Free Not My Apocalypse by Devin Harnois Page B

with Arthur in Avalon?”
    “Yes, it’s in Avalon and it’s in Arthur’s tomb but not literally buried with him. It’s in a chamber in his tomb, shoved into a stone like the way he found it when he was a boy.”
    “If it’s stuck in the stone, what good does it do us? And we can’t even get to Avalon, it’s protected.” Fuck, that would be a great place to hide from my father, but no way would they let me in there.
    “We could at least try, unless you have a better idea,” Colin said.
    “How are we even going to fucking get there?” I asked him. It was well-guarded and we couldn’t just waltz in.
    “I can get my mom to take us. We don’t have to tell her why we’re going. We can just say we want to see Arthur’s grave.”
    I shook my head. “She might take the rest of you, but not me.”
    “Sure she will. I’ve talked to her about you, and she knows you love cemeteries and ghosts and stuff. She can give us a tour,” Colin said.
    It sounded crazy, but I have a weakness for crazy plans. I love them. It’s not like we had a better idea, and the ghosts would ask around for us to see if they could find any other weapons that might be able to take on Fenrir.
    So Colin went to ask his mom if he could take all his friends to Avalon, like right now, and the rest of us sat around trying to come up with a better plan and failing.

Chapter 7
    Not only did Brigid show up, the Morrigan came too, and she vouched for me. There was this look on her face, like maybe she knew what we were up to, but she was gonna play along. She’s a battle goddess, but I doubt she wants the whole world to end in war and fire the way Ragnarok goes down. The goddesses took us directly from the cemetery to Avalon. I was so jealous of how easy it was for them. Someday I was going to get that good at teleporting.
    It was like the weirdest field trip ever. Five demigods and two goddesses taking a trip to Avalon to visit Arthur’s tomb. Brigid straight up gave us a tour, complete with a history lesson. Arthur was buried in a huge stone casket carved with his likeness on top. The sculpture depicted him holding Excalibur in his arms. The real thing was in a chamber beyond, stuck in a stone just like Colin had said. He went up to the sword as if to examine it and not too subtly leaned closer and grabbed the handle. He tugged a few times, then gave it one more yank before stepping away, looking embarrassed. “Sorry. I had to try.”
    Brigid waved it off. “I suppose everyone would want to try. It does no harm.”
    “I think you should all try it,” the Morrigan suggested. Yeah, I totally think she was on to us, which gave me some hope that this boneheaded plan might actually work.
    We encouraged Emily to go for it next. She was the only girl and we did a half-joking ladies first, although Colin had already given it a try. It didn’t come out for her either. Then Stefan went and part of me expected it to work. He was the oldest and the most king-like of all of us. But nothing. The sword didn’t even budge. Elliot gave it a try, although he looked like he didn’t want to. We just peer pressured him into it, like we did with most things. After a few tries, he shrugged and stepped away.
    My heart sank. So much for that plan. Everyone looked at me. “What? That’s a sword for a good guy. I’m the son of the fucking devil.”
    “Try it, just for fun,” the Morrigan said. “It’s part of the tour experience.” That was definitely a joke. I tried to imagine her as a teacher in some kind of demigod high school we all went to. Maybe gym class? The thought almost made me laugh.
    “Yeah, everyone else tried,” Emily said. The others agreed, egging me on.
    “Fine, I’ll give it a try.”
    With every step toward the stone, I got more nervous. This really fucking sucked. It was the only idea we had and no one had been able to get Excalibur out of the stone. What the fuck were we supposed to use to fight Fenrir? We had to find something or he