“We know this My Liege character is in fact several people,” Nabu said. “Baldr, Kay, Siris, and Hera; all of these were called ‘My Liege’ at some point. We know that all of these people are working together, presumably with Merlin’s backing considering he allowed Hera to kill Brutus and take London. What we don’t know is who the head of this . . . cabal is.”
“And you think that this cabal—which is a good a name for them as any other—has taken Elaine and planned these acts of terrorism all across the world to destabilize Avalon even further than it already is?” I had to admit it sounded like a good plan—causing enough mayhem and murder across the globe, and removing those people who would be able to bring stability to an organization that is disorganized and under threat. Arthur could only do so much having been in charge for a few years. “Divide and conquer.”
“That’s our best guess, yes,” Olivia said.
“Did you know about Merlin?” I asked. “That he’s hidden himself away in his tower? That he tried to kill people at a council meeting?”
Olivia nodded. “It came up, yes. About three days before Elaine vanished.”
“Arthur didn’t mention Elaine going missing?” Irkalla asked.
I shook my head. “No. Maybe he thought the same as you, that I’d rush off to find her.”
“We want you to find Elaine, though,” Olivia said. “We’ll deal with everything else regarding these attacks, and Merlin if need be. If he’s helping, or orchestrating everything, we need to stop him. But in the meantime we want you and Mordred to search for Elaine and those we sent to find her. And we want you to do it covertly.”
“Yeah, I get it. Who’s coming with me?”
“Diana, Zamek, and I assume Selene and Remy,” Fiona said. “And me, obviously. My husband is out there, and I intend to find him.”
I was about to reply when the phone on Tommy’s desk went off. Tommy got up and walked over to answer it.
“I’m in an important meeting,” he said.
There was a pause while someone said something on the other end, but I didn’t want to use my air magic to have the words carried over to me.
“No,” Tommy said.
Another pause.
“Yes, okay, I’ll be right down.” He hung up the phone and turned back to us. “I need to see someone in reception apparently. There’s someone there who is upset and will only speak to me. I’ll be back momentarily.”
“I’m coming with you,” I told him, getting to my feet.
“Nate, you don’t need to,” Tommy said. “It’s probably just a client who doesn’t know anyone else here. It’s fine.”
“Someone tried to kill Mordred,” I persevered. “I’m coming.”
Tommy nodded, and as I turned around, I found Zamek behind me. “I’m coming, too. Don’t fucking argue.”
Diana got to her feet. “I’ll keep you all safe.”
“It’s not a bloody outing,” Tommy said. He sighed. “Fine, we’ll be back in a moment.”
The four of us left his office and made our way over the walkway to the first tower. We were about halfway across when I saw a huge articulated lorry barrel through the security post and crash into several parked cars. The occupants, all wearing body armor and carrying guns, spilled out of the back of the truck, shooting at anyone close by.
I was already sprinting before my brain caught up with my body, and reached the lift the same time as Tommy, Zamek, and Diana. I considered using my magic to blast the glass apart and jump out, but I wasn’t certain my magic would be strong enough inside the building to do anything close to that, and before I thought to ask, I was already in one of the lifts going down toward the reception below.
Security inside the reception was already in response to the threat outside, and a low growl from beside me indicated that Tommy had turned into his werewolf beast form, before the lift stopped and the doors parted. Tommy and Diana were first out of the lift, with Diana turning into her werebear beast form within seconds and bounding out toward the exit.
Gunfire could be heard outside of the building, and several people were lying on the pavement. It was impossible to tell how many were injured and how many were dying or dead.
Tommy and Diana ran through the doors to the outside, engaging with the enemy while Zamek and I went over to Matias, who was talking to two guards flanking a large man with a black hoodie and shaved head.
“Matias, all okay?” I asked, eyeing the stranger.
Matias nodded.
“We’re going to need weapons,” I said, leaving no room for conversation on the subject. “We don’t know who is what out there.”
“I’ll get them,” he said, and turned away.
The tall man spun away from the reception and two guards beside him, sprinting toward the exit. I moved to intercept, but he quickly shrugged off his hoodie, dropping it to the floor, revealing glyphs tattooed all over his body. I was already creating a shield of air large and dense enough to try and wrap around the coming explosion when the man detonated. The shield kept the force contained, but it also managed to find a weakness, the point of origin—me. The shockwave tore through my shield of air hard enough to throw me back over the reception desk and into the wall behind me. I crashed to the ground, my vision darkening, and my head swimming while my magic quickly repaired my destroyed eardrums. When I could hear again, all that came to me were the sounds of fighting all around me.
CHAPTER 4
Nate Garrett
Nate, Nate, are you okay?”
I looked up at the face of Grayson, who was kneeling over me, an expression of concern on his face. Speckles of blood sat in his trimmed white beard, and judging from the lack of bleeding anywhere I could see on his face or bald head, I was sure the blood didn’t belong to him.
“What happened?” I asked. The last I remembered was hearing gunshots and explosions before I was smashed into a brick wall.
“You tried to get up, fell back down again, and blacked out for a few seconds. You suffered a fairly serious wallop to the back of your skull, and you’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”
“It was like every piece of magical power was leaving his body at the same time.” I rolled onto my front and got back to a kneeling position. “Never seen anything like it.”
I looked over at the fighting, which continued outside.
“This is bad,” I said, grabbing hold of the remains of the reception desk and hoisting myself up.
“You should not be walking,” Grayson said. “Or moving in any way. You’re lucky you don’t have a fractured skull.”
“It’s too dense to fracture,” I said with a smile.
“You should know there’s blood over your face, so you smiling is pretty damn awful.”
I stopped smiling. “Sorry.” My head continued to swim for a few seconds, and I wondered why my magic wasn’t doing more to heal me. I looked down at my wrist and found that the bracelet was partially broken.
“Help me outside,” I told Grayson.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Not enough magic in here to heal me. I need to get outside to do it.”
“People are trying to kill you out there.”
“Me and everyone else. Beggars can’t be choosers, and probably other useful sayings.”
Grayson put my arm around his neck. “You hit your head again and you’re going to sound like Mordred.”
“Nah, I’ll need someone to shoot me in the head first.”
“There are people with guns outside. I’m sure they’ll help you.”