Hellequin Chronicles 4: Prison of Hope

by Steve McHugh

  Cronus fell back onto the ground but was on his feet before Persephone’s stamp reached his head. He punched up with a lava-wrapped fist that Persephone avoided by head-butting him as hard as anyone could possibly be head-butted. Another uppercut to the jaw and Cronus staggered back, blood streaming from his ruined nose. He threw another punch, but Persephone vanished once again, reappearing an instant later at his side. She broke his arm in one fluid movement, stepped around him, and snapped his knee with a vicious kick before driving her own knee into the mask of blood that was his face, as he dropped forward.

  I would have cheered her on, but it was probably inappropriate.

  Cronus threw a plume of fire at Persephone, who was forced to move aside, into a second plume, which engulfed her. Just as I thought that she’d been hurt, she appeared out of the ground, behind Cronus, who caught a punch to the jaw when he realized where she was and turned to look.

  From there it was only a matter of time. Although the magic well was helping him heal quickly, there was no way his body could keep up with the excess of punishment that Persephone was dealing out. A few more punches—her fists wrapped in solid rock—and one particularly nasty kick to his head ended Cronus’s fight.

  Persephone grabbed his legs and dragged him to the edge of the well. He couldn’t be taken out of it while the marks connecting him to it were still on him, so she created a blade of stone in her hand and cut through the runes across his chest. The well spluttered for a second and then vanished.

  I struggled back to my feet as my magic rushed back into me. Several LOA agents placed on a semiconscious Cronus a sorcerer’s band—a small band with runes carved into it designed to stop a person’s access to their abilities, and rigged with magical napalm to go off should anyone try to remove it. Then they transferred him to a spinal board and carried him away. Persephone came over and offered me her hand, which I took.

  “You know I warmed him up for you, yes?” I said with a smile.

  “Oh, heavens, yes,” Persephone said, grinning. “Clearly you did all the hard work. I just stepped in and finished it. A bit like when someone tries to open a jar. You just loosened it up for me.”

  “See? I’m glad we’re in agreement.”

  Persephone kissed me on the forehead. “Are you okay?”

  “Magic is fixing me.” My hand was completely healed, although the rune was still incomplete.

  “I saw what you did with the lightning.”

  I paused, unsure what to say.

  “You need to practice that if you plan on using it again. Using real lightning to power your magic is dangerous. Just like using real magma would be for Cronus.”

  “I know, but I didn’t have an abundance of options.” The idea of practicing with real lightning over and over until I was good at using it was a fairly scary thought. The fact that I could use my magic to call it was more than enough for me at the moment. “Did you kill him?”

  Persephone shook her head and sat on the remains of one of the stones. “No. He’ll live—just not feel too good about it. He always did think women were inferior. Now he’ll remember what happened to him when he mouthed off to one.”

  I sat beside her and watched the scurrying of agents as they moved the deceased Vanguard and arrested those still capable of moving under their own power. “You know we sort of trashed a national monument. We destroyed some ancient stones today.”

  “You do realize that, by their very definition, quite a lot of stones are ancient. As for the destruction—well, I guess that’s a good thing I’m an Earth elemental. I’ll have all of this back together before morning. No one will ever be able to tell the difference between my creation and that done by those crazy druids.”

  “How did you manage to get out of London, by the way?”

  “Turns out someone above Lucie was stopping Hades’s entry, but never thought to stop mine. Shockingly, I got a call just before I landed to say that Hades’s entry was allowed. He was about to join Sky on his way here.”

  “Whoever stopped it figured there was no point in keeping Hades out now that you’d been allowed through.”

  “Someone in Avalon is working against us.”

  “Kay?” I asked.

  Persephone shrugged. “If it was, I’d imagine he’d be a lot less subtle about it. He’s got the subtlety of a . . . well, one of these rocks.”

  Tommy and Olivia came rushing over, both asking how I was at the same time. I explained very nicely that I was fine and that the next time Tommy had the idea to make me jump out of a helicopter, I was going to use him as my parachute.

  “So, what now?” I asked.

  “Now, you rest,” Persephone said. “Because Hades should be on his way, and he’s going to have a million questions.”

  “This still doesn’t make sense,” I said, ignoring her incredibly subtle attempt to make me go lie down somewhere. “It wasn’t Hera blood in the vial; we know that much. She didn’t want Cronus dead, not until he’d tried to kill her so she could finish him herself. So, who benefited from the power when Cronus killed Sarah?”

  “Didn’t Eos mention that Deimos was punished for trying to kill someone in Hera’s employ?” Tommy asked. “Maybe he’s decided to go after the matriarch himself. If he introduced Sarah to Demeter, then he could have been using Sarah as a spy of sorts.”

  “Deimos is a bully and a thug, but he’s not a smart one,” Persephone said. “He’d have tried to blow Hera up or something. Patience isn’t his strong point either.”

  “So, someone else? Maybe one of the other big players working with Hera is making a move?” Olivia suggested.

  “Demeter wouldn’t dare,” Persephone said. “Ares is a momma’s boy through and through. Aphrodite, though, yeah, she’s possible. There are a few others who would take a shot given a chance too.”

  “She always has surrounded herself with the most pleasant of people,” I said as a helicopter came in to land by the visitor center.”

  “How’d you get here, by the way?” I asked Persephone.

  “Helicopter,” she said. “Brutus keeps half a dozen of the things for getting around.”

  “Who owns half a dozen helicopters?” I asked. “Isn’t one enough?”

  “Someone rich enough to own a percentage in pretty much every part of London,” she said. By now, the helicopter had landed, and Hades got out, accompanied by Diana, Sky, and Kasey, who ran the few hundred meters to her parents. Olivia was first to receive a gigantic hug, followed by Tommy.

  “Heartwarming, isn’t it?” Hades said as he reached us.

  “I’m not having kids, Dad,” Sky said with a slight roll of her eyes.

  Hades laughed and kissed his wife. “I hear you helped Nate take down Cronus.” The way he said “helped” made me think he was fully aware of what had happened and was humoring me.

  “He did all the heavy lifting,” Persephone said with a chuckle.

  “Cronus won’t forget that in a hurry,” Diana said.

  “Maybe he’s mellowed with age?” I suggested.

  “It only took him, what, a millennia to get over being beaten in the Titan Wars?” Diana said. “I’m sure a minor skirmish like this will only take a few centuries.”

  “I’ll add him to the list of people who are angry at me,” I said. “How come you’re here, anyway?”

  “I flew the helicopter,” Diana said. “Besides I wanted to say good-bye to my little warrior over there.” She pointed at Kasey, who ran over and gave her a hug.

  “You enjoy yourself?” I asked Kasey.

  She nodded. “I even got to meet Pandora.”

  Olivia glanced at Diana. “Really?”

  “She was perfectly safe,” Diana said. “We did it via Skype.”

  “So, what did she have to tell you?” I asked.

  “I said I’d never been in a helicopter until today, and she told me that maybe Brutus would let Diana take me, Hades, and Sky to mum and dad once Cronus was captured.”

  I paused. “I
t was her idea for all of you to leave Brutus’s building?”

  Kasey nodded. “When I said that Persephone had just left to help, she told me that we should leave too. She said it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see a magic well in action.”

  From somewhere in my mind, something pinged. “The well.”

  Tommy glanced at me. “Eh?”

  “When I asked her how Cronus would get his power back, she went straight to the magic well. She didn’t say anything else; that was her first and only guess.”

  “You think she knew?” Hades asked.

  “Once in a lifetime,” I said. “Those were her exact words. How many people in this world would have said ‘magic well’ if my question had been how do I increase my power? Blood magic, runes, and artifacts; there are lots of other, quieter ways that it can be done. But Cronus was told about the well by whoever set him free. They were going to bring him here and then kill him once he’d finished. What if it was Pandora who told them about it?”

  “If that’s the case,” Diana said, “then I need to get back to Brutus.”

  “I’m coming,” I said.

  “We are too,” Hades said.

  I shook my head. “Hades, if she manages to enthrall Tommy or Sky, I can deal with it. She does the same to you and a lot of people could get hurt. Same goes for Persephone. Everyone’s best served with you two staying here.”

  “I’ll stay with Kasey,” Olivia said. “I need to coordinate all of this anyway.” She kissed Tommy before he ran off with Sky, Diana, and me to get in another helicopter. If nothing else, all this flying about was getting rid of my phobia. Silver linings and all that.

  CHAPTER 36

  We landed on the roof of the building beside Brutus’s tower and quickly made our way down to the lobby of the Aeneid, which appeared no different than it had when we’d last entered.

  “Anything strange happen?” Diana asked one of the guards.

  “No, ma’am,” he said quickly.

  “Brutus on his floor?” she continued.

  “Yes, ma’am, we’ve heard nothing from him to say different.”

  She thanked him and took us toward the lift, ignoring the ones that we’d used before and instead using a small key on a lift at the far end. The doors opened to an identical interior as the other, except a fingerprint and retina scanner replaced the numeric pad.

  After the system confirmed Diana’s identification, she spoke: “Twenty-fourth floor.” The doors closed and we were soon headed up.

  After a second of silence, Diana motioned for us all to move aside, and she used the key to open a compartment in the floor. It contained several handguns, a shotgun, and an MP5, along with an accompaniment of bladed weapons. Diana grabbed the shotgun and a dagger, tucking the sheathed weapon into the belt of her jeans. She opened a small box of shotgun shells and loaded the weapon.

  “You guys take what you need.”

  Sky immediately grabbed two knives, and Tommy the MP5, leaving me with a Glock 19 and a silver dagger. Like Diana, I tucked the dagger in the back of my belt, pulling my T-shirt over it and keeping the gun visible.

  The doors opened, and we were greeted with silence as we moved out of the lift. The floor search was done quickly, with Diana on point, until we found Brutus and Licinius lying on the couch. Brutus was face down, his wounds unknown, but Licinius had two bullet holes in his chest. Blood spatter patterns across the wall indicated they’d been shot and then fallen on the furniture.

  “Brutus is good,” Diana said and pulled him over onto his back. “He’s got a strong pulse. “These are tranquillizer darts, and it’s not his blood.”

  “Licinius’s pulse is weak, but it is there,” Sky said. “Why try to kill him, but not Brutus?”

  “Brutus was nice to her,” I said. “Check the other floors.”

  “And where are you going?”

  “Pandora. She can’t enthrall me; she can you.”

  “And what if the people who shot Licinius are still around?”

  “I don’t plan on letting them shoot me.”

  “And if Pandora has already escaped?”

  “She won’t have,” I told them. “She won’t go until she’s sure she has my attention. I’m one of the few people who can track her without fear of her power. If she’s after Hera and company, she’ll try to persuade me to side with her. If that doesn’t work, she’ll threaten me—tell me she’ll hurt me if I come after her. She’s done it before. She wants people to know why she does the things she does.”

  “You’re counting on a lot,” Tommy said.

  “I know, but I’m certain of it. She’s waiting for someone she can tell her story to. She knew I’d be forced to come back here when she gave everyone the idea to leave here. She didn’t want people I care about in harm’s way. We’ve always had mutual respect. If she hurts my friends, she knows it’d be all over. I’d come after her with everything I have. I’d bury her in a hole so deep the light could never find her. It’s why she always eventually allows herself to get caught, and why, when she’s out, she never hurts people who are innocent. Hope won’t stand for it.”

  “Best of luck then.”

  I left everyone to it and took the lift up to Pandora’s floor, stepping to the side of the doors as they opened and waiting for whatever was about to come. I might have believed that Pandora wouldn’t hurt me, but I wasn’t so sure of the people helping her escape.

  The immediate area outside of the lift was empty, as were the corridors and rooms I walked past. In fact, I wasn’t given any trouble by anyone the entire way to the cell. The doors, normally guarded, were open, and there was no one in sight as I stepped into the cell room.

  Part of the roof of the building had opened, allowing the ferocious wind outside to create a fair bit of noise in the enclosed space. Pandora sat in her library reading. I walked up to the door and knocked.

  Pandora got up, walked over to the door, and opened it without pause. She held no visible weapons and wore a plain black jumper and blue jeans. She was barefoot and didn’t exactly look like someone who was planning to escape anytime soon.

  “How are you, Nathan?” she inquired.

  “I assume you’ll be wanting to escape soon,” I said.

  “Soon, but not just yet. You want to come in for a drink?”

  My magic had cut off the second I’d stepped onto the floor, and although I’d considered using the rune, I wasn’t sure about the effect it would have after my fight with Cronus. Besides, with the gun and knife, and with no one else able to use their abilities either, I was fairly assured of my ability to hold my own for the few seconds it would take for me to draw the rune. It was then I remembered that I didn’t have a pen, or pencil, or—hell—even a piece of chalk. I sighed. It had been a long night, and that one tiny thing I’d overlooked was going to bite me on the ass, I just knew it.

  “I’m good, thanks,” I said, declining her invitation.

  “That’s a shame. Please, come in. We need to talk.”

  “You know, I think that’s a bad idea.”

  Pandora sighed. “Let us spell it out for you. Our people have planted explosives all around this part of London. If you don’t get in here with me in the next ten seconds, we’re going to signal for them to detonate. There are only four or five packages, but how many people do you think that might kill? A hundred? Two? A thousand? It’s quite late, so probably it wouldn’t wreak quite the devastation it could cause earlier in the day, but even so, people will die. Get in here. Now.”

  I did as was asked, and Pandora closed the door behind me. I walked into the library and paused.

  “We haven’t got explosives in here,” Pandora said from behind me. “You’re safe.”

  I sat on the same chair I’d used last time, and Pandora left the room again, returning with two cups and a pot of tea.

  I glanced at the china teacups as she poured the amber tea from the pot into them.

  “Seriously, Nathan?” she asked when she sa
w me stare at the drinks. “We haven’t poisoned them.” She took one of the cups and took a drink. “As you know, we can’t lie to you. Not ever, remember? Drink.”

  I took a sip of the tea and waited for her to begin.

  “Just so we’re all on the same page, the lifts have been locked out of use, and no one is coming for you. We have about ten minutes before we leave, so we figured it was only fair that you got to ask us questions.”

  “Justin Toon, the head guard, he works for you,” I said.

  “Indeed. The entire security staff does. Justin hired them all from someone he knows. We didn’t even need to enthrall them, although occasionally we do so just to ensure loyalty. We don’t know who they are, but they’re very bad people.”

  “Are they Vanguard?”

  “No idea. They were pretty good cannon fodder, though; we can’t say we’re unhappy with their ability to die and leave no one to answer questions.”

  The words of the traitor I’d tortured in Hades’s compound sprung to mind. “Who is their liege?”

  Pandora shrugged. “Not a clue.”

  “You got Sarah to work for you.”

  “We enthralled her. Justin let her in; she had no idea what was happening until it was too late. Had her in my palm for years. She went to Hera’s to spy for Brutus, but she fed us the info we needed. Well, she fed Justin, and he told me. It was our information about how Cronus could escape that she gave to Hera; it was our plan to get Cronus out and have him try to kill Hera so that she could kill him and then claim a stake in Tartarus.

  “Unfortunately for Hera, Sarah was meant to kill Cronus at Stonehenge. That was how you figured out we were involved, yes? We explained about the magic well. It was a gamble, but we’re glad it paid off.”

  My body felt heavy and I couldn’t move, as my eyes started to lose focus.

  “Ah the drugs—excellent. Don’t worry, it’s not lethal. We just needed you to be out of it for this bit. You see, we’ve been lying to you. While we were in Tartarus, we found this book about souls and their use. It’s very interesting, but the gist is that instead of enthralling someone’s mind, we can enthrall his or her soul. It doesn’t register on any psychic scans, and it means that anyone enthralled who breaks free can be enthralled again and again. Unfortunately, we discovered this after our time together, so you can’t be made to do anything. But it does mean that I can lie to you.