by Steve McHugh
“Oh, yes.”
“You see those assholes over the exit? One of whom was the guy who punched you.”
A low growl escaped Ellie’s throat.
“I need you to go show them that they need to move. If you happen to show the man who hit you why such acts are frowned upon, then no one will lose any sleep.”
Ellie didn’t need asking twice. She sprinted toward the group of seven inmates, slamming into the one who’d hit her and tackling him to the ground, before she sat on his chest and punched him in the face so hard that the sound of ruined bones made me wince.
I turned back to Helios, who was already two floors up and running as if he were on fire, which shockingly was what I had planned for him.
“Kill him,” he shouted, pointing down at me.
A large man rushed me, taking a sweep with some sort of makeshift blade. I grabbed his wrist, wrapped his arm in a tendril of air and pushed. The bone broke like it was kindling, splitting through the skin. I wrapped air around my forehead and head-butted him. He didn’t get back up.
A second inmate ran into me from behind, grabbing me around the waist. I set his arms on fire and he immediately let go, at which point I drove a blade of flame into his chest.
“Is that it, Helios? You can send them all after me; sooner or later, I’m going to get you.”
“Nate, how long do we have before Mac dies?” Alan shouted.
“Not long, but Helios has the only working amplifier. I can’t contact Anthony without it.” I glanced up at the windowed box high above. “I can’t risk him just waiting to look out. I won’t be long.”
I reached the first set of stairs, avoiding a punch, and rammed the head of my would-be attacker into the metal railing, knocking him silly. A blast of air sent him spiraling away.
I ran the next few sets of stairs, until I reached the fourth floor. “Helios,” I screamed. “You can’t run.”
Helios stepped out of his cell several down from where I was standing. He had a long claw-like weapon in one hand. He dragged the blades across the concrete between the cells, and it tore through it like it was nothing.
“Not running,” Helios said. “Getting ready to kill you.”
The sounds of inmates banging something solid against the metal railing reverberated throughout the floor.
“My people like a good show.”
“Let’s have it then.”
Helios charged at me, moving faster then I remembered when we’d last fought, dodging a blast of air, and tackling me, taking us both over the banister. We fell toward the ground, and I created a cushion of air beneath me. I hit the ground like a bomb, as the magic I used rushed out, cracking the concrete. My magic had softened the impact, but didn’t completely remove it, and I was still in pain as I rolled to my feet.
Helios had hit the ground feet first, crushing the floor, but seemingly no worse for wear. He stepped out of the hole he’d created and walked toward me.
“I hope you’re really good with that claw,” I said.
“Let’s see.”
He darted forward, dragging the claw up toward my face. I moved in time to avoid being cut in two, but not quick enough to avoid the tips of the four claws as they sliced through my chest.
I struck him in the chest with a blast of air, which threw him back slightly, but didn’t do enough to persuade him to stop. I had to be careful about Mac and Alan, who were close enough to us that Helios could use them to get to me at any time. And using too much powerful magic could leave them in a dangerous position. I needed to get Helios away from them.
Helios ran toward me once more, feinting with his claw and then punching me in the stomach as I avoided the blades. The blow was immense, and caused me to stagger back, trying to suck air back into my lungs. It was more powerful than I could have imagined. Helios had lost his ability to fly and use his fire, or change into his dragon-kin form, but not his ability to inflict pain.
“You had enough?” he asked, but didn’t wait for an answer as he brought the claw down toward my head.
I caught his wrist, moving my head just in time. “No more,” I told him and unleashed an electrical attack that ripped through his body, causing him to scream in pain. I released his arm and created a sphere in my hand, spinning it faster and faster as I poured electricity into it. I placed it against the skin on Helios’s chest and released the magic. It poured all over Helios, tearing into him, burning him, and removing his ability to breathe. I’d used something similar on the troll I’d killed in Avalon, but the one I’d used on Helios wouldn’t kill him. Selene, his sister—and someone I cared for very much—would never forgive me if I tore her brother in half.
I used air magic to keep him tethered in place while the rest of my magic did its job.
“Nate,” Alan called out. “Anthony has opened the door. Remy came back with the lift. We need to go.”
“Be right there,” I told him without looking back.
I removed the magic and saw a bloody and battered Helios. I removed the remains of his claw and threw it aside. “How much do you think these people will follow you now that they’ve seen you be humiliated? You should have just let us be.”
“Nate, we need to go,” Alan called out.
“Are you working for the Reavers?” I asked.
He spat blood onto the floor. “Fuck no. I just wanted to kill you. If the Reavers are back, then your world is going to burn. And you along with it.”
I punched him in the face. He fell back, but I caught hold of his prison fatigues and kept him upright as I drove my fist into his face over and over again, until someone grabbed me around the arm.
I spun to find Alan, standing before me, anger in his eyes. “Enough with this shit, we need to go or Mac will die.”
I nodded and released Helios, pushing him down to the ground. “If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you. Selene be damned, I will tear out your fucking heart.”
I spun on my heel and left the broken prisoner, as hundreds of eyes watched their fallen leader, probably wondering how much they’d like to be in charge.
CHAPTER 22
Remy’s fur looked like he’d crawled through dirt for several miles, the normally red and white replaced with grays and blacks. “Is he going to be okay?” he asked as the lift ascended.
No one answered him. The stab wound in his back wasn’t life-threatening at the moment, but having your throat cut when you’re unable to access your abilities, was a pretty good way of killing anyone, no matter the species.
The lift came to a stop and a medical team rushed in once the doors were open. They lifted Mac onto a gurney and wheeled him out, while the two injured guards were helped toward the medical facilities the prison had.
“He needs access to the ocean,” I told them, and we all rushed down the corridor, toward the building’s exit.
“If we tip him in there, he’ll die from the fall,” one of the medical staff said. “And we don’t have time to winch him down to the ocean.”
I paused. “Warden’s office. The fish tank. Get him in the fish tank.”
It was everyone else’s turn to pause. The warden stood only a few feet away, when I suggested it. “Will it save him?” he asked me.
“I don’t know. But it’s better than letting him die.”
Everyone pushed the gurney off toward the warden’s office. “Just one of you,” one of the medical guys said.
“I’m going,” Ellie said, and they all rushed to try and save Mac’s life.
“What the fuck was wrong with you down there?” Alan asked when we were alone.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said and made my way to the exit.
Alan grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “You had your blinkers on. I get that the Reavers are a personal thing for you, but you ignored the fact that one of your friends is dying, just so you could continue to pound on Helios.”
I opened my mouth to argue and closed it again. “You’re right, sorry. I’m tired
and frustrated and angry. Mac getting hurt, Helios trying to kill us, sort of made me lose my temper.”
“Does anyone know where Livius ran off to?” Remy asked.
In the hurry of getting Mac medical treatment, I’d completely forgotten that Livius must be about somewhere.
“He’s outside, talking to one of the pilots,” a guard told us.
“He’s responsible for this attack,” I said, already running toward the exit. “Get a team to meet us at the helipad.”
I burst through the front doors, and sprinted toward the helipad in the distance. The pilot who’d taken us to the island was prone on the ground as Livius forced the second pilot onto the helicopter. He saw us running and stopped, grabbing hold of the pilot by the throat, and dragging him out of the helicopter. Livius’s arm was a mass of thick hair, and easily three times its normal size. He smiled and with one hand threw the pilot into the helicopter.
I stopped running and found that Alan and Remy were beside me. “You can’t take us all on and win,” I shouted to Livius, using my air magic to carry my words over the roar of the wind.
Livius continued to walk toward us as he changed, first his other arm, then his legs, the hairy muscles tearing through his trousers, finally his upper body and head, until Livius no longer looked even slightly human.
“Ogre,” Remy whispered.
Livius the ogre stood nearly nine feet tall, and weighed probably as much as a small tank, if a tank had hands that could crush steel. Two huge tusks had formed from his teeth, curling up and out, and making sure he could no longer completely close his mouth. His dark green skin—where black hair wasn’t covering it—was cracked and rough. He roared at us. It was easily heard over the din around us.
“Anyone got a really big gun?” Remy asked.
Ogres were slow, cumbersome creatures, but they were also hard to kill and healed almost instantly from any wound they received. They didn’t need to be fast; they just needed to hit you once and that was it. Besides their strength, they just didn’t stop. Ever. Once they were on the hunt, they kept coming, like some horror movie villain that just won’t die.
Livius stepped over the remains of his clothes, the claws on the end of his toes digging into the tarmac surface.
“Over the edge,” Alan said. “It’s our only hope.”
“That’s your plan?” Remy said. “Get him three hundred feet away from where he stands. How are we meant to do that?”
The ogre began walking toward us, each step methodical and full of purpose. It was in no hurry; there was nowhere we could go that it couldn’t follow.
“We split up and run,” I said and turned to sprint off toward the edge of the island.
I glanced back a few seconds later and saw that the ogre had decided to come after me first. I made it to the edge of the island and searched for Remy and Alan, but found only Remy on the other side of the helicopter. Where the hell was Alan?
“Sorcerer first, then fox,” Livius said with a growl. “Leave Alan ’til last. Want to enjoy it.”
“You’re going to work for your meal,” I told him.
“Going to crunch your bones, little sorcerer. Going to suck the marrow from them.” He stopped walking and something approximating a smile crossed its hideous face. “Fee-fi-fo-dead man.”
“That’s giants, you fucking idiot.”
It charged and I dodged aside, rolled, and threw a blast of air at the ogre’s legs. I might as well have been trying to blow down a tree with a feather. It changed direction and came at me once more, and I saw Remy run off to the building, hopefully to get me an armory. Or at least a lot of help.
There was ten feet, at most, between the ogre and me as I readied a sphere of lightning in my hand.
“Come see what this can do,” I taunted him.
The ogre paused. They were hard to kill, but could still be hurt, and having a sphere of magic slammed into it was certainly going to do the latter. Unfortunately, its long arms meant that I couldn’t get close enough to use it without risking losing one of my own.
A crash-like noise rang out all around us. I removed the sphere of lightning as it sounded again, like a massive force of waves slamming into an island. The ogre paused and turned around as a massive tentacle burst out of the water a hundred feet below us and wrapped itself around the ogre. The ogre tried to get away, but the tentacle was covered in suckers and spines, which tore apart the ogre’s flesh as it attempted to escape.
Eventually the ogre vanished over the side of the cliff. I rushed over to look down and saw the giant eyes of an adult kraken staring up at me. It had used the massive rocks at the base of the cliff to drag itself free from the ocean and then reached up, taking the ogre as if it were nothing.
The kraken’s normally red body pulsed green and purple as it opened its mouth, showing the razor sharp beak it used to tear its prey apart.
On another of its tentacles stood Alan, his translucent frame a sign that he was controlling the beast. Alan was a summoner, allied to the water element. He was capable of controlling the massive beasts that lived in the ocean of this world and of other realms. I never really knew how he managed to bring forth things like the kraken, which were extinct in our realm, and he was never all that forthcoming with information.
The kraken brought the no longer struggling ogre closer to Alan, until they were almost touching. Alan’s body became solid once again and he glanced up at me. A moment later both tentacles were extended up toward me. I took an instinctive step back.
“Do you have questions for the ogre?” Alan asked, without emotion.
“Who do you work for?” I asked him.
The ogre glared at me and the kraken tightened its tentacle, causing it to cry out. I’d never heard an ogre even acknowledge that it felt pain before. The idea that Alan could control something so powerful was not a comfortable feeling.
“The Reavers,” the ogre said with a gasp. When he finally spoke, his words tumbled from his mouth, “been here for years. Since just after Alan arrived. I needed to keep tabs on him until it was time to show the world we exist once more. We were under the impression that he knew where Felix was; Felix was always going to be a main target for us. We wanted to kill you, Nathan, but then after we hurt Fiona, Alan told me that it was you who knew of Felix’s whereabouts. I was told to keep an eye on Alan anyway, just in case he was lying.”
“Nate doesn’t know shit,” Alan admitted. “The second you people laid your filthy hands on my wife, I would have burned myself alive rather than tell you anything. I’m the only one who knows where Felix is. I’m going to help Nathan find him, and then we’re going to destroy you Reavers as if you were nothing to us.”
“You’ll never destroy us all. Too powerful. We’ll always be around.”
Alan looked at me. “Any more questions?”
“Who was your contact? Who told you we were coming?”
“SOA agent. Don’t know real name. Just know his voice. He told me that you’d be on your way. He said it didn’t matter anymore. You could both die.”
“Why? Why don’t they need Alan or me to find Felix?”
“They found someone else.”
“Who else knows, Alan?” I asked.
“Just me and . . . Fiona.”
“You told her after all,” I said.
“How can Fiona tell anyone though? Did she wake up?”
The ogre laughed. “I’m just told where I need to go. Doncaster, England. I’m sure there are already people there, searching the city for Felix.”
Alan looked shocked, which quickly morphed to rage. “You still need him?” he asked me.
“No, go nuts.”
“No, no, no,” the ogre screamed over and over again as the tentacle holding him was lowered slowly toward the waiting maw of the kraken. I didn’t need to look over the edge of the cliff to know what the screams signified, but Alan stood at the cliff edge, and didn’t stop watching, not even as the crunching began.
The pri
son went into lock-down almost immediately after the death of the ogre. A squad of guards dressed in heavy armor and armed to the teeth were sent down to level ten. The first time in years, so we were told. The days of allowing the bottom three levels to do as they wished were apparently over.
Helios no longer had his kingdom to run. In fact, from what I was told after, Helios was in even worse shape than he’d been when I’d left him to bleed all over the prison floor. Apparently his old comrades had taken the opportunity to remove him from the hierarchy. He’d probably be back—looking for revenge on those who’d crossed him—once he’d healed up, but that would be a while.
Mac had survived, although he needed to be taken somewhere that was better equipped to deal with his requirements. The Avalon station in Wales, his normal home, would be able to do it. He forced the two medical personnel pushing his gurney toward the waiting helicopter to stop and waved me over.
“Not your fault,” Mac said, his voice was hoarse and sounded exceptionally painful. “Find the Reavers. Stop them.”
I promised him I would and turned back to Alan, Remy, and Ellie, none of whom looked all that happy with what had happened since arriving at the island.
“So, boss, what’s next?” Remy asked. He’d been allowed a shower, getting rid of the grime and dirt that covered his fur.
“You going to help?” I asked Alan.
“They hurt my wife,” he said softly, his anger still easy to hear. “I’m going to find the people who did it and feed them to the largest monster I can summon. We need to go to Doncaster. I can show you where once we get there.”
“What happens if Felix tells us who’s behind everything?” Ellie asked as we all made our way back into the prison building.
“We go find him and kill him,” Alan said.
“And if Felix doesn’t know?” Ellie asked.
“He knows something. We’ll find out how much when we get there,” I said. In truth, I hadn’t considered that Felix wouldn’t know something. The Reavers certainly believed he did, but even if he didn’t, he might know the names of people who were involved in the older version of the group, maybe those would give us a clue where to go next.
