Cam hit him again, compounding the damage to his broken face. Cernowain crashed to the ground.

“Fuck.” Cernowain’s words gurgled through the blood he spat out.

“I’m never coming back,” Ana said. She grabbed her bow from the ground and fired, sending an arrow through Cernowain’s leg. Then another through the heart of a boar that had gotten too close. She turned back to Cernowain and shot his other thigh.

“Fuck!” Cernowain glared at her, his gaze as black as the night creeping over the mountains, then disappeared. The boars followed. The rubber band snapped against her skin and she was sure he was gone.

Ana slumped. “Shit. He’ll bring the other gods back.”

Cam ran to her and pulled her against him. She shook all over, feeling colder in her bones than her skin, despite the wind that picked up speed. No matter how hard she sucked the cold air into her lungs, it didn’t seem to fill them.

“Come on,” Cam said, rubbing her arms and pulling her toward the car. “We don’t have long before he can gather enough gods to force you back. He’ll want to heal up before he faces them. We have a few hours at most.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Cam looked at the sky and a frown stretched across his face. “Let’s find Logan before this snow turns the roads to shit and we get stuck.”

She hurried into the car, and Cam engaged the four-wheel drive for the last few miles to what she hoped was Logan Laufeyson’s house. It was slow going, with big fat flakes hitting the windshield and turning the road white.

“What will you say when you meet him?” Cam asked, his eyes intent on the road ahead of them.

“Um—hi, do you want to be a god?” Honestly, she was so freaked out from having seen Cernowain that she’d be proud to be that eloquent.

“Subtle.”

“I’m not exactly at my mental best. And it’s got to be appealing to some people, right?” As long as they didn’t know what Otherworld was really like. She felt a twinge of guilt. But if one were power hungry enough, it would be a decent trade-off.

“To some, sure. I think it’s as good as anything. So long as he doesn’t shoot us on sight. Just lay it all out.”

Not being shot on sight would be good. And she liked the idea of laying it all out. It would ease her conscience. She wanted Logan to agree so badly that she couldn’t imagine it not happening. It was poor logic, but she couldn’t help it. Nervous, she gripped her seat’s arm rest as they rumbled down the drive to the cottage.

“The lights aren’t on,” she said, her gaze darting around the exterior of the cottage. Small, only a couple rooms. No footsteps in the snow. “Are you sure this is it?”

“No. All Fiona said was that it’s a small cottage in the Cairngorm mountains off of the A939, south of the village of Tomintoul. This could be it, or it could be down the road a bit.”

Ana nodded, peering hard into the darkened windows of the cottage as Cam parked in the small drive. He had to be here. He had to.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Cam followed Ana to the door, his eyes alert for any movement in or around the house. Fat snowflakes glinted in the light of the car’s headlights. They stepped onto the stoop, and Cam glanced down at Ana. She nodded, so he knocked. Waited. Knocked again. The wind picked up, and with it the snow.

“This sucks,” Ana said, rubbing her arms.

Cam knocked again, but by now didn’t expect an answer. He glanced behind him to see the drive to the house now blanketed with snow. What had started as fat white flakes had turned into a storm that was whiting out the night.

Ana hopped off the stoop and walked to one of the windows to peer in.

“I think it’s empty,” she said, moving on to the next window.

Fuck. Disappointment dropped Cam’s heart to his feet. As much as he felt like a worthless bastard for abandoning his post in Otherworld, he wanted to stay with Ana far more than he wanted to live out that destiny. He hadn’t realized how much hope he’d had riding on finding Logan Laufeyson and getting him to take Ana’s place.

“Let’s try the back,” he said, and trekked through the snow to the rear of the cottage. It was just as dark on this side, but when he tried the back door, he found it unlocked.

“What do you think?” Ana whispered.

“It’s worth a check to see if we’re in the right place. And we’re not going to get back up that road until this storm lets up.”

“Good. I’m freezing. Let’s go in.”

Tags: Linsey Hall The Mythean Arcana Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net