Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

NATE GARRETT

Realm of Atlantis

I'd been watching more and more people heading into Shadow Falls when the realm gate had simply stopped working. Despite Zamek and the other dwarves trying to fix their realm gate, nothing was working. Whatever was happening in Shadow Falls, we were going to take no part in it. To suggest that I was frustrated was an understatement. To suggest that I was more frustrated at being reduced to a human again was probably something only Remy could find the right amount of swearing for.

As it had become quickly apparent that the realm gate wasn't going to be working anytime soon, the dwarves had taken Tommy away to try to figure out exactly how they were meant to stop him from trying to kill me once he took werewolf form.

In the meantime, I discovered a patch of rubble that had once been a building housing untold numbers of monsters and searched for more of the bracelets in the hope that I'd find one that wasn't used. I gave up after a few minutes of finding exactly nothing to help.

It was the end of the war, and I couldn't even get to the right realm to help. So I went to assist in defrosting the shadow elves and helping the dwarves out of their prison. I'd been there at most half an hour when Zamek shouted to me from across the prison, my name echoing all around the chamber.

"Mordred," Zamek said, out of breath.

"What about him?" I asked.

"Summoning circle," he said. "They've turned the realm gate into a summoning circle."

"You can do that?"

"Apparently," Zamek said. "The attack on Shadow Falls was to keep everyone busy. They destroyed the realm gates, all of them, and cost thousands of lives doing it, but the dwarven gates are fixing themselves, and they used the power inherent in the gate to turn it into a summoning circle. Frankly, it's quite astonishing; I've never considered using the power—"

"Zamek," I said softly. "Maybe not the time."

Zamek nodded as if his brain was finally catching up with his enthusiasm. "Right, well, Mordred wanted to let you know."

"Okay, so how's the elven realm gate working?" I asked, looking around to find Tarron.

"He's working on it," Zamek said.

We found Tarron nearby, along with two dozen shadow elves and more than a few dwarves. They were all staring at the floor.

"So it's going well, then," I said.

Tarron looked over at me.

"We have a problem," he said. "We can get the realm gate to work; we've got enough blood and runes, but ... well, it won't work for long."

"Define long," I said.

"We're not sure—probably seconds, if that. The number of runes that were destroyed in the city to collapse those buildings has caused unpleasant things to happen to the soil in the city," Dethian the dwarf said. "It's going to take time to create runes that will bypass the problem, or anyone who uses the gate and isn't human is going to fry their power stepping through it."

"That's convenient," I said.

"Well," Dethian said, "it was probably a by-product of their plan. We can't use any realms; we can't make more. We're sat here until we figure something out."

"Okay, I'll go," I said. "Can you link it to the realm gate under the Lincoln Memorial?"

Zamek nodded. "I can. Easily. But I shouldn't, because it's insane. You're human."

I looked at my friend and nodded. "I know. But we know where Arthur is, and we know that we have people in Washington who are going up against an army. They need help. I can at least pick up a gun or something. I'm not helpless. Once I'm through, you need to get that realm gate fixed and get through too. We're going to need backup. A lot of it."

Zamek sighed and passed me his battle-ax, which hummed with power. "You're going to need it. It should help keep you in one piece."

"Thank you," I said.

"We'll be there when we can," Zamek said as the runes on the earth burned brightly. "They're working as fast as they can to get the dwarven realm gate operational. Normally, it's minutes, but the blast from Shadow Falls really did a number on the gate here too. We're not exactly at our finest hour here."

"One human against Arthur, probably the most powerful being who ever lived. This should be interesting."

Zamek offered me his hand. "Good luck with that."

I laughed and shook his hand. "It's been an honor," I told him.

"Yes, it has," Zamek said. "At least try not to die. Selene will not be happy."

"If I don't come back, tell her I love her," I said.

"I will," Zamek promised. "Astrid will know the kind of man her father was too. I swear on it."

I stepped into the humming mass on the ground, and everything went dark; my entire body felt like it was being turned inside out. As quickly as it had started, I found myself on my knees next to the realm gate in Washington.

I tightened my grip on the battle-ax and made my way up the stairs to the outside, the sounds of baying and cheering easy to hear well before I reached the exit at the side of the memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial was packed with people. Thousands of them, moving along the reflecting pool, all looking toward the Washington Monument. In the distance plumes of smoke took to the skies. It was daylight, but there was a light rain, although no one seemed to mind.

I moved slowly around the monument and grabbed the first person I saw who wasn't going to raise an alarm, pulling them back around to a group of shrubs and placing the tip of the battle-ax against their throat.

"I'd start talking," I said.

"Arthur arrived with these creatures," he said. "He killed anyone in his way. Everyone. The White House is burning. We are about to start a new world order."

"You're KOA?" I asked.

"Proud of it," he said.

I removed the dagger from his hip and drove it into his skull. "Good for you," I said, retrieving a Glock from his holster. Silver bullets. At least in death, he'd be able to do more than he had in life.

I took his hoodie, too, which thankfully was still blood-free, and ran to the side of the reflecting pool. I kept my head down as I made my way through the park, past the Constitution Gardens and World War II Memorial.

The crowds were thicker after that, and I spotted Arthur standing atop a set of steps that had been constructed around the monument and appeared to consist of mud and vines. Seeing how Demeter was standing beside Arthur, wearing an elegant green gown and a cruel smile on her face, I assumed that she was responsible for the decor.

People around me cheered and shouted as Arthur stepped toward the edge of the podium. He stood there and soaked in the applause, nodding along with it, while his KOA shouted his name as the sounds of battle could be heard in the distance. The humans were fighting back. I really hoped they were winning.

I'd seen this sort of thing many times during my life. One man telling a group of angry people that it wasn't their fault that their lives were shit; it was the fault of whichever group they wanted people to hate instead. In this instance, it was the rebellion, the humans who stood against Arthur's plans, the nonhumans who fought him. They were the enemy. They were who needed to be exterminated.

I looked around at the crowd, and most carried weapons: swords, staves, the occasional spear. My ax didn't look so out of place, then. More had guns, though, and I spotted a large number of Horsemen over to the side of the memorial, all of them standing to attention.

I moved away to the other side of the memorial and saw the creatures next to it. They were all penned together in the field.

There were hundreds of creatures, and all of them were sitting down, doing nothing. I wondered exactly what Arthur was going to do with them.

I spotted dozens of media trucks that had been parked in the field during the battle at the White House. Microphones covered the front of where Arthur stood, the world's media allowing the people to take in their new dictator. It didn't matter where they lived; Arthur was going to make sure that he was the only person in charge.

"My people," Arthur said, "I am your savior."

The cheering made me feel nauseous.

"Your leaders have betrayed you," Arthur continued as I moved through the crowd. "Those you trusted to keep you safe have done nothing of the sort. The rich get richer and do nothing for the poor. You are the forgotten. I will change that."

More cheering.

"I will eliminate poverty. I will eliminate war. I will eliminate disease. I will take this world and ensure that it becomes what it was always destined to be. The rebellion stopped me from helping you once, but they are not here. They will not stop me again. They will not stop what we can achieve. Right now, throughout this country, throughout all countries, our allies are burning away everything that opposes us. In this very city, my Horsemen are destroying those who stand against us. We will soon join them in battle; we will soon be victorious. And once this land has come under my rule, no one will ever take it from us."

The cheering grew louder, and I took the opportunity to move through more of the crowd, the noise increasing as I went, until I reached the metal barrier at the edge. Armed guards stood beyond it, and one motioned for me to move back. I did as I was told. I needed another plan.

I stopped listening to Arthur's incessant ramblings and threaded through the crowd. I tightened my grip on my ax and removed the gun from my hoodie pocket, holding it down by my side.

"I am your salvation," Arthur shouted, raising his spear high into the air.

The roar of the crowd was deafening, and I aimed the gun and fired twice. The first bullet hit an invisible shield that had been created at the front of the platform; the second struck the same spot and fractured it. I tried to fire again but was tackled from the side, and the gun skidded out of my grasp. Two dozen KOAs set about kicking and punching me as I curled up and tried not to get killed.

"Bring him to me," Arthur demanded, his voice full of rage.

I was hauled to my feet and dragged to the front of the crowd, though we stopped every few feet so that someone else could punch or kick me.

"Nathan Garrett," Arthur seethed. "Will you ever cease plaguing me?"

"Sure. When you're dead," I told him.

There was an audible gasp from the sycophants in the crowd, followed by a chant of "Make him pay."

Vines wrapped around me, and I was picked up off the floor and carried over to the platform. I remained there, hanging ten feet in the air as Demeter walked toward me.

"I should have torn you apart long ago," she said and threw me behind her. I smashed into a stone wall and dropped to the ground.

Arthur kicked me in the ribs to the cheering of his supporters. He turned back to the microphones. "This ... worm has been sent to end me. He has been sent to stop my destiny. Your destiny. He will be dealt with. Let it be known that those who dare stand against me will be met with similar levels of fury and retribution."

Arthur picked me up by the back of my collar and dragged me to the front of the stage. He kneed me in the face, and blood poured from a freshly broken nose. I reached for the bracelet on my wrist. If I was going to die, he was coming with me. He kneed me again and stomped down on the hand without the bracelet, breaking the bones in my fingers. He crouched beside me. "You can't remove it with a broken hand."

"I'll use my damn teeth if need be," I snapped and got a punch in the jaw for my trouble.

"Take him to the pit," Arthur said. Vines wrapped around me again, pinning my arms back to my sides, and I was dragged offstage to the cheering of a crowd baying for blood.

"You should have just killed me," I shouted to Arthur.

"You are right," Demeter said. "And now you will die. And you will feed the creatures who you failed to save so many times. Your rebellion is over. Shadow Falls is either eradicated or neutralized; we will control this world. All of those countries you thought had fought us off are discovering what happens when we return. Cities who stood against us are burning, their people dying. You cannot hope to stop us all. You are nothing."

"Arthur doesn't care about any of you," I said.

Demeter stopped dragging me. "I know that, you idiot. But I will get to kill Hades for taking my daughter from me all those years ago. And that is all I ever wanted."

"Your hate has twisted you."

"It gave me purpose," she snapped as we continued on.

I was thrown over the six-foot-high fence into the pen with the creatures, none of whom moved. They simply all turned to look at me.

"Your screams will give me sweet dreams," Demeter said, and she walked away chuckling to herself.

The creatures were beginning to realize that they had some food in their midst. There were growls. One of them rushed toward me, and I punched it in its face, knocking it to the ground. The rest moved around, watching me, as I tried to get myself toward a fence simply so I could have something against my back.

Several of the creatures screamed and charged. I put the sorcerer's band in my mouth and ripped it free.

Shadows sprang from the ground, wrapping around me as the hands of the wraith shot up out of them. The shadows encased my body the moment the sorcerer's band exploded. The heat was incredible, and I was dragged down into the shadows as it tore the shadow magic apart. I screamed in pain as my arms and face were badly burned, my armor doing nothing to stop it. I continued to scream until there was nothing but the shadow realm.

I lay on the ground, panting, my entire body hurting, my magic only now kicking in to heal me. The wraith was devastated. Its body was a mass of burned shadows, and whatever passed for skin was covered in burns.

It stepped into the light, its hood almost burned down to nothing, revealing a face that looked identical to my own.

"Are you okay?" I asked, wincing as I got to my feet.

"I will survive," the wraith said. "I protected you."

"You did," I said. "Thank you."

"I am part of you," it said, placing its ruined hand against my chest. "We are one."

I gasped and felt the kick of power as my magic flooded my body.

"Erebus was part of you," the wraith said. "Erebus was darkness. He was your magic. I am darkness."

"You're Erebus?" I asked, confused.

The wraith shook its head. "No. I am you. Part of you that was always there. The darkness. The power. You were made to kill gods. And devils. Your father and mother knew that. Erebus knew that. Erebus ensured that you could do what you needed to."

The skin on its body was healing, and at the same time its powers of speech were improving. I looked down at the pink skin on my arms, which had been charred and blistered a moment earlier.

A ball of pure magic appeared in its hand, the smoky tendrils billowing out around me. I took it.

"I don't understand," I said.

"You are not pure magic," the wraith said. "You are darkness personified. Death personified. It is why they gave you that name. Arthur fears you because you can beat him. I will always protect you. I am your wraith. But you are Death. It is time you showed Arthur just what he has come up against."

I looked down at the pure magic sphere as my wraith placed its cold hands on mine and pushed it into my chest.

"Your magic," the wraith said. "Arthur removed your magic. But I was still here. Cut off from you, but with access to your power. I have gathered it. I have nurtured it. This is your power given to you all at once. Burn them all."

I stepped into another pool of light and arrived back in the pen, the inferno from the sorcery band still ongoing. I'd been gone mere fractions of a second. The screams of the creatures as the inferno tore through them were horrific, and shadows leaped out of the ground, taking dozens at once as the inferno covered me.

I let the heat bathe me, comfort me. I allowed it to swirl around me, and I breathed in, my own fire magic touching that from the sorcerer's band, and as the inferno vanished, all that was left was me standing in the destroyed pen as Arthur and his crowd cheered, before it slowly dawned on them all exactly what they were seeing.

I breathed out the fire, a huge plume of dragon-like breath high into the sky above me.

"Arthur," I roared, my air magic carrying the words to all around us. "Time to face your destiny."