Scorched Shadows (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 7)

by Steve McHugh

  Mordred stepped into the room and kicked Viktor in the face as he lay on the floor. He looked over at Mara, who sat next to the window, staring at him with a mixture of hate and fear.

  “Please don’t kill me,” Viktor said. “I did not know they’d come for me. I just wanted to be left alone.”

  “I read Polina’s report. You stabbed one of her agents in the throat as you escaped. The man was forty-two years old; he had a wife and children. A wife and children you told Polina you’d kill the first chance you got.”

  “Not true.”

  “Don’t care.” Mordred shot him four times in the face before aiming the gun at Mara.

  “You won’t kill me,” Mara said.

  “Really? Because I’m almost certain I want to.”

  “Can you explain that to my daughter? You like her. You know she’d hate you if I was murdered at your hand.”

  “Only because I’m sure she’d like you to rot in a deep pit for the rest of your life.”

  Mara smiled. “You’re an empty man, fighting on the wrong side of a war you can’t win. You’ll be running around hiding in the shadows while I stay in places like this and make bracelets for Arthur and his people to rule this realm, and then all of the others.” She raised her hands. “Shoot me. I’m unarmed.”

  “Oh, shut up.” Mordred shot her in the palm of one outstretched hand. “How quickly do witches heal?”

  “You fucking bastard,” Mara seethed. “I’m going to have someone cut out your fucking eyes. I’m going to heal and make bracelets just so his people can pillage those you love.”

  Mordred grabbed her good hand, placed it on the table next to her, and shot her three times. “Make something now, you evil piece of shit.”

  Mara collapsed to the floor, holding her heavily bleeding hands against her chest. “They’ll kill me if I’m useless.”

  “Best learn to make them with your feet, then, because Gawain and his people aren’t getting any more bracelets until someone else can be trained. And then I’ll do the same to them, too. You’re the only one they have who can make these—you said so yourself in Siberia. Now he has no one.”

  “This won’t stop him forever!” Mara screamed as Mordred walked toward the exit.

  “No, but it’ll stop him until I can kill him.” Mordred paused. “Damn it, you’re right. I don’t want to be the person who takes your life. I like your daughter, and she doesn’t deserve to have a friend of hers kill you when she should have that privilege. But you’re too dangerous.” Mordred shot her in the head and left the room.

  He made his way back downstairs and to the lift, hitting the button for the lobby. He reached the ground floor and walked across the lobby, just avoiding several armed men as they ran toward the now-empty lift.

  “You’ve got quite a few people coming your way,” Irkalla said as Mordred entered the lift to the parking garage and selected the right floor.

  “I’m done here. I’ll see you all back at the heliport in a few hours. I’ll make sure I’m not followed. Thanks for your help.”

  “Our pleasure,” Irkalla said. “See you soon.”

  Mordred removed his earpiece and exited the lift, walking through the garage to his Mercedes.

  “Hello, Mordred,” a woman said as she got out of a nearby red BMW M4. She was just over five feet tall, Asian, with long hair that had been dyed a multitude of colors.

  “Hi,” Mordred said. “And you are?”

  “You can call me Ami,” she said with a smile. “I believe you know my friend.” She motioned toward another woman, who got out of the driver’s seat of the M4.

  “Cass?” Mordred asked, his happiness at seeing her again fighting against any potential threats.

  “We need to talk,” Cass said.

  “About what?” Mordred asked.

  “About fighting Arthur,” Ami started, “about stopping a civil war between the Norse pantheon, and about trying to save everyone you love.”

  “I don’t even know who you are,” Mordred told them. “Cass isn’t an ex-soldier.”

  “And Cass isn’t my real name, but I needed a reason to talk to you. To find out if you were still the monster I’d heard about, or if you genuinely had changed.”

  “So, what’s your real name?” Mordred asked.

  “Not important,” Cass said.

  “Then goodbye,” Mordred replied, unlocking the AMG.

  “Amaterasu,” Ami said.

  Mordred blinked in surprise. “Okay, I didn’t expect that.”

  “We need to band together if we have any hope of stopping Arthur,” Amaterasu said. “We need to see Hades, and his people.”

  “I can arrange a meeting, but Cass needs to tell me who she is, too.”

  Amaterasu looked over the car roof at Cass, who continued to stare at Mordred for several seconds.

  “Better hurry, exceptionally bad people are going to arrive here soon. I sort of made a mess.”

  “Hel,” Cass said. “I’m Loki’s daughter. Odin and Frigg’s granddaughter.” Her appearance changed slightly, and her skin tone took on a bluish tinge.

  “I know who Hel is,” Mordred said. “What I don’t know is why you’re coming to me.”

  “Because we need Hades, Diana, Selene, Irkalla, and all of the others who oppose Arthur. Because we need to get into the Norse realms and defeat those opposed to Odin’s rule. And we need to do it before we are overrun.”

  “Why me?” Mordred asked again.

  “The blood elves have found a way into Asgard, and they’re going after Yggdrasil. If they capture it, we will fall. And then Arthur and his minions will rule over the Norse realms.”

  “You need to speak to everyone else, too,” Mordred said.

  “That was our request,” Hel said, clearly trying to keep her patience.

  “And what of the other weapons like yourself?” Amaterasu asked.

  “I only know of Nate,” Mordred said.

  “So, what of Nate?” Hel asked.

  “Yeah, that’s where we’re going to have a problem. Nate’s undergone his nightmare transformation.”

  “So we have one weapon, four missing, one dead, and one in a coma?” Amaterasu asked. “This is not the best news.” She looked over at Hel as the sounds of shouting came from the lift area.

  “Shit,” Hel snapped. “You talk too much, Mordred. We’ve wasted time. Where is the base? Where can we find you?”

  “Greenland,” Mordred said as both women jumped in their car, and sped off.

  Mordred got in his car and hunkered down as another car sped past him out of the garage, presumably going after Hel and Amaterasu. He waited for a few seconds to ensure there was no one else, then drove out of the garage as quickly as possible. The car that he’d seen only a few seconds ago had been hit by a bus. He had no idea whether it had been an accident or not, but it was a hell of a coincidence.

  He drove away from the wreck with several thoughts on his mind. Of all the things he might have expected today, Hel and Amaterasu’s appearance wasn’t one, and had given him more questions than answers. And he didn’t need even more things to add to the already-large pile of worry.

  He wondered how long they had before Yggdrasil was breached. He realized that if the blood elves had left the dwarven world to go into the Norse realms, then that meant Baldr could be there, too. Mordred smiled. That was something to look forward to.

  CHAPTER 37

  Nate Garrett

  Greenland

  I opened my eyes and immediately wished I hadn’t. The light caused them pain and forced me to close them again. I went to rub my hand over my face and found myself chained to the bed with thick manacles. There didn’t appear to be any runes etched on them, so I tried to use my magic and . . . nothing. No hint of magic.

  “Great, another place with runes in the walls,” I said. My throat hurt, and I needed a drink. “If anyone is there, I’m awake.”

  The doors opened, and Hades walked in. He had several weeks’ worth of b
eard growth and looked tired. “Nate, you’re finally awake.” He unlocked the manacles and placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “Where am I?” I asked.

  “My secret facility in Greenland. You’ve been in a coma for four months.”

  I couldn’t quite process that as an answer. “What? Four months? But, I was . . . Mordred . . . He shot me. Is he okay?”

  “We’ll bring you up to speed with everyone in a minute. I just need to make sure you’re okay. Can you sit up?”

  I did as he asked.

  “We’re going to run some medical tests,” he told me.

  “Hades, I’m fine. I ache, and want a drink, but otherwise I’m good. My nightmare, Erebus, he saved me.”

  Hades nodded. “Let me go get you a drink, and we’ll talk. Stay here.”

  “Hello, Nate,” Erebus said from beside me.

  “I thought you were going to vanish after I died.”

  “Apparently not. The mark on your head unlocked a lot of things, but they’re all a jumble at the moment. It’ll take some time to sift through it.”

  “Including who my father was?”

  “That’s in there, but it’s not information I have. Your mind needs time to heal, as does your body. It’s been under incredible stress. Your lack of magic will not help things along.”

  “My magic is gone full stop, isn’t it? I remember Mordred saying something about it.”

  “Yes, for the next year, or thereabouts, you will have no magic. You are essentially just human.”

  “Anything else?”

  Erebus shook his head. “Hopefully when the year is up, you will regain your power. But when you do, it would be wise to be somewhere barren.”

  “Why?”

  I looked up as Mordred entered the room. “He’ll explain,” Erebus said, and vanished.

  “Glad you’re up and about,” Mordred told me.

  “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck,” I said.

  “Yeah, it’s not a fun experience. You’ve lost your magic, then.”

  “I figured that bit out. Erebus said it’ll be a year before I can access it again. He also said any info unlocked by the mark will take a while to work through.”

  “It was the same for me. Took about fifteen months to fully understand everything in my head.”

  “Did you have messages from your parents in your head, too?” I asked.

  Mordred shook his head. “No, I had no need. I know who they are, and I’ve always known who my mother was. Did Erebus say anything about when your power returns?”

  “Be somewhere uninhabited.”

  “Make sure you do that. I didn’t realize until it was too late and I’d destroyed a warehouse. When your magic returns, you’ll have full use for about a day; then it dies down. You’ll need to relearn some stuff. It’s not a quick process.”

  “Untapped, incredible power, but at the cost of a year or more with nothing. Always give with one hand, take with the other with magic, isn’t it?”

  Mordred laughed. “You need to come with me. There are some things you need to know.”

  “I’m in a pair of shorts. Can I have a shower and get changed first?”

  “Oh, sure. Shower’s over there. I think Hades said something about clean clothes for you in the drawer.”

  I looked over at the door, which presumably led to the shower, and the light-blue chest of drawers. “I’ll be twenty minutes.”

  “Take an hour. Have a long shower. You’re going to need it. A lot has happened.”

  Mordred left me alone, and I went for a shower, making the powerful, high-pressure water as hot as I could bear.

  “You feel up to a little company?” Selene asked from the doorway.

  I opened the glass door to the shower. “I’m achy, but I’m sure I’ll manage.”

  She dropped her robe to the floor, revealing that she was naked underneath, and stepped into the shower.

  An hour later I was clean, dressed, and in need of something to eat. Selene had helped me with my T-shirt, as my body was still incredibly sore and stiff, but the shower and company had done wonders to lift my mood.

  “Hades wants to see you,” Selene said, kissing me on the lips. “I missed you. Probably not as much as Tommy, but it was a close thing.”

  I laughed. “I Han Soloed him. I wasn’t sure he’d forgive me.”

  “I think it might be the proudest moment of his life that didn’t involve Kasey being born.”

  I laughed again, and it caused me to wince. “Ribs hurt.”

  “You want me to kiss them better?”

  “I’m not a machine.”

  Selene smiled. “I’m glad you’re back. I was worried. We all were, except Mordred—he kept coming in here playing you his extensive list of video-game soundtracks. He said it would help, presumably because he expected you to wake up and tell him to piss off.”

  “So, if I start humming ‘Mario,’ it’s his fault? Good to know.”

  Selene led me out of my room and down a corridor that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a hospital. There was no one around, no one working in any of the rooms we walked past. It was like a clean ghost town.

  “What’s going on?” I asked as we entered the lift and Selene selected the floor for the main hangar above.

  “For the last four months, you have had lightning strike this facility eight hundred thirty-two times. You created a storm that sat just above this facility. People know you’re here. People we trust, but Hades, Mordred, and Elaine had an idea to ensure that their knowledge of you wasn’t a problem.”

  “What idea?”

  Selene sighed. “Blood-curse marks.”

  The lift doors opened as I was stunned into silence. I looked out across the hangar and saw hundreds of people all watching me as I exited the lift. There was a cheer and round of applause, and I sort of did this weird, uncomfortable wave thing. Because what the hell else are you meant to do when hundreds of people start clapping at you for no known reason?

  “What the fuck?” I whispered.

  Tommy bounded toward me and picked me up in a bear hug.

  “Bones—fragile, human-powered bones,” I whispered.

  He put me down and grinned. “It’s good to see you. Mordred said you were essentially human now. I’m sorry you’ve lost your magic.”

  “It’ll come back. But it’s a little weird knowing it’ll be a while.”

  I looked beyond him to Olivia and Kasey, both of whom waved. Several other young men and women stood beside them, and I knew that they were members of Tommy’s ultrasecret task force he’d put together before Arthur had taken over.

  “How bad is it?” I asked Sky, who kissed me on the cheek.

  “It’s not good,” she said.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Elaine as he she walked toward me with Mordred, Nabu, Irkalla, Hades, and Zamek.

  “We need to talk,” she told me, and motioned for me to follow her into a nearby room. She turned to Mordred as we entered. “Get it finished.”

  Mordred nodded and walked off.

  “Get what finished?” I asked, taking a seat on the table in the middle of the room. “Selene said you were doing something with blood-curse marks.”

  “Everyone here has agreed to take part in a ritual,” Hades said from the doorway.

  “What kind of ritual?” I asked.

  “The kind where we all think you’re dead,” Irkalla said. “Everyone but Hades, Sky, Mordred, and Elaine, yes.”

  “Why not those four?”

  “Hades and Sky because you need a contact in case something goes wrong during your time of healing. Mordred because he was never going to agree to have anything close to a blood-curse mark put on him again, and Elaine because she used to be in charge of everything. This is the kind of thing you’ll need someone keeping an eye on you for.”

  “And where am I going that I need to be kept an eye on?”

  “A small town in Oregon,” Nabu said. “It’s very quaint.”


  “No,” I replied.

  “You have no powers, and Avalon thinks you’re dead,” Sky said. “You aren’t helpful until you’re healed, and if Arthur ever finds out you’re alive, he will burn a country down to find you. We need to put you somewhere remote, but with people we trust. So, you’re going to Clockwork, Oregon. Called that because its founder used to make clocks and was really happy about it.”

  “And what do I do while I’m there?”

  “Read, write, learn how to whittle—I don’t think it matters,” Irkalla said. “Just stay safe, and don’t bring attention to yourself.”

  “Why there?”

  “I have people there I trust,” Hades said. “A doctor by the name of Daniel Kuro. I met him in Korea a few decades ago. He’s a good man. I’ve used the town a few times to send friends of mine so they can heal in peace. Or avoid detection.”

  “Okay, tell me more about this blood-curse ritual.”

  “Mordred, Nabu, and I worked together on this,” Zamek said. “Essentially everyone in this facility will think you’re dead. We considered just having them forget you existed, but that’s too hard. Thinking you died on a field in Wisconsin is a lot easier.”

  “Essentially we managed to figure out a way to create the blood curse so that everyone affected will believe you dead,” Nabu said. “They will believe they’ve grieved and have moved on. No one here will be caused any pain by your passing. That was integral to our plan. If anyone decided to dig too deep into your death, or go after Atlas for revenge, it would break the curse.”

  “How does the curse break normally?” I asked.

  “If any of them see you once the curse has been implemented, they will immediately remember that you didn’t die,” Elaine explained. “Each of them signed a document stating that they agreed to this. We couldn’t do it any other way.”

  I walked past them all and out into the hangar, where I found Tommy, Olivia, and Selene. “You all agreed to this?” I asked. “All of you?”

  “We need to keep you safe,” Selene said. “This is the best way.”

  “Why can’t you come with me?” I asked her.

  “Because my father and sister would tear the world apart looking for whoever killed me. The smaller number, the better.”