Eleven Months Ago (Asgardian Calendar)

Two large ravens flew through the dark cave. The narrow passage was too short for a person to stand, but the birds navigated it well enough. Twisting and turning, their wingtips brushed the jagged sides in the narrowest portions as they made their way toward the light. When they burst out into the bright afternoon sunlight of the Asgardian Realm, their wings angled in the direction of the glittering city visible in the distance.

Blue-black feathers shone as the ravens soared on air currents above the towering redwoods covering the mountains down to the lake. Swooping to fly parallel with the waves lapping at the shore's pebbled edge, the birds soon passed over cultivated fields with livestock and sturdy redstone cottages. The closer they came to the brightly shining city, the more densely and sleekly built the dwellings, with pathways between and numerous Asgardians going about their daily lives.

 Conversations blended into a murmur of sound as the ravens flew over the city's shield wall, with its defensive towers and vigilant guards in their gleaming white and gold armour. The palace, with its many garden terraces, lay directly ahead, and angling for it, the birds found perches on a tall maple, resting as they watched and listened. Roosting in various terraces around the palace as the sun lowered in the sky, they waited.

Night fell. Cool breezes from the lake blew over the terraces. Fireflies danced above the flowers and carefully tended shrubs, little flashes of light illuminating the darkness.

Still, the birds waited.

The city surrounding the palace grew quiet. Midnight revellers headed home from pubs to sleep off their excesses.

The birds waited.

With nothing but quiet and stillness in the darkest hours of the night, the ravens alighted from their perches and flew into the palace. Only the whisper of air on their wings betrayed their passage as they moved through the halls, descending to the lowest levels deep underground. After coming around the last corner before two guards standing at a barred double set of doors, the birds shifted into two beautiful women, clothed only in their skin.

The guards' mouths dropped open, eyes widening at the unexpected sight that left them too slow to respond to the threat. Faster than they could recover, their throats were slit, blood spraying the dark grey walls as they grabbed at their wounds, before dropping to the floor to gasp and bubble out their last breaths.

Taking on the appearance of one guard, Badb waved a hand at Nemain, disguising her in the image of the other dead man. Nodding to each other without a word said, they sliced off the guards' hands and placed them on the two security pads on either side of the door. The hum of the electrical field invisibly protecting the entrance to the dungeons shut off, and the barred gate retracted. After pushing the doors open, the two elves entered the dark corridor leading to a maze of cell blocks.

At the topmost guard station, they killed the five guards before the men knew they were there. With throats slit, blood spray covered the security screens as the guards fell at the women's feet. Still in the appearance of the dead guard, Badb wiped the pilfered hand across the screens, pulling up each cell block to find the prisoners they sought.

"Of course. The lowest level," she muttered. "Good, we get to kill more of them on our way down."

Nemain grinned. "You always bring me on the finest trips. No wonder we're best friends."

Badb laughed, her expression dark with savage glee as she shifted back to her own appearance encased in black and red fitted body armour. "Help me deactivate the alarms so we don't have to wear their disgusting skins." Working together, the two friends flipped through the security station, shutting down systems.

"Okay, that should be the last of them. Take this ridiculous image off me and let's go kill more Asgardians." Nemain gestured to herself, wrinkling her nose.

Badb gave her a small smirk and removed the illusion. Instead of a brawny Asgardian male, the tall, leanly muscled form of her best friend reappeared. The hilts of her double katana swords peeked out from behind the fall of black and grey striped hair. Black armour hugged her curvaceous torso, while hilts of throwing daggers coated her ribs and forearms. Black boots and leather leggings each had longer daggers strapped to them, showing Nemain for what she was, a lethal Unseelie Goddess of War, Panic, and Fear. She was a nightmare come to life in a beautiful, deadly dance of blades.

"Let's have some fun," Badb agreed, tossing her long black braids behind her.  "And rescue my idiotic husband from his foolish choice in friends."

With light footsteps, the two elves darted down each level of the dungeon, stopping to slaughter the guards on their path. Most never even managed to draw their swords from their scabbards before the women slashed their throats with a gleeful laugh and continued on their way.

Yet despite the blood-splattered scenes left behind, not a single drop landed on the women. Too skilled, they knew exactly where the ruby spray would gush, always stepping out of the way in time to slash the next vulnerable neck.

Moving with a speed that left the guards still dying, the elves descended to the next level. They made short work of the entire complement of guards.

At the lowest level and ignoring the other prisoners, they stood in front of the red shimmering barrier that held Crom and Llew within their cell. After pulling out the detached hand she'd tucked into her belt, Badb placed the palm on the security panel beside the cell, eliminating the lethal force field.

Llew rushed out, wrapping his arms around his wife as Badb lept up and returned his passionate embrace.

"C'mon, you two. You can fuck like rabbits when we are safely out of here," Nemain teased with a glint in her eyes.

Crom snorted, joining her in the passageway. "How are we getting out of Asgard?"

Badb gave a throaty laugh. "I'll take care of you later, my love," she told Llew, writhing her hips against her husband again, making him curse and groan, before she reluctantly dropped her legs from his waist. Turning to face Crom even as Llew pulled her back by the hips to grind against her ass, she snarled, "You are going to make yourself useful and hide us in your mists, so a certain Asgardian can't see us. I can't put an illusion on all of you to shield us from him, nor can I shift both Nemain and you into a raven at the same time." She poked Crom in the chest with a stiff finger. "You better pull this off or we're leaving your old ass here. This is your fault in the first place!"

Crom's upper lip pulled into a sneer under his scraggly white beard, but the corridor rapidly filled with mist as he grumbled. Moving with the silent deadly speed of an airborne toxin, they ascended the levels of the dungeon and out into the quiet halls of the palace, then to the terraced gardens. Like ancestor wraiths, they glided through the darkened streets to the city's wall. After shifting herself and Nemain to ravens, with Llew taking his own raven form, and Crom gathering mists around him to lift himself over the wall, they escaped the city as alarms rang in the palace and shattered the stillness of the night.

By the time the sun lightened the sky on the horizon, the elves had reached the giant trees of Mimameidr Woods. Resting amongst the ancient trunks with Crom's cloaking mist surrounding them, they resumed their normal forms.

"Danu's tits, I thought we'd have more time before they discovered our presence," Badb cursed. Fist clenched, she pounded one of the nearby trees.

Nemain patted Badb's shoulder. "Either way, as long as we're careful, they shouldn't find us."

"How far are we to the exit point?" Llew asked. He surveyed the massive redwood trees, similar to their Elven forests, and the lush green carpet of mosses and ferns covering the forest floor.

"Not far, love. A few more hours. I know you're exhausted and depleted. We can walk from here," Badb reassured him, moving to wrap her arms around him.

Crom snorted and rolled his eyes. "What are we waiting for, then? Let's get out of this cursed realm."

Nemain's eyebrow rose, narrowing her eyes at him as she fingered one of her daggers, then without a word, turned and led the way up the mountain.

After several hours of hiking, they reached the narrow cleft of rock that hid the portal. With another shift into raven form by Badb, Llew, and Nemain, and crawling by Crom to squeeze past the low ceiling, they travelled through the small stone portal that led to a similar cave in Litaui. Shifting back, then blinking in the bright sunlight and cool air, they took in the surrounding snow-capped and emerald green mountain peaks and valleys below covered with cloud. Although it took six hours, it was an easy hike down to where Badb and Nemain had parked a vehicle on an abandoned forest road.

"Aww, damn it. I hate these things, Badb," complained Llew, wrinkling his nose as he waved a pale hand at the silver Toyota 4-Runner with its rusted and chipped paint.

"I know, love, but it would take too long to get to the stone circle otherwise," she said as she gestured to the backseat. "Besides, Nemain will drive, and we can make out like the mortals do to recharge your energies. You are looking gaunt, my love. I won't have you returning home weak."

Eyes lighting, Llew grinned, grabbed Badb, and climbed in.

Crom scowled, the lines in his face deepening to crevices, grumbled under his breath, and slammed the door of the front passenger side while Nemain laughed and took the driver's seat. As they drove down the road, she turned the music up on the radio and sang to the chorus that included slapping skin, gasps, groans, and moans of ecstasy coming from the backseat.

Crom eyed the mating pair, then looked at Nemain.

She raised a dark eyebrow. "Don't even think it, old man. I like my males with more meat on their bones and wouldn't touch your scrawny, wrinkled self even if you are a former fertility god. Reach towards me and you'll lose your hand... or your cock."

Crom crossed his thin arms and stared out the window at the passing fog-covered coniferous forest that soon turned into rain-soaked city.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Seattle. We're using the circle in the underground part of downtown that you've been harvesting from," Nemain said.

Crom nodded.

Except for the continued sounds of sex from the backseat, the rest of the ride progressed in relative silence. After parking in the seemingly abandoned building Gwydion had purchased for the Winter Court, the four elves descended to the stone circle hidden in the basement. Nemain activated the portal, and passing through to Tír na nÓg and the mountains of the Winter Realm, they returned to the Unseelie court.

Queen Mene rose from her throne of black branches, smiling at her twin's arrival. "Everything proceeded according to plan, then?" she asked, embracing Badb.

"Yes, you'd thought of everything. We had no difficulties." Badb smiled at Llew as he moved off to speak to others in the court.

Nemain and Badb described their success in detail, and over drinks and food in the Queen's antechamber glade off the main court, the conversations swirled between the three of them in laughter. In excellent spirits after sharing the meal with her best friend and sister, Badb left them to seek her husband. When she spotted him leaving the court to head down one of the forest pathways, she followed. Her jaw tightened, teeth grinding when she saw him meet up with that old fool, Crom. Would he never learn?

"So the little bitch that's caused all our troubles still hasn't been found?" Llew snarled as he walked beside Crom.

"No, but our spies with the searching parties say the princes are looking in the seas, expecting her to show up in the Ocean of Ceobhran. That puts her on our shores. We could get to her first," Crom suggested, a devious smile on his craggy face.

Llew smiled, his eyes alight with cruelty. "Well then, what are we waiting for? I'll call the Hunt and we can run her to ground."

"She's pregnant. She's my prey," Crom demanded, grabbing Llew's forearm.

Llew laughed, lips twisted in amusement. "Oh, you can have her, but only when I'm done with her. The little slut will be well trained by the time I'm finished breaking her in. Assuming she survives. I want her brat, too. We'll raise the kid to hate Asgard, then watch the mayhem when we unleash him against the royal family. We've already deprived Odin of one grandson. He'll never forgive Baldur's son for his treachery. We'll keep destroying them from within. It's perfect symmetry—their sons for mine—and a far more gratifying revenge than simply killing them."

Crom laughed, a dry crackle of sound. "You're right. Taking down Asgard is worth so much more than satisfying my personal desires. I can wait. Do try not to kill her, though."

Llew slapped Crom's gaunt shoulder. "No promises. Get your mount."

As they walked along the flagstone pathway through the dark underground forest lit with will-o'-the-wisps, Crom peeled off at an intersection to head towards the massive cavern wall. Llew's eyes turned to red flame, the creatures of the Wild Hunt answering as they each felt his power call to them. Banshees floated in the air, silent wraiths in their black wispy garments, pale translucent skin, red eyes, and blood-red lips. Dullahan, their skeletal headless bodies, sat atop black demon mounts, spine whips coiled in their hands. Mottled grey-brown mountain trolls looked around with their dull beady eyes as their huge feet stomped and shook the ground.

Crom returned astride his huge, black demon stallion with its black, flaming eyes. Cŵn Cyrff, the black hellhounds, arrived with him. Cailleach's hellhounds were fierce, massive creatures, drool dripping from their snarling fangs as they growled. Cŵn Annwn, ghostly white hellhounds, their red ears and red eyes brilliant in contrast to their pale fur, slid in between their dark cousins, silently stalking on eerily silent paws.

"Where are the redcaps?" Crom asked, looking around.

"They're coming. I can sense them approaching. The kelpies will join us on the surface when we get closer to the water," Llew said.

Crom smiled, sinister enjoyment alight on his ancient, white-bearded face. "This is going to be fun."

"Indeed," Llew agreed, his voice dark with anticipation. "Let the hunt begin."

With fists clenched, every muscle vibrating in fury, Badb watched from the shadows as Llew and Crom set off through a portal doorway to the planet's surface. After all she'd done to get her husband back. Well, she wasn't rescuing him a second time. Let Llew and Crom chase their tails, trying to hunt down the Asgardian bitch. If they caught her and could keep from Asgard knowing this time, great. She'd happily help them turn the kid against Asgard.

Yet it wasn't enough. Not nearly enough payback for the deaths of her precious sons at the hands of that cursed Black Prince. Loki needed to suffer and continue to suffer.

Perhaps it was time to call in a deal with those... creatures. Badb shivered in distaste. If they were going to take on Asgard, they'd need allies if she wanted her sister's support. Especially after everything her sister had done to help Badb free Llew from the blighted Asgardians. 

There had to be some way to strike at Loki without causing a war. 

Badb wasn't going to stop until she found it.