I had chosen to take a long bath instead, hoping the soak would help clear my head. Then I had spent a few hours reading a few of the gathered books on King Arthur we had collected. My frustration had quickly returned as I found nothing useful in the stories.

This Knight saved this damsel. That knight fought that monster. Lady of the Lake. Merlin. Guinevere. Blah blah blah.

Not that they weren’t fun stories, but when I was looking for hard facts, they lost their value.

Now, I sat on bleachers packed with a hundred or so Freaks from St. Louis. Wolves, dragons, robed mystery guests, vampires, and a mess of Greeks from Achilles’ bar. A fiery sunset hung on the distant horizon like a ball of molten fire. A ring of flickering torches around us held supreme darkness at bay. I’d never really learned what was beyond the ring of torches, but I knew monsters lived out there. When I had first met Grimm, he had been hanging out in there, murdering things, before introducing himself to me by attacking me.

Luckily, since I was the last Temple, his horn hadn’t harmed me. Something about unicorns not being able to harm virgins or the last of a bloodline. I definitely wasn’t saved by my v-card, because I had misplaced that thing a long time ago.

Grimm and I were now pals. Hell, he was my Ride. Capital R. Because I was the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse – the Horseman of Hope. At least, I had been offered the job. Because the Four Horsemen were dicks, they hadn’t told me whether I was officially a Horseman or not, but I definitely had some new powers as a result. My magic could turn white with Heavenly Fire of some kind, basically, supercharging my wizard’s power with Bible Juice.

And if I put the Mask on – which was currently disguised as a coin on a necklace hanging from my throat – my skin turned to some kind of diamond grit and I grew skeletal wings and claws. But that had only happened once.

Death had told me that I would know when the position became official, and since I was still questioning it, I considered myself still on the bench while the Varsity Team managed the field. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a destroyer of men during Armageddon.

But maybe that was what the whole Catalyst thing was about. My unique birth in Fae.

I really needed to get some damned answers from my parents. They had read an old text while on a trip in England, and it had led them to their brilliant plan of robbing the Fae Queens for that Hammer and Hourglass. I needed to find out what they learned. What they read. What events led to my birth.

Because all of those super powerful gods and legends – Pandora, Achilles, Shiva, Ganesh, and basically anyone I had ever met who had lived a few centuries or more – spoke of a War that was coming. The All War.

And if I was this Catalyst, and possibly a Fifth Horseman…

I had never been a fan of coincidences.

“Tomorrow,” I reminded myself under my breath.

I felt those beside me shift uncertainly at my random comment. I looked up at them, ready to laugh it off, and found them averting their eyes. Some of them even grimaced, as if not wanting to be seen near me. Some even got up and walked away.

I opened my mouth to ask a question and then stopped. Alucard had mentioned White Fang turning people against me, but I didn’t want anyone knowing he had done so. Or knowing that I cared if they were turning against me, because even that might play into White Fang’s plans. So, I kept my trap shut and tried to ignore the veiled glances I was getting from the various Freaks sitting in the stands outside the Dueling Grounds.

I let my eyes scan the crowd outside the ring. Dirty Gerty was here with her Council, and Tory wasn’t far away from her. Not a part of her circle, but hovering just outside it and looking agitated. I didn’t spot anyone else I recognized – or, at least no one that I personally knew or was friends with, but I hadn’t seen everyone. And with the tight crowd, I would have had to walk the perimeter of the ring to get a look at every face. Not caring to do so, I stayed in my seat, wishing I had a friend to chat with while I waited.

But I knew I would be poor company, so hadn’t bothered to ask anyone. I had considered asking Callie, but with her friendship with Roland, and the fact that he had been in the meeting with Alucard, I had decided not to. I also hadn’t wanted to bring her into the politics apparently bubbling up in St. Louis. Especially not if her name was already being mentioned by this White Fang as another concern. I definitely didn’t need everyone seeing us together and perhaps making her an even bigger target.

All this pleasant drama condensed into a white-hot fire in my belly.

I was ready to fight.

Leonidas and Achilles were currently sparring in the ring, sparks flying as they fought spear to spear. They both sported gashes and cuts, but neither looked near exhaustion. They were actually laughing as they spun, twisted, lunged, and leaped into the air, spears whistling around in a lethal blur before whipping out in a flurry of stabs that rarely seemed to strike home.

An even match, or close enough to it. This fight could go on forever.

As if coming to the same conclusion, Achilles finally lowered his spear and stepped back, grinning at Leonidas. “Let’s let someone else play for a while. They didn’t come here to watch us fight for four hours.”

Leonidas grunted. “I’ll get you one of these days, Myrmidon,” but a whisper of a smile split his bearded cheeks. Achilles rolled his eyes good naturedly before turning to Asterion and signaling for him to announce the next contenders.

The Minotaur glanced down at a paper in his hands, rubbing a sausage-sized finger down the list before stopping and grinning. He lifted his head to the crowd.

“Nate Temple!”

“About fucking time,” I muttered, climbing to my feet.

I entered the ring like a starving lion. At this point, it wasn’t even about winning or losing. I just wanted to hit something. And since no one could actually die at the Dueling Grounds, I could cut loose without consequences.

The crowd was eerily silent, as if not wanting to be heard cheering for me. This only proved Alucard’s warning about White Fang. I looked at Asterion, wondering why he hadn’t called my contender. He was frowning at me.

“You want two on one?” he asked in a low tone.

I nodded.

“That’s… unfortunate.”

I ignored him, walking to the center of the ring, wondering which two unlucky bastards were about to get bitch-smacked by one grumpy Master Temp—

“Raego Slate!” Asterion bellowed.

This time, the crowd went even quieter. But only for a moment. Then they burst out in a frenzied roar.

I spun to see Raego, the Dragon King, step into the ring, frowning at me. He didn’t look pleased at the bad luck. I wasn’t necessarily happy with the pairing either, because Raego was a badass and I really didn’t want to lose against him. But… he was also involved in this shit show going on in town. Somehow. And his whole investigation thing with Tory smelled fishy.

Asterion let out a blood-curdling Moo, silencing the crowd as he held up a hand. The crowd hushed, murmuring to each other in small pockets, wondering what Asterion was waiting for.

“And… Alucard Morningstar!”

The roar of the crowd was deafening this time, and a red film of rage washed over my eyes as I saw the Daywalker enter the ring beside Raego. He also didn’t look pleased, but he was masking it for the crowd, not daring to show anything in his eyes. Because if he did, it would only show his friendship with me, which he apparently no longer wanted.

“Authentic,” I said loudly, but casually, reminding him of the word he had used. I studied the two of them lazily. “This will be fun. The location could be better,” I added with a dark smile.

A subtle hint that it was unfortunate we were about to fight in a place where none of us could actually die. Raego and Alucard’s faces grew harder.

“We three kings…” I sang in a soft tone. Then I flicked my hands, not even glancing down as white whips of fiery lightning erupted from my palms. They were made of pure magic, and since this fight was going to be much harder than I had bargained for, I wasn’t about to play games. They wanted to show the city they could stand up to me? That they were big boys?

Okay.

The whips scorched the earth as I strutted closer in a fluid stroll.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” I said.

And then I struck out at both of them simultaneously to the sound of the roaring crowd.