Chapter Eighteen

 

In the case of Midas’ (no last name given) death, his estate and property will be dispersed according to his Last Will and Testament.

(Note:  As he inexplicably has no Last Will and Testament as of the writing of this Contract, Guinevere Pendragon will help him draft one as soon as possible.  Until then, his verbal instructions are that his entire estate pass to Mr. Trystan Airbourne, with the understanding that the man: “Give it all to who I’d want to give it to.  He knows who I mean.  And --f*ck-- tell him to buy himself a really fancy axe or something fun.  Live a little.”)

Clause 18- Instances of Midas’ (no last name given) Death

 

“GO!”  Midas grabbed Gwen by the arm, dragging her back from the cell.

He recognized the bomb on sight.  The enchanted device was adhered to the stone wall, a counter ticking off the seconds until it detonated and magical energy blasted out in a shockwave of destruction.

“Oh my God!”  Gwen’s eyes were huge.  “Avalon.  Midas, I have to get Avalon!”

Midas was already reaching for his phone, stabbing in the security code for the house.  Instantly, the alarm began to blare.  “Trystan has her.”  He herded Gwen down the hall, dialing the gryphon’s number.  “He’ll get her out.”

“I’ll get her out!”  Gwen bellowed back.  “You think I’ll leave my baby…?”  Midas passed her phone, cutting her off.  “What is this?”  She automatically put it to her ear, even though it was on speakerphone.  “Hello?”

“I have her.”  Trystan said on the other end.

“There’s a bomb.”  Gwen’s voice broke on a sob, as close to hysteria as Midas had ever heard her.  “Get her out of the house.  Please.”

“We’re already out.”

Her voice rose even higher.  “How in the hell could you already be out?  The alarm went off three seconds ago!”

“I can fly.”

“Hi, Mommy!”  Avalon’s voice called.  “We’s in the sky!”

“Oh God.”  Gwen closed her eyes, swaying like she felt lightheaded.  Her hand grabbed onto Midas’ arm to steady herself.  “Thank you.”  She looked up at Midas.  “He got her out.”

“Good.  That just leaves us, then.”

“Keep her safe.”  Gwen told Trystan frantically.  “Just keep her safe.  Please.”

“I have the child.  You focus on Midas.  We have a deal, woman.  We protect them first.”

Midas scowled.  “What the hell…?”

“I have him.”  Gwen interrupted.  “Don’t worry.  I won’t let anything happen to Midas.”

Midas grabbed the phone back from her.  “You told my wife to protect me, you son of a bitch?  Are you out of your goddamn mind?”

“Get out now.  Yell at me later.”  Trystan hung up.

“Crazy, fucking lunatic.”  Midas glowered at the phone and then at Gwen.  “Do not ever protect me over yourself.  Ever.  The only thing that matters to me is keeping you alive.”  Instead of heading back towards the elevator, Midas headed the other way.  “We don’t have time to get back upstairs.  We need to go through the tunnels.”

“You built tunnels into your dungeon?”

“All the best castles have tunnels.”  Midas reached the end of the hall and pressed against a sequence of stone blocks.  A hidden door swung open and he pushed her through it.  “They had to go on the bottom floor, so my architect tried to tell me it was them or the dungeon.  I opted for both, of course.  And then hired a new architect.”

“Who I’m sure you didn’t listen to, either.”

“It’s my house.”  Midas said simply.  He clicked on the flashlight app and gave her the phone again.  “You have to hurry.  If the bomb goes off, this tunnel could collapse.”  He’d paid a fortune to have it built with the finest materials, but he had no idea how strong the bomb might be.  “I’m going to go see if I can defuse the damn thing.”

“What?!”  Gwen’s fingers gripped his sleeve, when he tried to duck back into the hall.  “No!  You’re not going back there!”

“I have to.  It could take out half my house.”

“So you’ll build another one.  You’ll probably do that anyway, the minute you start getting bored.”  She reached around him to slam the door closed, sealing them into the tunnel.  “Do you even know anything about magical explosives?”

“Well, I read a book once…”

“Now’s not a great time to show off how smart you are.”  She interrupted.  “You’re worth more than a big house, Midas.  Worth more than some expensive furniture.”

“But, it’s my big house.”  The only home he’d ever had.  Midas was so angry that he wasn’t thinking straight.  He knew that, but it didn’t help to calm him down.  “My expensive furniture.  I built and bought and designed every piece of…”

“And I’m your wife.”

He stopped short, staring down at her.

“I’m your wife, Midas.”  She repeated firmly and then she frowned, like she recalled the circumstances of their wedding.  “I mean, maybe it’s just a fake marriage…”

“It’s not a fake marriage.”

She kept talking.  “But I still care about you.  Very much.  And I won’t leave you to die.”

He felt himself hesitate.  “I’ll be right behind you.”

“You’ll be right beside me, even if it means we both stay here.”

“You can’t stay here.  Are you crazy?  There’s a bomb about to go off, Gwen!”

“Exactly.”

Midas squeezed his eyes shut.  Fuck.  He had a lot of confidence in his ability to figure things out.  There were six minutes left on that timer.  He was pretty sure he could defuse the bomb in six minutes.  …But, what if he couldn’t.  Was the house or anything in it worth the risk?

No.

Not if it put Gwen in danger.  She was more valuable than anything else in the world.  Since she wouldn’t leave without him, then Midas had to go.  There was no other choice.

“Fine.”  He seized her arm and propelled her down the tunnel.  “You owe me a hell of a lot of priceless antiques, though.”

“You can add it to my bill.”

The passageway was long and rounded, with steel-tiled walls that rose from a neatly paved floor.  Midas had seen no reason to commission a substandard tunnel, so he’d even added electricity to it.  It took him a second to locate the switch, but, once he hit it, recessed sconces blinked on in a seemingly never-ending row.  The metal surface of the walls shone like chrome in the atmospheric light.  They also illuminated some priceless statues of naked mermaids and a swimming pool he forgotten he’d built.

Gwen glanced up at him, unimpressed with the spectacle of excess.  “Really?”

Midas shrugged.  “I was assured it’s the best.”

She rolled her eyes and headed down the corridor.  “You really need to find a better outlet for your shopaholism.  If you’re going to compulsively spend gold, you could find more worthwhile ways to do it.”

“In about five minutes, I’m going to be spending a fortune to put a roof back over our heads.  That seems worthwhile.”

“It depends on how gilded the roof is.”  Gwen still had his cellphone, the flashlight bouncing off the walls in the dim glow of the lamps.  “Midas?”

“Yes?”

“How do you think a bomb got into that cell?”

“Someone put it there, of course.  Someone I know is working with the Scarecrow, freed Percival, and wants us dead.  Someone who knows my house well enough to slip in undetected and figure out the code to the cell.  Hell, they probably used these tunnels to do it.”

“Percival could have had the bomb hidden on him.”

Midas shook his head.  “Not only did Trystan and I both search the asshole, but he was locked in a room, with two broken arms.  He had to have help.  Someone betrayed me.”

Gwen made a face.  “I know it won’t make much of a difference, since it’s your house that’s about to explode, but the person probably thought he was just betraying me.  I don’t have the best reputation when it comes to keeping husbands alive.  He might think he’s saving you from me.”

“I don’t want to be saved.  I’m quite content in your Good little clutches.”

Gwen sent him a smile.

“Don’t be alone with anybody except me and Trystan.”  Midas continued.  “Someone I know is working against us.  And if that someone thinks they can get away with playing double-agent, they’re sadly fucking mistaken.”  His accent was getting thicker, his anger boiling below the surface.  “It’s got to be one of those morons from the Round Table.  They were here for the party, so they could have figured out a way back in.”  His eyes narrowed.  “I’ll bet it’s Dower.  I should have killed the wolf back in share circle.”

“No.”  Gwen’s voice was suddenly very sure.  “It was Jill.”

“Jill?  I mean, I know she’s pissed about Arthur’s death, but…”  He stopped mid-sentence, spotting the figure standing in the tunnel ahead of them.

Jill.

“She ruined my happily ever after with Arthur.”  There was a two-shot revolver in her hand and it shook with the force of her emotion.  “Now you’re trying to steal my business, because of her, Midas.  I can’t let her get away with it.”

“Midas isn’t going to foreclose on your mortgages.”  Gwen said, her gaze on the gun.  “He’s way too kind to ever do something like that.”

“Bullshit!”  Jill shouted.  “He’s a villain, just like me.”  Her eyes were wild as she looked at him.  “I thought we were friends, but you took everything from me, just so you could fuck Arthur’s wife.”

“She’s my wife.”  Midas shifted so he was in front of Gwen. “Just mine.”

“She’s brainwashed you.  It’s magic or something.  Everything that’s ever gone wrong in my life is because of her.”

“It’s hard to see you as the victim, considering you’re trying to kill us.”  Gwen snapped.

Jill tried to level the gun at her around Midas’ huge form, but he wasn’t moving.  “Jill, your blaming the wrong person.” He kept his tone very even, using her name to try and reach her.  “I’m the one who threatened to call in all your debts.”

“For her!”  Jill spat out.  “You did it for her.  It’s always about her.  I was walking out of here, my job done, and I heard her horrible voice echoing, pulling me back.  She can’t even let me have this.”  She shook her head.  “How do you not see it, Midas?  Even now you’re protecting her.”

Midas certainly couldn’t dispute that.  He kept his body between Gwen and the shaking weapon.  “Where did the bomb come from?”  He asked instead.

“The Scarecrow.  He has a price on your head.  He’s offering a free pass to any Baddie willing to stand against you.”  She shrugged.  “So I thought… Why not?  I remembered these tunnels from your housewarming party and the Scarecrow was only too happy to supply the explosives.”

“He wants Gwen alive, though.  I’m sure he told you that.”  The lunatic’s whole plan involved marrying the Queen of Camelot and stealing the throne.

“Well, I got him Percival back, instead.”  Jill retorted.  “A bit of a surprise, but it should be enough to smooth over his anger.  And if it’s not, I’ll just deal with him, too.  I’m done with men walking all over me.”  She arched a brow.  “I have to look out for myself, now.  It’s not as if anyone else is going to do it.  Not since she killed Arthur.”

“Arthur’s death was an accident.”  Gwen said quietly.  Her hand came up to rest on Midas’ back, tapping lightly with all five of her fingers.

He had to stop himself from looking back at her in confusion.

“You killed him and we all know it!” Jill raged, gesturing with the gun.  You see?”  She looked at Midas, like she expected him to be on her side.  “Even now she’s trying to spoil things!  I was going to be queen!  Arthur promised me!  He would have left her and married me, but she killed him before he got the chance.”

Gwen made an aggravated sound, as if this was an old argument.  “I was married to Arthur for years before you even met him, Jill.  If anything you were the one trying to take him away.  And I never interfered, because I didn’t really care if the two of you wanted to have an affair…”

“He was my True Love!”  Jill screamed.  “You were the other woman, not me!”

Shit.

Arthur had been Jill’s True Love?  That was really, really bad news.

Jill had loved the bastard and she believed Gwen had murdered him.  What would Midas do if someone murdered his True Love?  How fucking off-the-rails would he be?  How far would go to get revenge?  Blowing up a house would be nothing.

He would burn the world to ash, hoping to die in the blaze.

His eyes met Jill’s in a silent moment of understanding.  Gwen thought the woman would eventually come out of her grief.  She was wrong.  No Good folk had any idea what Jill was feeling.  The loss and the pain.  For God only knew how long, she’d been all alone.  Then, she’d found magic, only to have it snatched away.  She would kill everybody she deemed responsible for sending her back into the abyss.  Any villain would.

There was nothing he could say to stop her.

“True Love?”  Gwen repeated in surprise.

“I loved him.”  Jill’s voice cracked.  “I loved him so much and now he’s gone.”

“I’m sorry, Jill.”  Midas actually meant that.  “There can be nothing worse than losing your True Love.  I can’t imagine the darkness.” He didn’t want to, either.

Gwen tapped his back with four fingers.

“Arthur swore that he’d leave her.” Jill continued, willing him to understand.  “He promised me that we would be together.  He would have made me his queen, if he’d just had more time.”

No.  Arthur never would’ve done that.  Midas knew it and, deep down, so did Jill.  No Good folk would put a villain on Camelot’s throne.  He was actually confused as to why Gwen hadn’t given up on the notion of making him king, yet.  He kept expecting her to realize it was a hopeless idea.

Behind him, Gwen tapped his back with three fingers and Midas realized she was counting down to something.  He had no clue what she was planning, but he was willing to go with it.  It was probably better than his current idea of just making Jill shoot him twice, so Gwen could get away. They were running out of time.

Midas resisted the urge to check his watch.  “That bomb is going to go off soon, Jill.”  He warned.

“After he died, I thought,” Jill swallowed, not even hearing him, “‘at least Guinevere would be punished.  At least everyone hates her.  At least she’s locked in a dungeon.  At least the Scarecrow will take her crown.’”  She shook her head.  “But then you had to get involved.  And I know you, Midas. You’re going to make sure she has everything.”

“Yes.”  There was no sense in denying it.  Gwen tapped his back with two fingers and Midas gave an almost imperceptible nod.

“I can’t let it happen.  I can’t.  Guinevere has to die.”  Jill wiped at her eyes.  “But, I don’t want to kill you, Midas.  I’ve always liked you.  You’re ugly and cold and crass, but you never made me feel cheap.  Not even once.”

Gwen gave an outraged gasp, although Jill had meant her words as a compliment.  “Midas is none of those things!”

“Shut up!”  Jill shrieked.  “You’re about to kill him, just like you killed Arthur!  He can walk out of here, right now.  You’re the only one I want dead.  If he dies, it’s your fault.”

Gwen hesitated.  “You’ll let him go?”

“Of course I will.  You’re the one I hate.  He can leave, but you stay.”

Gwen actually started to move around Midas, willing to make that deal.  “Fine.  Yes.  You and I will do this, Jill, and Midas can go.  That’s fair.”

“No.”  Midas put his arm back, keeping her behind him.

“Yeah, but…”

“Stay right where you are.”  He flashed her a warning look.  “I have never been more serious in my life.”

She frowned, but stopped trying to get around him.

Jill snorted.  “You used to be smarter than this, Midas.  I swear to God, you did.”

Midas glanced back at her.  “I won’t leave my wife.”  He told her softly.  “I won’t go back into my own darkness.  I can’t.”

Jill’s lips parted, understanding what he meant.  Realizing for the first time that Gwen was his True Love.  Knowing that he was going to fight and die to protect her.  “No.”  She frantically shook her head.  “No!”

Gwen gave up on her idea to be a martyr and tapped his shoulder with one finger.

Midas moved.  He leapt at Jill, taking a chance that he could survive long enough to get the gun from her grasp.  At the same time, Gwen shined the flashlight right in Jill’s face.

“Shit!”  Jill instinctively shut her eyes, turning away from the beam.  The bullet she fired at Midas, went wide, slamming into his arm. The same damn arm that the King’s Man had injured at Merlyn’s house.  Son of a bitch, the fucking thing had just started to heal.

“Midas!”  Gwen screamed.

He wrapped his hand around Jill’s wrist, forcing the muzzle towards the ceiling.  The two of them spun around, locked in struggle.  “Goddamn it, Jill.  This is stupid.”  He could have broken her bones with little effort, but that wasn’t what he wanted.  “Just give it up, so we can get out of here.”

She tried to shoot him in the head, but the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling, instead.  The sound was deafening in the tunnel.  The gun only had two shots, though, and she’d just spent them both.  Midas wasn’t taking a chance that she’d reload.  He wrenched it out of her hand.

Gwen was already beside him, latching on to his wounded arm and surveying the damage in the dim light.  “Oh my God, you’re bleeding!  He’s bleeding!”  She gave Jill an angry shove.  “You psychotic bitch!”

“Don’t touch me!”  Jill staggered backwards, close to deranged.  “I’m not going to spend my life in prison or as some golden statue for the two of you to laugh at!”  She took off running, back in the direction of the dungeon.  “I’ll be with Arthur, somewhere where you’ll never steal our happiness!”

“Fucking hell.”  Midas tossed the gun aside and started after her.  “Come back!  Jill!”

“No!”  Gwen gripped his shirt sleeve, tugging him to a stop when he would have followed her.  “You were right.  We have to go.”

“She’ll die back there.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to.”

“I can’t just…”

“It was her choice, not yours.  You’re not wasting your life for someone who just tried to shoot you and blow up my baby.”  Gwen pulled him towards the exit.  “We can’t have much more than a minute to get out of here, Midas.  You can’t go back for her.”  She shook him as best she could, considering their size difference.  “I’m the heartless one.  Listen to me and not your damn gallantry.  There’s no time!  Avalon needs us.  Please.  You know I’m right.”

She was right.

Shit.

He only had a matter of seconds to get his True Love to safety.

Midas’ jaw tightened.  “Go.”  He seized Gwen’s arm, half carrying her so she could keep up.  “Goddamn Arthur just killed her.”  It incensed him to even think about it.  “He fucking killed her, just as much as the bomb will.”

“I didn’t know.”  Gwen insisted, running alongside him.  “I knew she loved him, but I didn’t know she thought Arthur was her True Love.  I don’t even believe in True Love.”  She sounded out of breath.  “Arthur never said anything about it.  Maybe he didn’t know either.”

“He knew.”  Arthur would have known the truth the moment he slept with Jill.  No doubt he’d been simultaneously thrilled with his control over her and disgusted that she was Bad.  He would have done everything he could to tear her down, all the while using her devotion for his own ends.  It was no wonder she went crazy.

“He also never said he was leaving me.  I swear, I would have let him.  Happily.”

“He was never going to leave you for Jill.”  Midas scoffed.

Give up Merlyn’s classy, pedigreed daughter for a villain who ran a gentlemen’s club?  Not fucking likely.  Arthur was a man who liked having his cake and eating it, too. Why wouldn’t he keep his Good queen and his Bad mistress?  It made total sense, if you were a sociopathic narcissist.

“But Arthur would want to be with his True Love, right?  That’s the way it’s supposed to work.”

“It works that way if you’re Bad.  Arthur was Good.”  Biologically, anyway.  “He would never link himself to a Bad folk, no matter who she was.  True Love doesn’t mean as much to Good folk.”

She looked incredulous.  “Your explanation is that Good folk don’t feel love?”

“Maybe they feel it, they just don’t care.”

Gwen didn’t like that answer.  He could tell from her expression.  But he didn’t have a better one to give her.

They reached the end of the tunnel, bursting out into the moonlight.  They were in the gardens, which was right where he wanted to be.  Midas did a quick look around, orienting himself, and spotted a wall separating the manicured lawn from the woods beyond. It was nine feet high, two feet thick, and made of brick forged in dragon fire.

The very best wall money could buy.

“This way.”  He stomped right over the carefully tended flower beds, trying to put as much distance between the house and Gwen as he possibly could.  Avalon’s new rocking-horsefly feeders were knocked over.  No matter.  He’d buy her more.  “I’m going to lift you up and you get over that wall, okay?”

She shook her head emphatically.  “No, way.  I’m too heavy and you’re bleeding too badly…”

“I’m fine.”  He interrupted.  Growing up in Celliwig, you learned to block out pain and survive.  He’d cleaned stables with broken bones and gaping wounds, lifting far heavier loads than his petite wife.  He didn’t even wince as he grabbed her around the waist and hefted her above his head. “Up you go, kitten.”

Gwen had no choice but to go along with the plan.  Muttering curses, she clambered onto the top of the wall, looking back to make sure he was following her.  “Midas?”  She extended a hand down to help him up, which was simply adorable, considering he outweighed her by at least a hundred and forty pounds.

“I’m here.  Just stay right where you are.”  Midas scaled the bricks by himself, pausing beside her to touch her hair.  “It’s going to be okay.”  He swung his body around so he could drop to the other side.  The landing jolted his injured arm, sending agony coursing through him.  He ignored it.  “Alright.”  He held out his hands.  “Jump and I’ll catch you.”

Even in the darkness, he could see her shaking her head, again.  “I’ll hurt you.  Give me a second and I’ll figure out how to get down on my own.”

“We don’t have a second.  Just get down here, now.”

“Are you crazy?  You’ll be injured even worse than…”

The explosion cut her off.

The entire left side of his house detonated, sending fire and wreckage into the sky.  No way had Jill survived a blast of that size.  The shockwave alone sent Gwen catapulting from the top of the wall.

“Fuck!”  Midas threw himself at her, grabbing her as she fell.  He twisted his body in midair, ensuring that she landed on top of him, both his arms cradling her against the impact.  The two of them hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind from his body.  Gwen lay across his chest, ominously still.

“Gwen?”  He instantly flipped her around, so she was beneath him.  The massive wall stopped the main force of the bomb, but fiery debris was raining down.  Midas made sure his body was shielding her from it, even has he tried to revive her.  “Gwen?”

She was unconscious.

Oh God…

Midas put his hands on either side of her face, terror filling him.  “Gwen!”  For one horrible second, he was nine years old again, huddled on a porch in the cold night.  Without Gwen, there was no light.  This tiny, fragile being was all that stood between Midas and the darkness.  “Don’t leave me.  Gwen, don’t leave me all alone!”

She came to with a gasp, her fingers grasping his wrists.  “Midas.”  She got out.

“I’m here.”  Relief had his voice breaking.  “I’m here.  Oh God, thank you.”  He swallowed hard, trying to check her for injuries.  “Are you hurt?  Where are you hurt, kitten?”

“I’m okay.”  She tried to sit up, but he pushed her back down.  “Midas, I’m okay.  I promise.  You’re the one who was shot.”

“It just grazed me.”  He spared his arm a disinterested look.  “I’ll heal.  You’re the only thing that matters to me.”

She didn’t respond to that, looking around and noticing all the flaming rubble surrounding them, for the first time.  Noticing that Midas was sheltering her from it with his body.  Lake-blue eyes cut back up to his and her head tilted.  “You saved me.  Again.”

“I’ll always protect you.”

“Why?”  She asked softly.

Feeling exposed, Midas eased back from her.  “You know why.”  Everyone knew why.  He might as well just take out that billboard and announce it to the world.  In fact, sooner or later, he probably would.

Gwen followed him, sitting up.  “Because I’m your wife?”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean to you, though?  Am I just a possession?”

One day he would figure out how her mind worked, but today wasn’t it. “What?”  He demanded, rescanning her for head injuries.

“Am I just something you collected, because I was Arthur’s wife?”

Why the hell were they discussing this nonsense now?  “No.”

The one-word answer didn’t satisfy her.  As usual.  “I’m not a trophy, Midas.”

“I know that.”

Her hand wrapped around his vividly patterned necktie.  “What do you want from me?  Be honest, because our connection feels real to me and if it’s not for you…”

“It’s real.”  He offered no resistance at all as she tugged on his tie, bringing his head down to hers.  “Everything I’ve ever said to you is real.”  Her lips were millimeters from his and he nearly groaned.  She was safe and beautiful and smelled like gingerbread.  “Everything I feel for you is real, Gwen.”

“Good folks can feel things, too.”  Her free palm came up to rest on his cheek.  “I promise you.”  She lifted her mouth to his, giving him the gentlest kiss imaginable.

Midas’ eyes drifted shut.

The wash of emotions he experienced around Gwen was far more than just satisfaction at finding his True Love, or arrogance at owning a queen, or happiness that he was no longer alone.  It was so much more than any of the half-hearted excuses he’d come up with.  So much simpler.

He was just head over heels in love with this crazy woman.

Fuck it.  The billboards were going to be neon.