“He’s a strange one,” Diana said after Atlas had left.
“That’s true,” Tommy said. “But we don’t have many friends inside Gawain’s version of Avalon.”
“He’ll need to remove anyone who opposes him,” Hades said. “There’s going to be a lot of deaths in the coming months.”
“A giant purge of Avalon staff,” Selene said. “That’s a lot of people to kill just because they won’t follow orders.”
“It’s already started,” Hades said. “In the last month, since Nate went missing, over three thousand Avalon employees have been murdered or gone missing. And more than double that for the number of people not part of the system but friendly toward Avalon. And that’s not even counting what’s happening in Camelot. Word has it, a lot of people were leaving the realm before Gawain started having them killed.”
“This is going to get worse, isn’t it?” Diana asked.
“He wants my help tracking down people he’s labeled as enemies of state,” Hades finished.
“Fucking hell,” Mordred said. “We’re going to be the bad guys.”
“I bloody well am not,” Selene said.
“We are,” Diana argued. “Gawain has Merlin, and after what they did to Nate, presumably Arthur on their side. They’ll make it so that everyone who listens to him thinks we’re the bad guys. We’re the revolutionary assholes hiding away and trying to stop him from destroying the world we live in. If they do manage to turn Arthur to their side, and Arthur takes charge of Avalon, we’ll be considered enemies of the state.”
The ground beneath them shook, and Mordred turned toward the grave as it exploded. He raised a shield of air to stop anyone being hit by the snow, dirt, and rock that scattered all around.
“This won’t be fun,” Mordred said.
The group watched as Nate clawed his way out of the ground, although he no longer had the appearance of the Nate they all knew. His body was covered in thick, black, leathery skin. The nightmare ripped the tattered remains of his clothes free from his body and stared at each person in turn.
“Nate?” Selene called out. “Are you still in there?”
A low growl was the only response.
“Erebus!” Mordred shouted, and the nightmare looked his way. “You remember that name, don’t you?”
The nightmare nodded slightly and took a step forward just as one of Hades’s guards opened fire on him. Erebus stopped the bullets with a shield of shadow before blasting magical air toward the guard, throwing him back across the field. Erebus roared and charged the guard, swatting aside a second guard, who tried to physically stop him.
He reached the guard just as Diana, now in full werebeast form, grabbed hold of Erebus and threw him aside, putting distance between the nightmare and the guard.
“Get him out of here,” Hades snapped to a third guard, who dragged the first away toward the helicopter. He turned toward the nightmare. “Don’t make me have to stop you, Erebus.”
Erebus snarled and charged Hades in an attempt to get at the injured guard. Hades extended his hand, and necromancy flew from it, slamming into the nightmare, who continued to try and get to the guard despite the incredible force pushing him back.
Mordred added his own air magic to what Hades was doing, and eventually the nightmare was flung back toward his grave.
“How did you stop your nightmare?” Selene asked Mordred.
“I didn’t. But then I wasn’t fired upon in the first ten seconds after waking.”
“That’s going to make things awkward,” Tommy said. He’d changed into his werebeast form, too, and he and Diana moved toward Erebus from opposite sides.
The nightmare looked between Diana and Tommy over and over again until they were only a dozen feet from him, and he unleashed his matter magic, slamming his hands down into the ground and causing it to explode all around him, throwing up more dirt and allowing him to sink into the shadows he’d created.
“That’s not good,” Tommy said, spitting out muck.
“I didn’t know he could do that,” Hades said. “He doesn’t have earth magic.”
“Matter magic,” Mordred said, scanning his surroundings.
“He destroyed those rock statues in Shadow Falls with a punch,” Selene said. “Said something about seeing weaknesses in nonliving things. He’s incredibly strong and fast, too.”
“Great,” Hades said.
“A nightmare can use a sorcerer’s magic to the best of its ability. Or pretty close,” Mordred said. “If Erebus is this powerful and he’s only just woken up, we need to stop him. Now. On the plus side, we don’t need to worry about him trying to escape.”
“Why?” Diana asked.
“Nightmares see a threat, they destroy a threat,” Hades said.
“So, Nate won’t leave until we’re dead?” Tommy asked. “Not exactly reassuring.”
Mordred noticed the shadows moving beneath their feet. “Move!” he shouted, and threw himself aside, colliding with Diana as Erebus burst forth from the shadows where he’d been, slamming a fist of magical air into the ground and causing it to tear apart.
Selene darted toward Erebus, taking the nightmare off his feet and dumping him on the ground, trying to hold him in place. “Calm down!” she shouted.
Lightning streaked down from the sky above, forcing Selene to throw herself aside lest it hit her. Instead, the lightning struck Erebus, who raised a hand in Selene’s direction. Selene changed into her dragon-kin form and created a shield of ice the lightning smashed into, obliterating it. She opened her mouth once more, and ice poured from it, crashing into Erebus and encasing him where he crouched, leaving only his head uncovered.
Tommy rushed forward and punched Erebus in the jaw with a blow that would have taken the head off anything human. Erebus’s head snapped aside, and he growled as the ice began to crack. Mordred poured more and more magical ice toward Erebus, helping to keep him still, but the fire magic pouring out of the nightmare’s hands was melting it as quickly as he and Selene could add new ice.
“Tenacious little fucker, isn’t he,” Diana said.
“You’ve met Nate before, yes?” Tommy asked.
The ice exploded, causing both Selene and Mordred to fall back. The nightmare stood still as a large sphere of air began to spin in the palm of each hand.
“Enough of this,” Hades said, and a blue-and-green glow lit up across the field, leaving only the part around Erebus’s feet empty. The nightmare turned toward Hades, staring with cold eyes as the glow around him intensified.
Erebus took one step, and the glow vanished as dozens of spirits lifted out of the ground to grab hold of Erebus, who swiped at them with a whip of fire to no effect.
“He can’t use his necromancy!” Mordred shouted. “This is a magic-only situation.”
Hades said nothing as more and more spirits took hold of the nightmare, dragging him to his knees and pinning him there.