that was even possible.  Will blinked back tears that he didn’t have time for, never mind that Alex would supposedly resurrect in a few hours, and somehow missed the moment they left the hotel and landed in a flagstone courtyard.

“Shut the door!” someone, maybe Jack, shouted.  A moment later, there was the sound of something slamming closed, and then there were four of them in a heap on the flagstones.  Will was trembling, and he suspected some of the others were, too.

“Will!”  Apollo’s grip on him loosened a fraction as Nico gripped his arms tightly.  “Will, are you okay?”

No.  “Y-yeah,” he said, pulling himself the rest of the way out of his father’s hold and meeting his boyfriend’s dark, worried eyes. “I’m not hurt.”  His shoulder told him he was lying, but he ignored it. “But Alex-”

“Alex will be fine,” Magnus cut in.  He was the only one of them still on his feet, looking around agitatedly.  “She died in Valhalla, so she’ll resurrect in a few hours.”  He shook his head.  “I know it’s rough to see, but that’s just what Valhalla’s like.  She’ll be mad about it, but she’ll be fine.”

Will swallowed.  “If I hadn’t-”

“If you hadn’t stopped the wolves, we’d all have been torn to shreds before we got out,” Magnus said firmly.  “There was no way we’d have made it.  Alex knew she was the least likely one to survive all the way to Asgard.  We both knew we’d sacrifice ourselves in a heartbeat to keep you lot alive.  Actually alive, I mean, not einherjar-alive like we are.”  He held out his hand for Will to take.  “Come on.  We have the end of the world to stop.”

Will looked at his companions.  Nico was still white, but he seemed to be accepting of what Magnus was saying because he was watching Will, his focus very much on the present rather than off with the ghosts as he sometimes got.  Meg was shaking a little, fiddling with her seed pouch and sending glances towards where the door had been that looked more than a little afraid.  Apollo might have relaxed his grip slightly, but his face was ashen and he was trembling almost as much as Meg and Will.

None of them were in any sort of state to challenge a god, or two.  But what choice did they have?  The prophecy had been unusually plain on that regard:

The abused child must stand tall
Or else the nine will start to fall

They were the only unresolved lines now, Will suspected, running the whole thing through his mind rapidly.

Dead yet alive the stolen god sleeps
Where healing hands swing the sword that speaks

Those lines were simple enough; Apollo had been stolen – although admittedly on whose orders was not yet known – and kept as an einherji in Magnus’ floor.

Thought and memory separate, unite
Die once, die twice, and risk true sight

Those referenced Apollo’s self-induced amnesia, and the way he’d died twice – properly died, not einherjar-death-and-resurrection – before his powers had returned.  The riskwas almost certainly the fact that as soon as he’d returned, he’d drawn Zeus’ attention and become a potential catalyst for war.

Three to start and six to end

Arguably, there were only five of them right then, so that line wasn’t necessarily fully revealed, but it seemed obvious enough.  Maybe his earlier thought was right and Jack counted.

Mixed blood to face the one who’d rend
Like from like, turn peer to foe
Sit on back, enjoy the show

Those lines, Will realised, had been about Angrboda; mixed blood had been all of them – demigods, both Greek and Norse, as well as the simultaneously mortal and immortal Lestollo, to coin Mallory’s nickname.  He and Magnus had been the like, and all five of them had been the peers, while Apollo – as Lester – had been unaffected and forced to watch them tear each other apart alongside a clearly pleased Angrboda.

Misfired arrow shall find the mark
Buried deep inside the father’s heart

And, as he’d always known, those had been about him and Apollo.  No-one else was ever going to be shooting their father in the heart, and Will was never going to get over the sight of Lester with his own arrow in his heart, even if it had been the final, necessary, trigger to get Apollo’s memories and powers back.

Unfortunately, while the last line was almost certainly a warning that Ragnarok was waiting for them to fail, he still had no idea who the abused child was supposed to be, and how that would stop Ragnarok, let alone Zeus and an inter-pantheon war.

An inter-pantheon war that seemed to have already started, he realised as the unmistakable crack of lightning echoed through the courtyard.

Magnus was still holding out his hand, and Will grasped it, letting the einherji pull him to his feet and finally looking around at their surroundings.

The courtyard itself was empty aside from them, which was probably a good thing because none of them had been in a state to fight immediately after arriving in Asgard.

Asgard.  Arguably the Norse equivalent of Olympus, if there was such a thing.  The flagstones they stood on were gold, stone buildings surrounded them, so tall they were lost in the clouds above, and the doors were made of hammered bronze.

It simultaneously felt nothing like Olympus – no Greco-Roman architecture, no white marble – while also thrumming with the sort of godly power that Will had experienced in his dreams, and when he’d seen almost the entire pantheon united after defeating Typhon. It was, unmistakably, no place on Earth- Midgard.

Thunder rolled and lightning cracked across the sky.  Will was familiar enough with Thalia to recognise Zeus’ lightning when he saw it.

“Is it too much to hope for that father isn’t with Odin?” Apollo sighed, standing at his right shoulder. Will gave him an apologetic look.

“What do you think?” Meg was less apologetic.

“Angry god time, yay,” Magnus muttered sarcastically.  “Let’s get this over with.”

Asgard wasn’t built to human proportions, but the door on floor thirteen had spat them out close to where Zeus was throwing his temper tantrum.  Will wondered how many of the other Greek gods he’d brought with him; there was no sign of any other godly powers being used, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

In fact, if Zeus wasn’t alone, that hopefully meant he was just sparking off in rage, but that no actual fighting or war had started.

“Why did he have to get here first?” Apollo muttered unhappily, and Will suddenly remembered that Apollo hadn’t seen any of his godly family, barring Artemis-as-Diana briefly, since being turned to Lester.  He hadn’t seen Zeus since the king of the gods had initiated his punishment.

This was hardly the ideal family reunion, even before the presence of the Norse gods complicated things further.

The five of them reached the next courtyard over, and Will’s breath stuttered in his chest as he caught sight of the gods, some familiar and some not, staring each other down as godly power flickered over the forms of the Greeks – all of the Greeks present, and there were several – and the Norse stood strong in front of them.

One of the gods, Ares, took an impatient step forward.  All hell broke loose, but Will didn’t get a chance to notice as all of a sudden agony burst through his abdomen.

The golden bow, his father’s bow, his bow, slipped from numb fingers to clatter to the equally golden paving.  Crimson splattered the ground, a lot of it very quickly, and Will’s vision started to swirl, grey encroaching on the edges and turning everything gloomy and fuzzy.

“Will!”

Nico’s voice was shriller than Will had ever heard it before, but faint.  Muffled, as though someone had stuffed his ears with cotton wool. He blinked, trying to locate Nico, but black clothing merged with darkening vision and he couldn’t make him out. Couldn’t make anything out.

His knees screamed as they jarred against something hard and unyielding.

And then there was nothing.

Chapter 26>>>

Jason Grace Halfborn Gunderson

The Jock/Nerd Paradox

Annabeth: *meets Floor 19+ Blitz & Hearth*

Annabeth *whispers to Magnus*: What the heck is wrong with all your friends?

Magnus: What do you mean?

Annabeth: They’re all closeted

Magnus:

Annabeth: Every. Single. One. Of. Them