"How does it taste?"

Alex bite down into the voluptuous burger in her hands. A second later, an expression of awe formed on her face.

"Shit, Halfborn." Her voice muffled from the meat in her mouth as she said, "This could give Gordon Ramsay a run for his money."

"Aw, you're too kind, Alex." Halfborn's eyes crinkled with his grin as he flipped another burger on the brand-new grill they'd installed in the kitchen. They'd won the money to buy it in a bet with the hall below them. It didn't require much effort, except for maybe a foot or two. "I'm just glad that cooking course I took years ago paid off. Don't get me wrong, Hotel Valhalla food is amazing, but there's nothing like cooking something you've made yourself."

Two stories above them, about fifteen hungry kids were awaiting the first round of hamburgers dinner they were all preparing at the Chase Space. Their visitors were mostly comprised of kids already staying at the house, but they were hosting about ten new visitors today. It was events like these which increased Magnus' confidence in their continuing mission to establish the home as a safe place, seeing all the cheerful faces of the kids as they ate to their heart's content, stuffing their faces with carbs that didn't come from a dumpster for once. Today, every resident of Floor nineteen came to help prepare a patty recipe of Halfborn's design.

Well, almost everyone. TJ was still stuck in bed back at the Hotel, thanks to a son of Thor who'd someone thought it would be funny if he stole his bayonet and shoved it up his-

Magnus immediately wiped the mental image from his mind and concentrated on shaping the meat Mallory had been mixing together. Alex was taking a much-needed break: she'd been managing the kids with Magnus long before the rest of the gang had arrived to help cook as well.

"Geez, Halfborn," Samirah said as she and Blitzen enter the kitchen. She'd found the time to help since she needed the volunteering work to add to her college resume anyway. "You're practically a one-man college education."

"You should come by more often, give the kids some pointers," Blitzen said as he placed another emptied tray on the counter. "It would really help."

"That's if they're no longer scared of me." Halfborn flipped another patty, catching it on his spatula with practiced ease. "They stare at me like I'm some sort of animal. Not that it's not understandable, of course. I must be terrifying."

Even though Halfborn exchanged his furs for a T-shirt and jeans that night, Magnus had to admit that he still looked very like the intimidating wild man he'd thought he was on first impression. He figured the other homeless kids would still be unsettled by him.

"Oh, you shouldn't worry darl," Mallory put a hand on his shoulder. "We all know you've got a golden heart under that thick skin of yours."

Halfborn smiled and kissed her on the cheek. Alex rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Old people love. It's suffocating."

"That'll be us someday though," Magnus remarked. "I'll remind you once we hit forty."

"Only if I haven't broken up with your annoying ass by then." Alex grinned mischievously. She walked up to him, placed a hand on his hip, and pulled him close. He could smell the lavender scented shampoo she used that he liked so much. "Scrawny pansexual white guys aren't the only thing I'm into, you know. Even though we'll still look sixteen."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Magnus didn't care if the others were watching. They were probably already used to it by now, and they would have to if they haven't. "That's the Alex I know and love."

He started to close the distance between them, going straight for his target when suddenly-

"Uh, guys? Am I interrupting anything now?"

Magnus and Alex jumped apart in an instant. From the corner of his eye he caught Samirah's smirk. He tried hard not to look the slightest bit angry that their moment was interrupted, even though he definitely was.

"Oh hey, Andrew!" Alex greeted. "And nah, it's alright. What's up?"

Andrew fiddled with his fingers in the nervous fashion Magnus knew him for.

"Um… Magnus? I was just wondering, I've been hearing some squeaking upstairs. You mind if I try to do something about it?"

"A rat?" When they'd first started preparing the mansion for guests, Magnus had been surprised to learn that rats had already started to infest throughout some of the older rooms. They'd set up cleverly hidden wards throughout the house that should've taken care of any of the critters, as well as any monsters that could attack. Looked like some of the rats made it through. "Hearth'll take of it."

"But Hearth is still at Shop Rite," Blitz reminded him. "We're out of ketchup, remember?"

"Oh yeah." Magnus looked down at his meat covered hands. He still hadn't made enough patties yet, but he didn't want Alex to have to interrupt her break. "Um…we're kind of busy now? If it's not going anywhere near the other kids, we should be fine. Have you eaten anything yet though?"

"No," Andrew replied. "But I can take care of it, I'll eat later."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Okay then." Andrew smiled and then jogged away. A skinny brown-haired kid of sixteen, he'd arrived a little more than a month ago, asking if it really was true and this really was a place he could make at home. Instantly, he'd offered to help with cleaning the mansion whenever Blitz or Hearth were too busy to. Naturally, Blitz had accepted, and Andrew turned out to be the most helpful kid in the mansion. Whatever's asked of him, he does without question, including not asking anymore questions as to why Hearth needs a tanning bed in his room.

"That kid's always been super nice, hasn't he?" Blitz said. "It's kind of disturbing, really, how insistent he is in helping out."

"Why are you complaining?" Magnus asked. "Don't you owe him for the hours of work he's saved for you?"

"No, of course not!" Blitz raised his hands in an insistent manner. "I just think it's a little unusual."

"He probably feels that he needs to repay us for allowing him to live here," Mallory remarked. "It's probably something that was drilled into him somehow."

"Nobody should, though," Alex said. "This is supposed to be a home where we don't judge others based on merit or anything. Kids who stay here are expected not to totally trash the place, but he shouldn't feel like he has to earn the right to stay here, though, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Blitzen sighed in reluctance. "I'll talk to him sometime after the party."

Magnus was surprised at how quickly Blitz settled into the role of caretaker and mentor of the home. Since the house usually hosted about fifteen to twenty kids at once, he had to. In the two years since the Chase Space was opened, it had hosted a whooping total of seven hundred individual homeless kids, as well as the occasional weekend volunteer they'd get from the ads they'd posted around town. They'd made the old place look a little less intimidating and made into a home. Magnus felt it reflected the evolution of his own view of the place too.

He looked at the wall above the little table, at the picture of Randolph and his family he'd mounted. They were seated around the dinner table, beaming with happiness as they celebrated what appeared to be his fortieth birthday. Hope I made you proud, old man.

He liked to think that they were smiling back at him.

A chime rang throughout the hall. Someone was at the door.

"I'll get it." Magnus volunteered. He quickly rinsed his hands in the sink and checked whether Alex had written anything obscene in oil on the back of his shirt.

(How she performed such magic without him noticing was a question that would haunt him for the rest of his days).

He opened the door. There to greet him was an older looking woman clad in a brown, dusty bomber jacket and indigo skinny jeans. A silver ring hung from a hawkish nose. Under her worn looking bomber jacket she appeared to be wearing a black shirt decorated with various symbols and hieroglyphs in gold ink. Her shining blue eyes carried a mischievous, yet somewhat dangerous, twinkle. The corners of her eyes were creased with strain despite an otherwise beautiful face.

But what caught his attention the most is her hair. Cut into an undercut, worn in a tall ponytail, it was completely white save for the tips, which were dyed a cotton candy blue. Appearance wise, he thought she looked like an older version his own mother if she'd ever decided to go punk.

"Greetings." She spoke with a warm, chipper tone. "Magnus Chase, is it?"

"Yes, that's me?" Magnus raised an eyebrow. She didn't look anything like a homeless person, so he immediately assumed she was probably an volunteer. But they hadn't asked for anyone to show up today… "Who exactly are you?"

"The name's May, friend," she replied. "May I come in?"

"Uh, is it urgent?" Magnus turned around. No one had left the kitchen to greet their guest. "You kind of came at a bad time. We've got our hands full with preparing dinner now."

"Oh, good," she replied with a gleaming smile. "That means your guests will have good entertainment."

A shiver ran through Magnus's spine. "Good entertainment?"

Without warning, May jabbed him right in the nose, sending him falling backward right on his head. Head still spinning, he yelped in pain as he feels her pull him by the hair. Although she didn't appear to be wearing a sheath of any kind when he'd greeted her, a deadly looking axe had been raised right above his skull.

"Magnus!" Alex ran in and reached for her pocket for her enchanted garrote. Blitz and the others followed seconds later.

They quickly pulled out their weapons from the magical clothing Blitzen had made for all of them. Mallory brandished her deadly twin knives, readying herself for combat. "Get yer filthy hands off him," she warned as she stared daggers at her enemy.

"None of you move if you do not want your friend to lose his head," May replied calmly. "Put your weapons down, please."

Magnus summoned all his strength into a yell, feeling the sudden warmth throughout his body as the Peace of Frey exploded from him.

But May just struck him on the back of his head anyway, knocking him to the ground.

"Magnus!" Alex screamed.

Magnus tried to shake off the pain as he slowly tried to pull himself off the floor. Everybody else's weapons had fallen to the floor, but how on earth..."W-Wha?" Dazed and shaken, he yelped as he's pulled by the roots of his hair yet again.

"If you're wondering," May began as she pulled him up, "why your Alf Seidr disarming spell didn't work on mine, it's because my weapon is charmed against it."

"T-That's not…" Magnus sputtered, still dazed. "That's not po-"

"I don't have the time to explain how, and I wouldn't even if I did. So if you want to live, tell your friends to stand down."

"Like hell we will," Halfborn threatened. He and the others had picked their weapons back with practiced ease. In the back of his mind, Magnus was grateful for all the time they had spent practicing to respond to his power.

"You guys have a party now, don't you?" May asked.

"Yeah, so?" Mallory said.

"Then aren't you wondering why it's all so quiet now?"

Magnus's eyes widened. She was right: where the racket of kids eating and talking with each other should be heard, at the moment there was only silence.

"What the hell have you done to them?" he snarled. "I swear, if you lay a hand on them-"

"If any of you don't want a single hair harmed on his head, I suggest you put down your weapons. Now ."

An uneasy silence had fallen upon the room. Alex eyes met Magnus's, her unnerving stare telling him she was running through various ways she could possibly tear May's body to bits.

Suddenly, May shouted something, and an enormous BANG erupts into the air.

"What the heck are you waiting for?" she yelled with a surprising fury. "Do you want him to die?"

"Do it," Magnus ordered. He knew that if he even tried to summon Jack, he would be dead before he could even reach his hand.

Everyone slowly laid their weapons back on the ground.

"Now then, shall we begin? I apologize for the forceful entry despite my politeness, but I thought it would be the best way to catch you off guard."

She turned behind her to the open door without letting go of Magnus's hair. "Alright people, we're in the clear now!"

A group of seven henchmen clad marched into the room, all clad in a similar clothing with May's; black with golden symbols. Despite the dark sunglasses they all wore, he could tell that they couldn't have been any more than seventeen or eighteen. Two of them went upstairs, and the other five stay in the living room, positioning themselves behind Alex and the others, wands and staffs in hand, watching carefully for any sudden movement.

Magnus took a closer look at the symbols that mark their clothing and immediately recognized them as a mix of Egyptian hieroglyphs and… Greek lettering.

Demigods? He wondered silently to himself.

"Andrew?" May called.

"I'm here."

Magnus's jaw dropped. Moments later, Andrew, clad in black and carrying a staff just like the other henchmen, no longer so nervous looking, walked down the stairs.

"It's done," he said curtly. "All the wards around this place have been deactivated, as is your order. The sleeping spell I've put on the others should hold for about half an hour."

"Thank you, Andrew." She turned to another henchman next to her. "Where the hell are the bodies?"

"Coming, ma'am."

At that, three black body bags flew in through the door, which slammed shut behind them. They all landed simultaneously on the ground with a loud thud.

"There's something I'd like to show you eiherji," May said. "I'm sure it'll be quite the surprise."

She waved her wand, and the body bags unzipped themselves. The covers folded down partway, revealing the faces on them to be none other than-

"T-that's not possible," Blitzen stuttered, a bead of sweat running down his neck.

"What bloody sorcery is this?" Halfborn grunted, looking more shocked than Magnus has ever seen him.

Lying lifeless on the ground, still wearing their billowy robes of white, were the Norns. The three goddesses looked strangely peaceful, almost as if they're sleeping, which Magnus hoped was the truth, because there's no way you could kill a god…

"These three ladies were quite the trouble," May spoke as if killing them was no more troublesome than eliminating household pests. "But they were no match for our might."

Alex and everyone else continued to be frozen in shock. Mallory turned as white as a sheet. "That's not possible. That's not possible ."

"And yet, here they are." May said. "In the flesh. Dead . Now Andrew, the spray bottle, please?"

Andrew nodded, and took out a tiny spray bottle filled with water. May pulled something tiny and shiny from her pocket. She said a word that made Blitz's nostrils flare.

"You know rune magic."

She grinned and turned to him. "Surprised, dwarf? I've the urge to gloat and tell you how, but time's a ticking."

She said another word Magnus couldn't decipher, and a bright warm light erupted from the staff's tip. May sprayed the air near it, creating a little rainbow. She tosses the shiny object into the air, where, much to Magnus's shock, it vanished.

"Oh Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow," she said. "Show me Hotel Valhalla."

The misty air suddenly rippled like a heat wave. Magnus stared in shock as a shimmery image about as big as a plasma TV screen formed of all the einherji sitting at the dining hall. They continued to merrily consume their food, not noticing anything amiss.

That was, until a son of Tyr who'd decapitated once Magnus noticed something. "Bloody hell!" he exclaimed. "Is this a new form of TV screen we haven't heard of yet? Doesn't look like any show I've ever seen."

"Greetings, Hotel Valhalla," May greeted, talking directly to the image. "I hope you are all enjoying your feast."

Everyone in the hall instantly stopped eating, all looking at us through the strange portal.

"I'm terribly sorry that I have to interrupt your fine dining experience," May began mockingly. "But there's something I believe you'll want to know. You see these three?" She pointed her axe at the bodies, which lifted into view for the people on the other side to see. "Yes, these are indeed the Three Norns, and no, this is not some cruel joke. I've a feeling your gods will have felt a disturbance in their passing. Ask them, if you don't believe me. But don't you realize what this means? If the very incarnation of your Fates have died, that means that the fate you were once bound to is no more! Ragnarok is cancelled, my friends! You all no longer have the apocalypse to fight for. You can go home! Live lives free from all of that. Consider this an early Christmas present to you all. I only ask this, that you do nothing to stop us from slaughtering the beings that built that gilded cage around you."

"As of now," May continued, "the area around you will be surrounded by trucks of magicians that will soon disable your protective wards. To prove that I am to be taken very seriously…I shall also send you the head of your favorite hero straight to your door."

She raised her axe right above Magnus's neck.

"Farewell, Magnus Chase." May raised her axe above her head, and as Alex screamed his name, Magnus closed his eyes. He whispered a small prayer to the goddess Hel as he awaited the final blow.

Suddenly, the front door flew right off its hinge, knocking back two uniformed henchmen and ramming straight into May. She flew right through the image of Hotel Valhalla, and it disappeared back into air.

Every magician turned to the entrance, and there, surrounded by blue energetic light, stood none other than...

"Hearthstone?" Magnus exclaimed.

Quick as lightning, Hearthstone threw various spells at the other magicians in the room. Some of them were blocked by shields of energy they'd conjured just in time, while two were immediately encased in ice.

Immediately, Mallory grabbed her knives from the floor and stabbed one of the magicians in the crotch, leaping to another before he can even react. Halfborn also immediately leapt into action, moving with such speed that he knocked down three magicians at once. Blitzen conjured his harpoon from some magical pocket in his clothing.

Magnus crawled up as quickly as he could after nearly being by death's door, rolling out of the way of a fireball thrown at Hearthstone.

"Stop them!" May shouted as she slowly got up. She fired a spell back at Hearthstone, who immediately blocked it with a protective shield spell of his own. Soon, the two were locked into a duel of rune magic versus rune magic. Each tried to outmatch the other in skill and power.

One of the magicians raised his staff and pointed it straight at Hearth's head, but was suddenly knocked backward by an enraged Samirah. She jumped into the air, landing a kick to his head, who fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Magnus! He's getting away!" Samirah pointed towards the stairs. Magnus turned to see Andrew just about to reach the second floor.

"Magnus, we've got this!" Mallory yelled as she swung her blade at another magician. Unfortunately, they managed to land a fireball on her arm before dodging one of Halfborn's fists. She grimaced in pain as she quickly tried to pat them away. "Stop him!"

Reluctantly, Magnus ran up the stairs and quickly pulled off his necklace.

"Damn, boss," Jack exclaimed after he had fully formed in Magnus's hands. "What the heck happened to your head?"

Magnus felt around the top of his head. He looked down at his fingers, which were slightly covered with blood. Damn, that lady sure hit hard.

"Not now, Jack." Magnus panted as he ran up the last few steps. "Less talk, more stabbing."

"Sure thing, Maggy-o," replied his trusted friend.

When he reached to the top of the stairs, two other magicians stood in his way. Andrew stood a few feet behind them.

"Andrew!" Magnus shouted. "You're not going anywhere!"

"Kill him!" Andrew cried to the magicians as he ran toward the outdoor deck.

Suddenly, one of the magicians threw his head against the wall. The other magician was momentarily stunned, and seeing his chance, Magnus threw Jack at him. The magician didn't even have time to scream when the blade pierced through his neck, pinning him into the wall.

"Good call." Samirah's form reappeared as she removed her invisibility hijab.

"What are you doing here?" Magnus asked. "Where's everyone else?"

"I figured you needed help." Samirah wiped her forehead, which was covered with sweat. "Alex told me to go, she looked like she was doing fine against the magician she was fighting. Blitz and that lady are still fighting, but Halfborn and Mallory fell taking down the other magicians."

"Dead?" Magnus asked with dread.

"I don't think so," Samirah replied. "But we can't worry about that now. The kids might still be in danger.

Magnus nodded. They quickly ran toward the deck. When they arrived, Andrew was already there. Samirah lifted up into the air, raising her knife. "Andrew, you don't want to do this."

Andrew responded by throwing a purple spell straight at her head, which she dodged easily. She threw her knife straight at his head, just as Magnus threw Jack at his hand. Andrew dodged the knife, but Jack went straight through his forearm. Andrew howled in pain and dropped his staff.

Samirah picked up said staff and used her knee to snap it in two. "You're not going anywhere."

Magnus reached out his hand. Andrew screeched in pain as Jack flew out of his arm, and back into Magnus's hands. Magnus stumbled slightly as he felt some energy left him. He fought it, however, and made his way onto the deck.

All fifteen kids laid motionless on the hardwood planks of the floor, eyes closed and peaceful looking. Samirah touched the neck of one of the younger ones, a sweet girl no older than twelve named Sally.

"Still alive," she noted. Magnus sighed in relief. She turned toward the sound of one of them snoring. "They really are asleep."

"But why?" Magnus turned to Andrew. His wounded arm was bleeding profusely, his skin slowly turning pale. He seems to be biting his lips, as if he's trying not to moan in pain.

"What are you doing here, Andrew?" Magnus asked. "Why the hell are you here?"

Andrew merely smiled. He tossed something small from his unwounded hand into his mouth and bit hard. Before Magnus realized what it was, Andrew was already foaming at the mouth.

"I die in service to the New Order…." His voice started to gargle. "A… free world…no room for the divine. The ideas of the old shall light a path…to the new."

He slumped to the ground and closed his eyes, never to open them again.

Alex had never felt more helpless.

Sure, she'd been on the receiving end of a death blow at least a million times. During her time on the streets, she'd felt her mind and body waste away as she starved, wondering if she would die there too. But there was something about having control of her own body taken from her, being forced to watch helplessly as an enemy cut you to pieces that gave her chills like no other.

"You're giving yourselves an awful lot of trouble now." May raised her axe right above Alex's outstretched arm, its head now engulfed with purple flames.

The fighting had turned the living room into a war zone. A huge crack ran through the hardwood floor from some earth magic. Alex had made sure to take out its caster as soon as possible: he would've made fighting the others harder though he risked harming his own comrades in the process with his power. It was a decision she recognized as one based on instinct, a lack of experience. Was every other magician the same?

"Let her go and you could give yourself a lot less trouble," Blitz warned as he grasped his harpoon, which had snapped in half from the force of a spell. Blood ran down a cut on his chin from a shard of glass that had flown when one of the magicians smashed it with his magic.

"That's a lie." May looked at Mallory's unconscious body nearby. "You know, seeing you all fight, I'm certain now that my decision not to have any of you killed was the right one. You fight like madmen."

"We fight to protect our family for as long as we can." Alex snarled. "Ragnarok only makes that time more meaningful."

"So what meaning do you have any more?" May asked. "The destiny you once knew is gone. What purpose does your training serve now?"

"I'm not buying it," Alex said. "You can't possibly expect us to believe that killing the Norns would really stop Ragnarok from ever happening. It couldn't have been that easy."

"Oh, but it was," May said. "Destroying the very embodiment of your fates itself…shouldn't that mean that any prophecies about your kind are vanquished too? That's the saddest part of it all. The fact that ending this world really isn't too difficult once the secrets are loose."

Alex didn't know what to say. If Ragnarok really was canceled, then there really wasn't any purpose that she needed to be alive or any of the others. For the first time, the years of fighting, dying, to fight didn't guarantee much. Killing three of the most powerful goddesses shouldn't have been easy…so what chance could the others have?

No, she decided. The helplessness, the fear… all of it she'd survived, even thrived. She would survive this too. Somehow.

Hearthstone panted hard as if he had just run a marathon. She had never seen him look so tired, even during their quest for the Ship of the Dead. Blitz looked exhausted. And yet, their opponent didn't seem to be breaking a sweat.

Hearth slowly raised his hands. Once I get you free, get to the others and go, he signed.

Me and Hearth will delay her for you, Blitz signed as well. Hearth's going to need the help if you're going to have a chance.

"Is that sign language?" May asked. "You trying to sneak something by me?"

She would shake her head if she could actually do so. She couldn't bear the idea of running from a fight! But she knew she couldn't die fighting either. It was the only option they could consider.

With reluctance, she mouthed back, Do it . Hearth turned to Blitz, who nodded in understanding.

He threw his harpoon right at May's head. As she blocked it, Hearth tossed a spell right at Alex, who immediately collapsed as she was freed.

"No!" May screamed. She pointed her axe at Blitz, shouting something that caused a streak of red light to erupt from the tip. It hit Blitz square in the chest, and he flew back into the wall and crumpled onto the ground, unmoving.

Alex didn't even look back as she dashed toward the stairs. She knew that Hearth couldn't hold out for long. She quickly turned herself into an eagle, flying up towards the room where the deck was. In what felt like moments, she landed on the deck's floor and transformed back, gasping for air as she's surrounded by the unmoving bodies of the other kids.

"Are the kids-"

"They're fine," Magnus said. "It looks like they're just sleeping."

She noticed Andrew's unmoving, blood covered form. "Is he-"

"Dead? Yeah." Magnus sighed. "What about the others?…"

"They told me to run. Mallory and Halfborn managed to take out two, but that lady, May…she's something else. We have to go, now ."

"We can't just leave them behind," Samirah said.

"We can't take her on." Alex admitted. "She's too strong for even all of us. If she can beat Hearthstone in Rune magic, what chance do you think we have?"

A distant bang erupted from somewhere back in the house.

"You can't hide for long, Magnus Chase!" May yelled from somewhere back in the house. "Your friends are still alive…I've only been ordered to kill you, you know!"

Magnus looked down at his sword. "Jack? Distract her for me. Kill her if you can, but once we're out of sight, come back to me."

"Right o, sir."

He instantly flew out the door. Samirah grabbed Magnus's wrist and lifted off the ground, pulling him up close to her.

"Lead the way, Alex."

Alex quickly shifted back into her eagle form. Fighting the exhaustion already overwhelming her, she flew off the deck and into the air, knowing they would follow.

Alex chose to head toward Boston Commons. It was far enough that she believed they wouldn't be easily followed. She landed right on a bench and transformed back. Samirah and Magnus arrived moments later.

"Who the heck are those people?" Alex asked. "That can't have been all legit."

"I doubt it," Samirah replied as she took the time to catch her breath. "The way everyone reacted…that was real."

"We need to get to the hotel," Magnus said. "We need to warn them, tell them what exactly they're up against. I don't care how, we can't just abandon them."

"Wait a moment." Alex realized something else was missing. "Where's Jack?"

Magnus's eyes widened. He looked up at the trees as if he expected Jack to fly back any second.

"He should be here by now," he said. "I told him to come…he can't have been…"

"I'm afraid there's nothing you can do about your sword now, nephew." A familiar female voice spoke from behind Alex.

She turned. The familiar, glowing form of the Goddess Freya had appeared behind them. However, her body looked semi-transparent, like a hologram, and flickered as if she were transmitting her image with a faulty connection.

"You must have many questions," she began. "But my time is limited. I'll try to keep this brief. Hotel Valhalla is no longer safe to return."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked. "How? Hotel Valhalla is the safest place we can be!"

"Because it is under siege." Freya waved her hand and out of the air a shimmering image appears. Hotel Valhalla had been surrounded by about twenty vans. Among those vans stood dozens of monsters Alex had never seen before; seal like creatures that snarled, women with each a furry leg and one made out of gold... a menagerie of strange creatures Alex could not name.

"What's happening?" Samirah said. "Why are the monsters trying to get in? How can they get in?"

"It appears that your fellow einherji are holding them off for now." The image flickered, as did Freya herself. "My power grows weak, no thanks to my prison."

"Prison?" Magnus said. "Are you asking us to rescue you? What about Hotel Valhalla? What about the other gods?"

Freya suddenly grimaced as if she were overcome by a stomachache. "I will find a way to contact you again somehow. First, you must go find more allies to aid you. As for the gods, this threat is beyond even the extent of our reach, which is why you must journey forth and gather allies at a place no einherji has gone before."

"And that is?"

Freya's form flickered again as she winced. Her voice also sounded distorted, like it was coming from a faulty radio, but Alex was still able to make out what she had said. Three words Alex never expected to hear coming from the goddess.

"Camp Half-Blood."

May let the flour-like ash that was once the legendary Sword of Summer sift through her hands as she scanned the area around her. She'd already searched the upper floors to confirm that of the seven that had accompanied her on the objective, three were dead, and the other four gravely injured…today had been a damned brutal mess.

The sword hadn't been too difficult to deal with, though she cursed herself for not removing it herself and destroying it earlier. Even a legendary godly weapon was no match for her newly learned powers. She would have to thank the others when they met up again.

However, it was quite pitiful that her magicians turned out to be so unprepared that they would be easily beaten by a bunch of teenagers. Well trained, exceptionally skilled teenagers, but teenagers nonetheless.

She looked at the clock on the wall across from her, one of the few items in the living room that had emerged from the earlier skirmish unscathed. It's almost nine. Although she had failed in completing the first objective, they could afford to let Chase and the others escape. They wouldn't have many other places to hide, not with the Hotel surrounded.

She stared down at the peaceful faces of the Norns, their bodies undisturbed from the destruction around them. Why the Sisters had surrendered so easily, had barely even put up much of a fight continued haunted her. Why the others didn't care so much bothered her even more.

Still, she continued to put her utmost trust in them. They had helped heal her, were there to help when she finally had the chance mourned her son…her sweet, sweet baby boy, with her, and opened her eyes to possibilities and powers that she never knew she had within her. Things that Hermes himself never bothered to tell her.

Fury surged within her when she thought of him, even though she could barely remember his stupidly handsome face. Though whenever she remembered Luke, she could recognize him in her son's features as well.

My child, she thought, clenching her fists. I will bring justice for the both of us.

It didn't matter if today hadn't gone quite as planned. One way or another, nothing was going to stop May Castellan from having her revenge.