Lies Ripped Open

by Steve McHugh

  “No, not with Merlin, I’m done with Avalon. I’m finished with this whole place.”

  “Nathan, you can’t . . .”

  “I can, and I will. You need to track down these Reavers and stop them. They’re going to keep killing, and Merlin isn’t bothered about where the souls come from, so long as they keep coming.”

  “I’ll do all I can. Is there anything you need?”

  “Only one thing, to get out of this realm as quickly as this carriage will take me.”

  CHAPTER 32

  Avalon Island, England. Now.

  The helicopter landed a few hours after we’d left the body of Felix in his cavern. Alan had arranged for people to collect both Felix and the dead Reavers, the latter of whom would be disposed of by the various creatures who live in every city and feast on the dead. Felix would be sent wherever he wanted to be buried. The journey had been done in silence. Once Felix had died, I’d taken his soul, and with it his knowledge of the Reavers. I knew names and the occasional face of everyone that Felix had discovered. But the one I wanted to find above all others was Enfield, the man in charge of Kelly Jensen and her band of psychopaths.

  Hendricks, the guard on the island, met us at the landing pad. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a while.

  “Anything to tell us?” I asked when we were far enough away from the noise of the rotors.

  “There’s been no one coming through here. Trust me; they couldn’t arrive without us knowing it.”

  “Thanks for that,” I told him and shook his hand.

  “Do you think any of my people are Reavers?”

  “You got a list of names?”

  Hendricks nodded and passed me a notebook. “I figured it wouldn’t hurt for you to look them over, just in case.”

  I flicked through the pages. “None,” I told him eventually. “You’re clean.”

  “Excellent. I assume you’re going to want to go straight through the realm gate.”

  “Please. Have you spoken to anyone in Camelot?”

  “I spoke to Lucie yesterday. Fiona was doing okay.”

  Alan looked visibly relieved. “Thank you,” he said.

  Hendricks took us all to the realm gate, and wished us luck as we walked through into Albion.

  “I’m going to go see Fiona,” Alan told us. “What about you?”

  “I’d come with you,” I said, “But I need to get changed and have a shower. I can’t turn up to the hospital with bloody clothes. And I imagine the paladins are already going to be on edge when they see me. I’d rather my wardrobe not be a reason for my death.”

  “Go to my place, there’s bound to be something there you can wear.” Alan thought about it. “Shit, I don’t have a key.”

  “I’ll take him,” Remy said. “I live opposite anyway, so it’ll be nice to wash.”

  “What about you, Ellie?” I asked.

  “I’m going to see Olivia and Tommy,” she told us. “I want to know what’s happening with the naming ceremony, and let Olivia know about what happened.”

  “Come find me when you’re done,” I said. “Maybe ask Olivia and all of the LOA to come with her. I think I might need back-up.”

  “You think Merlin is going to handle your meeting badly?” Remy asked.

  “The last time I saw him, I told him to fuck off and punched him in the jaw. I don’t think it’ll go well, no.”

  “You punched Merlin?” Alan asked. “And I thought I had authority problems.”

  “Yeah, well, I can’t imagine a century is enough that it’s going to make him want to see me. It might be worth getting Elaine to come with me too. Although that might make matters even worse. Basically I’m screwed no matter what I do.”

  “You think Felix was right?” Ellie asked. “That you need to see Merlin?”

  “Unfortunately, yeah. Elaine pushed through the destruction of the Reavers last time by telling people they were killing innocent humans. She’d never get away with it again. Too many people would see it as her not doing her job right the first time. She needs Merlin’s backing.”

  “Do you think he’ll give it?”

  “I have no idea. A century is a long time for him to hate Elaine and me.”

  “What happens if he says no?” Remy asked.

  “That’s a bloody good question, and I have no idea.”

  “That’s reassuring,” Alan said. “Now I’m going to see my wife.”

  We all went our separate ways, with only Remy staying with me as we caught one of the cars to the district where he and Fiona and Alan lived. It was considerably colder in the city than it had been when I was last here only a few days earlier. Storms were probably due. It was certainly the time of year for them. Winter in Camelot was a cold, miserable time if you didn’t like snow, or if you were, like Remy, under five feet tall.

  We both stood outside Fiona and Alan’s house and stared at the door. “I know I was only here a few days ago, but it feels like a lifetime.”

  “I know what you mean. I want to go see Fiona, I’m almost itching to. I’d best get washed, and I’ll meet you out here in half an hour. Let’s go get you a key first.”

  We crossed the road and Remy placed his paw against the palm reader next to his front door. The door clicked and I glanced over to my left, where I saw Kelly Jensen.

  There was no time to say anything. I threw up a shield of dense air in between Remy and the front door as an explosion rocked the house. The door was torn apart and thrown at us in a million pieces. I managed to deflect the majority of the blast, but the shockwave hit Remy and me, and flung us back onto the pavement with a heavy thud.

  A bullet struck the side of the pavement about an inch from my head as Kelly Jensen ran toward us. I got back to my feet throwing up another shield to deflect the bullets, until she was out of them. And then she dropped the gun and used her light magic to blind me, before tackling me to the ground.

  Punch after punch landed on my face as I raised my arms to protect myself as best I could. All of a sudden her weight was lifted from my chest accompanied by a grunt of pain from her and a low growl from Remy. My eyes began to readjust and I saw Remy punching Kelly in the back of the head with one hand, while he used his claws to dig into her shoulder and hold on. She scrambled back to her feet and twisted herself, blasting Remy in the chest with her light magic, the smell of burning fur and his scream of pain filling all around me.

  “You’ve ruined everything. But you’re going to die for it,” Kelly said as she took Remy’s sabre and walked over to me, blood trickling down the front of her face from a cut on her forehead.

  I rolled to my feet and lashed out with a plume of flame, which forced Kelly to dodge back, putting distance between us. She launched a blast of light, but I turned away as it lit up the street. When I turned back, I saw her running toward me, the sabre out in front like a lance. I readied a sphere of lightning, but Kelly jumped aside and her wings unfurled from her back, tearing through her blouse. She batted them once and she lifted into the sky. I removed the sphere of lightning from my hand; I couldn’t throw it at people and even if I could have, if I’d missed and hit one of the houses in the street, I’d have done considerable damage to it and maybe anyone inside.

  “We’re at a sort of stalemate here,” I shouted.

  Kelly was ten feet off the ground, still clutching the sabre and still looking mightily pissed off. She threw the sabre at me, which was easily avoided, and then light leapt from her fingertips. The ground burned everywhere the light touched, and my hastily created shield of air did very little to stop the sudden barrage. I was soon tearing off my T-shirt to stop it from burning me when it caught fire.

  “I thought light fae were meant to be nice,” I shouted. “I guess that’s been proven as a myth.”

  “Nice?” Kelly shrieked. “Fuck your nice.” Light began to fill the space in front of her, a huge amount of power that was going to do a lot of damage to whatever it hit.

  “You shouldn’t have involved m
e,” I told her as a tendril of air magic left my hand and snaked toward the sabre that still lay on the road a few feet from me.

  “I’m going to see you burn.”

  Kelly was so bright that she was hard to look at. Remy moved slightly and Kelly’s head snapped toward him. I took the chance and used the air to whip the sabre up to Kelly. She didn’t notice it until the final moment, just before it pierced her ribs, going up toward her heart.

  Kelly’s energy exploded, bathing everything with intense light, which I had to shield my eyes from. A thud soon after signified Kelly dropping to the ground, and when I turned back to her, she was writhing on the floor, cursing the name of pretty much everyone she could think of.

  Remy limped over to her side and grabbed the sabre, pulling it free, and making Kelly shout out. “Silver blade,” he said. “Won’t kill her, will hurt like fuck.”

  “How did you get in here?” I asked Kelly. “You didn’t go through the main realm gate. Hendricks didn’t lie about that.” It dawned on me almost immediately. “There’s a second realm gate in Albion, isn’t there?”

  Kelly smiled, although the pain remained in her eyes.

  “Where is Enfield?”

  “Who?” she asked with mock innocence.

  An explosion from behind made me turn around to see Remy’s house as part of the front wall collapsed.

  “Sorry, Remy.”

  He turned back to Kelly and advanced on her, his claws out. “Where is Enfield?”

  “Probably killing your friends by now,” Kelly said, and had to stop herself from laughing.

  “The hospital,” I cursed. “He’s there isn’t he?”

  Kelly nodded slowly.

  I passed Remy his sabre. “Stay here; get Elaine or someone to come help sort her out. If she fucks around, kill her.”

  “I think I can take a fox,” Kelly said. “Enfield is going to kill you, sorcerer.”

  I smashed a ball of hardened air into the side of her head, which knocked her cold. “Shut up,” I snapped.

  The street was beginning to fill with people leaving their houses. It hadn’t been long since the first explosion, and I noticed that several of those standing around were armed. I didn’t want anyone trying to stop Remy.

  “My name is Nathan Garrett,” I shouted. “You can call me Hellequin.”

  There were murmurs, which I waited to finish.

  “This woman here is Agent Kelly Jensen of the SOA. She’s tried to kill my companion, Remy Roux, another SOA agent, and me. She is a traitor to Avalon and its way of life. If anyone wants to contact Elaine and get her here, that would be very useful. This whole area is about to be crawling with various Avalon officials, but if you want to help before they get here, make sure she doesn’t escape. And make sure no one tries to kill her. If any of you are considering helping her, know this. Once I’m done with her boss, I will come for you. It will not be a nice conversation.”

  People looked from me to the still prone Kelly, who now had the tip of Remy’s sabre at her throat. Several members of the crowd removed phones and began dialing, while others showed their credentials as an agent for one of Avalon’s agencies.

  “You going to be okay?” I shouted to Remy, who gave me the thumbs up. I spoke to several members of the crowd, one of whom passed me his phone so I could talk to one of Elaine’s guards, a man I trusted. They assured me that they would be there within minutes, so I set off toward the hospital hoping for the best. Hoping that Kelly had been lying, but knowing in my heart that I wasn’t going to be that lucky.

  I managed to get one of the cars to take me to the hospital, which was certainly faster than running would have been, although the fact that the car couldn’t speed was more than a little infuriating.

  I almost tore the door off as I left the car, immediately sprinting toward the hospital front entrance, which I barreled through and continued until I’d reached the lifts. The wait for one to arrive and then to take me up to the right floor was agonizing. I considered using my air magic to propel me up the stairwell, but I had no idea what I’d be facing up above. Even so, I felt considerable relief when the doors opened and I stepped out and saw that the guards were still at their station.

  “Has Alan been this way?” I asked.

  “About twenty minutes ago,” he told me.

  I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the guard before setting off toward Fiona’s room. Each of the three checkpoints was manned, and there didn’t appear to be anything untoward happening as I reached the high-security area.

  My confidence fell apart as I moved around the corner to where Fiona’s room was. The half dozen SOA agents outside the room were prone across the floor. I didn’t need to move to each of them to tell that they’d been killed. Blood soaked the hallway floor, with more splatter along the walls. The first agent had stab wounds along with signs that fire magic had been used on him.

  I moved to Fiona’s door and readied a ball of fire as I kicked the door open and stepped inside. Fiona was sitting on the floor beside her bed, her eyes were open, although they looked glassed over, and she was still out of it.

  Alan was being held by the throat up against the far wall, his feet dangling helplessly off the ground. The Faceless who held him in place didn’t even turn to look at me until I’d taken a step toward him.

  “I will kill him if you come any closer,” the Faceless said without emotion.

  “I will kill you if you hurt him,” I said. “Enfield.”

  A chuckle escaped the Faceless’s lips and he dropped Alan to the floor, before removing his mask—the same mask that Kay’s faceless wore—and tossing it aside. “How’d you know?”

  “Kelly said you’d be here.”

  “Is she dead?”

  “She wasn’t when I left.”

  “I do hate to waste talented individuals. So, how are things? You look well.”

  “You’ve been Kay’s Faceless all this time?”

  “Everyone needs a job.”

  “Does Kay know who you are?”

  “Of course, I do,” Kay said from behind me.

  I spun to face him and blocked a punch to my jaw, countering with a kick that hit Kay in the chest and sent him back out of the room. I tried to take a step forward, but couldn’t. Kay walked off down the hallways as my body felt heavy, slow. I dropped to my knees as Enfield came into view, red glyphs adorning his arms.

  “I couldn’t do this back in the nineteenth century, but do you remember when I did this to you back in Tartarus. Knocked you silly and you didn’t even know who I was.”

  My eyes felt heavy, but just before I could pitch forward, Alan tackled Enfield out of the room. The fight was brutal and quick, as Enfield gained the upper hand, before breaking Alan’s arm and smashing his head into the wall. He followed up with a kick to Alan’s head before a blast of air from my hands separated them, and I had to listen as Enfield’s footsteps faded as he ran off, presumably with Kay in tow.

  I got back to my feet, feeling groggy but otherwise uninjured. “You okay, Alan?” I shouted.

  “Fucking dandy,” he said. “You going after them, or what?”

  “Just getting my bearings again.”

  Alan winced as he cradled his arm. “Check on Fiona for me.”

  I knelt beside her and lifted her chin.

  “Nate,” she whispered. She sounded weak and exhausted. “Kay is behind it all. That’s why he attacked me.”

  “He attacked you?”

  “Him and some woman. Don’t know her though.”

  “Was it Kelly Jensen?”

  Fiona shook her head and then slumped forward. I caught her and put her back on the bed.

  “You need to stop Kay and his Faceless,” she said weakly. “They’re going to try and kill Elaine.”

  “I promise I’ll stop them.”

  “Is my husband all right?”

  I glanced behind me as Alan got back to his feet, which involved a lot of swearing. “He’ll be fine. Are you okay?”


  Fiona nodded. “Just go get them.”

  I turned and ran out of the room, reaching the end of the corridor when Alan shouted me back.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked him.

  “Nate, Enfield used his magic to tear into Fiona’s mind while she was dying.”

  “I’ll get him, don’t worry.” I turned and continued running through the hospital, finding each of the security checkpoints empty. It wasn’t until I reached the lobby that I discovered why, when a squad of heavily armed men were all waiting for me as the lift doors opened.

  I was wrestled to the ground and pinned there, while guns were pointed at my head. There was no point in arguing, it would have just made it worse. I only hoped I could sort it out before Kay and Enfield tried to kill Elaine, resulting in even more deaths.

  CHAPTER 33

  Does someone want to let him go?” Lucie asked as she entered the hospital reception.

  “We’ve been given orders by Kay, ma’am,” one of the SOA agents who’d tackled me to the ground said. “He said this man here tried to attack him.”

  “This man here is Hellequin. Now let him go or I’ll make your life a lot less pleasant in future years.” Lucie’s tone practically begged anyone to piss her off more than she already was.

  The agent removed the bonds from my hands.

  “Fiona is awake,” I told Lucie. “Kay and his Faceless attacked both her and Alan. Oh, and his Faceless is Enfield.”

  “The guy who led a group of Reavers who were Jack the Ripper?”

  “The very same asshole. As I tried to explain to these gentlemen several times, they’re going to try and kill Elaine. You need to get people over there.”

  “Already done. Alan grabbed one of the emergency phones upstairs and used it to contact me. I always knew that Kay was crooked, but to go against Avalon.” She paused. “That’s unexpected.”

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “No. I’m angry. Really, really angry. I’ve locked down the entire realm, no one is getting in or out. We’re going to find these sons of bitches, and then I’m going to take great pleasure in kicking them both in their ballsack.” She rubbed her forehead. “But anger later, first let’s find them both.”