Chapter Twenty-Four

 

Guinevere

One Year Ago

“Daddy’s coming home!”  Avalon bounced up and down on Gwen’s bed, overcome with enthusiasm.  “The mean place is burning up!  Mommy, Daddy’s coming home, now!”

Gwen stared at the television set on the wall, her own heart pounding.  The Wicked, Ugly and Bad Mental Health Treatment Center and Maximum Security Prison was on fire.  Half the walls had already fallen.  Guards couldn’t hold back the tidal wave of inmates.  Chaos reigned, hundreds of people escaping into the night.  Most would never be recaptured.

The Kingpin was free.

Hope swelled inside of Gwen.  Crazy and illogical, but there just the same.  If Midas was out, then he’d come back to Camelot.  From all reports, the man was too arrogant to do anything else.  He’d return to confront Arthur and reclaim his business.  And if he came back to Camelot, everything would change.

She knew it.

Arthur swore Midas was nothing but a “tawdry feral animal.”  All the court documents would seem to back him up.  Midas ran the biggest criminal organization in Camelot.  There seemed little doubt of that, even if Gwen didn’t fully believe that he’d committed all the crimes he’d been convicted of.  To hear the prosecutors tell it, Midas was simply a flashy-dressed street thug.  A violent, uneducated commoner, who’d bullied himself into a position of power.  Any sane person would agree he belonged in prison.  A jury of his (entirely Good) peers had rubber-stamped his guilty verdict in record time.

Except Avalon steadfastly believed that Midas was a hero.  Kind, honorable, and gentle. She called this Bad man, with an even worse reputation, her daddy.

…And Avalon was always right.

Avi might be a small child, but she was also the granddaughter of Merlyn.  A sorceress with powers beyond anything the world had ever seen.  If Avi said Midas was special, Gwen believed her.  In fact, the more Arthur and the rest of the Good folk railed against Midas, the more convinced Gwen grew that this “tawdry feral animal” was something far more important than anyone was letting on.

Her eyes scanned the hectic scene at the prison.  “Is Midas hurt?”  She heard herself ask, trying to spot him.  In pictures, the man towered over everyone else.  She knew that because she’d spent a lot of time looking at photos of Midas.  An embarrassing amount of time, actually. You’d think his giant form would be easy to see on the TV screen, even in the darkness of night.

“Daddy’s okay.”  Avalon kept bouncing.  “He’s with Trystan.  Trystan’s nice.  He belongs with me and you and daddy.  He’s my second best friend.  He has big wings.”

Gwen nodded vaguely, not able to look away from the blaze on screen.  Avalon’s visions were accurate one hundred percent of the time.  Why wouldn’t she be right about this?  Midas was safe and he was coming home.

“Daddy will be with us soon, Mommy!  I’m happy, happy, happy!”

A smile curved the edges of Gwen’s mouth.  “So am I.”  She whispered.

The door leading from the veranda slammed open before she could say anything else, one of the glass panels shattering.  Arthur stood there, breathing hard and violently drunk.  “You whore!”  He screamed.  “You think I don’t know you’re involved in this?!”

Gwen’s heart dropped, shocked that Arthur was in her room.  He hadn’t crossed the threshold since Avalon was born.  Whatever was about to happen it would be horrible.  She knew that without question.

“Avalon, run.”  She looked over at her daughter.  “Run, now.”

Avi didn’t run, she stood on the mattress watching Arthur with grave eyes.  “He smells funny.”  She whispered.

It was the liquor.  Shit.  Gwen tried to think through her panic.

“You probably helped him escape!”  Arthur didn’t even look like himself, his handsome face twisted and reddened in rage.  “You and that fucking little brat that you pretend is mine, have been working against me.”  He waved a hand at Avi, hating her simply for being born.

“Stay away from my child.”  Gwen automatically moved, so she was standing between Arthur and Avi.  Damn it, the gun was in the nightstand on the other side of the bed.  How was she going to get it?  “Avalon, go back to your own room.”

Avi ignored her, her attention on Arthur.  “You’s making a bad choice.”  She told him quietly, quoting the warning that Gwen always used on her when she was being naughty.  “One last chance to fix your behavior and then you’re going to be in big trouble.”

“It’s your mother’s fault this happened.  She’d rather fuck a gangster than a king.”  He whirled back to Gwen.  “I thought you’d moved onto Galahad, but it’s always been that tawdry, feral animal, hasn’t it?”

“I’ve never even met Midas.  You know that.  I had nothing to do with his escape.”  Aside from silently cheering it on, anyway.  Gwen edged towards the nightstand.  “Please leave my room.”

“You’re a lying bitch.”  Arthur advanced on her, seething.  “You and that ape probably sat around laughing at me, while you plotted and schemed.  Is that what you do?  Laugh at me, when you welcome that dirty primate into your bed!”

“You’re out of your mind.”  Fear coursed through her, as he stalked closer.  She tried to hide it, refusing to retreat.  “Get out of here.  Now.”

“Or what?  You’ll call your brainless oaf of a boyfriend to protect you?”

“My daddy will always protect us.”  Avi glared at Arthur.  “He’s the bravest man in the whole kingdom.  And the smartest.  And the handsomest.  And the…”

“Shut up!”

“Avalon, leave this room!”  Gwen shouted, but her daughter wasn’t listening.

“My daddy,” she told Arthur, her voice ringing with the absolute certainty of an all-seeing sorceress, “will save me and Mommy from mean things like you… and there’s nothing you can do to stop him.”

“I will never let that fucking villain win!”  Arthur lunged at Avalon,

“No!”  Gwen tried to block him and he punched her.

Hard.

His fist slammed into her stomach, knocking the air from her lungs.  No one had ever hit Gwen before.  Despite everything, it shocked her.  She fell, her head smacking against the bedpost and leaving her stunned for a moment.  She lay on the ground, dazed and struggling for air.

Arthur grabbed Avalon right off the mattress.  Avi struggled to get free, kicking, but Arthur was five times her size.  He dragged her towards the balcony.

“No!”  Gwen staggered to her feet, charging after them.  “Arthur, stop!”

“Mommy!”  Avalon caught hold of the doorway, trying to reach Gwen.  Arthur roughly pulled her away, picking her up, so she couldn’t escape.

Oh God.

“I’m the King of Camelot.”  The rain was pouring down, soaking all three of them.  “No one else.”  Arthur backed towards the railing.  “Me!”

Gwen followed him, her heart pounding out of her chest.  The gun was still in her nightstand, but she couldn’t go back for it.  She was afraid to take her eyes off Avalon, for fear of what Arthur might do.

“No one’s saying you’re not the king.”  She flashed Avalon a warning look, before Avi could say that very thing.  “You’re becoming upset over nothing.  Midas isn’t a threat to you.”  Gwen had never been much of a liar, but she did her best to sound convincing and to calm him down.  “You’re much too powerful for anyone to challenge.”

“That son of a bitch is coming back here!  He’ll find out the truth! No one will follow me.  I’ll be ruined.  Humiliated!”

Gwen had no idea what he was talking about.  She didn’t even care.  All she wanted was Avalon.  “Arthur,” she kept her voice as steady as possible, “put Avi down.  You’ve been drinking.  It’s making you confused. You don’t want to hurt your own daughter.”

“She’s his daughter.”  Arthur spat.  “She belongs to him, not me.”  DNA test or not he would never accept Avalon as his child.  “No Bad folk could ever be a true Princess of Camelot.”

Avalon wouldn’t accept him, either.  She vainly tried to squirm free of his grasp, still expounding on Midas’ virtues.  “My daddy is the real King of Camelot.  He will be the best king ever.  Way better than you.  I seen it.”

“I knew it!”  Arthur was half sobbing, half screaming, and totally beyond reason.  “He’s going to take everything.”

“How in the world could he possibly become king, Arthur?”  Gwen threw up her hands.  “It doesn’t even make any sense.”  Avalon was always right, but that seemed like a bizarre prediction even for her.  “He’d either have to inherit the throne or marry someone who has it and Midas can’t do either.  You aren’t thinking straight!”

He reached the banister, his eyes wild.  “My fucking father must be enjoying this, watching and chortling from Hell.  Do you think I’ll let him be right about me being weak?”

“Uther is dead and gone.  You don’t need to worry about him.  Just put Avi down and…”

“I’ll kill you both, before I lose you to a Bad folk!”  Arthur held Avalon out over the railing, so she dangled four stories above the hard ground.  “I’ll see you dead, before you beat me!”

Gwen gave up on reason and launched herself at the bastard.

Galahad had taught her some basic self-defense moves, but she wasn’t sure if she used them.  She was too desperate to get her baby back to think straight.  She was hitting Arthur as hard as she could, flailing her arms out, trying to grab Avalon back from him.  He was probably hitting her, too, but she didn’t feel it.  All that mattered was Avi.

“Midas can scrape his daughter from the pavement!”  Arthur released his hold on Avalon.

“Mommy!”

Gwen threw herself forward, snagging her daughter’s nightgown.  Avalon hung by the cheerful cartoon-patterned garment, suspended over the unforgiving cobblestones.  Focused only on saving her child, Gwen stopped fighting Arthur and concentrated on dragging Avi back up.  Straining with everything she had, she lifted Avalon high enough so the little girl could latch onto her hand.

“Mommy, help!”

Gwen held tight.  “I got you, baby.”  They would both go over or they would both survive.  There was no way in the world she’d let go.  She instinctively wrapped her ankles around the decorative balusters to anchor herself.

Seeing an opening, Arthur moved in for the kill.  Screaming obscenities, he tried to shove Gwen over the edge, while she was distracted.  His manicured hands pushed her, wanting her to go over and drag Avalon with her.

Too bad for him, her feet were still locked around the railing’s spindles. Gwen wasn’t going anywhere.  Instead, she slugged him with her free hand, putting every ounce of power she had into the blow.

Maybe it was luck, or maybe it was fate, or maybe it was being a mother.  But somehow her blow impacted him in the perfect spot.  Arthur reared backwards, arms spinning.  Off balance and caught by surprise, he didn’t have time to brace himself.  He hit the wet railing, slipped, and toppled backwards.

Arthur’s face would be frozen in her memory forever.  The shock and horror he felt when he realized there was no more ground beneath him.

“Gwen!”  He clawed desperately for her, trying to save himself.  “Help me!”

She didn’t help him.

Reaching for Arthur would mean letting go of Avalon and no force in Heaven or Hell could make Gwen release her daughter.  Instead, her free hand locked around Avalon’s other wrist, dragging her up.  “Don’t watch, baby.”

“Jilllllllll….”  Arthur screamed the woman’s name as he spiraled downward, impacting the pavement like a pumpkin exploding.

Blood pooled around him, mixing with the rain and staining all the puddles a ghastly crimson.  There was no mistaking the fact that Arthur was dead.  Gwen gazed at the grisly spectacle, reconciling herself to what she’d done and all the problems it would cause.

She’d just killed the King of Camelot.

Shit.

Jill was going to be pissed.