Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

NATE GARRETT

The KOA who had come to cheer Arthur on folded like a bad hand of cards. Turned out that when you got a few hundred exceptionally pissed-off dwarves running at you, you tended to reevaluate where you'd gone wrong in life.

Arthur's body was taken by Hades, Loki, and Persephone back to Shadow Falls. It would be destroyed. No trace left for people to try to track down or turn into a martyr. He'd died hard, and he'd deserved every single second of the pain he'd suffered. If I'd had my way, his ashes would have been shot into space.

Washington was a mess, which pretty much summed up most of the world at this point. The KOA had attacked cities all over the globe, and there were millions of dead. The human race had a long way to go before it would heal from the wounds that had been caused, and probably an even longer way before they'd trust anyone who wasn't human. We'd stood shoulder to shoulder with many of them, and I hoped that would help.

Arthur hadn't wanted to just rule over the realms; he'd wanted to punish all of those who had stood against him in the past. That had been his downfall: his arrogance and hatred of having people say no to him.

I found myself sitting up against the gate of the White House, which was pretty much a charred ruin by this point.

Layla sat beside me. We'd both lost people we cared about; we'd both had to fight for our lives. And judging from the expression on her face, neither of us had any idea what we were going to do next.

"Are we actually done?" she asked me.

I nodded. "I think so," I said. "I hope so."

"I'm not even twenty-five, and now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my life now that the war is done."

"You want some advice?" I asked.

She nodded and smiled. "I really do."

"Take a break. Go find yourself. Go backpacking through the realms. Whatever you need to do. There's no hurry."

"Backpacking through the realms?" Layla asked with a chuckle.

"Ah, it was that or get high as fuck and try to figure out the mysteries of life."

"Why not both?" she asked.

I laughed, and she hugged me.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I have no idea," I admitted. "Raise my daughter. Be with Selene. I don't really have any enemies to lay waste to anymore. Maybe build a house somewhere quiet."

"There's still a lot to do," Layla said.

"I know," I agreed. "But that won't take forever. We've chopped the head off the snake—the rest will crumble. The KOA will be hunted down. Arthur's allies will be hunted down. Shadow Falls will be fixed; hopefully Asgard can one day be fixed." I watched as Kase and Harry walked along the street in front of us, hand in hand.

"Both are happier," Layla said. "Kase was pushing everyone away in her anger."

"I know something about that," I said. "Still not sure what they did to Tommy."

"Ask," Layla said, pointing to Zamek, who was walking toward us.

"My friend," I said, getting to my feet and hugging him. "I'm glad you're okay. Thank you for the timely assist."

"My pleasure," he said, taking a seat on the ground.

I sat beside him. "Worked out for the best. A few minutes later, and I'd have really been in trouble."

"We like to do these things," Zamek said. "It's more poetic. The early save isn't nearly as romanticized."

"I'm sorry about Jinayca," Layla said. "I will miss her very much."

"Me too," Zamek said. "She was a force of nature like no other."

"You seen Mordred?" I asked.

"He's helping to round up the KOA and creatures," Zamek said.

"And Tommy?" Layla asked.

"Tommy has blood magic curse marks on him. Marks we can't remove without killing him," Zamek said. "So we altered them."

"Meaning what?" I asked, apprehensive.

"The blood curse marks were put there to make him want to kill everyone he loved. Starting with you. Thankfully, unlike Mordred's marks, or your marks for that matter, Tommy's were placed on there in considerably less time, so they were still in a sort of flux. We changed the marks so that instead of wanting to kill them all, he wants to kill the person who put the marks there. Merlin. Who is now dead."

"So his marks are redundant?" I asked.

Zamek nodded. "We can try and remove them normally, and I can't say that Tommy is going to have a fun time of it, but he's safe from going after people he cares about."

I got to my feet. "Good. I'm going to go find out just how badly things are going everywhere else, and then I'm going to try to find Selene and Astrid."

"I'm sure they're okay," Layla said. "Selene and the rest of us were out in DC fighting those damn creatures and Horsemen when Arthur appeared. We hunted down the shadow elves that were helping Merlin and Arthur. We killed them all."

"I'm sorry about Tarron," I said. "He was a good man."

Layla nodded. "Yeah, he was. His people are safe at least in part because of him. As for Selene, she's probably having a really big glass of vodka somewhere."

"I know they're fine," I told her. "I'm pretty sure Astrid was the safest person in Shadow Falls. I just want to see her."

"Go be a dad," Zamek said. "I'm going to sit here with my friend until someone tells me where the nearest open bar is. Then I will get very, very drunk."

"I like his plan," Layla said.

I left them both there and found Selene over by the remains of the Washington Monument. She hugged me and kissed me on the lips. "Everyone keeps telling me that Astrid is fine," she said. "Eos and Brynhildr have her. They literally stood between her and the Horsemen and killed everything that came within fifty feet."

"That was a lot of information," I said, happy that everyone was okay.

Selene smiled. "Sorry, I've been waiting to say it all since I got here. We lost a lot of good people, and I'm trying to stay positive."

I held Selene against me, and for a brief moment the rest of the world could have gone to hell. Or further toward it.

"There's something I want to talk to you about," I said eventually, cursing myself for ruining the moment.

"Sounds important," she said.

"It is," I told her. "But later, when we're not all covered in blood and gore. I just ... remind me, okay?"

She nodded. "Have you seen Mordred?"

"He ran off just after Arthur died," I said. "He had things to do. He's now the face of those of us who aren't human. Which might actually be the most amazing thing I've ever heard."

"He's with Judgement," Selene told me. "She killed hundreds in Shadow Falls. The rage inside her was ... it reminded me of you and Mordred."

"We're kin," I said, as if that explained it in any way. "Sort of, anyway."

"Go find Mordred so we can sort out whatever needs to be done, and then we can go home and sleep." Selene paused for a second. "Or rather, we can go home and watch our baby sleep and never move from there. Ever."

"I love you," I said.

"You're a soppy fucker, Mr. Garrett," Selene said with a beaming smile. "And I love you too."

I found Mordred talking to a large crowd near the Lincoln Memorial, which had become some sort of gathering place for the media and anyone who just wanted to know what the hell was going on.

I stayed far enough back from the crowd to ensure I was ignored, as Mordred, carrying no weapons, explained that Arthur was dead, that his tyranny was over, and that the people of the world had nothing to fear from those who had stood against him. It was a good speech; he was becoming better and better at it the more he gave them.

I was proud of him. Proud of the king he'd become, proud of the man he'd become. I was glad that, if nothing else, he'd been able to turn his life around and fight against the evil that had captured him for so long. Okay, he'd had to die and come back to do it, but it made me happy to know he'd done it.

The impromptu press conference finished, and Mordred thanked everyone for coming. He turned, spotted me, and walked over as several large guards stopped the press from running after him, shooting questions the whole time.

"I'd better get used to that, I guess," he said.

I nodded.

"You got any ideas what you want to do after this?" Mordred asked me.

"Retire?" I suggested.

Mordred laughed. "I was going to offer you a job. Head of ... well, what was the Law of Avalon and will no longer be called that. Can't really keep something that was used to subjugate."

"You keeping Avalon?" I asked him.

Mordred nodded. "I think so." He looked at the massive number of allies who were helping, tending to the injured, and talking to humans who had come over to help too.

"This might just work," I said. "That's what you're thinking, isn't it?"

Mordred smiled and nodded. "I really bloody well hope so."

"Where's the sword?"

"Hel has it. I thought it best not to wander around with it on. I won't be wearing a crown, either, despite several people telling me I should. A democratically elected king. I'm not sure that's how it's meant to work, but it's bloody well how it's working."

I placed my hand on Mordred's shoulder. "You did good."

"You killed him."

"Yeah, but all of this is because of you, not me. You motivated; you gave them something to look up to. I hit people really hard."

"And you're good at it," Mordred said. "I assume you won't be taking the job."

"I don't know," I said honestly. "I need to talk to Selene. I need to figure out what's best for all of us."

I spotted Judgement across the reflecting pool, sitting with several workers, all enjoying a beer and, judging from the occasional amber glow, a little smoke of something else.

"We need to bury our friends first," I said. "Help clean up. Help make sure that humans and us don't try to kill one another again. Hunt down the KOA. Hunt down Arthur's friends. And basically save the world and make it a better place for everyone."

"You want to hold hands and sing a song too?" Mordred asked me.

"Maybe later," I said, and we both laughed.

"We did a good thing today, Nate. Not just today but every day since Arthur appeared. I just wish we could have done it without all the death and destruction. The new president survived Arthur's attack; she's hurt but okay, so that's something." He paused. "You think the humans will forgive us?"

I shrugged. "I hope so. We can only try, Mordred. We can only be the best we can be. We saved a lot of human lives, but there will always be some who don't see it that way. You can't please everyone all the time, so don't bother trying. Just do the best you can and hope it's enough."

Mordred stared at me for several seconds. "I'm glad you killed me, Nathan Garrett. Thank you for that."

"Anytime," I said with a chuckle.

I clapped him on the back as people spotted him and began to make their way over to us. "Go be the king, Mordred."

I watched him walk off to do his duty and knew with a hundred percent certainty that the world was a better place because people like Mordred were in it.