Scorched Shadows (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 7)

by Steve McHugh

  “A large number of people got caught as they were moved away from this part of the city. Selene and Zamek were helping move them. I was ordered to stay here. I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

  I wasn’t sure what to tell him. “Your body will heal. Alchemists are made of sturdy stuff.”

  “I’m human.”

  The shock on my face must have been easy to see.

  “Was in the army. Human army. I married an alchemist, and we came here.”

  “Rest, you can see her again.”

  “She died a year ago.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “This was her dream, so I couldn’t leave it. You know?” His breathing became more labored, and his skin was pale and clammy. I knew he didn’t have long. “You ever love anyone so much you couldn’t let go?”

  I nodded. “I need to help Galahad.”

  He reached out and took my hand. “Please don’t let me die alone like this. I want to see her again, but I’m so afraid. Do you think there’s a heaven?”

  I shook my head. “Sorry.”

  “Thanks for being honest. At least if there’s nothing after this, I can know for certain that she’s not in pain. That I won’t be in pain.” He coughed again and closed his eyes. “Being here was the best time of my life.”

  I held his hand as he died, before crossing his arms across his chest and tucking his sword into them. It was all I could think to do. I got back to my feet and walked with determination across the room to the nearby hallway, picking up a sword from a fallen guard on the way.

  I killed the three blood elves in the hall as quickly as possible, the whole time feeling my rage fuel me, pushing me on. Lee’s power flooded my body, and for a moment I thought to use it, to use my magic and end everything in my path, but I stopped myself. That would be a disaster.

  I kicked open the double doors at the end of the hallway and walked into the dining room, which was empty of anyone living. I ran through, ignoring the bodies on the slick floor, moving from room to room until I reached the ballroom doors. It was the quickest way to the rear of the palace, where I could hopefully aid any guards fighting the battle closest to the forest.

  Inside, Galahad was surrounded by the bodies of the blood elves who had fallen before his two blades. He moved with grace and purpose, each cut aimed to kill or maim an opponent. It was as if he were a dancer, creating a beautiful fusion of movement, grace, and death. He stabbed one blood elf in the throat and turned toward another, driving the blade into the elf’s heart.

  “You’re busy,” I said, stepping over one of the many bodies.

  “I like to do my part. You okay?”

  “Lee is dead. Very dead, not vampire-rise-from-the-grave dead.”

  “Good. Leonardo and Antonio are to the west of here. They had an idea to use the elven-rune gate in the mountain to start evacuating people to Tartarus. The place was Sky’s idea, by the way. She said there’s plenty of space there. Zamek and Lucifer are trying to figure out the translations for the elven runes so we can move as many people as possible.”

  “Will it work?” I asked.

  “We don’t have a lot of other ideas to get a million people out of this realm. It’ll take time and effort to do it, but even if we shift ten thousand people a day, we can prepare for Avalon’s arrival, and hopefully this place will be empty then. In the meantime, Abaddon ran into the woods. Care to help?”

  We left the ballroom and reached the rear entrance to the palace. There had been a lot of fighting here.

  “The guards are outside,” Galahad said as he walked over to a nearby body and picked up a sword, motioning for me to take it. “This belonged to one of my elite guard. It’s probably of better quality than the one you’re currently using.”

  I took the sword from him just as several crystals strapped together bounced beside me, landing close to my feet. I turned in time to see Helios, in full dragon-kin form, standing in the doorway to the rear of the palace. He roared flame at us, and I was about to create a shield of air when Galahad shoved me aside, creating a shield of stone to protect us as the crystals ignited, throwing both of us across the room. I hit my head with enough force to dent the stone wall and fell to the ground, my vision swimming. I tried to get back to my feet as Helios walked over to Galahad, picked up his sword, and plunged it into his heart. Helios looked over at me and laughed before running out of the palace.

  With my head still pounding, and blood running down my neck, I crawled over to Galahad, cradling him against me. The whole attack took seconds, and despite the power at my disposal, I was helpless to intervene.

  “Please don’t die,” I whispered. “Please.”

  “Nate,” Galahad said, placing his hand against my face. “My brother.”

  I shook my head as tears filled my eyes.

  “You were always the best of us. You were always the one who never stopped. Never backed down. I’m proud to have been your brother. Proud to have known you. To have loved you.”

  “I love you, too,” I said, and then as tears flowed freely, my friend, my brother, Galahad died in my arms.

  I roared in pain and rage, feeling the power inside of me grow, the need for vengeance burn. I lowered Galahad to the floor and took one of his swords before standing up and raising a hand toward the palace wall. All restraint vanished in an instant as air magic exploded from my palm, tearing into the wall like it was made of straw, ripping tons of stone apart and flinging them outside the palace with ease. A hurricane of air subsided only when most of the nearby wall had been destroyed, and I walked through it, every step leaving a burning footprint as all the magic inside me lit up as glyphs along my arms.

  Before me lay an army of baying blood elves. The guard had been helpless against the thousands of them. Most of Galahad’s men lay dead or dying. At the thought of Galahad’s murder, I let out an almighty roar, allowing my air magic to carry the noise across the sea of the blood elves, who fell silent in an instant.

  I walked with methodical purpose toward the steps at the rear of the palace. A hundred feet lay between me and my enemy. At the rear of the ranks of blood elves floated Helios, smiling, hoisting aloft the sword he’d murdered my friend with. There were murmurs of laughter.

  I screamed a cry of vengeance, feeling my throat burn from the noise, and I looked up as the wraith towered above me, copying my scream of rage and hate, its shadowy ropes billowing around me as its bony hands pointed at the blood elves.

  Some blood elves turned, but there was nowhere to go. I walked toward them, feeling my pain and hate grow as I poured magic into my hands, into the spheres that I began spinning. Spheres of fire and air, of lightning, of shadow and matter magic. I reached the bottom of the stairs, and no one had moved.

  “Kill him,” Helios commanded.

  “Come try!” I shouted, and unleashed hell upon those standing between me and Helios.

  I plunged the spheres into the closest blood elves, and the magic tore them to pieces, ripping apart those unlucky enough to be close by as if they were made of paper. As the chaos subsided, I poured fire out of my hands, incinerating anything that came within twenty feet of me, while spreading out my shadow magic, snatching blood elves and dragging them down to use as fuel for my rage and hate.

  Within a minute I’d killed a hundred blood elves, and at that point they broke, turning and trying to flee from the flames that destroyed everything, leaving me standing on cinders. The fire took hold of the forest, and trees burned to ash in seconds until I stopped it, but the damage was already done, and the fire quickly spread out of control. I didn’t notice or care and slaughtered blood elves unlucky enough to get close to me. A whip of fire trailed from each hand, cleaving blood elves in half with every flick.

  Lightning leapt from my fingers, and the screams of blood elves filled my ears, but still I continued, stepping over the smoking bodies to get to Helios, who stood his ground, a wicked smile on his lips.

  When I was close enough, he roared flame a
t me, and I wrapped myself in air, allowing the superheated fire to roll over me. His smile vanished when he saw me untouched, and a moment later I was on him, driving a sphere of lightning into his chest, unleashing it and watching him driven back toward the tree line. I hadn’t used too much power in the sphere; I wanted Helios to suffer.

  He came at me with his talons, so I stepped aside and drove a blade of lightning into one of his wings, destroying the membrane. He dropped to his knees as blood poured from the wound. I stepped around him, took hold of his wing, and used a blade of fire to sever it, tossing the entire wing aside as he screamed in pain.

  “You can’t fly on one wing,” I said, picking up a blood-elf sword, killing the elf who made a noise signaling he wasn’t quite dead, and tossing the sword over to Helios. “Pick it up.”

  Helios stared at the weapon for several seconds.

  “Pick it up,” I said more forcefully.

  Still, he hesitated.

  “Pick up the fucking sword!” I screamed.

  Helios did as I commanded, holding the sword in a sturdy grip before getting to his feet. I walked toward him, and he attacked with strength and precision, but I parried it, driving my blade into his second wing, severing it at the shoulder.

  Helios cried out in pain and dropped back to his knees.

  “Get up,” I told him.

  Helios sprung from the ground, charging toward me, but he was too slow and I easily avoided the attack, pushing his sword away and head-butting him. He staggered back, and I dashed forward, slashing up across his face, taking one of his ears.

  He staggered back, and I maintained the offensive, taking his other ear and cutting off his sword-wielding hand. The sword fell to the ground and was soon covered in Helios’s blood as it freely pumped from the stump where his hand used to be.

  “Get up,” I told him again.

  “Just kill me,” he said.

  I walked toward him and kicked him in the face. “Kill you?” I asked. “Not for a long time. You took my friend, my brother. I’m going to take every single fucking piece of you until I feel like you’ve paid.” I stabbed the sword into his side, just under the ribs, and twisted it before pulling it out.

  “Please finish it,” Helios pleaded.

  I cut his handless arm off at the elbow. “Fuck. You.”

  “Enough, Nate,” Erebus said from behind me as time froze.

  “It is not enough,” I snapped. “How dare you stop me from extracting vengeance.”

  “Is this who you want to be? Killing an unarmed man in the middle of a battlefield? A man you’ve beaten? You’re better than him, and you know it. You could have killed him a hundred times over, but you keep him alive for what, pain? You’re not doing this for Galahad; you’re doing it for yourself.”

  I spun on Erebus, feeling the anger inside begin to bubble over. “He took my friend.” I felt tears sting my cheeks. “He took the best of us. He took my brother. He killed Galahad in the way of a coward. Why did Galahad push me out of the way? Why did he sacrifice himself for me? I could have saved myself. I could have used my magic.”

  “Galahad created a shield to stop you both being hurt, and it kept you alive. He made his choice; he chose to save your life.”

  “And Helios chose to finish his and not mine. Because they want me alive. They continue to taunt me, to try and break me, and I’m done with it. I’m done with it.”

  “Finish Helios. Clean and quick. Then go after Abaddon. But don’t be this torturer. Don’t be the monster the Fates said you’d become. You’re better than that. You went down this road once before, and it took a lot of effort to bring you back. Are you sure you want to do it again? I don’t think your friends will be able to bring you back this time, and we both know it.”

  Time went back to normal, and I looked down at a begging Helios. I removed his head with magical lightning wrapped around the sword that I’d taken from Galahad. Erebus was right: I was not that man anymore. A long time had passed since I’d behaved that way, and I would not rewalk the same path I had after Mary’s murder. Galahad’s murder would not be avenged until Abaddon and all she worked with were removed as a threat.

  I sprinted into the forest away from the burning trees and, with my magic fueling me, reached the entrance to the ruins nearly an hour later. There were no blood elves or guards there, nothing to consider a threat. I walked into the ruins and followed the same path I had when I’d found Lee. Ares charged into me and punched me in the side of the head so hard I saw stars. He picked me up and flung me across the ruins as if I were nothing. I collided with the furthest wall and dropped to the floor with a thud in time to see Ares approach, anger etched on his face.

  “He humiliated my son,” Ares said, pointing to me. “You’ll regret that.”

  “Good to see you again,” Abaddon said from her seat on the stone throne. “I hoped we’d cross paths once more.”

  I got to my feet and blasted Ares with a torrent of air, smashing him through the wall, and flung a ball of flame at Abaddon, who threw herself aside. I ran out of the ruins and almost into a dozen masked men and women, all waiting for me at the mouth of the ruins.

  “Which one of you is Hellequin?” I asked. “I’d like to kill him.”

  The sound of clapping came from behind me, and I turned so that I could watch Abaddon exit the ruins and keep an eye on the mask wearers.

  “Lucifer is here, isn’t he?” Abaddon asked. “I was so hoping to see him again. He needed to be punished for his transgressions.”

  “He’s busy killing your people,” I said.

  Abaddon laughed. “I’m going to enjoy our time together.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I snapped.

  “Did Galahad die?” she asked me. “I left Helios to deal with him. I assume Helios is dead.”

  The clouds above darkened, and thunder began to rumble.

  Abaddon looked at the sky for a second. “I wouldn’t. You’re going to need both hands if you hope to beat me.”

  “Just a distraction,” I said. “Everyone always looks up.” The shadows burst forth from the ground, wrapping themselves around Abaddon, dragging her to the ground. I felt an incredible force inside the mass of shadows as they encircled her, but in an instant they were expelled, throwing me back into the nearest tree. My air shield kept me from getting seriously hurt, but I’d never known power like what Abaddon had just done.

  Before I could move, Abaddon raced forward, stabbing me through the chest with a spirit weapon in the guise of a curved sword. I collapsed to the ground as pain wracked my body, only to look up to see the Hellequin masked man standing above me. He punched me in the mouth, splitting my lip. He looked back over at an approaching Abaddon.

  She nodded, and he dragged me to my feet before plunging a dagger into my side, twisting it and removing it before doing it again. The silver in the dagger burned, and I cried out in pain as he stamped on the back of my knee, forcing me to the floor.

  Hellequin stood before me and removed his mask. “Hello, Nate,” Deimos said. “Did you really think we were done?”

  Abaddon came into view, a smile on her face. “We’ve got a lot to discuss, you and me. I’m going to murder everyone you ever loved, and you’re going to help me.” She kicked me in the face hard enough to knock me out.

  CHAPTER 30

  Mordred

  Realm of Shadow Falls

  After escaping Siberia, Mordred arrived in another cavern and saw the rest of the group looking at him as his brain rattled around. “That was not good,” he said, trying to get used to the idea of his father being My Liege. “Merlin. It’s always been Merlin. It’s always been my father.”

  “Your dad is Merlin?” Remy asked. “No offense, but he’s a shitty parent.”

  “Can’t disagree with that,” Mordred said.

  “So, we finally know who the evil bastard behind all of this is?” Morgan said. “About time.”

  “Where’s Elaine?”

  Fio
na pointed to the corner of the cavern where Elaine sat on the floor, looking up at the ceiling.

  “What happened?” Mordred asked.

  “She tried to remember something,” Mac said.

  “There was a lot of screaming,” Wei said. “A lot. I don’t know what they did to her, but her memory is fucked.”

  Mordred walked over to Elaine and crouched beside her.

  “I can’t remember why they took me,” Elaine said. “Or who took me. Or what I was going to tell you when I saw you. I just remember pain. And Abaddon. I really don’t like her.”

  “Join the club,” Remy said as he walked over to them.

  “This doesn’t look like Tartarus,” Mordred said as he looked around at the glowing writing on the cavern walls. “Did we land inside another mountain? And where’s Nabu?”

  “I’m here,” Nabu said from the mouth of a nearby tunnel. “This isn’t Tartarus, and you need to come with me.”

  Morgan helped Elaine to her feet. “You okay?” she asked Mordred.

  “I’m not sure,” Mordred said. He’d considered lying and saying he was fine, but faking it had never been one of his strong points. “There’s been a lot to take in.”

  “I get the feeling we’re not done yet.”

  They hurried to catch up with Nabu and the others and found themselves climbing some steps that led out of a hole in the ground behind a large stone sarcophagus.

  “These are ruins,” Diana said.

  “They’re old,” Remy said, running a hand across a second sarcophagus.

  “Yeah, ruins tend to be that way,” Wei said with a smile as Remy raised a middle finger in her direction.

  “I can smell smoke,” Diana said, sniffing the air. “Burning flesh, wood, and a few other things. Where are we?”

  “Shadow Falls,” Nabu said as they reached the entrance to the ruins and walked into the forest. “I’ve been here before. The palace is a few miles to the south.”

  “Where’s the smoke coming from?” Elaine asked. “That doesn’t bode well.”

  “Few things do at the moment,” Alan said. “I guess we should go look.”