“What?”
“I think . . . I think I made a mistake. I need to speak with you.”
Why did I think that wasn’t going to bode well for me?
CHAPTER 21
We arrived at Merlin’s house ahead of him. “Why would he ask us to meet him here?” Dahlia asked.
I had a feeling I knew, but I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want to jinx what was left of the night by saying my thoughts out loud. The last thing we needed was more drama, bloodshed, or fighting. But I expected we were going to get more of that sooner than I wanted.
Merlin pulled up in a slick sports car. He got out, nodded at me, and then flicked his fingers for me to follow. Remo, Yaya, and the others moved with me. Merlin held up his hand. “Alena only.”
The others bristled, except for Remo. He shared a look with me and nodded. I could handle myself, we both knew it, and that trust in me gave me renewed energy.
I followed Merlin into his house, and he shut the door behind us. “I think . . . things are not working out the way I’d hoped. I need to come clean.”
I folded my arms, holding my cloak tight around me. “Really?”
He went to his dining table and slid down into one of the high-backed chairs. He picked up a red poker chip and danced it across his knuckles. “You see, when I was first approached and asked to start reviving Greek monsters, I thought it would be to the supernatural world’s benefit. Hera had a . . . convincing case. And I had my own ideas of what needed to be done. I thought the heroes”—he rolled the chip and then snapped it into the air and grabbed it—“were the answer. That they would be the ones to set our world right. To show the humans that, while they should fear us, we could go back to living the way we had before. Side by side. That they, Achilles, Theseus, and the others, would bring down the Wall.”
He sighed and I raised an eyebrow. “Hurry it up, Merlin. It’s been a long couple of days.”
“So feisty now.” He smiled at me. “I did turn you because I thought you weak, and your weakness offended me. I sent your brother to infect you so I could approach you with the offer of being turned.” He caught the poker chip, clutching it in his palm. “Then you ousted Achilles.” He frowned. “And you rallied the protestors at the Wall, without meaning to. You even displaced the SDMP to some degree, changing how they viewed different Supes.”
“So?” I didn’t catch what he was rolling out, though it could have been the fatigue.
He leaned back in his chair. “What I saw at the courthouse finally showed me that times have changed. The heroes no longer can function in this world as they once did. They aren’t what we need. We need a monster to show us all that there should be no divide between humans and supernaturals.” He grinned. “And you are that monster.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
Merlin grimaced, stood, and headed out of the room. Down the long hallway where I knew he kept his newly turned Super Dupers. My skin prickled as we traversed the narrow hall with the single chandelier hanging from the center and the pictures of old bearded men on the walls. I paused at one, thinking he had a familiar face, like I’d seen him before.
“Don’t dawdle, Alena.” Merlin opened the door at the far end. I walked toward him and stepped through.
A woman lay on the same cot I’d woken up on. Her chest rose and fell, her hair hung in myriad twists of patterned black and blond ringlets, as though she’d had some wild dye job. “You already turned her into a monster, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Well, she can come with us, then. She can . . .” I trailed off as Merlin put a hand on my arm.
“No, you don’t understand. Hera saw that Theseus was going down. She wanted me to create a monster that was bigger and even stronger than you. One she could control. A Hydra to be exact.”
“Why?”
“Because if a hero on his own can’t kill you and make an example of your death . . .” He stared hard at me, and the pit grew in the bottom of my belly like a burnt-out bread pan.
“Then maybe another monster could help the hero defeat me?” I whispered.
Merlin nodded. “Exactly.”
I stood in front of Judge Watts, my hands clutched behind me. I’d given him all the paperwork I had, and he’d silently gone over it. Roger stood ten feet to my right, a smug smile on his stupid face.
To my left, Yaya stood, also smiling.
“How can you possibly be happy about this?” I whispered.
“I have a good feeling,” she whispered back.
Judge Watts put the stack of papers down and removed his glasses. “I see everything is in order.”
Roger smirked again. “Wonderful, can we move on then?”
Judge Watts frowned. “I hereby award Mrs. Budrene half of the funds in the joint checking account, full ownership of the Kerry Park home, and full ownership of Vanilla and Honey.”
Holy crap, what just happened? A shiver of disbelief ran through me. “Your Honor?”
“I further state that Mrs. Budrene is a full citizen of the United States and will no longer be required to live behind the Wall.”
Roger flipped out, the crowd went a bit bonkers, and someone cried out from the back. I looked to see if I could identify the screamer. I wasn’t sure, but it could have been Barbie or maybe Colleen.
Roger, though, wasn’t going down without a fight. “No, no. She doesn’t exist! This is not fair! She died; I have her death certificate!”
Judge Watts stared hard at him from his perch. “If she didn’t exist, I would not have survived last night. Therefore, she exists, and I must make my decisions based on that simple fact.”
The next hour flew by as I signed papers and took my new papers saying I was Alena Budrene. I would change my last name back to my maiden name as soon as I could, but I’d take Budrene for now. I’d earned it. I stepped out of the courthouse, my head still whirling. There was a crowd waiting for me, microphones thrust my way for comments on my landmark case. The protestors from the Wall were there too, chanting my name. Some of them were crying, and they were hugging each other.
The woman I’d saved from the werewolf at the Wall ran up to me. She grabbed my face and kissed me on each cheek. “We are all the same. I knew you would be the one to show the world.”
She was pulled away by two police officers, one from the SDMP, one from the Seattle Police Department.