A Flicker of Steel

by Steve McHugh

  “So why didn’t you tell us where Hades is?” Kristin snapped.

  “He can’t,” Abaddon said absentmindedly. “There’s a blood curse mark on his back, and it’s linked to a bracelet he’s no longer wearing because you took it from him. He can’t tell you anything, because without them both he genuinely can’t remember anything about it.”

  “So we need to get him a new bracelet,” Kristin said.

  “Doesn’t work like that,” Abaddon assured her. “Needs to be a specific bracelet with the exact runes on it. We’ll just have to find them the hard way.”

  “What about Caleb?” Kristin asked. “Will you be using him to track down Hades and his people?”

  Abaddon nodded. “Eventually, yes. They will come to me first, though. I’ve taken their home. I’ve killed their people. They will want revenge for that. In the meantime, Caleb is safely unconscious in the room at the rear of the jet. We captured him with ease outside of Red Rock. I think he wanted to be caught so that he could get to me.”

  Kristin looked over at the closed wooden door and felt a little uncomfortable having someone like him on the flight, although she didn’t want Abaddon to know that. “Does he know his wife isn’t dead?”

  Elizabeth smiled. “We haven’t spoken, so no. When the time comes, my ex-husband and I will talk, and he will realize exactly what he stands to gain by helping us.”

  “I’m curious about something,” Kristin said. “What actually happened with you? I’ve read the police report. You died when your car left the road at high speed and ploughed into a tree. Nergal was furious because you were meant to be taken alive. Elias checked your pulse and breathing. He said you were dead, and if there’s one thing that Elias was genuinely good at, it’s knowing when someone is dead.”

  “I knew of Elias’ plan,” Abaddon said. “He was going to ram the car off the road, grab both Elizabeth and her new husband, and drag them to face Nergal. The speed limit was just over thirty due to road works in the area, and it was a wet night. Elizabeth’s car was going three times that in an effort to trick Elias into thinking he’d been identified. They chased, and in the wet his car touched hers. The car was never supposed to go into the forest; she was meant to make the bridge, where the car would have lost control and gone over into the water below. I had people down there waiting.

  “When Elias’ car sped across the bridge alone, I knew something had happened, and so I went and found the car. Elizabeth was irrefutably dead. Her chest had been destroyed from the impact. All kinds of things inside her body that would have kept her alive had been torn apart. Immediate hospital care wouldn’t have saved her.”

  “You healed her?”

  “That’s part of it, certainly. I used one of my stored spirits to heal her flesh, and then I reached out and took her spirit. The spirits of the dead hang around for a while before going wherever they go, so I had plenty of time. But there were two problems. One, the longer a spirit is out of the body, the more traumatic it is to put it back in. And two, when a person dies due to a violent act, be it murder or accident, their spirit is somewhat . . . tumultuous. Forcing it back into a body causes more psychological issues. I took her to my home in the eastern mountains of Siberia, where I was searching for blood elves.”

  “And you healed her back to health, and all lived happily ever after?” Kristin asked.

  Abaddon laughed. “While there, it became apparent that the damage the accident had done was going to take more than my healing could offer. She was delirious most of the time, and barely spoke. I bonded her with a spirit scroll, and her body healed in its entirety in only a few days. Unfortunately, it did little for the state of her mind, which was quite fractured after putting several spirits inside of it. She needed time to learn, and she needed time to heal. Time we didn’t have.”

  Kristin looked at Elizabeth, who stared out of the jet window. “What did they do to you?”

  Elizabeth turned to Kristin and smiled. “Harbinger trials.”

  Kristin had heard of the trials before. They were an old Avalon secret. Once someone had reached a sufficient age and level of power, they were allowed to undergo the trials. They were placed in a comatose state and forced to live decades in their minds, while only a few months passed in real time. While comatose, they were made better, their use of their abilities became more powerful and focused, their bodies trained during the night when the mind slept. It was an incredibly dangerous thing to do to someone, even more so when the participant was only human up until a short time before.

  “You’re thinking me cruel for doing it,” Abaddon said, noticing the expression of shock on Kristin’s face.

  “I think Elizabeth is lucky she isn’t sitting in the corner lobotomized.”

  “A fair point,” Abaddon said with a wave of her hand. “It was dangerous, but I had little choice. I enlisted a friend of mine to help maintain the constant psychic link necessary, and we set about molding her into the weapon we needed. She and the spirits lived their lives inside her head, eventually merging with her and forming a whole, and, more importantly, stable personality. She went through ten years of life in a year. It took her a while to get used to life outside of her head again, as it does for everyone who undertakes the trials.”

  “I am Elizabeth Cassidy,” she said. “But I am not the same woman Caleb or my daughter would recognize.”

  “How do you think Caleb is going to react if the truth comes out?”

  Elizabeth shrugged. “I do not care. I was afraid of him when I was married to him, but I knew how important his work was. I knew that Layla would need to be ready to face the enemies that his work would bring. Unfortunately, she has grown into someone who needs to recognize her position in this world and accept that Abaddon is going to win.”

  “And if she doesn’t?” Kristin asked.

  “Then I will kill her,” Elizabeth said. “It’s a mother’s duty to take care of her children, after all.”

  Elizabeth’s cold and detached tone made Kristin shiver inside. It wasn’t a feeling she was used to.

  “I make you uncomfortable,” Elizabeth said.

  Kristin nodded. She saw little point in lying about it. “A little. I’m more curious about how you’re going to break the news to your husband that you’re alive, well, and an umbra working with Abaddon.”

  For the first time since Kristin had met Elizabeth, real emotion showed in her eyes. “I don’t know,” she said. “There was a time when I was unsure how he would react to my appearance. There are memories of me loving him, but there are memories of me hating him too. I’m unsure whether I should kill him or be happy to see him.”

  Abaddon placed the ring that Caleb had been carrying on the table between her and Kristin. “When we found him, he had this in his pocket. I want you to take this to him.”

  Kristin stared at the ring. “What’s the significance of the ring?”

  “When I was reborn, the ring still connected with the old, dead me,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve been wearing this since we took control of Caleb. It should give him the information he needs to realize I’m alive.”

  “And what then?” Kristin asked, looking between Elizabeth and Abaddon. “Because I’m thinking he’s going to want to get to her, and we’re on a jet, thousands of feet in the air. I’d rather he didn’t cause a commotion up here.”

  “There are runes drawn on his chest that render him unconscious,” Jared said. “They take a while to prepare, and they don’t last forever, but he’ll be out for a few hours yet. And he’s wearing a sorcerer’s band. He’s no threat.”

  “You clearly haven’t read his file. Or seen what he did to Cody.”

  “He scares you,” Elizabeth said.

  “Concerns me,” Kristin corrected. “He’s a noted serial killer, with hundreds of victims. He has no qualms about murdering anyone in his way, and that more than likely includes anyone standing between him and you. You want him to work for you, and with you, and hunt people down so you can kill them
, but I’m not sure he’s a work with people kind of person. Nergal never understood that, and I don’t think I did to begin with. But after seeing how he acted with his own daughter, I’m sure there’s no one on this earth who can force him to do anything he doesn’t want to do.”

  “He’ll come around,” Abaddon said.

  “That’s what Nergal said,” Kristin told her, noticing the irritation on Abaddon’s face at being compared to him. “I don’t think he will. He will, however, eventually escape, or try to escape and kill a bunch of people. His file said he killed over a dozen men in the first prison he was put in.”

  “He never tried to escape from jail,” Elizabeth said.

  “He never had reason to. His wife was dead, his kid didn’t give a shit, and he had hundreds of the type of criminals he used to prey on within a few hundred feet. He escaped from his cell a dozen times just to go kill someone, before they finally put him in solitary in a prison designed to minimize his powers.”

  “He’s not your problem,” Abaddon said, making it clear that the conversation about him was over. “We’re going to burn Nergal’s whole operation to the ground.”

  Kristin had to admit she didn’t mind the sound of that.

  “Every last piece of it,” Abaddon confirmed.

  A short time later the jet landed on a runway full of Abaddon’s blood elves fighting Nergal’s loyal defense. Kristin knew for a fact that most of Nergal’s people were highly trained warriors, but they were being easily slaughtered.

  “This is what happens when the attack is a surprise,” Elizabeth said. “We had several hundred blood elves among Nergal’s forces inside the compound just waiting for their chance to butcher Nergal’s people. They spent years together, but the blood elves care little for such things. As soon as I sent word to their commander that we were on our way, they turned on those who had been comrades.”

  “They won’t stay surprised for long,” Kristin pointed out.

  “Long enough to get what we need,” Abaddon told her as the jet door was lowered and the sounds of battle drifted through the opening.

  The pilot came out of the cockpit, explaining that they needed to refuel.

  “I’ll ensure that’s possible,” Abaddon said. “My blood elves will clear the runway of Nergal’s forces so you have time to do what you need.”

  Kristin stepped out of the jet and watched as those loyal to Nergal were cut down.

  “We had to make sure the airfield was ours,” Abaddon said. “The main attack will be much harder, but we’re not here for that.”

  “The umbra,” Kristin said. “They’ll be in this wing of the compound. There’s a door there that will need to be bypassed, along with security.”

  “But you know the codes for such things, yes?” Abaddon asked.

  Kristin was aware that she was only there to help Abaddon get what she wanted from Nergal’s compound. She wondered if Abaddon would have helped her if she wasn’t useful to her plans to destroy her enemy. Probably not, she decided. Kristin looked over at Abaddon and Elizabeth as they spoke in whispers, and she knew that they’d kill her the moment they had a chance, especially once they discovered her clone had failed. That meant Kristin had to figure a way out of this predicament without causing the power of Abaddon to come crashing down on her head.

  She walked with Abaddon, Jared, and Elizabeth into the hangar, ignoring the stench of blood and death that hung around after the short-lived battle. Blood elves approached Abaddon, and Kristin took that moment to walk away down a corridor, creating a clone of herself and leaving her in there as she ducked into an empty room.

  “What are you doing?” Jared called from behind Kristin’s clone. Her eyes were a different color, but Kristin hoped that no one was paying much attention.

  “Checking for survivors,” the clone said.

  “Well, we’re going to the main compound. There are miles and miles of buildings to search, and you know it better than us, so can you leave this to the blood elves?”

  The clone shrugged and followed Jared without complaint. Kristin slipped out of a window and hurried around to the side of the building where she watched Abaddon and her entourage set off toward the main complex a few thousand feet in the distance. The sounds of battle were easily recognizable, and she wondered how the blood elves would do against the majority of Nergal’s forces. It would certainly be a much closer fight.

  When she was certain she’d put enough distance between the two of them, she created a further seven clones and told them to search out enemy placements and relay the information back to her. Something felt wrong about everything that happened.

  After her clones had walked off to fulfill her orders, Kristin ran back across the runway to the jet, discovering two dead members of Abaddon’s crew inside the fuselage and Caleb sitting in one of the chairs with a bottle of vodka and a single glass. He pointed a gun at Kristin and motioned for her to sit down.

  “Me and you, we’re going to have a chat,” he told her.

  “I thought you were unconscious; there’s a rune or something,” she said.

  “The man who put the rune on me worked for Nergal,” Caleb confirmed. “Apparently, he wasn’t thrilled about Abaddon wiping out the people he liked. Or you killing his boss.”

  “Your wife is alive,” she said, taking a seat and placing the ring that Abaddon had given her on the table between them. It wasn’t like she had unlimited options.

  “She’s not my wife,” he told her, raising his hand toward Kristin, showing the lack of sorcerer’s band. “The pilot had the key.”

  Caleb picked the ring up, his eyes turning white for an instant before going back to normal. “Nope. She’s got my wife’s body, but whatever is inside of her is no longer the Elizabeth I knew. They killed her, took her spirit and forced it back into her body. She’s a revenant now, a revenant with the powers of an umbra, and the training of a harbinger.”

  “You heard everything?”

  Caleb stood up and knocked back a vodka. “I also know that Nergal didn’t order your death. I heard Jared talking to the pilots about it.”

  Kristin nodded. She had suspected as much for a few days and had originally been angry with herself for falling for Abaddon’s lies. “I figured as much. She set me up thinking I’d help her.”

  “You tried to kill my daughter.”

  “She got in the way.”

  Caleb nodded. “Because, frankly, I don’t want to waste any more bullets, and you’re probably more useful alive than dead, this is the only time we’ll meet and you don’t die.” He pointed at the two men, both of whom had bullet wounds to the throat. “Shot them when you went into the building. Abaddon is playing you, and me. I’m going to go after her for what she did to Elizabeth.”

  “What am I meant to do?” Kristin asked.

  Caleb motioned toward the seat opposite him. “Sit and don’t get in my way.”

  Once Kristin had sat down, Caleb left the jet. She poured herself a glass of vodka and knocked it back. So many of the people in the compound wanted to kill one another, and most of them were a thorn in Kristin’s side, or could soon become one. Maybe today was going to turn out well, after all.

  26

  Half a dozen black Audi SUVs drove through the State of Texas toward their destination: Nergal’s compound. Unfortunately, the moment that they saw the pillars of smoke coming out of the compound, it became quickly apparent that Abaddon’s forces were already trying to burn the whole place down.

  “You ready?” Chloe asked from beside Layla.

  The SUVs had modified interiors so that two rows of up to three people could face one another in the back. There wasn’t a lot of boot-space, but seeing how everyone was already wearing rune-inscribed combat armor and most were carrying at least one type of weapon, the roomier seating space made more sense.

  Layla nodded. “My father is in there somewhere. Abaddon’s people took him outside of Red Rock and I plan on finding him.”

  “And Jared?
” Remy asked from next to Chloe.

  “We’ll see what happens with that little toad,” she said, gaining a smile from Sky and Diana sitting opposite her.

  The remaining journey was done in silence, until the convoy drove through a pair of ruined gates and halted as gunfire smashed into the side of the reinforced doors. A group of soldiers were firing semi-automatic weapons at them. The glass spiderwebbed from the impact, but didn’t shatter.

  Layla wrapped her power around the door and tore it free from its hinges. She pushed it out in front of them like a shield as everyone got out and huddled behind the SUV next to her. Layla gathered as much power as possible and threw it all into the door as she flung it at the soldiers with terrifying force. The makeshift weapon slammed into them, bowling over anyone who hadn’t moved.

  Several of Hades’ force took the opportunity to deal with the other soldiers, while Layla pointed toward the large number of steps leading up into an almost cathedral-like building at their top. There were no soldiers on the stairs, but there wasn’t anywhere for anyone to hide if some happened to appear.

  Layla, Chloe, Sky, Remy, Diana, Tommy, and Zamek all ran up the stairs as quickly as they could, waiting at the top while a second group, including Irkalla, made the journey to join them. Once the group of over twenty soldiers had gathered at the mouth of the building, Layla wrapped her power around the metal door and threw it into the room beyond.

  “You’re getting good at that,” Remy said as the soldiers entered the room first. There was gunfire, and then a shout of “All clear!” from one of them.

  The rest of the group moved into the room and discovered it had a high ceiling and huge, stained-glass windows.

  “What is the stained glass depicting?” Remy asked.

  “Nergal,” Irkalla said, in a tone that suggested she was less than surprised to see her ex-husband had portrayed himself in stained glass.

  “In that window, he’s a king with his people bowing before him,” Diana said.

  “I know this has probably been said a lot over the centuries,” Remy said, “but he really was a massive bellend, wasn’t he?”