“You okay?” I asked.
He nodded just as a second RPG round came through the window. The blast threw both Galahad and me into the nearest wall. We landed with enough force to knock the wind out of me as I concentrated on keeping the shield up. Two more explosions came in quick succession, and part of the building collapsed, causing the floor to give way. Galahad and I fell onto the front entrance of The Mill, spilling out into the street as a large part of the building fell onto us.
As the building covered us both, I heard gunfire, followed by the squealing of tires as a car sped away.
CHAPTER 28
Nate Garrett
This is officially the worst meeting ever,” I said as several tons of building above me shifted slightly, forcing me to change my air-magic shield so Galahad and I wouldn’t get crushed.
“I’ve had better,” Galahad said. He had a nasty-looking cut above one eye, which had bled a lot, but otherwise he appeared to be uninjured.
“Any chance you can use your alchemy to get rid of this rock?”
Galahad looked around us. “I can try. You’ll have to remove your air magic, though.”
“It’s not exactly giving us a lot of chances to get this right.”
“No, one wrong move and we both get squashed.”
“You are not making me feel better.”
Galahad rolled onto his stomach as he searched for a way out. “Can you raise your shield just a few inches?”
“Probably, why?”
“If I can touch those bricks there, I can hopefully use them to connect to all of the weight bearing down on us. The thing is, if there is anything above the bricks that hasn’t fallen yet, and I start moving stuff around, we might have a bit of a problem.”
“Define ‘problem.’”
“The rest of the building might fall on us.”
“That’s a bit worse than just a bit of a problem.”
“Can you use your magic to blast the debris away?”
“I can, but I have no idea what I’m blasting the debris into.”
“So, we’re not in the best situation.”
“We’re alive—that’s something,” I said, trying to point out the only good thing I could think of. “I heard gunfire and saw that Hellequin dick.”
“I heard the car leave in a hurry.”
“Arthur was taken by Hellequin.”
“They’ll keep him alive,” Galahad said. “Too valuable to kill. Either way, this Hellequin bloke has upped the stakes somewhat.”
“King Galahad!” someone shouted from beyond the rubble around us.
“We’re in here!” Galahad shouted back.
Parts of the rubble were quickly moved, revealing more and more daylight until Galahad and I were able to stand and I could remove my magical shield. Rebecca and several guards were still moving parts of the building when I looked up and saw that the entire front of the structure was gone. Everybody had multiple cuts of various sizes, and most had their clothing torn and were covered in dust.
“Those RPGs did a lot of damage,” I said.
“Not just them,” Rebecca said. “Two sorcerers ran into the building and detonated their magic. I’ve never seen anything like it. They just ran in and blew themselves up. Why would they do that?”
“Based on what I’ve seen so far, they either didn’t have a lot of choice, or they’re fanatical,” I told her.
“Did you see where Arthur went?” Galahad asked.
Rebecca shook her head, sat at the remains of a nearby table, pulled a pair of sneakers out from under it, and put them on her bare feet. “There was a helicopter that took off soon after too. I’m guessing it was used to drop off some of the attackers.”
“Did we lose anyone?”
“Eight are injured, three seriously enough that I had them taken down to the medical facility close to the realm gate. No one is going to die, though.”
Galahad sighed with relief. “That’s something at least.”
“Any damage to the realm gate?” I asked.
“None of them got close enough,” Rebecca said. “If that was their intention, I’m not sure why they’d have even bothered trying. But I think they were after Arthur. That masked Hellequin guy bundled him into a car. They opened fire on us. Two cars, both black SUVs, and enough firepower to make us pause.”
“I’m thinking Galahad was their aim, too. They waited until almost the exact moment Arthur left the building to launch an attack, and there’s no way it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. They’d been waiting for their chance for a while.”
“That’s my thought, too,” Rebecca said.
“We need to get back to Shadow Falls,” Galahad said.
The three of us ran through the remains of The Mill without stopping until we reached the realm gate. “Stay safe,” Galahad told Rebecca. “Thank you for all you’ve done here.”
“You, too,” she told him, and we stepped through the realm gate back into Shadow Falls, where we were greeted by Harrison and several of his people.
“King Galahad, we heard you’d been attacked,” Harrison said, clearly unnerved by what he’d been told.
“This Hellequin and his cohorts decided to kidnap Arthur and try to kill me,” Galahad quickly explained. “Thankfully Nate was there to keep the building from falling on me. What’s been happening here?”
“Lee escaped custody,” Harrison said. “He attacked one of the guards who got too close, and tore his throat out. We’d used a huge amount of sedatives on him and thought it was safe to keep him in a locked room, but he managed to use some sort of shadow magic, and when the guard went to investigate, Lee killed him.”
“Do you know where he’s gone?” I asked.
“We had eyes on him as he ran back toward the ruins, but with the information that you’d been attacked, I didn’t want to send a contingent of guards to retrieve him.”
“I’ll go,” I said. “I never did figure out why those ruins were so damn important, and it gives me a chance to finally kill the bastard. No screwing around this time.”
“Anything else?” Galahad asked.
“No, my lord,” Harrison said. “Apart from that, it’s been quiet. We followed security protocols and had both realm gates shut down until they were activated on the other end by a known ally. No one coming or going.”
Galahad set off through the temple, with me and Harrison behind. “Thank you,” Harrison said. “You saved his life again.”
“He’d have saved himself if I hadn’t been there. I didn’t do anything special, I assure you.”
“Even so. Thank you.”
We reached the mouth of the temple and looked down over the city of Solomon. “Avalon will hear of Arthur’s kidnapping, and they will come for us,” Galahad said. “They will not listen to reason; they will want retribution.”
“So, what are you going to do with a million people?” I asked.
Before Galahad could answer, explosions rocked the city, causing several buildings on the outskirts to topple. Clouds of smoke and dust were thrown into the air.
“What the hell was that?” Harrison asked as the temple shook so violently parts of it collapsed.