Chapter 17 #2
His words caught her completely off guard. Of all the times for clarity to rear its head. Somehow, he understood what had been happening all around him all this time…and he was willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
Anger, hot and spiky, slithered up her spine. There was nothing she hated more than feeling helpless, but this was her papa. Her mind struggled to find a way out. A bargaining chip—something to stop him from letting her papa go.
“You would kill a man when you can’t even wield the hammer’s power?”
Og laughed as though she were some silly girl with crazy notions. “Leave the hammer with me and let me decipher the rest. Drop it, weakling. Drop it at my feet!”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Greer raise his hand, his eyes narrowed as he zapped at Og’s hand with a flash of light, but it did nothing. It didn’t even penetrate his elephant-like skin.
Stepping up behind Dom, he whispered raggedly, “It’s magic I can’t identify, Dom. I can’t damn well pierce it! It’s not the magic you feared, but they’re close to finding it. I can feel it!”
Crap. If they found the magic that could take MC away from her, they were doomed.
But Greer kept trying anyway, grunting as he shot fireball after fireball, wave after wave of glimmering spikes of magic at Og’s legs.
Yet, to no avail. Nothing was helping.
MC vibrated in her hand, as though he were trying to convey something to her, but she didn’t know what. “Wanna chime in here with some advice, buddy?” she whisper-yelled. But he remained silent.
“Drop the hammer, Dominique, or I drop your grandfather!” Og threatened, his anger seething, his voice resonating in her ears with all the terrifying possibilities.
Licking dry lips covered in sprinkles of sand, Dom raced to find a solution. What did she do? How did she stop him? She couldn’t give MC up. The world was at stake. But not in a million years would she let him pitch her grandfather over the edge of that cliff. She’d jump after him first.
Dom resorted to the only thing she could think would sway this gruesome specimen of walking, talking rocks.
She begged.
“Please!” she croaked, her voice cracked and forced from gulping sand, her words tripping and stumbling from her mouth.
“Please, don’t do this! I’m sorry I made fun of your name.
I take it back. You don’t want to hurt a helpless old man, do you?
Do you have a father?” Did stacks of rocks have fathers?
“Would you allow him to be treated this way?”
Harvey stepped in front of her, likely attempting to protect her as he placed his large hand behind his back. “Let him go, Og! He’s done nothing to you! Where’s your honor? Your dignity in battle?”
Dom felt like she was on the movie set of The Gladiator or something, with all this talk of honor and battle.
Stavros quite suddenly stopped struggling. Between the distance, her papa looked directly in her eyes as he dangled helplessly, his legs and arms limp. “Don’t give in Shish kabob. Don’t let the bully win! Remember eighth grade? Do the right thing.”
He’d said that once to her when she’d come home crying about a boy named Richard Lincoln, who’d bullied her so much over a seat on the bus, she’d finally let him have it.
But when her papa found out why she was crying, unlike the gentler parenting of today, he’d told her to let him have it right in the kisser.
“Do it, Big Guy! You goon! Let me go!” her papa bellowed, his order ringing out through the dusty air.
Dom’s heart fought its way out of her chest. “No, Papa!”
As sweat poured down her face, as her breathing became ragged and harder to control, MC vibrated in her hand. “Do it, Dominque. Drop me at this lug’s feet. Do it!” he ordered.
Tears fell from her eyes, plopping in wet patches down her chest. “I… I can’t!” How could she risk the safety of the world? The safety of her grandfather?
Harvey held fast, standing in front of her, sheltering her from Og’s simmering rage as MC urgently pressed once more. “Drop me, Dominique! Do it this instant! Trust me!” he whisper-yelled.
“Give me the hammer or watch your grandfather perish right before your very eyes!” Og hollered, loud and booming, intensifying the pressure in her chest until she thought she might explode.
When she hesitated, afraid to make a move, make the wrong move, two things happened at once then.
As if in slow motion, Og began to let the fingers that held her grandfather loosen, one devious threat at a time.
When that registered in Dom’s brain, she screamed, pushing Harvey out of the way and racing toward the edge of the cliff.
Unfortunately, she tripped and fell, adding to the hundred or so scratches and bruises she’d accumulated on this trip to hell.
Her chin scraped the rocky surface, drawing blood that spurt up into her mouth, leaving a coppery taste to linger, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the pain.
Hauling herself upward, Dom brushed her sweat-soaked hair from her face to see her grandfather dangling recklessly by Og’s one last finger.
The second she found herself at the edge of the cliff, Og gave her grandfather a hard shake, resulting in him losing his grip.
As if in slow motion, her grandfather began to fall, and Dom thought of nothing but going after him, pitching herself right over the cliff. As nuts as that sounded, that was her instinct.
She couldn’t have stopped the momentum she’d gained when she ran toward the edge of the cliff even if she’d wanted. She couldn’t catch herself before actually following through on her crazy instinct anyway.
In that brief, terrifying second where her toes clung to the edge of the rocks, Dom knew she’d let everyone down, including the world and, worse, she dropped MC.
As if Og himself had picked the exact spot she’d dropped MC, the hammer fell directly at his feet.
Her last thought was about how she might as well have just handed him over.
“MC!” she cried in horror.
But then there was a roar—a primal howl—well, two howls, actually. One from midair and one from behind her, before she heard, “Dom, no!”
One minute she was free-falling and Nina was swooping up from beneath her, slamming into her as the vampire caught both Dom and her grandfather.
The next, Harvey was grabbing MC by the handle seconds before OG could make a futile attempt to pick it up himself, bellowing, “Thor!” before he pointed the hammer at Og and let ’er rip.
The resulting explosion nearly knocked them over when Nina landed on the cliff, but she managed to hang on to them both and break their fall as the sky cracked with ear-piercing thunder and lightning.
Og howled his anguish before catapulting off the cliff in a cloud of rocks and screams.
Dom crawled across the rocks, reaching for her grandfather who was, of all things, smiling. “You did it, Shish kabob. Good girl!” he said, spitting the dust from his mouth to pat her on the back.
Dom fought a sob, brushing his thick hair away from his face. “I didn’t do it, Papa. Harvey did,” she said, with a weary, tear-filled chuckle.
Nina helped them both off the ground, wrapping her arm around Stavros’s waist before she chucked Dom under the chin. “I think you both fucking did it.”
Dom threw her arms around Nina’s neck. “Thank you. Thank God for you,” she whispered, so grateful.
Greer peered over the vampire’s shoulder with a smile streaked with soot. “I think Nina’s right. It was a combined effort.” He winked at her. “Well done, warrior.”
“Thank you, Greer. Thank you for helping.”
Then she heard Marty and Wanda picking their way through the debris OG had left in his wake, chattering excitedly. “Dom! Well done, you!” They encompassed her in their special brand of hug, their clothes tattered and torn, dusty and streaked with dirt.
But she didn’t deserve this praise. It was all Harvey’s. “It wasn’t me,” she told them, pulling back from their embrace. “It was Harvey. Harvey picked up MC and took out OG.”
Harvey still stood at the edge of the cliff, his hand wrapped around MC’s handle, looking out at the carnage.
Approaching him carefully, she gave him a gentle nudge with an elbow to his ribs. “What’cha got there in your hand, Thor’s weird offspring?”
Harvey did something unexpected. He tipped his head back and laughed before he held up MC, his entire face filled with confusion. “How the hell did that happen?”
She threw her hands up, waving them at him. “I’m not worthy, but apparently you are,” she said, with a chuckle of her own.
“He was always worthy. He simply didn’t know how much until your pending doom was in the offing,” MC said, joy littering his tone. “But you, Dominique? We must offer you our deepest gratitude. You were fierce, madam. Fiery and fierce.”
She tapped his handle. “But I didn’t exactly slay the dragon, buddy. First, I begged that bag of granite, then I dropped you. That wasn’t very warrior-like.”
“Might I remind you, I told you to drop me. I gave you the choice. A way out. A way you refused.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “You’ve come to mean as much to me as my papa, MC. I… I didn’t know what to do.”
MC’s tone was hoarse when he said, “Do know, I reciprocate, Dominique.”
Harvey turned to look at her, brushing a sweaty tendril of hair from her face. “It doesn’t matter now. Og is dead. There’ll be no Fraggle Rock today,” he said with a smile.
She smiled back…then she remembered something. “Does this mean MC is now yours? Because you can wield him?”
He brushed a light kiss over the tip of her nose. “I think so. How does that sit with you?”
She let her head fall back on her shoulders, allowing a ragged breath to escape her lips.
“Oh, thank Odin. I’m exhausted, and I don’t care how sculpted my arms look.
There are plenty of other ways to achieve the same results without having to set things on fire.
Also, I miss cute outfits that aren’t exactly meant for battle, but make a statement. ”
Harvey laughed, pulling her close to him, resting his cheek on the top of her head. “But gods, MC’s right. You were fierce.”
She smiled against his chest. “Can we go home now? It’s hot here. My hair’s never gonna be the same,” she complained.
His laughter rang in her ears. “Let’s do that. Go home.”
As they turned to leave, Robbie appeared with Thor, her arm around his muscled waist.
“Son,” he said softly. “Well done.”
Harvey nodded his head in acknowledgement, but his body was still a bit stiff. “Father. Let’s take some time to talk after you’ve recuperated.”
Dom gave Harvey a nudge to remind him to loosen up and give his father some grace. “That sounds like a plan, boys. Now, before we jettison back to Midgard, I’m Dominique Acosta, temporary God of Thunder. Pleased to meet you.” She held out her hand, allowing Thor to take it.
His eyes roamed over her face, his expression weary and tired, his grip weak. “How can I thank you for saving my people? For keeping Mjolnir safe?”
She gave him a firm handshake and a wide grin. “You don’t thank me. You can thank your son. Now, let’s get this party bus movin’. I don’t know about you, but I need a shower.”
She began to head back the way they came, tugging Harvey along with her.
Looking over her shoulder at the group of people who’d become so dear to her, fighting tears, she quipped, “I gotta tell you, God of Thunder, I don’t know how you did this for centuries. Keeping the peace with these maniacs is hell on a manicure.”
The sound of laughter and weary chatter rang in her ears as they picked their way back, her heart full of hope for Harvey and his father, and for the new beginnings ahead.