Alien god

“Let me go, Skalla,” I choked out, scrabbling at the fingers that threatened to crush my throat. His snout gleamed as he snarled in my face. Though we were cousins, our fathers being brothers, we looked little alike. Skallagrim took after the snouted, scaly Bohnebregg berserkers on his mother’s side, while I had features from my Sio

Unfortunately, I was the smaller of the two of us. Strong, like all stone sky gods were strong, but weaker than my cousin, especially in his fevered rage. My last clash with him had nearly killed me, and I’d spent the stars knew how long slumbering under the sand-battered mountains of another world, trying to regain enough strength to face my cousin again and to bring him here, before the council. I’d finally woken and managed to drag him to Heofonraed through the stone sky door. But we weren’t finished yet.

I need to get him into the hall.

I jerked in Skallagrim’s grasp, my wings trapped and shuddering beneath me, pi

Surely the council must know we are here. We are right outside their gates!

Even beyond the bulk of my cousin’s body, I could see the Eaforswy

Using every bit of strength I had, I smashed my fist upward into Skallagrim’s injured eye. He howled. Silver-white blood, the same colour as my own, poured from the wound. I used that sliver of a moment, his distraction, to loosen his grip around my neck. My wings pushed against the stone of the ground, and before Skallagrim could pin me again, I launched into the air, dragging my cousin up with me.

“I call upon the Council of the Gods to open the gates!” I shouted as my cousin fought me. “You must bind Skallagrim!”

The Eaforswy

And neither did the gates.

“Cursed stars,” I hissed as my grip on Skallagrim faltered. He wrenched away, dark green wings beating hard. His star map lit up the spaces between his scales, golden, like cracking sunlight. The veins of that light webbed over his torso and along the gargantuan spread of his wings, the same way mine did, but gold where my star map was blue. A tumble of tangled black hair whipped around his face as his wings beat mercilessly.

“End your rampage, Skalla,” I rasped, hoping against hope that there was still some shred of sanity in there somewhere. Once, Skalla had been my dearest friend. Once, he had been clever and charismatic, beloved among both his mother’s people and the stone sky gods. I could still see him, beautiful and powerful, a prince gri

But that Skalla was not this Skalla. I did not know the beast before me. The beast who’d already tried to kill me once and who’d smashed his way through untold worlds since then.

A desperate sorrow pierced me when I realized there would be no calling him back from the brink now.

I turned my attention from my cousin, hoping that the gates had opened and cursing murderously to see that they remained closed.

“Open the gates!” I bellowed. I barely got the last word out before Skallagrim caught me in his claws, dragging me back down to the sleek stone below. I beat my wings furiously, trying to remain aloft, knowing that the next time Skallagrim got me beneath him, I’d be doomed.

But it was little use. My beautiful, broken cousin was too strong. He’d kill me and I’d really die this time, bleeding out on the white stone of Heofonraed.

I reached for the shining, carved stone of the gates as Skallagrim’s weight bore me faster and further downward. Pain lanced up my tail, my spine. It felt as if I were being torn in two. My wings pulling me upward with all their strength while Skallagrim clutched at my waist, claws slicing, yanking me back down.

We hit the ground with a terrific smash, landing between the Eaforswy

Why will they not open? I asked myself dizzily as Skallagrim once again seized my throat in his brutal grip. The Council of the Gods was supposed to be open to the petition of any stone sky god who needed help or guidance. And they were the only ones strong enough to restrain a god gone mate-mad.

So why would they not answer me?

I got no reply. Not from the Eaforswy

Until it was gone. I gasped as the pressure at my throat instantly eased. Someone had pulled Skallagrim off of me. Relief mingled with regret swept over me as I forced myself up into a standing position. Relief that the council had finally heeded my calls and opened the gates to help me. And regret at the fact I’d now likely never see my cousin again.

But...

The gates had not been opened.

A lone male restrained Skalla. I could not see him well – he stood behind Skallagrim, and though he was about as tall, Skallagrim was broader, blocking my view. But even so, I recognized the arm looped around Skallagrim’s neck, muscles straining beneath black hide interspersed with the glowing stars and veins of a magma-coloured star map.

Maerwy