CHAPTER 18
Nate Garrett
En route to America
We were over halfway from the Wolf’s Head compound to America when more details of the atrocity of what had happened in North Carolina came through to us. Several sorcerers had assaulted those watching an American football game, killing several hundred as the human police tried to stop them.
I watched the news on the BBC as it unfolded, with more and more information coming in about the terrorist attack. “The humans aren’t prepared for this,” I said. “They’re getting slaughtered.”
“Olivia sent me a message,” Selene said from the seat across the aisle from me. “Several off-duty LOA agents were in attendance and managed to stop the attack. If not for them, the death toll would be in the thousands, not hundreds.”
I rubbed my eyes. It had been a long few days. “Even so, the humans will be less than happy at having Avalon involve themselves. We’re meant to protect them—that’s sort of the first thing about them not knowing we exist. Now they know we exist, know we can kill them, and can’t do anything to stop us. I’m guessing they’re going to be clamoring to do something about it.”
“The human governments will calm things,” Lucifer said. “They’ll say the right things and let Avalon do its job.”
“You hope,” Zamek said, opening his eyes for the first time since we’d taken off.
“Avalon has to do something,” Sky said. “Otherwise what’s the point?”
“Not really sure how much worse it can get,” I said. “I know, it can always get worse.”
I looked out the jet window as time slowed and Erebus appeared sitting across from me.
He waved.
“Now?” I asked. “Seriously?”
“There are some things I mentioned you needed to know. Well, now is as good a time as any.”
“Fine,” I said, exasperated. “What is it?”
“You remember that your mother told you I was created by her and your father?”
“Yes. I remember asking you about it, and you dumping me back in normal time.”
“Well, now is the time. The information that has been gathering in my head has had time to settle, and I need you to know some things. Some things that might be important in the coming future.”
I looked over at Selene, who was seemingly frozen in place. “And what things are they?”
“The last mark on your body—it isn’t what you think it is. The hidden one, the one on your soul, that’s for another time, but that last mark needs unlocking. And it’s going to happen soon.”
“Why? Why now?”
“Because it is. Some things just happen when the time is right. And this is one of those things. I can feel the mark’s power ebbing away. I can feel what’s inside of me wanting to leave, wanting to join with you.”
“And then you’ll vanish?”
“Not for a while yet, no. You’ll need to have your full power, and you won’t have that at least until that last blood-curse mark on your psyche is gone.”
“Okay, so what is this last physical mark?”
“It’s what will unlock your last omega magic. But more than that, it contains information.”
“About what?”
“A lot of things. Information that will slowly trickle into your mind over the coming months. Information about the past, about people, about different ways of using your magic. There’s a lot in there, and it can’t all come at once. You’ll need to be patient.”
“So if this last mark unlocks my last omega magic, and it contains info, what does the one on my psyche do?”
“Presumably it’s the last mark that will give you full access to everything you should have as a sorcerer. You were born to be a weapon. A weapon so powerful and horrific that no one would ever want to use it. You were the nuclear option of the day. And Hera and her companions discovered this and forced a change in everything. They tried to have you killed, and then for some reason they stopped. I don’t know why. I assume whoever they work for forced them to allow you to grow.
“Your parents created me. They wanted someone who would protect you, and they were aware of a nightmare’s true identity. They came to me and asked for my help.”
“To you?”
“Erebus. The actual Erebus.”
“You’re alive?”
“I was. I have no idea if I still am. I was a sorcerer. Like you I could use shadow magic, but I could also use mind magic. And when you were born, I agreed to place a piece of myself inside the nightmare that inhabited your body. Neither you nor the nightmare would be aware of it until you’d gained enough power that the nightmare was close to being able to take control and move you on to the next level. Your parents believed that by doing this they would help the transition from a normal sorcerer to a sorcerer on a level that you were destined to be. Unfortunately, instead of just leaving a piece of myself, I merged my entire mind with your nightmare. The level of power inside you was just too much to only give it a piece. So, I’ve been in here ever since, unable to know who I really am.”
I stared at Erebus for several seconds. “I’m so sorry for what you’ve lost.”
Erebus waved my words away.
“The Fates said I would turn into a monster who killed a lot of people,” I said. “You think that Hera found out about that possibility and figured it would help her in the long term?”
“That is possible. On a happier note, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“And you couldn’t tell me this earlier because my marks ensured you could only tell me a portion of what you knew?”
“You had to be ready.”
“And what makes you think I’m ready now?”
“I don’t get to decide that; your body does. And your body wants those marks gone. You’re angry, and hurting, and you want someone to unleash that on. They’re using your name to murder people, they’re hunting you and your friends, and now these people are using Shadow Falls and Galahad to spread terror. I’m positive you’re close to losing your temper.”
I cracked my knuckles. “I can’t afford to lose my temper.”
“Why? You think that doing so will make things worse?”
“Is that what will remove my last mark, losing my temper? Because I’ve lost it plenty over the years and no marks vanished.”
“I don’t know exactly what will cause it to go; I just know that it’s happening. I know how you’re feeling, and I know that I needed to talk to you. Once the mark is gone, there will be one left, and I have no idea how you’re going to lose it. It’s not like the others; it’s not affected by memories or power. It’s something else. And I don’t know what it will take to finally make yourself whole. But you’ll figure it out. I have that faith in you.”
“Do you know who my father is?”
“No. I believe that’s locked behind whatever is in your head. Your mother loved you, Nate. I was there when you were born. She loved you so much. She left with you, moved to Constantinople to keep you safe. When this is over, you’ll need to find her.”
“If she’s alive.”
“I’m sure she is. She has your tenacity, and your stubbornness.”
“So, we’re not going to pretend that you’re just me anymore?”
“No, I am Erebus, and I am a primordial god. Or was considered one.”
“You kept the secrets of sorcery from people. Told them that nightmares were dangerous.”
“I did. Or at least I helped. It was for the best, or we thought it was for the best. A lot of people turned into nightmares and couldn’t handle it. They went insane, murdered, committed suicide, and other things that we needed to try and stop. Telling people that nightmares were a curse, were evil, was the best way to do it, even if it meant that a large number of sorcerers would never achieve their fullest potential.”
“What happens to you when you vanish completely?”
“I have no idea. I imagine I’ll fade from existence. I don’t even know where my body is.”
“If I can find your body, can I put you back in it?”
“Still unsure. Lots of questions still to be answered. For now, I remain. And now you know the truth about who I am, and how I came to be here. You have to fight, Nate. You have to fight everyone who would destroy everything your parents sacrificed to keep you safe.”
“Merlin wasn’t the best candidate to put me with.”
“Merlin is not the man he once was. I do not know how or why he changed, but there is something dark inside of him that was never there before. I sensed it when you fought in Camelot. I didn’t know how I sensed it, but with great power comes great sensory abilities. Isn’t that how it goes?”
“No.”
“Well, I can’t be perfect. I’ve got a lot of your memories in here.” Erebus tapped his head. “Tommy has said a lot of pop-culture references over the years. They jumble up a bit.”
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Of course you can—you’re Nathanial Garrett. Your mother was essentially the greatest warrior the Norse ever knew. I once saw her punch out a troll. She was the kind of person you didn’t cross unless you’d decided that breathing was best done by other people. She terrified her enemies. And you did the same as Hellequin. You didn’t have her power then, you didn’t have her knowledge of so much, and yes, Hellequin is now forever dead to you, but that just means that people need to know who Nate Garrett is. Make your enemies tremble, Nate. Make them fear you.”
Erebus stood and walked over to me. He bent down and kissed me on the forehead. “In a different time, I would have been called your godfather, I think. I would have loved you like a son. I am proud of you, and what you’ve become. Your parents would be, too. I think you’re ready. Go forth and conquer, Nathanial Garrett.”
Erebus vanished, and I gasped as pain wracked my body.
“Nate?” Selene asked. “Nate, are you okay?” She moved over to me as the pain subsided.
I pulled up my T-shirt and watched the last mark vanish. “We need to land,” I said. “Really fast.”
“We’re a few hours from being able to do that,” Sky said. “What’s happening?”
“The last visible mark is gone,” I said as my vision began to change. The world around me took on a purple haze, with dots of various sizes all over it. I looked down at the table in front of me and saw dozens of small dots. I instantly knew what they meant. They were weaknesses. The larger the dot, the larger the weakness. I placed a finger on one of the dots and pushed, but nothing happened.
“Nate?” Zamek asked, tapping me on the shoulder.
I turned to him and discovered that, unlike everything else, he had no purple haze or dots, and neither did Selene, Sky, or Grayson.
“Matter magic,” Grayson said, looking at the purple glyphs that adorned my arms and hands. “What are you seeing?”
“Purple. Everything is purple.”
“You okay?” Selene asked.
I nodded. “I’m sleepy. My brain has taken a lot in all at once. It’s difficult to compute.” I looked around the cabin. “I see weaknesses. Hundreds of them. Each one a way to break something if enough force is applied at that exact spot.”
“Like this jet?” Sky asked.
I nodded. “Your father needs to have that hairline crack in the wall looked at. It’s not dangerous, but even so. It looks like someone punched it.”
Sky looked a little sheepish. “I had someone fix it.”
“They did a bad job, then. Or a good job, and I can just see the imperfections. Not in you, though. None of you have any weaknesses. I think this magic only works on nonliving matter. And I can’t tell how much force exactly will need to be applied to break it, just that it would break with enough force.”
“You sound a bit out of it,” Selene said. “Like you’ve been awake for a week.”
“I feel like it, too,” I told her, and closed my eyes. “Just wake me up when we get there. I’ll try not to blow the jet up on the way.”
“Can you do that?” Zamek asked. “Because that sounds like something we should be worried about.”
There was a moment of silence.
“I have no idea,” Sky said. “Doc, you’re the sorcerer.”
“I doubt he’ll blow the plane up. He might break a few things by accident. We’ll keep an eye on him.”
I fell asleep soon after, and when I woke up I was in a large SUV outside a bar called the Mill. Selene was beside me with Zamek next to her. Grayson and Sky sat up front with the latter behind the wheel. I recognized the bar from my last visit to Portland, Maine, and figured we must have driven there from wherever the jet had landed.
“You okay?” Selene asked as I rubbed my eyes.
“I think so,” I told her. “My vision is back to normal. Did you carry me into the car?”
“Didn’t have much choice,” Selene said. “We couldn’t wake you.”
“Thanks. Apparently I needed it.” I opened the car door and stepped out into the cold air, using my fire magic to keep me warm.
“You feeling good, though, yes?” Selene asked after joining me outside. As a dragon-kin connected to the moon, and able to shoot ice out of her mouth, she rarely felt the cold in the same way as most people.
I nodded. “I feel good. Great, actually. Hungry, though.”
Grayson passed me a bagful of sandwiches and chocolate. “We picked up a few on the way. I figured you might want some calories.”
I hungrily devoured two chocolate bars, several bottles of water, and a packet of sandwiches before offering the bag around. With no takers, I placed it back in the car, but not before eating a third chocolate bar.
“Feel better?” Sky asked.
I opened another bottle of water and drank it in one go. “Pretty much.”
We all entered the bar just as my phone went off. I checked the screen: it was Olivia. “You guys go. I’ll catch up.” I left the bar and answered the phone.
“Nate, we have big problems,” she said before I could talk.
“I know, we’re sort of living it right now,” I told her.
“Well, allow me to add to your issues. Lucie is missing. Not officially, but I can’t get hold of her, and no one I know has seen her in several days.”
I pushed the anger I felt away. It would do little good to lose my temper. “First Elaine and now Lucie. Someone is going after Elaine’s people.”
“It gets worse, Nate.”
“Go on,” I said with a sigh of frustration. It always got worse.
“Officially, Lucie has put a bounty on your head. There’s an arrest warrant out for you.”
“How much?”
“Fifteen million dollars.”
“Fucking hell,” I almost shouted.
“Yeah, just make sure you keep an eye out for anyone who might want to cash that in.”
“So, someone’s using Lucie’s name while she’s missing. Great. What about you?”
“I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Stay that way.”
“Yeah, that’s the other reason I’m calling. I’ve been removed from my post as head of the LOA.”
I leaned up against the nearest wall. “They can’t get to you physically, so they’re cutting your legs out from under you.”
“That’s my guess, too. I’m not in Camelot; Lucie was. We’ll find her, Nate. Elaine, too.”
“Speaking of, have you told Mordred about Lucie?”
“No, we can’t get hold of anyone. Last I heard from Diana was they were heading to Siberia. Not a lot of phone reception in the middle of nowhere.”
“Siberia? I guess if you’re going to hide Elaine, you do it somewhere remote. Let me know if you find out anything else.”
“Arthur’s on his way to you. I’ve been informed he’s upped the deadline. He’ll be leaving first thing in the morning. You have about twelve hours. I think he’s worried about people wanting to take control of Avalon for themselves. It’s a bit of trial by fire.”
“Hopefully I’ll have convinced Galahad to speak to him by then. Any word on the attacks?”
“They’re continuing at an alarming pace. Some countries are worse than others. There are a lot of people dead, Nate. And even more scared and worried. Making peace won’t be easy once this is done. Humanity knows about us. That’s not just going to go away.”
“We’ll figure that out when we’ve stopped My Liege from killing people. Stay safe.”
“You, too.”
I hung up and went back inside the bar, where I was greeted by Rebecca Dean.
She wore a black suit with deep-red high heels. Her hair, tied up in a bun, was dark brown and her eyes a deep blue. She was a few inches shorter than me, even with the heels on. “Nate Garrett, I wondered when you’d finally turn up.” Her voice had a slight Irish tinge to it but otherwise could easily have placed her as from New York.
“Rebecca, I assume my companions have already been and gone.”
Rebecca. She was a guardian, and an incredibly powerful one. Every now and again a guardian develops some alchemist-like powers, something Zamek confirmed to me had to do with the dwarven nature of the realm gate. Rebecca had not only developed those powers, but had also managed to wield them as if she were born with them. So long as she stayed within several miles of the realm gate, she’d retain those abilities and be next to invulnerable. Rebecca was in charge of one of two realm gates that linked the Earth realm to Shadow Falls. She also didn’t like me very much, although the fact that I’d saved her king’s life more than once brought me more than a little leeway on that matter. “There are people who are less than happy that you’re here.”
“Including you?”
Rebecca smiled. “Yes, including me. You’re a magnet for trouble, and that’s trouble my king doesn’t need.”
“Not ‘my liege’ anymore? I remember you calling him that. Now whoever is doing all of this wants people to think that Galahad and Shadow Falls are involved.”
“I heard. I stopped using ‘my liege’ when it became apparent that certain forces outside of Shadow Falls were using it for less-than-stellar reasons. Much like Hellequin, I assume.”
“Yeah, it’s been a shit few days all around.”
“It got worse. Have you heard anything from Avalon news? The head of the SOA, Lucie Moser, has put a fifteen-million-dollar bounty on your head.”
“Yeah, I just heard. Lucie has been taken by the same people who took Elaine. Someone has hijacked her communications. They’re using it to get the SOA to do things like take me into custody. I get the feeling that while Lucie and Olivia were hunting down the Reavers a few years ago, eliminating them from Avalon, this cabal was making sure its own people were in place.”
“That seems about what I would expect from Avalon,” Rebecca said. “But that doesn’t mean you’re going to be welcomed with open arms.”
“You believe me, then?”
“Selene told me about Elaine. Her I believe.”
“What else has Avalon said? I assume you have ways of hearing chatter.”
Rebecca smiled again. It was a lot closer to sharklike than I was comfortable with. “I’m waiting for intel to come through. Until then we have only the official channels. And they’re saying that Hellequin is murdering innocent humans the world over.”
“You know it’s not me.”
“What I know and what I can prove are two different things. If the SOA has gone rogue, the intelligence services would be the first place to start spreading that corruption. Any ideas as to who might be causing these troubles?”
I thought about it for a second. “My guess is Hera has had Lucie removed from play. But as she’s in London, and there’s no way she’d give that up, I imagine it’ll be one of her flunkies who’s behind Lucie’s vanishing. Can I go to Shadow Falls now? I’d really like to stop a war.”
Rebecca motioned for me to follow her. “Sky and Selene said that Avalon has given you forty-eight hours to try and get Galahad to allow Avalon forces into Shadow Falls. He’s never going to allow that.”
“We have less than twelve hours to go,” I said. “I just need to convince Galahad to talk to Arthur outside of Shadow Falls. If I can get them to talk, maybe we can get them to help one another.”
“Arthur has been convinced that Shadow Falls is involved. Hell, a lot of people are probably convinced, especially considering these assholes have been writing the words Shadow Falls in the blood of their enemies. I assume you’ve been keeping an eye on the news. That’s not something the human authorities have been releasing to the public.”
“So, it’s even worse than this Hellequin asshole spouting off about Shadow Falls. They’re actively promoting their alliance.”
“And Arthur is being led down the wrong path. He’s coming here, and he’s going to demand that Galahad come with him to answer for these accusations. And Galahad will refuse.”
“Arthur swore to me that he’d arrive without his people, that he just wants to talk to Galahad and find the truth. I’m hoping Arthur demands nothing.”
“You have faith in your friend. I have faith that Arthur can’t take a whole army through a realm gate. He’d be slaughtered. The most we’ve ever sent through here is about forty people.”
“What about the other gate?” The second realm gate had remained hidden for hundreds of years, known only to a few. Unfortunately one of those few had been a deposed king of Shadow Falls who wanted his crown back and was willing to align himself with a group of psychopaths to do it. A group of psychopaths who were, as it turned out, also aligned with the same group using the phrase “My Liege” a lot.
“The second gate has the entire town of Stratford around it. Arthur would need more than an army to get there.”
“But the gate is larger there. You can take more people in.”
“That’s true, but that is sovereign Shadow Falls. The people there are trained warriors and won’t hesitate to stop anyone from trying to access it without permission.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said as we entered the realm-gate room.