Mordred walked away from the gargoyle and picked up Emily’s rifle. He went back to the gargoyle, who was still on his knees, and fired two shots into the creature’s chest, knocking him back onto the ground and cracking one of the stone plates that covered his heart. Mordred ejected the magazine and, finding it empty, tossed the rifle aside.
The gargoyle rolled to his side as Mordred sprinted toward his target and smashed a ball of frozen air into the cracked plate, forcing the magic inside, tearing the plate apart.
The gargoyle screamed in pain before Mordred drove a blade of light into its chest. He poured more and more light magic into the body of the gargoyle, tearing the beast apart from the inside, and in one motion Mordred leapt back, dragging all the magic he’d put into the gargoyle out of it. The gargoyle was torn to pieces as the light magic left the body, turning everything around it into a crimson mess.
Dozens of small balls of light flickered around in the air, until one by one they vanished, leaving Mordred alone next to what used to be a living creature.
“Not enough of him to pick up,” Wei said from behind Mordred.
“How long were you there?”
“Long enough to see you kill him, not long enough to help.”
“Morgan?”
“They took my blood. She’ll be okay, we hope.”
“Hope?”
“It depends on how much venom was in her, and how strong she is.”
“She’ll be fine, then. Where’s Emily?”
Mordred followed silently as Wei took him to find Emily, who was lying on her side, curled up next to a large pool of vomit. Wei touched her head, and Emily groaned, but after a few seconds she was no longer green.
“You here to kill me?” Emily asked.
“Yes,” Mordred told her. “You tried to kill my friend. I won’t have that.”
“You should keep me alive. You need me. Why not just let the poison kill me?”
“Because the poison I inflict doesn’t kill,” Wei said. “It makes you wish you were dead, but it’s not lethal. I’m not an assassin. Not anymore, anyway.”
Emily sat up and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “So, this is you allowing me some dignity?”
Mordred shook his head. “Not really, I just wanted to ask you a question. How many are up at the mountain?”
“Few dozen blood elves.”
“You got anything you’d like to say before you die?” Mordred asked.
“A confession?” Emily laughed. “Why bother?”
“Nate told me he was angry with you because he’d liked you. He felt betrayed. I kind of think he’d have liked you to die quick, with a clear conscience. Morgan is safe now, so I have a few minutes.”
She thought for a second before sighing. “You know what? I liked Nate. He was a good guy, and it sucked that I had to play him like that. I don’t like Mara. She’s helping Abaddon and her crew, by the way.” Emily laughed. “Doesn’t have a lot of fucking choice in the matter, though. Goddamn, it was funny to see her face when she realized she was a prisoner, not an ally. She’s such a fucking asshole. If you kill her, make her suffer. I would.”
“Anything else?” Wei asked. “Do we need to sit down for this? It sounds like you weren’t a good person.”
“I killed dozens for Hera, and that witches’ coven. It was a shame I had to kill Gilgamesh, though, but he couldn’t be trusted to keep his mouth shut. He was all about honor, and he knew too much. Still, a rifle round was never the way. He deserved to go out in combat, although at least he died after losing in combat, so there’s that. Elaine’s alive, by the way. She’s in the mountain somewhere. I thought they’d kill her, but that Abaddon chick is really keen on keeping her alive for some reason.”
“Abaddon?” Wei asked. “You mentioned her a moment ago. Is that the same Abaddon of old? One of the seven devils.”
“You know her?” Emily asked.
“By reputation, yes.” Wei looked over at Mordred. “If Abaddon is here, we’re going to want to get Elaine, Alan, and anyone else you need, and we need to leave. Soon.”
“She scary, I take it?” Mordred asked.
“She’s going to kill you all,” Emily said. “Like, all of you: your friends, family, their pets, the people who cut their hair. Literally anyone who knows you. She does not mess around.” She stared at Mordred for a heartbeat. “You want to know how I used magic to mask my scent, don’t you? I can tell. You keep me alive and maybe I’ll tell you.”
“No thanks, I’m good.”
“I’ll tell you all about real magic. The stuff you can’t even comprehend.”
Mordred created a thin blade of ice on the palm of his hand. He held it between two fingers. “Real magic. You don’t know anything about real magic.” He threw the blade of ice at Emily, catching her in the eye and piercing her brain. “And now you never will.”
Wei drew a dagger and jammed it into the witch’s heart. “I hear they can come back if you don’t destroy the heart,” she said.
A second later Mordred was running back to Morgan. He almost leapt down the cliff at one point, but thankfully his better judgment took over and he was soon back inside the prison and found Mac standing beside a still-unconscious Morgan.
“She’ll make it,” Mac told him. “She’s strong. Stronger than most.”
Mordred continued to look down at Morgan and smiled. “The strongest I know.”
CHAPTER 23
Mordred
The twenty minutes that passed after Morgan had been given the antivenom were some of the longest in Mordred’s exceptionally lengthy life. Apart from Mac and Morgan, everyone was outside the prison building, sitting on the steps of a hut as Fiona paced up and down.
Two minutes after that, Fiona demanded that everyone get going. “We don’t know what’s going on up there,” she said. “We need to get moving.”
“We can’t leave Morgan down here,” Remy said. “And we can’t exactly cart her up the bloody hill, either. She’s not strong enough to be moved like that. And it’s not like Mac is in fine fighting form, either. He needs a proper source of water to get healing. Lying in the snow is only a stopgap.”
“How about using the truck I brought?” Wei asked.
“Could Morgan be moved to the truck?” Mordred asked. He understood Fiona’s need to find her husband, but his thoughts were with Morgan, and he knew once up there he needed to ensure his attention wasn’t split.
“You know what’s strange?” Nabu asked. “There are no radios here. There is literally no way for these people to contact anyone up above.”
“They’re the sacrificial lambs,” Diana said. “Left here to be the first casualties. I assume that’s what the witch, Emily, was up there for.”
“Waiting for us,” Remy said. “I’ve looked around at some of the bodies here, and they’re a mixture of human mercenaries and some of the prisoners from The Hole. No one with any real power or influence died here today.”
Mordred looked his way. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Morgan is going to be fine,” Remy assured him. “She’s not exactly the type to just pack it all in. She kept you under lock and key for over a thousand years, and every single time you escaped to go do whatever craziness you needed to do, she hunted you down. Doesn’t strike me as the behavior of someone who gives up easily.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”