Scorched Shadows (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 7)

by Steve McHugh

  “You’re trying to convince yourself that he can’t be My Liege, but none of that proves anything.”

  “I know.”

  We both walked through the realm gate into the Mill, where we were greeted by Rebecca Dean. “Arthur has just finished eating,” she told us.

  “He’s definitely alone?” Galahad asked.

  “Yes, my lord. I sent people to check the surrounding area, and we’ve verified that he’s alone.”

  “Is the meeting taking place here?” I asked.

  Rebecca nodded. “My office, to be exact. We’ll be able to keep people from interrupting you, but if you need us—”

  “We won’t,” Galahad said. “He’s not here to fight. He’d have brought an army if that was the case.”

  “Either way,” Rebecca said. “We’ll be close by.”

  Rebecca took us to her office—a large room that contained a pale-blue sofa, a desk, and three chairs, a large TV on the wall, and various pieces of electronics that allowed Rebecca to do her job running both the guardians and the establishment she’d created for herself. Arthur sat on the sofa, reading the paper, which he put down beside him as we walked in.

  “Nice black suit,” Galahad said. “You going to a funeral?”

  “Nice armor,” Arthur replied, standing. “You going to war?”

  This wasn’t getting off to the best start, and judging from the expression on Rebecca’s face, there was a moment when I was sure she thought about asking for a guard to stand in the corner, before both men smiled and embraced.

  “It’s been a long time,” Arthur said with a warm smile.

  “It has, old friend,” Galahad replied. “You’ll have to excuse the armor. I didn’t have time to change. I didn’t want to leave you here all day waiting for me.”

  “That’s okay, I had a nap. I have barely slept since I became king, so that was a nice change of pace. And Rebecca here made me some ribs.” He turned to Rebecca. “You are a goddess of cooking.”

  Rebecca nodded her head as a thank-you and left the room.

  “I make everyone nervous,” Arthur said. “That wasn’t my intention. It’s why I came alone. Several on the council wanted me to bring an army, and they don’t see the idea of invading Maine as an act of war.”

  “Thank you for not making things worse,” Galahad said, and motioned for Arthur to sit.

  They both sat on the sofa, turning so they could see one another, while I took a chair.

  “Are you the mediator?” Arthur asked me.

  “I’m the rational one . . . apparently,” I said.

  “That’s a terrifying thought if nothing else,” Galahad said with a laugh.

  “Yes, I remember you being the rational one back in Camelot when someone tried to stab Mac with a knife for . . . inappropriate behavior toward the daughter of a visiting lord.”

  Galahad looked at me. “Mac did something he shouldn’t have done? I am surprised.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, well, I had to step in. Otherwise the lord would have been soundly beaten. He was human and had no idea what Mac was. Apparently the lord believed that Mac and his daughter should be wed, despite neither of them being all that keen on the idea, but we’re not here to reminisce.”

  “Indeed not,” Arthur said. “I need to know if anyone in Shadow Falls could be involved in what’s happening with this Hellequin and his murder spree.”

  “No,” Galahad said. “My realm and its people are not involved.”

  “You can account for them all?” Arthur asked.

  “Can you account for all of Avalon?”

  “A fair point,” Arthur said. “But Avalon isn’t openly being accused of killing humans by the tens of thousands and allowing humanity to know of our existence. Shadow Falls is.”

  “I am, you mean.”

  “I’m not accusing you of anything, Galahad. I don’t genuinely believe you would ever be involved in such an act, but these are dangerous times, and not everything can be solved with a simple no and a little bit of trust.”

  “How can I prove it to you so that your council will be happy?”

  “Allow a small group of them to visit Shadow Falls. To look around, ask a few questions, and see for themselves that you are not a realm full of murderous despots.”

  “No,” Galahad said. “I will not have my authority undermined by Avalon.”

  “I’m not trying to undermine your authority. I’m trying to stop people from throwing your name around in the same sentence as a murderer.”

  “You know that people on the council have wanted Avalon to annex Shadow Falls for centuries.”

  “Something you will allow to happen because you’re too stubborn to let them see for themselves.”

  “I’m not about to let people who would betray my people into my realm just so they can be happy. Or as is more likely, so they can find evidence of a crime that no one committed.”

  “Be careful what you say, Galahad,” Arthur warned.

  “We both know that the council of Avalon is corrupt. We both know that if they came to Shadow Falls, they’d find evidence. Evidence they brought with them.”

  Arthur stood and walked over to the window at the far end of the room. “Galahad, whether or not there are councilors who undermine my authority, who are, as you say, corrupt, would it not be better for everyone if Shadow Falls and Avalon showed them a unified vision of what we could achieve? When they find nothing, we can move forward, together. We can strengthen ourselves and root out those who would seek to cause us harm.”

  “Those who seek to cause us harm are the same ones who want to find evidence of wrongdoing in my realm.”

  Arthur looked at me. “Talk some sense into him.”

  “I agree with him,” I said. “We both know that whoever is throwing around these accusations is somewhat suspicious considering it wasn’t long after that this Hellequin starting saying they were working with Shadow Falls.”

  “You’re saying that the rumors were spread by councilors so that when Hellequin started killing people, those same councilors could say, I told you so?”

  I nodded. “Abaddon, Baldr, Hera, all of her clan of assholes, and countless unknowns are working for this My Liege bag of dicks. I find it hard to believe that these rumors were a coincidence before Hellequin started spouting off about Shadow Falls.”

  “Agreed,” Arthur said. “But the council wants to go to war, and I’m not sure I can stop them.”

  “You’re the king,” Galahad said.

  Arthur sat on a chair next to the desk. “For now. Merlin has vanished, as has Elaine.”

  I was about to say that we were looking into the latter, but something stopped me. I didn’t want Avalon to know everything I knew, because I wasn’t sure who I could trust, and while I trusted Arthur, I didn’t know who he would tell.

  “You sacked Olivia,” I said.

  “She refused to return to Camelot. She forced my hand. Fiona, too.”

  “And put a fifteen-million-dollar bounty on my head,” I continued. “Signed by Lucie.”

  “Not a chance,” Arthur said. “Lucie did no such thing.”

  “I know. But Lucie has gone missing, too, and someone has taken her place.”

  Arthur looked shocked. “I spoke to her only a day ago. I can’t believe that she’d vanish. She’s under a lot of pressure.”

  “Maybe your own house needs looking at,” Galahad said with no mocking or judgment in his tone.

  Arthur nodded. “There are people on the council who want me out. There are whispers that I’m not living up to expectations.”

  “Hera’s allies?” I asked.

  “That’s my guess. There is no proof that Hera and her people have ever acted against Avalon. At least nothing that will reach back to her personally. Merlin appeared to give her carte blanche to do whatever she wanted, and now that I’m trying to push back a little . . .”

  “She wants you gone,” I said.

  Arthur nodded.

  “You can’
t really expect me to let these people into my realm,” Galahad said.

  “No, I guess I couldn’t. I’d hoped we’d be able to figure out a way to do this so that we could shut whoever is behind My Liege out of Avalon for good.”

  “That’s why you wanted people in my realm?” Galahad asked, his tone slightly angry. “So you could find out who’s working against you and grab them? You wanted to use my realm as bait.”

  “I wouldn’t put it quite like that,” Arthur said. “But it’s not like I’m swimming in options here.”

  “These people would undermine me, Arthur. They would undermine everything my people have worked for.”

  Arthur sighed. “So, what do we do now? Because the councilors are still going to keep pushing their agenda, and this Hellequin guy is going to keep committing atrocities in the name of Shadow Falls. Do you know how many have been attacked since I left England to come here? Twenty-seven attacks in ten hours. Over ten thousand people worldwide dead in ten hours. Nearly a quarter of a million since all this shit started. Sorcerers are blowing themselves up; werewolves are running rampant; elementals are attacking people on their way to work. Cardiff, Berlin, Oslo, Tianjin, Cape Town, Lima, Salvador, Accra . . . I could keep going if you like. We need to stop this, and instead of enabling me to deal with it, the council is pressuring me to look into Shadow Falls because some of them have an agenda.”

  “They’re using these attacks as a way to get what they want?” I asked.

  “I’ve been in a coma for a thousand years. I get out and things are worse now than when I went in. How the fuck could Elaine and Merlin let this happen?”

  “Elaine didn’t let shit happen,” I said, irritated that her name was dragged into the mud. “Merlin didn’t let her do shit. Every time she tried, Merlin and his allies in the council would vote it down. She did everything she could just to stop Avalon from turning into a mess.”

  Arthur rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. “I know, I’m just . . . This whole thing is shit. And I don’t see a way to make it better. If I go after the councilors who are against me, they will have me removed from power. Part of me thinks that’s what they want. The days of the king’s word being law were over before I was comatose. Over the centuries, the council has gained more and more power, but they were always fragmented, arguing amongst themselves. Shadow Falls has given half of them a focus for their rage and fear, and the other half are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect.”

  I walked over to the window as Arthur sat back on the sofa. “What’s your plan?” Galahad asked. “Because if we don’t come up with something, it’s going to get worse.”

  “I know,” Arthur said. “And I don’t know how to stop it.”

  I looked up at a clock on the wall, which read the time was midday, then looked out of the window to the city streets below. The block around The Mill usually began getting busy at this time of day, but maybe due to how cold it was outside, there were very few people on the streets. The few miles surrounding The Mill were used almost exclusively by Shadow Falls personnel so that if anyone like Arthur arrived, it would be easier to manage, easier to ensure the safety of all involved. But the lack of people made me wonder what was happening.

  I stopped listening to Arthur and Galahad as I stared out of the window at the street below.

  “You okay?” Galahad asked.

  I nodded but didn’t turn around. “I think we need a break. I’m getting paranoid.”

  Arthur glanced at the watch on his wrist. “A break sounds good.”

  “I’m going to get some air,” I told them both, and left the room, walking past the three guards in the hallway outside and finding Rebecca downstairs in the bar.

  “It’s not going well, is it?” she asked.

  “Define ‘well,’” I said. “We’re taking a few minutes to stretch our legs. At the moment, everyone seems to be at an impasse, and it’s not going to be resolved by everyone just sitting around repeating the same argument.”

  “I’ll go check on them,” she said, and started off upstairs as I went to the entrance and stepped out into the cold air.

  I ignited my fire magic to keep me warm and crossed the road. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to find, but something felt off, and I’d long since come to trust my gut feelings.

  I walked a short distance down the road and was a hundred feet away from The Mill when I heard a rumble somewhere above me. In the distance I saw a helicopter flying at low altitude, and I turned and sprinted back toward The Mill, almost crashing through the door and barreling into Arthur.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “I think we’re about to be attacked,” I said.

  He looked skeptical as I turned and pointed to a helicopter that was no longer there. He looked a little concerned, but the concern soon vanished. “It was probably just a news chopper or something like that. I think it’s a little bit much to think people are going to attack us with helicopters. From what we’ve seen of this Hellequin so far, it’s all about using magic. Helicopter attack feels a little bit out of his usual bailiwick for destruction.”

  “I’m being paranoid,” I said, still feeling a little on edge.

  “I’m going outside for five minutes. You’re welcome to join me.”

  “Without any guards?”

  “My guards are in that building over there.” He pointed to a three-story redbrick building. “I still brought guards with me. I just didn’t want them in here.”

  “I’m going to go see Galahad,” I told him.

  Arthur left The Mill, and I went upstairs to find Galahad, who was on the sofa in Rebecca’s office with a cup of tea. “We ended up shouting,” Galahad admitted. “I’m not sure how this is going to work.”

  I was about to say something when I looked out the window and saw someone standing on top of the nearby roof, a little less than fifty meters away. He wore a black mask, and as I stepped toward the window, I saw the white slash across it. He picked something up off the roof and placed it on his shoulder.

  “RPG!” I shouted as he fired the missile.

  The missile hit the outside of the window, just above where I’d been standing before diving toward Galahad. I created a shield of air as the shrapnel from the explosion rained down through the room, tearing it apart. My ears rang, and I couldn’t see through the smoke and fire that had consumed the office. Galahad lay beside me, his hands over his head.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  He nodded just as a second RPG round came through the window. The blast threw both Galahad and me into the nearest wall. We landed with enough force to knock the wind out of me as I concentrated on keeping the shield up. Two more explosions came in quick succession, and part of the building collapsed, causing the floor to give way. Galahad and I fell onto the front entrance of The Mill, spilling out into the street as a large part of the building fell onto us.

  As the building covered us both, I heard gunfire, followed by the squealing of tires as a car sped away.

  CHAPTER 28

  Nate Garrett

  This is officially the worst meeting ever,” I said as several tons of building above me shifted slightly, forcing me to change my air-magic shield so Galahad and I wouldn’t get crushed.

  “I’ve had better,” Galahad said. He had a nasty-looking cut above one eye, which had bled a lot, but otherwise he appeared to be uninjured.

  “Any chance you can use your alchemy to get rid of this rock?”

  Galahad looked around us. “I can try. You’ll have to remove your air magic, though.”

  “It’s not exactly giving us a lot of chances to get this right.”

  “No, one wrong move and we both get squashed.”

  “You are not making me feel better.”

  Galahad rolled onto his stomach as he searched for a way out. “Can you raise your shield just a few inches?”

  “Probably, why?”

  “If I can touch those bricks there, I can hopefully use them to
connect to all of the weight bearing down on us. The thing is, if there is anything above the bricks that hasn’t fallen yet, and I start moving stuff around, we might have a bit of a problem.”

  “Define ‘problem.’”

  “The rest of the building might fall on us.”

  “That’s a bit worse than just a bit of a problem.”

  “Can you use your magic to blast the debris away?”

  “I can, but I have no idea what I’m blasting the debris into.”

  “So, we’re not in the best situation.”

  “We’re alive—that’s something,” I said, trying to point out the only good thing I could think of. “I heard gunfire and saw that Hellequin dick.”

  “I heard the car leave in a hurry.”

  “Arthur was taken by Hellequin.”

  “They’ll keep him alive,” Galahad said. “Too valuable to kill. Either way, this Hellequin bloke has upped the stakes somewhat.”

  “King Galahad!” someone shouted from beyond the rubble around us.

  “We’re in here!” Galahad shouted back.

  Parts of the rubble were quickly moved, revealing more and more daylight until Galahad and I were able to stand and I could remove my magical shield. Rebecca and several guards were still moving parts of the building when I looked up and saw that the entire front of the structure was gone. Everybody had multiple cuts of various sizes, and most had their clothing torn and were covered in dust.

  “Those RPGs did a lot of damage,” I said.

  “Not just them,” Rebecca said. “Two sorcerers ran into the building and detonated their magic. I’ve never seen anything like it. They just ran in and blew themselves up. Why would they do that?”

  “Based on what I’ve seen so far, they either didn’t have a lot of choice, or they’re fanatical,” I told her.

  “Did you see where Arthur went?” Galahad asked.

  Rebecca shook her head, sat at the remains of a nearby table, pulled a pair of sneakers out from under it, and put them on her bare feet. “There was a helicopter that took off soon after too. I’m guessing it was used to drop off some of the attackers.”

  “Did we lose anyone?”

  “Eight are injured, three seriously enough that I had them taken down to the medical facility close to the realm gate. No one is going to die, though.”