“It means he was turned into a bomb,” Zamek said. “A walking magical explosion. The magic was built up inside of him and contained before a trigger was used to release it. My guess was his touching one of the runes with his hands did it. I have never seen anything like this before, didn’t even know it was possible.”
“So, someone out there knows these runes just as well as Nate,” Nabu said. “And they’re using that knowledge to create people who explode with enough power to destroy buildings.”
“Only sorcerers,” I said. “I don’t think it would work with anyone else. Maybe elementals at a push, but their power is different and this isn’t an element—it’s just pure magical power. I think whatever magic these sorcerers know is changed into pure energy and then detonated. Whoever did this is not someone we want running around. Those dwarven runes were hidden for a reason.”
“Even from their own people,” Zamek said without any hint of annoyance. “I only knew a few of them, and I don’t know of anyone besides Nate who knows them all. And it wasn’t like he sat down and studied them. They were forced into his head by a blood-magic curse.”
“The one I took into the shadow realm was a prisoner of some kind. He must have agreed to attack us in exchange for his freedom. I got him to communicate without needing to speak, before anyone asks how I did it. I’m wondering if any of his friends were of a similar background.”
“I’ll check for any kind of prison escape,” Olivia said, getting to her feet with haste. “Helios must have escaped from The Hole. If he managed it, there’s no telling how many more prisoners went with him. That’s bad news for everyone.” She sat behind a desk at the rear of the office, and picked up the phone.
“How do you even escape from that place?” Morgan asked. “It’s an underground prison on an island in the North Atlantic. Even if you got out of the prison, it’s at least an hour’s flight from there to the nearest country.”
“And after the trouble we had when we were there last, the security was meant to increase,” Remy said.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Olivia said, the phone handset cradled between her shoulder and ear as she wrote something down on paper in front of her. “This is not good news, people.”
“I’m going to the morgue,” Irkalla said. “I want to look at the blood-curse marks on the dead bodies. If someone has screwed with the minds, maybe my necromancy can try and use their spirits to piece things back together. Or at least the spirits might be able to give us something else to go on.”
“Be careful,” Morgan said. “There’s no telling what was done to their minds.”
“I’ll be fine,” Irkalla said with a gentle smile. Although many thousands of years older than Morgan, Irkalla never got annoyed with people giving advice.
“I’ll join you,” Grayson said. “Just in case.”
Irkalla and Grayson left the room, and Nabu sat in the newly empty seat beside me. “This isn’t over, Nate.”
“Not by a long shot. But Elaine is missing, someone is attacking humans, and now they’re attacking us.”
“Speaking of Elaine, what’s happening with that?” Mordred asked. “Do we have more information than her last whereabouts?”
“No,” Fiona admitted.
“She knew that people within Avalon were working against them,” Mordred said. “She’s known that for a long time. Maybe she got a little too close to who those people were.”
“You were meeting her because of the prophecy, yes?” I asked.
Mordred nodded. “I know you don’t think I should be trying to stop something that might not happen, but I need to, Nate. I need to do something.”
I nodded. I understood completely—I just wasn’t sure it was going to do any good. “Take Morgan, Remy, Fiona, and Diana with you.”
“I’ll go, too,” Nabu said. “We have no way of knowing where Elaine is.”
“Where was the rescue team last seen?” Morgan asked.
“My husband was last seen in Moscow,” Fiona said. “That was his last communication. All it said was he believed they were being watched, and would keep us informed. Then nothing.”
“A trip to Russia?” Mordred asked. “Haven’t been there for a while. I know a few people who might be able to help if Elaine is in Russia. We’ll still go to her house first, though, and have a look, just in case someone missed something the first time around.”
“I assume you’ll be going after Helios?” Selene asked me as Olivia’s mobile rang and she excused herself from the room.
I shook my head. “He needs to be stopped, but it’s clear that whatever he’s up to, at least part of it is to try and keep us occupied. If I were Hera or Baldr or any of the others in this cabal and I was launching attacks on humanity, I’d want the people who would try to stop it as preoccupied as possible. Helios is meant to keep me preoccupied. Burn my house down, attack my friends—he wants me after him. I assume the people he works for want that, too. Otherwise why break him out of prison? And we all know if he got free, he didn’t do it alone, so instead of playing their game, I’m going to completely ignore him. I’m going to call Sky and see if there’s been any activity where she is. This cabal attacked Tommy, so they might try to attack Hades, too. But first I’m going to go home and see if I can salvage anything I might need, and then I’m going to need a plane.”
“I’m going with you,” Selene said.
“Me, too,” Zamek told us. “No arguments.”
I looked over at Tommy. “Before you say anything, you need to stay here.”
Tommy nodded. “If they attack again . . .”
“I know.”
“I want to help, Nate.”
“It’s okay. You can help by making sure your people are okay. You’re our eyes and ears on this one. We’ll all need to be kept in the loop as to what’s happening. If these attacks on humans escalate, the humans might start thinking they need to fight back. If Avalon loses control of the human leaders, then things are going to break down fast.” I knew that given a choice, Tommy would be right beside me, storming off into whatever battle came my way, but as a director of a company, and one that was recently attacked, he had more pressing priorities.
Olivia entered the office, walked over to the desk, picked up the phone and threw it across the room, where it shattered as it hit the wall. “We have a problem,” she said, her face ashen.
“We have a lot of them,” Mordred said. “Sometimes I think we collect problems.”
“If you compare our problems to any video games, I’m going to hit you.” Morgan smiled while she spoke, but I was certain she meant every word.
“There has been no contact with The Hole for three days,” Olivia said.
“No one thought to check?” Tommy asked.
“Apparently not, no.” Olivia picked up a cup and threw it at the dent in the wall she’d just made with the phone.
“You want to stop throwing things?” Tommy asked.
“Not really,” Olivia said. “Damn it. The Hole has been compromised. I’m sending people up there to check, but I’d take it as given there was a mass breakout.”