The sound of cars was the first thing I woke up to.
I opened my eyes and found myself sitting on a bench.
“…What?”
I patted myself down, half-expecting my hands to pass straight through me. My body felt… good. The cracking pain and burning heat that had filled my chest before were gone, as if they’d never been there at all.
Laughter drifted through the air. A couple of kids ran in circles near a fountain. An old man shuffled past with two dogs tugging at their leashes. I was sitting in the middle of a wide park, open grass stretching out around me, trees lining the edges in the distance. I followed their tops upward, tracing them to a sky that was bright blue, clear, with no storm anywhere in sight.
It was a perfectly normal day. Normal enough that I might’ve convinced myself it was all a dream, if only—
[Congratulations! Your contract with Order Corp. is now in effect!][May luck be with you!]
I tilted my head left. Then right.
The text stayed exactly where it was, floating just off my vision. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again.
Still there.
The kaleidoscopic light, the whispered offer, all of it was still present in my memory. The bull-man. My rage flooding the rain and bending it to my will. The sound of bone cracking and—
No. No. No.
I could bring them back.
The strange thing had said so. I’ll bring them back. I shook my head hard and forced myself to focus on the text crowding my vision. [Welcome Notice]
Congratulations! You have been selected to run the beta for our Quest Board System. Your standard compensation package has been deducted due to your relocation and healthcare bonuses. You now have access to your own Quest Board. By completing quests, you will receive the listed rewards. Quests are generated based on your encounters. Greater difficulty quests grant proportionally higher rewards.
“Quests,” I muttered. “Like a game?”
I waved my hand, and the board opened. Sitting at the top in crimson was a single quest.
[Bringer of the Age of Man]
Gods walk the land and make playthings of humanity.Slay the old order.Herald the new age.
Reward:[Lord of the End]|Transcendent|
You are the End.
Life and death are yours to decide. Claiming lives and resurrecting the dead can be done with a thought. You may kill that which cannot be killed, and deny even endings written by destiny.
My breath caught hard in my chest.
Mom. Grover.
I could bring them back.
My hands curled into fists, nails biting into my palms. It was a lot to take in, too much all at once, but one line stood out in my head.
Herald the new age.
“What does that even mean?”
There was no answer. Just the distant hum of traffic and the soft noise of the park around me. I pushed the question aside. I could figure it out later.
One last notification waited.
[Quest Achieved! Slay the Minotaur!]I barely registered it.
Because something else clicked into place.
The Minotaur. The one from the Greek legends. The quest had said gods wandered the land, and if the freaking Minotaur was real—
Then the Greek gods were probably real, too.
“I need to kill… a god. Or gods. Plural,” I muttered. “Great.”
Yeah. Sure. Totally doable.
I just had to figure all of this out. I bit my lip, frustration rising. Grover and Mom hadn’t told me anything. The Fates. My dad. Monsters. All of it was suddenly dumped on me, and I was completely in the dark.
“Excuse me, young man. Is it all right if I speak with you?”
I looked up.
Two police officers stood in front of the bench, one man and one woman. Both looked quite worried.
“Uh,” I said. “I mean. Yeah.”
“Are you alright, kid?”
“Peachy,” I said, forcing a smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
The woman crouched slightly, bringing herself to eye level. “Is someone hurting you, son?”
“What?” I glanced down.
My shirt was caked with dried blood and mud. My jeans were torn open along one thigh, fabric hanging by a thread.
Oh.
“Hey,” the man said gently, “why don’t you come down to the station with us for a bit—”
I froze.
I couldn’t get caught. I didn’t know where I was, but I knew exactly how this played out. A troubled kid with no paperwork equals phone calls.
That means I either get stuck in the system or, worse, get sent back to Gabe.
And if monsters were real, who knew how many were out there? The freaking police chief could be the minotaur’s cousin for all I know.
“Sure,” I said, pasting on a grin as I stood. “Yeah. That sounds fine.”
They relaxed a fraction as I stepped between them. We started walking.
Then, when both their backs were turned, I sprinted.
“Hey!” one of the officers shouted.
I didn’t look back. I tore across the grass, legs burning as the park rushed toward me. People were everywhere. Kids playing tag. Couples sprawled on blankets. A dog barked as I flew past, its owner shouting something I didn’t catch. I bobbed and weaved, barely missing a kid who dropped his sandwich when I cut in front of him.
“Sorry!”
“Kid!”
The policewoman’s voice chased me, distant but not fading fast enough. The park was flat. Completely, painfully flat. I looked around, and my stomach dropped.
Another pair of uniforms ahead.
“Why are there so many cops in a park?” I hissed.
There was nowhere to hide. A street bordered the grass, and a patrol car was already parked there. People had stopped to stare now, eyes tracking the blood-soaked kid sprinting as his life depended on it. No buildings. Just open grass stretching on and on.
Wait.
The reward!
I reached inward, and the board popped into my face.A soft click and then something inside me changed.Reward:
[Smell the Magic]|Rare|
You can smell magic and mysticism. You can decipher the scents of people to learn more about them from their magic. It slammed into my senses.
My nose burned as scent flooded in, thick and cloying. Mist and smoke. Vanilla and quiet ash layered together so densely that I staggered. It was right in front of me, so strong I nearly tripped over my own feet.
I rubbed my eyes, scanning the park, trying to figure out where the smell was coming from.
Nothing.
Just the center of the park. An open clearing. Sidewalks feeding into an empty plaza.
“Kid!”
I ran straight toward the smell and shut my eyes. I didn’t care what it was. I just needed a way—
“WAH!”
My foot hit something solid. I went down hard, skidding across stone. I scrambled upright and stared behind me.
There was a step.
It was supposed to be an empty clearing. I was sure of it. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and suddenly I was sitting inside a gazebo.
The officers ran up and stopped. They were only a few steps away. Close enough that I could clearly see the woman’s eyes.
Our gazes met.
Then her focus slid past me like I wasn’t there.
“Where’d he go?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Did he jump into—”
They looked around, confused, then jogged off in another direction. I stayed frozen, barely breathing, until their footsteps faded.
I let out a sigh of relief.
“Now, how in the Nine Realms did you get in here?”
A man sat at a table a few feet away, with dirty blond hair and a Red Sox jersey, leaning back in his chair. He was a handsome man, the look only spoiled by several scars set across his face.
“Uh. Sorry for intruding.”
I finally took in my surroundings. Wooden beams overhead. A round table in the center with one chair pulled out. Sunlight filtered through the open sides, but the noise of the park was muted, distant. The air smelled damp, layered with flowers.
“So,” the man said, folding his hands, “how’d you find yourself here?”
The floral scent thickened. I opened my mouth, and words spilled out before I could stop them.
“I was heading to a camp with my mom and my best friend, and then there was this bull monster. The Minotaur, I think, like Mr. Brunner talked about. And then… and then—”
He drifted closer as I talked.
The sweetness grew heavier, cloying. My head started to ache, pressure building behind my eyes. Whatever magic he was using smelled dense and oppressive, like it was sinking straight into my thoughts.
Wait.
Why am I even talking?
I shook my head and stumbled back. “Hey. I’ve seen this in Star Wars! Stop messing with my head.”
He paused. Then he grinned. “You actually resisted my charmspeak! Interesting. Very interesting. A particularly strong one, then.”
“I don’t know what kind of monster you are,” I said, raising my hands and trying to summon that same power from before, “but you don’t want to mess with me.”
It was a bluff. I could feel it. My throat was dry, my head still pounding, and there wasn’t enough water to do what I did before.
“Monster? Me?” The blond man scoffed. “I do wonder what your ilk are teaching you these days. You can’t even recognize your betters.”
Pressure slammed down on me. My knees buckled as if the air itself had turned solid, crushing me in place. I struggled to stay upright, muscles screaming.
Then it vanished.
The man was seated again, relaxed, looking completely ordinary. But something in the back of my mind was screaming that the being in front of me was leagues more dangerous than the Minotaur.
Rationally, I should have run.
But I needed answers.
“I gotta agree, that’s half the problem. My ilk hasn’t taught me crap,” I shot back. I wasn’t much of a talker, but even I could hear the distaste dripping off that word. “So yeah. Sorry. The family never really met expectations. They’re the worst, right?”
“Hmph.” He gave a short giggle and leaned back in his chair, tipping it to a point that looked one bad breath away from falling. “You’re a terrible speaker, boy. Really trying to manipulate me, of all people. Ignorance is truly a blessing.” His smile widened. “But I’m in a good mood, so I’ll humor you. Out with it. You want something, don’t you?”
“Well… as you said, the people around me didn’t exactly give me the whole birds and bees talk about…” I waved my hands helplessly, unable to find the words for all of this.
“Magic, monsters, and gods,” he supplied easily. “You wish to learn the basics of the moonlit world, unknown to humanity.”
“Yeah. Exactly that,” I nodded quickly.
“How much?”
“Huh?”
“What did you expect?” he asked dryly. “That I’d tell you all this for free?”
“Uh…” I patted my pockets. “I’ve got a stick of gum, a pencil, and three dollars?”
He raised an eyebrow. Heat crept up my face as the silence stretched.
“Anything else?” he asked, already bored. “I was expecting someone. If you have nothing else to offer, you should be on your way.”
Panic stirred in my chest. On my way, where? I couldn’t exactly walk into a library and ask for a book on the secret society of gods and monsters. If nobody knew about this stuff, that meant it was hidden from the public. Figuring it out on my own wasn’t happening.
“I’ll help you,” I blurted. “Do you need a job done? I can work part-time. Whatever.”
“Help me with anything?”
“No.” I shook my head quickly. I was desperate, not stupid. Even I knew offering to do anything for a shady guy sounded like the setup to a really bad parable.
Instead of being offended, the blond man nodded. “Very well. I do have an errand. A vermin has settled nearby. Clear it out. Do that, and I’ll give you the primer you need. Deal?”
[Quest Received!]My eyes widened as I saw the notification.“Deal!”
He snapped his fingers.
For the second time that day, space seemed to bend as mist swallowed me up.
—Loki watched his newest amusement vanish into the Mist. He rested his chin in his hand, expression caught somewhere between entertained and curious. He wasn’t sure if the boy was lucky or unlucky to stumble onto him on one of the rare days he was in a good mood.
“Was that wise?” a voice asked. “You’re already on thin ice with Odin.”
The Mist parted again as his guest stepped into the gazebo. A tall, handsome man in a black coat, hair a wild mix of black and blond, eyes mismatched and sharp with old power. He pulled out a chair, sat across from Loki, and immediately helped himself to the snacks, shoving a handful into his mouth without a second thought.
Anyone else would’ve been gutted and filleted a hundred times over for that.
But arrogance was expected when dealing with dragons.
“Perhaps not,” Loki said lightly, waving it off. “But you’ll have to agree. It’ll be funny.”
His guest snorted. “I sensed potent divinity in that child. Quite the potential in that one. Poseidon won’t simply look away if one of his dies.”
“Let him rage.” Loki shrugged. “It’s not like I did anything wrong. He came to me. He was the one who asked so desperately. The rules are quite clear. I’m in the right.” Loki leaned back, folding his arms. “And it’s not as though he has no chance. I sent him on a perfectly doable task.”
“Sending a child into a drakon’s lair is doable?” the man chuckled.
“Bah.” Loki waved a dismissive hand. “The youth these days could use some toughening up. And if he’s running around Boston, there’s little chance he’s fated for anything truly important.”
He was mildly curious how one of Poseidon’s brats had ended up here at all. For decades now, that trio of Olympian idiots had kept an unusually tight leash on their offspring.
He’d find out later. Assuming the boy survived.
“Enough,” Loki said, tone sharpening just a touch. “Pleasantries aside, have you considered my offer?”
“Khaos Brigade,” Crom Cruach repeated, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “You certainly know how to choose a name.”
He glanced toward the spot where the Mist had swallowed the child. A slow smile crept across his face.
“…Very well. I’ll humor you.”