by Steve McHugh
Eos took a drink of water and settled herself, while we remained silent. “Sorry. It’s a raw spot.”
Olivia placed a hand on Eos’s. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I never knew,” I said. “I mean, I knew you had kids—hell, I met them loads of times, but I was told you broke up with their father and you shared time with them. I’m sorry, Eos.”
A low growl emanated from Tommy. “No one should have to go through that.”
Eos smiled. “Thank you, but I’m not done yet. Once Hera realized that threatening our loved ones had the desired effect of getting us to work for her, and with no retort from Avalon or anyone else—which was the reason she’d waited for so long to use them against us—she went after Helios. He’d run off by that point. He had no one he cared about save himself, so Hera had no leverage. But Selene was a different matter. She wasn’t fazed by threats to her or you or her father; she just didn’t care. Then they stopped threatening you with harm and threatened to expose you if she didn’t join their organization. Deimos had Hera force Selene to leave you and marry him. If she ever spoke of the reasons, she would die, and the leverage they had on you would be public knowledge. Not even Merlin could have put that genie back in the bottle.”
“Why are you telling me, then?”
“Because this is the first time I’ve seen you in decades, and I’m sick and tired of living under the rules that bitch placed on me. My children are grown and are powerful in their own right. Now that Cronus is free, I do not think we will be quite as . . . needed by Hera as we were before her plans came to fruition.”
“So what were they going to say about me? That I was Hellequin?”
“Your wife, Jane, was murdered by soldiers,” Eos continued.
“I hope this story has a really good point,” I said slowly, my words coated in anger and pain.
“You found her body,” Eos said, ignoring me. “And then went on a sort of rampage for a year, killing whoever you could until you found those responsible and murdered them all. Then you buried the Hellequin name. It’s a touching story, Nate, and it’s the official story too, from what I can find out. Even Merlin admits to you hunting down and killing your wife’s murderer before moving out to America. And all the while, people are still using your Hellequin name and attributing it to more acts of violence against the evil people who lived at the time. But it’s a lie, isn’t it?”
I thought hard about my answer, and certainly from the expression on Olivia’s face, she expected me to deny everything and tell Eos to go fuck off under a bus or something. “Yes,” I said. “I lied.”
Olivia reacted as if she’d been slapped.
“Jane was murdered, and I did track down her killers and take my vengeance. And Merlin did send me to America to deal with Washington after the Revolution. But I didn’t bury the name Hellequin. I kept using it. I became it.” I’d told Olivia about Jane after Kasey and Tommy had been kidnapped by a maniac seeking revenge. I’d told her that I’d buried the name of Hellequin when I’d killed the man responsible. I’d lied to her.
“What does that mean?” Olivia snapped.
“After Jane’s death, I started to feel resentful toward those who were still alive and using their life to inflict evil on others. So, I removed them.”
“What does that mean?” she repeated.
“I snapped,” I admitted. “I went after people who abused others: rapists, murders, those who hurt innocents. I used the name Hellequin to instill fear wherever I went.”
“Was any of it sanctioned?”
I shook my head. “Humans, sorcerers, people whom Avalon would not have wanted me to kill—I didn’t care. I went after anyone I deemed unworthy of living. I hurt people, a lot of people, in my quest for . . . hell, I don’t really know. For a few years it was fine, but then Merlin started to notice that the Hellequin name was being attributed to a lot of deaths in America.
“Eventually, he sent Tommy to track me down, and Tommy managed to stop me from getting worse. It was at that point that I buried Hellequin, after I’d taken the lives of a few hundred people in sixteen years.”
“So you murdered a large number of evil people, most of them humans?” Olivia asked. “I can see why that would need to stay quiet. I mean if you’d killed a few, even a few dozen, but a few hundred—to do that much damage. That’s some Mordred-level shit.”
“It gets worse. While I was doing these killings, I was still working for Avalon. Still carrying out Avalon duties. And some of the people I killed were members of Avalon or other important groups, although I made sure not to attribute the Hellequin name to those murders.”
Olivia exhaled. “Fuck,” she whispered. “You were acting as an unsanctioned executioner while working the entire time for Avalon. Why haven’t I heard about this before?”
“It was kept quiet. Only a few knew I was Hellequin at the time, so it was easy to brush it off as murders committed by someone with no affinity to anyone. And then, over time, the tales got embellished and the truth got lost somewhere in it all.”
“What you did, that’s exactly what Mordred used to do.”
There was a time, many centuries ago, when Mordred was the darling of Avalon, when he was seen as its protector and was someone I considered a friend. Then he went crazy, murdered a bunch of seemingly random people and attacked Arthur and me, almost killing us both. After the public displays of crazy, we discovered that for decades he’d been murdering people who didn’t fit with his view of right and wrong. I was well aware of how close I’d come to losing myself to the same madness.
“What would have happened if that had become public knowledge?” Eos asked.
“Well, by the time Selene left me, I’d already left Avalon, and the deaths had taken place well over a century ago. Even so, it would have forced Merlin to investigate me and my dealings at the time, including those with George Washington and his new government. Questions would have been asked about whether those I’d killed were in any way people who would have helped create a free America. At the time of the Revolution, a lot of people were throwing their hat into the ring and trying to carve themselves out a piece of territory. Any indication that I stopped that from happening would have had some pretty serious consequences.
“I’d have probably been excommunicated from Avalon as a whole. Merlin might have even decided I was an enemy of the state and sent people after me like he’d done with Mordred.”
“What would happen now?” Tommy asked.
“Avalon would almost certainly deny all knowledge of his actions,” Olivia said. “It would either stir up some deep-seated feelings of anger for people who didn’t get what they wanted after the Revolution, or create questions about whether America was truly a free country or was ruled from the shadows by Merlin without Avalon’s knowledge. Either way, he’d have been thrown under the bus. The friends of those he’d killed might want retribution.”
“Does she have proof?” Tommy asked. “Because anyone who isn’t her ally won’t just rush to believe her. Nate has friends in high places. They’ll back him.”
“She knows that Hellequin and Nate are the same,” Eos told us. “She has for a long time. Not everyone you killed was attributed to Hellequin, but she has a list of people she believes you murdered. It includes Avalon members and those of her allies. If enough people kick up enough trouble, Avalon will be forced to investigate. If they find that even one of them was your doing, it’ll open the floodgates.”
“So, were any of your victims people involved in the creation of America?” Olivia asked.
“Probably,” I had to admit. “Members of Avalon wouldn’t have been there for anything less than negotiations or taking things by force on behalf of their masters.”
“You really fucked up, didn’t you?”
I nodded. It wasn’t my finest hour. Killing people in the line of my duties for Avalon or, once I’d left their employ, disposing of enemies, was fine. In fact, so long as I’d disposed o
f the bodies well enough and didn’t kill anyone of note, I doubted Avalon would have paid much attention. But purposely tracking and killing high-ranking members of Avalon, would have been far too much like Mordred for many people’s liking, and any thoughts that someone would be going down the same road as he did would have ensured swift retribution on Avalon’s part.
“Selene left me to protect me from Hera?” I said after several seconds of silence. My voice was quiet. I’d pushed all of this behind me so long ago. But there’s no time limit on an offense against Avalon and its allies. “Why me and Selene? Apart from Hera getting Selene to work for her and, by extension, Hyperion, what do we have to do with any of it?”
“Hera originally couldn’t care less about you or Selene. She wanted Hyperion and used whatever she had to ensure she got his help. You were both just the easiest way to ensure that happened. Now, she keeps us around to keep our father in check; it’s why she married Selene off. None of the others wanted to marry me; I think they believe I might stab them in their sleep.”
“Selene should have told me,” I said softly.
“Selene left you to spare you what was most probably a death sentence,” Eos said. “She left you because anything else was unthinkable to her. My father had nothing to do with it. In fact, he only left Tartarus because Hera turned up and told him what she’d done and how Selene and I were now under her control. So you see, if you’d never murdered those people, Hera wouldn’t have had leverage to use against my sister, meaning my father wouldn’t have joined her cause, and Cronus wouldn’t have been able to escape.”
The revelation was a lot to take in, and I asked Tommy to move aside so I could go outside and get some air. The idea that Selene had been coerced into leaving me and marrying Deimos made me very, very angry. But not as angry as I was with myself for what I’d thought of Selene since it happened. I sat on a bench by the park, and a few seconds later Eos sat beside me.
“All of this isn’t my fault, Eos,” I said. “That’s a bit of a stretch. I’ll accept responsibility for giving Hera the information she used to blackmail Selene into joining her, but Cronus escaping isn’t on me. One doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the other.”
“Maybe you’re right, but I needed to make sure you shut up and actually listen to me. Telling you it was your fault seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“You should have told me decades ago, Eos. About Selene and Hera.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Selene forbid us all from telling you the truth. She’d rather you hated her than that you went and got yourself killed trying to free her from Hera’s clutches.”
“Does Deimos force her to do anything?” I asked.
I didn’t need to elaborate; Eos knew exactly what I meant. “Selene hasn’t spent more than ten minutes in his company since their wedding. If he tried anything, she’d tear him in half. The little shit is more scared of her than of Grandma Hera. And he’s plenty scared of Hera.”
“Selene told me something about Deimos being punished back in ’36 because he tried to kill someone.”
“Yeah, the dick tried to kill one of Hera’s favorite aides, but failed and got caught, so he was punished spectacularly. Do you know how Hera hurts those close to her? She humiliates them at every single opportunity. For centuries. Every day, she reminds Deimos that he can’t even fuck his own wife. That he has to hire whores, that he’s less of a man for letting the man his wife loves walk around without retribution. It’s one of the reasons he hates you—because he’s reminded by Hera every single day how much better than him you are in Selene’s eyes.”
“And the other reason?”
“Selene loves you. She will never, ever love him. And there’s sweet fuck all he can do to change her mind.”
“This is a lot to take in, Eos,” I repeated. “I had no idea that anyone knew about my past. Only Tommy and Merlin were meant to have any knowledge about it. Apparently, I can add at least Hera to that list. Tommy stopped me before I took things the next step from killing scum to killing people who might possibly turn into scum. It’s probably the darkest point in my entire life.”
“I wasn’t about to let you go full Sith, Nate,” Tommy said, as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “Olivia wants a word. Probably several.”
I nodded, expecting it. I’d told Olivia a lie, and she wasn’t the kind of person who took being lied to well.
I found her leaning against the rear of one of the SUVs. “I have a very real desire to shoot you, or arrest you, or something,” she told me.
“Okay—” I started.
“Shut up and listen. I should knock you on your ass. You told me something dark and personal and then lied. To find out that while you were working for Avalon you also murdered a large number of their people is not something I can just forget or get over. All the good you’ve done before and since goes some way to making sure that I don’t take you to Merlin myself and press him to charge you with something.
“The fact is, whatever these people had done to deserve your wrath, you’ve never shown any indication to me that you’re anything other than someone I can trust with my daughter. I understand why you and Tommy kept this information to yourselves. I don’t pretend to understand what you were going through back then, or how finding your wife affected you, but Tommy assures me that it was a horrific time in your life.
“If you’d just kept it to killing pieces of shit no one cared about, it wouldn’t have mattered, but killing Avalon members, some of whom would have had real influence and who were in a country that the majority of Avalon was trying to carve up between themselves. Jesus, Nate that was bad. If Tommy hadn’t gotten to you first—if someone else had—you’d be dead, or on the run. You would have hurt Avalon, your friends, and yourself. But it happened a long time ago, and if I was judging people on acts committed centuries ago, half of Avalon would be in jail or dead.”
“I’m sorry for lying to you.”
“I know.” She hugged me. “If you ever do it again, I’ll shoot you.”
“Deal.”
“This can never be made public. The proof that Hera has on what you did—we need to get it. A problem for another day, but it’s a serious concern to think that someone in Avalon gave her the info.”
“I thought the same thing.”
“You shouldn’t have kept this from me, Thomas Carpenter,” Olivia said as Tommy and Eos met up with us.
“Wasn’t my tale to tell,” Tommy said. “Nate did a lot of good by removing those people from the earth. No matter how far into darkness he traveled, he never went after people who didn’t deserve it.”
“Avalon wouldn’t have seen it that way,” Olivia said. “Do you know who the people you killed were?” she asked me.
“A vampire lord, a bunch of low-level thugs for some high-level Avalon members, a Blade of Avalon general who enjoyed hurting woman, and a few others.”
“Avalon would have gone nuts for the general alone,” Olivia said.
Eos joined us, ensuring the conversation between Olivia and I was over.
“So where is Cronus?” I asked Eos. “And how can you be sure?”
“He’s been in contact with my father. They’re like brothers. My father’s job was to help him escape and get to Hera.”
“Why did Hera send someone to kill him?” I asked.
Eos looked confused. “She didn’t. She wanted Cronus to get to her so she could make a big show of killing him. My father told Cronus this, but he didn’t care. Cronus just wanted the chance to kill her. He’s going to power up before he comes after her, though. A magic well.”
“We assumed as much,” Olivia said. “Which one?”
“Stonehenge. He’ll arrive there at just after 1:00 a.m., according to my father.”
Olivia was immediately on her phone, mobilizing agents, while Tommy called Kasey and told her what was happening.
“You know when this all goes to shit, your father will be the scapegoat,” I told Eos.
“He knows. He’s got a contingency plan for that.”
“Sarah Hamilton was found with a dwarven dagger. A Kituri dagger, to be exact. If Hera didn’t want Cronus dead, that means the blood inside it wasn’t hers. Who else wanted to take Cronus’s power enough that they’d send Sarah to kill him?”
“I can’t say, but Deimos was the one who introduced Sarah to Hera. Maybe he knows.”
“When we get back from Stonehenge, I’ll make sure someone goes and asks him,” I said.
Eos’s grin was full of mischief. “And I’ll make sure that Selene and I are in attendance for it. I’m aware of your ability to piss off the wrong people, but if you ever go after Deimos, make sure he can’t come back the next time with an army. You put him down hard and fast, and you make sure he knows never to try again.”
It was my turn to grin, although what I was sure would turn into an impending battle with Cronus had receded from the front of my mind, replaced with Did Eos say that Selene still loved me? I pushed the thought aside; my love life would have to wait. First I had to stop someone who had once been considered one of the most powerful beings in the cosmos from destroying a well-known chunk of Britain’s natural heritage.
CHAPTER 33
The journey from central London to Stonehenge is roughly two hours, factoring in traffic and observing pesky little rules like speed limits. Fortunately, we didn’t have to. Within half an hour, we were halfway there, hurtling down the M3 motorway. There really isn’t anything quite like a flashing light and lack of other motorists to ensure you get to your destination in record time.
My phone began to ring, breaking the silence that had settled in the car. “Hi, Sky,” I said after answering it.