Page 5 of Outcast

“Fucking gods and their bullshit,” she seethed. The skeleton dog rushed to her side, and she bent down, loving on him as she let her anger deflate. “We may as well start our search in this castle.”

“There’s a hallway here,” I said as I led the way past her throne to the illusion wall built behind it. The jutting crystalline walls made it impossible to tell where the hallways branched out. It isolated the throne room and likely kept Hel’s guests confused.

“This place is wild,” she muttered beside me. I reached for her hand, intertwining our fingers in silent support as we made our way to the hallway.

Everything in the castle appeared to be carved from the icy crystals. Yet it wasn’t cold here, as if it were a warm spring day on Earth. This was a realm that defied logic and we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

“I can’t stop feeling guilty. She chose me and I dragged you all into this mess. They’re dead because of me. You’re no longer human, because of me,” she whispered. I stopped walking and pulled her into my arms. She gave herself a moment to break down and cry. I had witnessed only a portion of what she did that night in the courtyard. She already had trauma, and now it was tenfold. “It doesn’t help that Monty and Kol and I had bonds. I didn’t realize how much a part of me they were until they were ripped away. My soul feels... incomplete, and I don’t know if they’re even alive in any form.”

“They’re here somewhere, Harlow. Loki told us as much,” I reassured her. “They’ll likely be just as changed as we are, but they’re here. Kol will regenerate. Monty has to be here somewhere.”

“I was outside the castle, Drake. This realm is huge,” she said, throwing her hands up. Harlow pulled away and glared at me with watery eyes. “There’s no way we can just walk around and randomly find them. It’s a fucking wasteland. And would Hel bother to throw Monty in prison, or would she simply kill him?”

“Look,” I growled, backing her into the wall. “I’m trying to be fucking supportive here, but now is the time to grow the fuck up, Harlow. We’ve suffered, but no one here is going to hand us the answers. Wewillfind them. He’s still alive. You’ll figure out your powers, and we will do what we have to here, but you have to stop this fucking pity party before you get us all killed. And, guess what? Death here? It’s forever, Harlow.”

Her eyes flashed again but she didn’t argue, simply pushed me away and stalked down the hall, opening doors and checking inside before moving on to the next.

We spent the next two hours scouring the castle. Half of it was barren rooms, but we found a huge suite, a lounge, and the servant halls. The more she acquainted herself with her new home, the more she relaxed. It was obvious our lives were forever changed but I meant every word I said.

No one would hand her things here. Not Loki. Not the demons and gargoyles who dwell in these lands. And certainly not Odin.

This was her chance to prove to the universe that she was strong, capable, and it would be stupid of them to underestimate her.

Already she was changing the rules of the afterlife, of Helheim and its leader, and likely the realm itself as she figures things out.

I just hoped it didn’t change her into the same bitter being that Hel had become.

ChapterThree

Hiro

The silence in the room as I stared off with my former host was unsettling. Neither of us knew what to say or feel, at this point. We’d never had the chance to exchange words back and forth in any way other than by journal.

“So, I’m a gargoyle now,” Roman said. His voice was deeper than I’d thought it would be. The husk to his voice more intense, yet it was still similar to mine in tone. This was fucking crazy.

“And I’m... something,” I offered with a nervous laugh. The truth was, I had no clue what I would be, at this point. I looked human and was standing here, in my own body.

“You’re permanent,” Roman said. Those words hit me hard. The one true thing I feared in this life after discovering I was the alter was becoming obsolete, disappearing from existence. Before, I worried Roman would. We were a team, two halves of a whole.

And now we were separate.

“I am,” I said. “And you’ve got fucking wings, Ro.”

His lopsided grin was accented by fangs. He was more of a hybrid gargoyle than full beast. His skin was several shades lighter than theirs but still appeared like stone. He had fangs and wings, but his hands and feet remained humanesque.

Me? I looked the same as I always did. Leaner than I was when we shared, yet I’d always seen myself differently in my head. This was my version. My hair longer and shaggier, shoulders less broad, and features softer. It was as if Loki looked into our heads and turned us into who we truly wanted to be.

Roman struggled with the need to protect. This gave him advantages he didn’t have before. And I? I got to be permanent.

“We have to find Harlow and the others,” I said. “Drake’s bound to be tearing this realm apart.”

“I want to see outside of this place too, but Loki didn’t give us a way out,” Roman pointed out. Our current room was more of a cell. Two beds, an attached bathroom with a shower, and that was about it.

“Loki doesn’t do anything by halves. This is probably his way of making us face this shit,” I muttered. “But how the hell do we wrap our fucking heads around this? We’re two different people. What if Harlow doesn’t like me as I am now? She’s used to me looking like you and now I’m a different person.”

“No you aren’t,” Roman argued. “You’re still the same, just a new body. This is a second chance for us, a way to exist as our own people.”

But that wasn’t the issue. I couldn’t get past the loneliness I was drowning in. That hollow feeling like something was missing. Maybe it was all in my head, we were all crazy, but it felt wrong not to have someone else in my head.

---