Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

NATE GARRETT

Washington, DC, United States, Earth Realm

After the end of the White House siege, considering the building was still a little bit on fire, I left everyone else to get on with their jobs and found a quiet park bench in Lafayette Square to sit and gather my thoughts.

Gawain had been frog-marched off to a tent, where he was to be interrogated. I still didn't believe he'd just surrender like he had, and seeing how Merlin and Arthur liked to play the long game, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that Gawain had a longer-term plan. We just had to figure out what it was.

"How you feeling?" Selene asked as she sat beside me.

"It's been a long few days," I told her as she rested her head on my shoulder. "It's been a long few years, if I'm being honest."

"This was a win," Selene said. "A lot of our people are going back to Shadow Falls, but there will be a contingent left here to help out. Jinayca thinks Gawain knows how to get into Atlantis."

"Getting him to talk is a different matter," I said. "Mordred isn't here with Excalibur, and according to Gawain he's had runes placed on himself to ensure the sword doesn't work. Which I didn't think was possible. We'll take him back to Shadow Falls and find out, I guess."

"His surrendering bothers you," Selene said.

I nodded. "Yeah, it really does."

Roberto ran over to where Selene and I sat. He looked out of breath.

"You okay?" I asked him.

"The president went rogue, and people are freaking out," Roberto said. "So not really, no. The vice president wants to talk to you."

"Go," Selene said. "I'll help out here with our people. I hear Judgement killed a paladin."

"Good for her," I said and walked off with Roberto, who was practically pushing me forward.

"Roberto," I said, looking back at him. "What is wrong?"

"It's all gone to shit," Roberto said. "We thought the president was a hostage."

"Where is he?" I asked.

"That's part of the problem," Roberto said as we reached a tent and stepped inside to see the human commanders, along with the vice president, Queen Orfeda, and Jinayca, the latter of whom was rubbing the back of her hand.

"Who'd you punch?" I asked her.

She pointed to a metal cabinet with a hole in it. "It was that or General Pompous Twat over there."

"How dare you?" the general shouted, before seemingly discovering who was in the tent with him and taking a deep breath.

"So this is going well," I said.

"You," the general almost shouted, his finger pointed at me accusingly.

"Hi," I said.

The general stormed over to me and prodded me in the chest with a large finger. "I am four-star General Blake," he said. "And you have committed an act of treason against our country. What the fuck did you do to the White House?" He prodded me again, and I looked beyond him to Roberto, who looked like he might throw up.

Two of the large men—one had an FBI jacket, and the other I assumed was Secret Service—looked like they'd rather be elsewhere, while Vice President Katia Lopez appeared to be genuinely intrigued by what was going to happen.

"So what do you have to say?" the four-star general shouted, drawing looks from several dozen service personnel outside the still-open tent, who tried very hard not to be interested.

I looked down at the spot where Blake had prodded me. "General," I said softly.

"Yes?" Blake said.

I looked up at the general and met his stare. "If you ever poke me in the chest again or shout at me like you're doing right now, we're going to find out how long you can survive without any oxygen."

Blake's face went bright red. "How dare—" he started, before I waved a hand and removed the oxygen from his lungs.

I stepped past the general, barely bothering to pay attention to him as he dropped to his knees. I stopped at the vice president. "Can't you control your attack dog?"

"He's angry," Vice President Lopez said. "And I'd rather he wasn't dead."

I snapped my fingers, to the sound of audible gasps from Blake. "I do not play games," I said without turning back to Blake. "I destroyed a portion of your building, a building I believe has been rebuilt before. I did so because there was a sniper up there who may have wanted to kill Gawain. The same Gawain who I'm pretty sure was working with your president to kill your people. Tonight we saved your capital city, your Senate, your Congress, your innocent civilians. How many died?"

"Sixty-eight thousand at last count," a woman in an FBI jacket said. "That's a rough estimate based on figures we're getting in."

"It would have been two hundred and sixty-eight without us," I said. "And you know it."

Vice President Lopez nodded.

"I do not expect to be liked," I said. "But I do expect your people to show me the respect I deserve. The respect we all deserve. I broke your building; it can be rebuilt." I turned back to the general, who was back on his feet. "I promise you one thing: I am not someone you want to pick a fight with. The enemy is still out there, and your country is still going to need people like you to help it through what happens next. So my advice, General Blake, is to grow the fuck up and act like the goddamn leader you're meant to be."

Blake nodded slightly before looking at the ground.

"Nice speech," Roberto said.

"I've been listening to Mordred," I told him. "Madam President—because I'm pretty sure you're about to be that, if not already—I wish you the best of luck. Once we're done, I'm sure that King Mordred will want to come back, and we'll talk about what happens next. I'd like to come with him, so long as you'll have me." I offered my hand.

President Lopez shook my hand without hesitation. "I'd be honored."

"Thank you," I said. "Roberto, I assume you're staying to help."

"I would like that very much, yes," Roberto said.

"Good," I told him. "So now that the pleasantries are done, why is everyone freaking out and getting angry?"

"The president has been taken captive by your people," President Lopez said. "We want him back. Obviously."

"Actually, I don't think we have taken him anywhere," I said. "Last I heard, he had been taken into the FBI's or Secret Service's custody. He's not our prisoner." I looked at Jinayca and Orfeda, who both nodded.

"Then tell us where he is," General Blake said, although it sounded a lot less like a pompous demand now.

I shrugged. "How do you lose your own president? He has to be here somewhere; it's not like he can just get up and walk off."

"He was seen with several human agents," Orfeda said. "They were taking him back into the White House."

"The house that is still on fire?" I asked. "That seems like a bad idea."

"So no one knows where a possibly traitorous president is," President Lopez said, clearly exasperated.

"Anyone asked his wife?" I asked.

"She's as surprised about it all as anyone else," General Blake said.

"I'll go check the White House," I said. "I'll try not to set fire to your building again."

"Please do," President Lopez said with the tug of a smile at her lips.

"Roberto, you want to join me?" I asked.

"Go with him," President Lopez said. "Nate, if you find the president, please don't hurt him. We'd like him unscathed when we press charges."

"I'm coming too," Jinayca said. "Anyone who argues will get a punch."

No one argued.

Roberto, Jinayca, and I had only just left the tent when a young black woman wearing a charcoal suit that was more than a little singed walked over. "Nate Garrett?" she asked.

"I'll catch you up," I told Jinayca and Roberto before turning back to the agent. "That's me."

"The president's wife wants to talk to you."

"After you," I said and followed the agent to a tent at the far side of the square, where four Secret Service agents stood guard.

I was ushered inside and found the president's wife sitting at a small wooden table, a notebook in front of her and pen in hand. She placed the pen on the book as I walked in.

"You are Nathaniel Garrett, yes?" she asked.

"Nate," I said.

Heather Reed, at only forty-six, was ten years younger than her husband. She was five three at most, petite, with long hair that was partly gray. From what I'd heard over the years, she did not suffer fools gladly and had been the backbone of her husband's campaign to be elected.

"Nate, my husband is being called a traitor," she said.

"Pretty much," I said.

"I don't believe it," she replied. "My husband is not perfect. He's stubborn and impetuous, but he's not a traitor."

"He sided with Avalon," I said. "I was there. I saw it. I saw the smugness on his face."

"My husband is not normally a smug man," Heather said firmly. "I've seen a change in him in recent weeks. He's cold, distant, and sharp with people. He's quicker to temper, and he scares me. It may seem strange, but he doesn't feel like the man I married and have supported all this time."

"Heather," I said as softly as possible, "I don't know what to tell you."

"Tell me you'll find Andrew," Heather requested, getting to her feet. "Just find him. The man in the White House today is not my husband. Every now and again, I think I see flashes of something else, just behind the face." She looked thoughtful. "Something wrong."

"I'll find him," I told her, if only to put her mind at rest.

She reached out and took my hand in hers. "Thank you."

I turned to leave.

"It was his eyes," she said.

I stopped at the tent entrance and turned back to her. "What about his eyes?"

"I caught sight of them the other day," she said with a slight shudder. "He'd lost his temper, throwing things around, hurling abuse at staff. I walked in, and his eyes ... they weren't his."

"What were they?" I asked.

"Like fire," she said with a frown. "I know that might sound silly."

Oh shit.I sprinted out of the tent without another word, catching up to Jinayca and Roberto, who were just entering the White House grounds. "We have a big problem," I said, running past them without stopping.

"What's going on?" Roberto asked after catching me up as I stopped at the front entrance to the White House and pushed open the door slightly.

"The president had eyes of fire," I said. "Heather told me. Her husband had eyes of fire, and she thought she saw something beneath his face."

"Oh shit," Roberto said. "That can't be good."

"What has eyes of fire?" Jinayca asked.

"Goddamn shape-shifter—and there's only one I know working with Avalon," I said, stepping inside the White House to find two dead Secret Service agents on the floor beyond. Their throats had been torn out.

"Damn it," Roberto said, drawing his gun from his holster.

Five Secret Service agents left a nearby room and were soon shouted at to stand down by Roberto.

"Someone is in here," Roberto said. "Someone killed these two agents. Have you seen them?"

All five agents shook their heads.

"Have you all been together long?" Jinayca asked.

"Jerry here just arrived," a young man said, pointing to Jerry, a heavyset individual who looked a lot like one of the dead agents.

Jerry smiled. His hand turned into a claw, and he grabbed the nearest agent and threw him at us. He collided with Jinayca and Roberto as Jerry cut the throat of another agent with fingers that were now long and bony, before he set off up the stairs, taking them three at a time.

I gave chase, and Jerry ran into a room and jumped out of the window, crashing through the glass before falling the thirty feet to the rear of the White House. I followed suit, using air magic to land, as Jerry doubled back into the White House through another window.

"Goddamn it," I shouted, jumping back into the building, where I found two dead Secret Service men, one missing his head. It had been cut off in one smooth motion.

I blasted the door to the room with air magic, and it tore apart, ricocheting around the hallway beyond.

I sprinted out into the hallway to see a shape vanish through an open doorway beyond. I had no idea where I was inside the White House, as I'd been turned around, but I followed the shape into a small office.

At the far end, next to the door of an adjoining room, was a woman. She had bony, clawlike hands and dark skin, and her eyes blazed red and orange, as if there were two tiny furnaces in her skull. She opened her mouth, revealing dozens of piranha-like teeth, and flicked a long red tongue over them.

"We haven't officially met," I said. "I assume you're Lamashtu."

Lamashtu smiled, which was even more terrifying than when she hadn't been. "My reputation precedes me, as does yours, Nathaniel Garrett."

"You've been masquerading as the president," I said.

She nodded. "For a few weeks now."

"Where is he?"

"I was hungry," Lamashtu said softly, her voice like the purr of a cat.

"You didn't need to eat him."

"No, but I wanted to," Lamashtu said. "No evidence of him being missing. Gawain offered to bury him in the basement or incinerate him, but waste not, want not."

"You can't escape," I said.

"Now, that's not true," Lamashtu said with another smile. "Be seeing you soon."

She tossed a hand grenade in my direction, and I wrapped myself in a shield of air as she burst through the door before the explosion.

I ran after her as quickly as possible, but all I found was the decapitated head of the woman she'd killed earlier. I cursed myself for not bringing a comm unit with me and noticed that the drawer to the large wooden desk was open.

I walked over and checked, only to find a small wooden bracelet on the floor. There were runes burned into it that were slowly fading.

Jinayca, Roberto, and a dozen armed men and women burst through the door a few moments later.

"Lamashtu," I said, tossing the bracelet to Jinayca. "She was heading here to find that. A portable realm gate bracelet. I'm going to guess that whoever worked in this office was working for Avalon. Find them; find out where that bracelet led to."

I walked toward the exit and stopped. "President Reed is dead," I said, to several gasps. "Lamashtu has been playing him for a few weeks now. Gawain knows about it."

"Where is his body?" one of the Secret Service agents asked.

"She ate him," I told the young man. "When you tell Heather, I'll leave it up to you whether or not she needs to hear that bit."

"And what are you going to do?" Jinayca asked.

"I'm going to go talk to Gawain," I said. "Possibly kill him. I haven't decided yet." I looked around the room, waiting for an objection, but no one had one.

I walked out of the White House alone, wanting a moment to not think about how we had no idea where an enemy as dangerous as Lamashtu had gone. No wonder Gawain had surrendered; I expected that he'd hoped she'd be able to free him.

One of the Secret Service agents told me where Gawain was, and I set off across the White House lawn to a park bench surrounded by three large tents and at least two dozen human members of the army. They were guarding Gawain, who sat on the bench itself, the runes carved into it appearing to ensure that he behaved himself.

"I've never liked you," Gawain said to me as I was waved past the soldiers guarding him. Gawain's wrists were adorned with sorcerers' bands, but other than that and the rune-graven bench, he was not restrained.

"You know, Gawain," I said, taking a seat on a wooden chair that one of the soldiers brought for me, "you really are a cunt. I know Americans don't like that word, but I'm pretty sure that the soldiers have heard worse, so I'm just going to say it. I've wanted to tell you that for a really long time. It felt good."

"Fuck you, Nate," Gawain snapped.

"Arthur is going to die," I said, my voice completely calm. "Your father is going to die. Everyone who stands with them will die. When we are done, their existence will never again tarnish this or any other realm. I'm going to give you one chance here—one chance to tell me what I need to know."

"Burn in hell," Gawain sneered.

"Gawain," I said softly. "Lamashtu has gone. She ran away. She left you here."

There was slight concern in his expression.

"I was right when I thought that you'd surrendered because you expected her to save you," I said. "That's good to know. No one is saving you."

"I will remain here until I am needed," Gawain said.

"You will remain here as everything you built burns to ash," I told him.

"I will finish my mission," Gawain said smugly.

"And what mission is that?" I asked. "To be arrested? To be beaten up? Because if they're your mission, you are a fucking superstar."

Gawain stared at me with only hate in his eyes. "I will tell you nothing," he shouted, spitting onto the ground.

"You're a nobody," I said. "You always were."

Gawain darted toward me, but I grabbed his arm and casually backhanded him, sending him back to the bench as several guns were leveled in his direction.

"How do we get to Atlantis?" I asked him.

Gawain laughed. "You can't kill me and take my memories; you can't feed me to your wraith; you can't do a goddamn thing to me. The Horsemen will cometh. They will burn your world to nothing."

"The Horsemen?" I asked. "Arthur is making new Horsemen?" That was a concerning idea, considering the only surviving members of the last ones that had been made were Judgement, Mordred, and myself.

Gawain looked dismayed. "Fuck off."

"Atlantis was a destroyed realm. Why go there?"

"A lot of reasons."

"List them," I said, feeling my irritation threaten to bubble over.

"Fuck off."

"Good talk," I said, getting to my feet as Judgement walked into the clearing. "Just so you know, I'm not going to torture you. I'm not going to hurt you to get information. I don't think that would be a good idea."

"And she is?" Gawain asked.

"I'm not sure we've met," Judgement said. "Not properly. I killed Hera. And I hear you might know where my sister Athena is, so I'm going to tear your brain into tiny pieces and let you put them back together again. Remember what you did to Mordred? Well, the runes you placed on him are the same ones on that bench. Want to see how long it takes you to break?"

Gawain glanced at the runes and showed fear for the first time. "You're lying," he stammered.

"Am I?" Judgement asked. "I don't think so."

Gawain looked between me and Judgement.

"You wouldn't," Gawain said.

"I once tore out a man's eyes and made him hold them as I tortured him," I told Gawain. "And of the two of us, I'm pretty sure I'm the nice one."

Judgement smiled.

"Everyone thinks Atlantis is destroyed," Gawain almost shouted. "That it was turned to ruin during the Titan Wars thousands of years ago, and it was. Everyone who lived there was killed. But the realm itself wasn't destroyed, and there's still plenty of places to rebuild."

"Continue," I said.

"Arthur thought that no one would look for us there. No one would think of going to Atlantis. And most importantly, there's only one entrance in and out."

"The realm gate was in Europe," I said. "It was destroyed thousands of years ago."

"There's a second gate. In Avalon."

I'd not been expecting that. "How is that possible?"

"It's under the mountains to the north of Camelot," Gawain said, with an expression that suggested he'd really rather not have said anything.

"You're going to need to expand on that," Judgement said.

"We always knew there was a gate there," Gawain said with a sigh. "My father mentioned it a few times as something he'd heard about. We set off on an expedition. Couldn't do it before our enemies were out of Avalon, and it took a while, but we found it about a year after we thought you were dead."

"What else did you find?"

"The realm gate is one of a dozen. Each gate goes to a different realm belonging to a different pantheon."

"That's how you got to Asgard?"

Gawain nodded.

"Why not use these gates all the time?"

"We couldn't," Gawain said. "They needed to be unlocked. Except Atlantis—that was never locked in the first place."

"Why?" Judgement asked.

"Presumably because no one thought it would ever be used again. Elves locked the others, though."

"They locked them how?" I asked. "And how did you unlock them? Explain."

"Each realm gate was dwarven in nature, but there were elven runes on them. None of them would work."

"But you've found an elf to unlock them?" Judgement asked.

Gawain nodded. "When we first went to Atlantis, all we found was destruction." He chuckled. "And a prison."

"What kind of prison?" I asked, curious as to where this was all going.

"An elven one. Shadow elven, to be exact."

"You found shadow elves inside a prison?" I asked, keeping my anger in check. "Like how Tarron was found? Frozen in suspended animation? How many?"

"Half dozen," Gawain said. "All frozen. We ... defrosted them. They were not exactly fans of the people who put them there and were keen to help us do what we needed to do."

"They unlocked the realm gates in Avalon?"

"It took us several years and a lot of dead bodies, but they helped us, and eventually, yes, we unlocked them. Our first journey was to Asgard, and you saw how well that went."

"How do we get into Avalon?" I asked.

"Avalon Island," Gawain said.

"We can't get in that way," Judgement said. "No one can. The island is abandoned, and I assume if we send people through the realm gate there a dozen at a time, they're just going to get slaughtered by whatever army you have on the other side. There are two realm gates into Avalon. One on Avalon Island, which is not a good idea. And another behind Kay's home, which we've tried to access from Nidavellir, seeing how that's where it's linked to, and it almost killed the dwarf doing it, so I assume it's booby trapped."

"Obviously," Gawain said with a smirk.

Judgement took a step toward Gawain and removed a knife from her belt. "You don't have any magic right now," she said. "Want to cut out the smug shit?"

"Fine," Gawain snapped. "Only Kay's blood can activate it. And Kay is dead. Oops."

"Is there another realm gate into Avalon?" I asked, trying very hard not to rip Gawain's head off.

"Yes," Gawain said and folded his arms over his chest, followed up with a scream as Judgement drove the blade into his kneecap.

"Care to elaborate?" she asked sweetly.

"It's in Duat," Gawain said.

"You have an army stationed there?" I asked. "How many?"

"No, nothing like that," Gawain said. "You can't go through with many people—the spirits will spot you, and ... they don't like the living."

"So to get to Avalon, we need to go through Duat, the land of the dead, and into the mountains behind Camelot?" I asked. "That's the only way from the Earth realm into Avalon?"

Gawain nodded. "That I know of, yes. Now either fuck off or kill me."

"One last question," I said. "What are the names of every single shadow elf you found?"

The list wasn't long. When I was done, I stood and looked down at the craven enemy as Judgement walked away to presumably wash her knife.

"You are pathetic," I said sadly. "A parasite of a man who clings to whoever will offer you the most power. The most wealth. The most of whatever you desire. How long did it take you to screw around with Merlin's head to join Arthur's cause?"

"Not long," Gawain said with a smirk. He was happy to be giving this information. Information, I was pretty sure, that Gawain felt hurt me. "Abaddon did most of it. And once he was in our thrall, he had little chance to escape. The day Mordred nearly killed Arthur and required Merlin to tend to him around the clock ... well, that was the beginning of the end to Merlin's being anything other than Arthur's soldier. Mordred did this to our father—he turned him into the man he is today."

"Is there any way to save him?"

Gawain laughed.

I turned as Queen Orfeda and a dozen of her soldiers entered the clearing. "We're taking him to a secure facility in the city," she said. "Hades and Persephone will want to question him."

"You can't kill me yet," Gawain said with a laugh.

"Let me know when you can," I said to Orfeda and punched Gawain in the jaw, knocking out a few of his teeth.