by Steve McHugh
I did as was asked, showing I wasn’t a threat. “I’m Nathan Garrett.”
One of the men walked forward and offered me his hand. The name on his lapel said “West.” “Sorry we weren’t here sooner. The security floor was under attack too.”
A moment of horror dawned on me. “Sky and Cerberus, are they—”
“They managed to subdue the two attackers, although Cerberus was injured in the fight. He’s being healed at the moment,” West said, from behind the black mask, identical to the ones the sorcerer and siphon had been using.
“Your own people were involved in this,” I told him.
He nodded. “It seems some of them let in some outside help. They managed to get some of our gear from the armory. We heard about the concussion grenades. Looks like they were ours. Most of the attackers up top were killed; any survivors ran for it.”
“What about the krampus?”
“It ran off back to the woods. We’ve got people in pursuit. We’ll find it. Everything’s all gone to shit. You can imagine how keen Hades is to get prisoners who can talk to him.”
The image wasn’t a very pleasant one. “Well, there are two up on the floor with the meeting rooms, one unconscious in the control room, and one in the hole over there.” I pointed toward two guards who were dragging the siphon out of the wall; both had removed their masks beforehand. The larger of the two was female, with short hair and an expression that suggested she was not having a good day. “There’s another one, a sorcerer. No idea who he was; he left before the fighting started.”
“We didn’t come across anyone,” the guard said, much to my annoyance. If I’d tried to stop him leaving before I’d drawn the rune on my hand, it would have been the quickest losing fight of my life. But that didn’t mean I had to like his escape.
“He won’t get far,” West said, oblivious of my anger. “What’s that on your hand?”
I glanced at the rune I’d drawn. I still didn’t know where the knowledge had come from, or why it had decided to come to me at that exact moment, but I was glad for it.
“He’s alive,” the female guard by the siphon said, gaining West’s attention, which I was grateful for. She held the siphon under one armpit while her comrade did the same with the opposite arm, dragging the siphon’s feet over the remains of the wall.
The two guards released their prisoner, letting him crash to the debris-littered floor. He’d regressed to his normal size and shape, his dark clothing covered in white and gray dust. There was a dark, raw patch of bleeding skin beneath his torn shirt—whatever energy he’d drawn from the guardian had been used to heal him after I’d plunged the sphere into his chest.
“You okay?” the female guard asked the siphon, who emitted a low groan in reply. The guard moved her MP5 slightly and then smashed its butt into his face, knocking him out.
She glanced up at me and the guard I’d been talking to. “He slipped,” she said.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that’s a well-known hazard,” I replied with a nod. I didn’t care that she’d hit him; I got the feeling he was looking at a lot more of it if he woke up before Hades got a hold of them. But once the siphon was in Hades’s presence, I was sure he’d have preferred to be pistol-whipped all day long. Hell, I imagined he’d have preferred being repeatedly shot with one.
I glanced down at my hands. I’d used lightning. I’d used it without much in the way of trying, something I’d never managed before. I had no idea where the knowledge for the rune on my hand had come from, no idea why I was suddenly able to use lightning magic, but it felt as if I’d unlocked something incredible. And very, very dangerous.
CHAPTER 12
Are you okay?” a clearly upset Sky asked as I exited the underground part of the facility and stepped into the sunlight-bathed courtyard again. It had been nearly an hour since I’d fought the siphon. The team who encountered me wouldn’t let me go until they’d finished their checks, and they insisted I see a doctor, who thankfully said I was mostly uninjured.
“Yeah, I’m good. Gonna feel sore for a bit, but I’ll manage. How’s Cerberus? I heard he got hurt.”
“He’s gone to see a healer. His leg is a bit of a mess, but he should make a full recovery.” Sky sighed and rubbed her temples. “One of the attackers on the security floor stabbed him with a silver dagger. Our own guys did this, Nate. At last count, we killed twenty-six people up here, another nine down below.”
“How many were caught alive?”
“Five, initially.”
“Initially?”
“Two from your fight in the realm gate, one from the security room and the two you and Tommy hurt. One of them managed to grab a guards weapon and was killed in the resulting fight, and the one Tommy hurt is in intensive care. He had his neck broken. He might live, but he’s only an enchanter, so it’s touch and go at the moment. So there are currently three people who are able to give answers.”
“That’s a lot of personnel they’ve managed to lose.”
“Except we don’t know how many there are overall.” Sky rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm. “Why would they do this, Nate?”
I didn’t have any good answers for that question. “We’ll find out.” I glanced around the compound. There wasn’t a lot of activity. “Where is everyone?”
“After we secured the area, we brought the tour group up. They’re in the building by the garage. The dignitaries are with them. Most of the guards are patrolling the facility. Dad is . . . actually, I have no idea. He was talking to several of the dignitaries. They’re not exactly thrilled about what’s happened.”
“Bit too much of a coincidence for my liking,” I said.
“You think this was all planned?” she glanced at me for a second longer. “You look like shit.”
I glanced down at my dusty, ripped T-shirt. My hands had blood on them, although I was pretty sure it wasn’t mine.
“I need to wash my face and change,” I said.
We walked toward the building where the school kids had been placed, and I told her about what had happened in the realm gate control room.
“No one of that sorcerer’s description came up here,” she said when I’d finished. “That would mean that he’s still down there.”
“Possibly. Do you know who escaped yet?”
Sky shook her head. “But even if our people have given them the blueprints and disabled the security, I don’t see how they could have broken to the surface without someone noticing them. It seems crazy to consider it.” She waved her arms around. “There’s nowhere to realistically hide, and I can’t imagine anyone powerful enough to warrant this much trouble being some unrecognizable nobody.”
“So, whoever they let out is still in the facility?”
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t search up here, but they’d have miles of lift shafts to climb up. Could you do that in, what, an hour since the alarm first went off?”
I thought about it. “I wouldn’t feel good afterward, but yeah, I probably could if I was motivated enough. And anyone escaping Tartarus with this much help has got to be motivated.”
Sky was quiet for a few more seconds until the dulcet sounds of Mara Range’s voice broke the silence.
I paused for a moment and glanced at Sky, who sighed, before we both continued on together. The sound of Mara’s voice grew as we rounded a nearby building and spotted her screeching at Hades, who was doing his best to try to calm the situation.
“So, there could be some psychopath running around here trying to kill our children, and you refuse to let us leave!” Mara shouted.
Several armed guards were watching the confrontation with interest, probably trying to decide whether Mara was a threat to Hades, and quickly coming to the conclusion that shooting her would be cathartic, but probably not the best idea on a school trip. Or maybe I was just projecting.
“That’s not what I said, Mrs. Range,” Hades told her, his expression saying that he was in the process of trying very hard to remain cal
m. “I said, we need to search your bus before you can be allowed to leave. If someone has escaped from Tartarus, we can hardly allow them to use your bus as transport, putting you and your children in harm’s way.”
“You will not search witch property,” Mara snapped. “I will not have strangers going through our things and treating us like common criminals.”
Several teachers and children, including Mara’s own daughter, Chloe, had left the building and were watching with a mixture of confused interest and concern. Tommy and Kasey caught my eye, Tommy shrugging his lack of knowledge at the situation as Sky and I made our way toward the row.
Mara saw us approach and raised a long finger in our direction. “You will keep her away from me,” she demanded. “We’ve all heard stories of her volatile nature, and quite frankly I don’t trust her not to try to scalp me.”
Sometimes there are moments when someone says something so offensive that those around them tend to wait, even if only for a nanosecond, for their conscious brain to catch up with what they think they might have heard.
Someone somewhere inhaled sharply, and I glanced aside to find that it was Sky, who had a look of outrage on her face.
I darted forward, grabbing Sky as she made a dash for Mara. “What the fuck did you say?” Sky shouted. “Say it again, you fucking racist bitch!”
“I said she was volatile,” Mara said, helping in exactly zero number of ways, her voice full of self-importance. “You’ll keep her away from me.”
I wasn’t exactly certain what happened next, involving those people who had been watching the events unfold around me, or what Hades said to Mara or vice versa. Keeping Sky from kicking seven shades of shit out of Mara was a full-time job.
“Let me fucking go!” Sky snapped at me, trying to get around me. I released her and, making sure not to touch her at any point, I held my hands out toward her, to keep distance between her and me. If I’d laid a hand on her, I was likely to find it broken a few moments later.
“Sky, you need to calm down,” I told her. “This isn’t helping.”
“It’ll help when I break her smug fucking face. Move out of the fucking way, or lose your balls,” Sky said, her entire body radiating anger.
I sighed and stepped aside, fully aware of Persephone, who had just arrived, and was walking behind Sky.
“Enough,” Persephone snapped. Everyone froze, even Sky, whose gaze never left Mara. Hades had anticipated my moving aside and had walked toward his daughter to intercept her. I knew that there was no chance of Mara getting hurt while Hades was still there; otherwise, I’d have never moved, threats to my manhood or not.
“You are my daughter,” Persephone said as she reached Sky. “You will behave like it.”
Sky’s head dropped forward slightly as she searched the ground for something interesting to look at, before turning around and storming off. Hopefully, to calm down.
Persephone didn’t even stop walking, although Hades certainly stepped aside for his wife, who laid a hand gently on his shoulder before turning to Mara. A little air magic and her words drifted back over to me.
“Get off this compound and don’t ever come back,” Persephone said.
“You can’t evict me like a common thug! I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve had to deal with incompetent—”
Persephone held up her hand, and Mara’s mouth dropped open in shock. I doubted she was used to being shushed. “You have sixty seconds. If you’re still here after that, I’ll lock you and Sky in a room together and come back in an hour. You are a vile, nasty little woman, and I genuinely feel sorry for the lovely girl you call a daughter, who, quite frankly, has been delightful during this entire ordeal. You, on the other hand, have feelings only for yourself. Now leave.”
Mara turned to Hades, who grinned. “I tried to be nice to you,” he said. “I really did. You insulted our daughter. My wife has given you a chance to leave by your own power. I advise you to take it. You won’t get another.”
One of the guards came over and whispered to Hades, although I wasn’t using enough magic to pick up the words.
“Thank you,” Hades told the guard as Persephone walked off and spoke to the children and adults who had witnessed the whole event.
“Your bus has been searched and declared clean,” Hades told Mara.
“How dare you!”
“My dear,” Hades said, leaning slightly closer, “if you ever come within my gaze again, I assure you what I dare will become very apparent. As my wife has said, you are a vile, nasty little woman. Your husband is a very unfortunate man.”
“I am no longer married,” she snapped.
“I assume he’s in hiding,” Hades said, and I had to place a hand over my mouth to stop from laughing.
“Avalon will hear about this,” Mara snapped and turned to walk away.
“Excellent,” Hades called after her. “It will ensure they get a good laugh too.”
I stopped the magic and watched Mara storm back into the building used by the school trip, just as Chloe snuck around to the side of the building. I made my way after her and found her several feet up the nearby cliff, sitting on a ledge, looking down on the forest beyond.
“You mind?” I asked as I reached the cliff face.
“Be my guest,” she said.
I climbed up the cliff ledge, which rose like a stair for about six feet, until I reached the ledge, and then walked along it toward Chloe. “You scaled this pretty quickly,” I said as I sat beside her.
“I like climbing,” she said. “It’s peaceful. A six-foot bit of rock isn’t much of a challenge.”
Chloe was a pretty girl, with light brown hair that fell to her shoulders and big blue eyes. She wore a silver necklace with a pendant on the bottom of it, a small silver version of a short sword that looked a little bit like a gladius.
“Nice necklace,” I said.
She lifted it in one of her small hands and smiled. “My dad got it for me. Mum hates when I wear it around her. But then she hates everything, so fuck her.”
“Aren’t you, what, thirteen?”
“Fourteen,” she corrected. “Why?”
“Because you seem young to be saying things like that about her.”
“I heard what she said to your friend, Sky. She was out of order. She does this all the time.”
“She always been like that?”
“No. When I was little, she was kind. Then she started to change, become more serious about her witchcraft, screaming at dad and me. Then he left. He should have taken me with him.”
“I’m sorry.”
Chloe shrugged, but nothing could disguise the hurt in her voice.
“You got any other family you could stay with? Sounds like maybe your mum isn’t in the best frame of mind at the moment.”
“No one. I spend most of my time at friends’ houses. She doesn’t care.”
“You got a lot of friends?”
“Some,” she said with a small smile. “Kasey and me hang out a lot. She’s cool to be around—smart too. We get in trouble in class for talking. And she’s got a badass for a dad.”
“That she does,” I said with a chuckle. “Tommy’s a good guy. You ever need anything, you can trust him. Or Olivia.”
“I like Kasey’s mum. She’s cool. Even if she is a cop.”
I laughed.
“I don’t know why my mum hates you so much,” Chloe said, stopping any laughter dead.
“Weird that someone would hate me when she only met me the day before and then spent most of that time shouting at me or my friends. But I get that some witches hate sorcerers.”
Chloe shook her head. “No, she hates you. She was furious when she discovered that you were going to be on this trip. She rang some people and demanded that the school remove you from going. She said she’d get Demeter and Hera involved, but the school wouldn’t budge. For weeks, she just seethed that you were going and were going to spoil everything.”
A few weeks before the trip, I�
��d been called to the school to have a conversation with the headmistress and teachers there. She wanted to know if I was a danger to her staff and pupils. She’d been made fully aware of my past as Hellequin, which had surprised me. It was hardly a secret anymore, but the information was taking a long time to trickle back to Avalon and it’s employees. I explained that I had no intention of hurting anyone. She’d already gotten reports from friends of mine in Avalon, including Kasey’s mum, Olivia, so I was allowed to go on the trip. In hindsight, I probably should have fought harder to be told no.
“Spoil what?”
“The trip, I guess. No idea why, though. And then when your room was on the same floor as ours. She didn’t stop screaming at me and anyone else who got near. I ended up staying in Kasey’s room. Kasey said her dad wouldn’t mind.”
“Why was she so angry about me being on the same floor?”
“No idea. She stormed off to one of the other adult witches’ rooms, and I didn’t see her after that except when she’d come in to yell at me about not measuring up and then storm out again.”
“Not measuring up?”
“She thinks I shouldn’t ‘consort with the children of her enemies.’ Her exact words. She thinks Kasey is a bad influence on me. She thinks because she knows that, you’re going to try to twist my mind against her.”
She seems to be doing a good enough job of that all by herself, I thought.
“Can I ask you something?” she said without looking at me.
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Kasey said you made a pact with her to be honest about everything.”
“A few years ago, yeah. I try to be honest with her, and if it’s something I can’t tell her, I explain why. She likes to ask me about my life. She’s got a bit of an interest in history.”
“Can we make the same pact?”
I shook my head. “I made that pact with her because I knew Tommy wouldn’t mind. I can’t say the same for your mum.”
Chloe nodded but looked disappointed.
“I’ll tell you what: today, here and now, I’ll be as honest as I can. What do you want to know?”
