Lies Ripped Open (32 page)

“So are you.”

“I don’t kill for pleasure. I don’t kill for fun and games. I certainly don’t kill random innocent people.”

Merlin walked toward me. “What do you want me to do?”

“Stop the Reavers. Cease all of their operations. We need to stop them from murdering people to bring you souls.”

“Do you know how long a soul allows Arthur to live for?” Merlin placed his hand on the glass of the tank, as if stroking Arthur’s hair. “Decades. Depending on the soul. Only human souls will do for some reason, possibly a final joke by Mordred. He would never expect us to kill humans so that Arthur could live. But I will do whatever I must.”

“You allow them to kill humans?”

“Allow? I don’t allow them to do anything. I leave it in their capable hands and they bring me what I want. I don’t care where they get them from, so long as they do.”

“This will be your last shipment, I’ve destroyed every vessel I could find.”

Merlin rounded on me with rage in his eyes. “You utter fucking idiot. Do you understand what you’ve done? You’ve
condemned
Arthur to die.”

“He’s already dead, or he may as well be,” I shouted, slamming my hand on the tank. “Look at him, he’s not spoken or moved in over a millennium.”

The blast of water hit me in the chest, lifted me from my feet, and dumped me several feet away. “Don’t ever touch this tank again. It is the only thing keeping
your king
alive. Do you understand me?”

I got back to my feet. “You’re allowing the murder of
innocent
humans to keep a dead man alive. You have to stop.”

“Have to? Do you hear yourself ? I don’t have to do anything. I’m keeping Arthur alive, and that’s all there is to it. If I have to harvest the souls of every single human in England, I will. As for the Reavers taking the lives of the innocent, and killing for pleasure. You killed the men responsible for your wife’s murder, you took pleasure in it. You murdered countless hundreds over the years in the name of Avalon, and some just because they were in your way. Do you think none of those I sent you after were
innocent
?”

The memory of finding my wife’s body flashed to the front of my mind, bringing with it a cool rage. “What?” I said through gritted teeth, unwilling to trust myself to say more.

“Do you really believe that I only sent you after the wicked, the evil? I sent you to kill those who needed killing. If they didn’t have an evil life story, I made one up. Told you what you needed to hear.”

I was dumbfounded. “You’ve lied to me my whole life,” I said eventually. “You put me through the Harbinger trials at
thirteen
, and now you tell me that you had me kill innocent people fo
r you?”

“Only a few times. You were always fine with taking the lives of those who deserved it, but I have other . . . tools that will kill without their conscience getting in the way. Eventually I just had you do whatever you pleased. It was easier that way, and it kept you away from me and my plans. Yes, I lied to you, yes I put you through the Harbinger trials, but those trials made you a
better
person, a more capable person. And those lies were so you’d do what you needed to. So what’s your point? Would you like to sit there and cry about it?

“You come here, with your anger and your self-righteousness. Where was that self-righteousness when you went to America and slaughtered people? Where was it when you tortured people for information, when you threatened and killed?”

I got back to my feet, rage almost burning through me.

“I do what needs to be done. As do you. But I don’t have the luxury of crying over it. I always thought you were able to put aside your emotions to do what was necessary, apparently I’m wrong. You were Merlin’s assassin, killing people who needed to be killed, and then you took the Hellequin name, and you were feared. People fell into line without you having to do anything. All of that was possible because of who you are, because of what I made you. And those Harbinger trials did that. And if you think I’m going to stop having the Reavers kill whomever they choose in my quest to heal your king, you’re out of your damn mind.”

I punched him. It contained my rage and anger, my hurt at being lied to, and my frustration at how far Merlin had slipped. It was powerful enough to knock Merlin onto his ass, and for a second I thought, this is it, this is where he tries to kill me.

“Stop,” Gawain shouted as he sprinted in between us. “Just stop, before this goes further.”

“What are you thinking?” Gawain asked me, and then turned to Merlin. “And is what he said true? Are we killing innocents to keep Arthur alive?”

Merlin got to his feet, ignoring Gawain and stepping up toward me. “That’s the one and only shot you get. Now go do your job. Leave, and don’t come back for a few more centuries.”

“No,” I said softly. “I’m done with you, Merlin. I’m finished. I don’t want to work with you, or for you, or even know that what I’m doing is helping you. I’m no longer in your employ.”

“You can’t just quit.”

“I can. And you can’t stop me. Not unless you’re going to kill me. Are you going to kill me?”

Merlin stared a hole through me, and then turned to Gawain. “Get this . . . gentleman out of my sight.” He turned back to me. “You will never sully my home with your presence again.”

“What about the souls?” Gawain asked.

“What about them?” Merlin snapped. “This man won’t accept what we need to do to keep Arthur alive. Once you’ve removed him from this place, return to me and I’ll explain it to you.
Goodbye
, Nathaniel Garrett.”

“Go fuck yourself, Merlin.”

I turned and walked away, fully aware that Merlin wanted to carry out his threat after I swore at him the first time. Gawain was behind me in an instant, a shield between Merlin and me.

We walked in silence until we reached the front door.

“Don’t come back, Nathaniel,” Gawain said. “Not for a very long time.”

“He’s not the man I thought he was. He’s twisted, and on a dark and dangerous path.”

“Then we will have to continue to shine brighter than ever so he can find his way. It’s a shame you don’t understand that. Good-bye.”

He closed the door and I made my way back to the coach and Elaine. I knew that Gawain would go back to Merlin, who would twist his actions to make it look like he was a hero, doing what was needed. And Gawain would accept it. He couldn’t bear to think that Merlin might be wrong. It would be his downfall one day.

“So how did that go?” Elaine asked as I climbed back in.

“I’m done here.”

“You finally left Merlin’s employ? I guess we’ll need to find you something else to do.”

“No, not with Merlin, I’m done with Avalon. I’m finished with this whole place.”

“Nathan, you can’t . . .”

“I can, and I will. You need to track down these Reavers and stop them. They’re going to keep killing, and Merlin isn’t
bothered
about where the souls come from, so long as they keep coming.”

“I’ll do all I can. Is there anything you need?”

“Only one thing, to get out of this realm as quickly as this carriage will take me.”

CHAPTER
32

Avalon Island, England. Now.

T
he helicopter landed a few hours after we’d left the body of Felix in his cavern. Alan had arranged for people to collect both Felix and the dead Reavers, the latter of whom would be disposed of by the various creatures who live in every city and feast on the dead. Felix would be sent wherever he wanted to be buried. The journey had been done in silence. Once Felix had died, I’d taken his soul, and with it his knowledge of the Reavers. I knew names and the occasional face of everyone that Felix had discovered. But the one I wanted to find above all others was Enfield, the man in charge of Kelly Jensen and her band of psychopaths.

Hendricks, the guard on the island, met us at the landing pad. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a while.

“Anything to tell us?” I asked when we were far enough away from the noise of the rotors.

“There’s been no one coming through here. Trust me; they couldn’t arrive without us knowing it.”

“Thanks for that,” I told him and shook his hand.

“Do you think any of my people are Reavers?”

“You got a list of names?”

Hendricks nodded and passed me a notebook. “I figured it wouldn’t hurt for you to look them over, just in case.”

I flicked through the pages. “None,” I told him eventually. “You’re clean.”

“Excellent. I assume you’re going to want to go straight through the realm gate.”

“Please. Have you spoken to anyone in Camelot?”

“I spoke to Lucie yesterday. Fiona was doing okay.”

Alan looked visibly relieved. “Thank you,” he said.

Hendricks took us all to the realm gate, and wished us luck as we walked through into Albion.

“I’m going to go see Fiona,” Alan told us. “What about you?”

“I’d come with you,” I said, “But I need to get changed and have a shower. I can’t turn up to the hospital with bloody clothes. And I imagine the paladins are already going to be on edge when they see me. I’d rather my wardrobe not be a reason for my death.”

“Go to my place, there’s bound to be something there you can wear.” Alan thought about it. “Shit, I don’t have a key.”

“I’ll take him,” Remy said. “I live opposite anyway, so it’ll be nice to wash.”

“What about you, Ellie?” I asked.

“I’m going to see Olivia and Tommy,” she told us. “I want to know what’s happening with the naming ceremony, and let Olivia know about what happened.”

“Come find me when you’re done,” I said. “Maybe ask Olivia and all of the LOA to come with her. I think I might need
back-u
p.”

“You think Merlin is going to handle your meeting badly?” Remy asked.

“The last time I saw him, I told him to fuck off and punched him in the jaw. I don’t think it’ll go well, no.”

“You punched Merlin?” Alan asked. “And I thought I had authority problems.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t imagine a century is enough that it’s going to make him want to see me. It might be worth getting Elaine to come with me too. Although that might make matters even worse. Basically I’m screwed no matter what I do.”

“You think Felix was right?” Ellie asked. “That you need to see Merlin?”

“Unfortunately, yeah. Elaine pushed through the
destruction
of the Reavers last time by telling people they were killing innocent humans. She’d never get away with it again. Too many
people
would see it as her not doing her job right the first time. She needs Merlin’s backing.”

“Do you think he’ll give it?”

“I have no idea. A century is a long time for him to hate Elaine and me.”

“What happens if he says no?” Remy asked.

“That’s a bloody good question, and I have no idea.”

“That’s reassuring,” Alan said. “Now I’m going to see my wife.”

We all went our separate ways, with only Remy staying with me as we caught one of the cars to the district where he and Fiona and Alan lived. It was considerably colder in the city than it had been when I was last here only a few days earlier. Storms were probably due. It was certainly the time of year for them. Winter in Camelot was a cold, miserable time if you didn’t like snow, or if you were, like Remy, under five feet tall.

We both stood outside Fiona and Alan’s house and stared at the door. “I know I was only here a few days ago, but it feels like a lifetime.”

“I know what you mean. I want to go see Fiona, I’m almost itching to. I’d best get washed, and I’ll meet you out here in half an hour. Let’s go get you a key first.”

We crossed the road and Remy placed his paw against the palm reader next to his front door. The door clicked and I glanced over to my left, where I saw Kelly Jensen.

There was no time to say anything. I threw up a shield of dense air in between Remy and the front door as an explosion rocked the house. The door was torn apart and thrown at us in a million pieces. I managed to deflect the majority of the blast, but the shockwave hit Remy and me, and flung us back onto the pavement with a heavy thud.

A bullet struck the side of the pavement about an inch from my head as Kelly Jensen ran toward us. I got back to my feet throwing up another shield to deflect the bullets, until she was out of them. And then she dropped the gun and used her light magic to blind me, before tackling me to the ground.

Punch after punch landed on my face as I raised my arms to protect myself as best I could. All of a sudden her weight was lifted from my chest accompanied by a grunt of pain from her and a low growl from Remy. My eyes began to readjust and I saw Remy punching Kelly in the back of the head with one hand, while he used his claws to dig into her shoulder and hold on. She scrambled back to her feet and twisted herself, blasting Remy in the chest with her light magic, the smell of burning fur and his scream of pain filling all around me.

“You’ve ruined everything. But you’re going to die for it,” Kelly said as she took Remy’s sabre and walked over to me, blood trickling down the front of her face from a cut on her forehead.

I rolled to my feet and lashed out with a plume of flame, which forced Kelly to dodge back, putting distance between us. She launched a blast of light, but I turned away as it lit up the street. When I turned back, I saw her running toward me, the sabre out in front like a lance. I readied a sphere of lightning, but Kelly jumped aside and her wings unfurled from her back, tearing through her blouse. She batted them once and she lifted into the sky. I removed the sphere of lightning from my hand; I couldn’t throw it at people and even if I could have, if I’d missed and hit one of the houses in the street, I’d have done considerable damage to it and maybe anyone inside.

“We’re at a sort of stalemate here,” I shouted.

Kelly was ten feet off the ground, still clutching the sabre and still looking mightily pissed off. She threw the sabre at me, which was easily avoided, and then light leapt from her
fingertips
. The ground burned everywhere the light touched, and my hastily
created
shield of air did very little to stop the sudden
barrage
. I was soon tearing off my T-shirt to stop it from burning me when it caught fire.

“I thought light fae were meant to be nice,” I shouted. “I guess that’s been proven as a myth.”

“Nice?” Kelly shrieked. “Fuck your nice.” Light began to fill the space in front of her, a huge amount of power that was going to do a lot of damage to whatever it hit.

“You shouldn’t have involved me,” I told her as a tendril of air magic left my hand and snaked toward the sabre that still lay on the road a few feet from me.

“I’m going to see you burn.”

Kelly was so bright that she was hard to look at. Remy moved slightly and Kelly’s head snapped toward him. I took the chance and used the air to whip the sabre up to Kelly. She didn’t notice it until the final moment, just before it pierced her ribs, going up toward her heart.

Kelly’s energy exploded, bathing everything with intense light, which I had to shield my eyes from. A thud soon after signified Kelly dropping to the ground, and when I turned back to her, she was writhing on the floor, cursing the name of pretty much everyone she could think of.

Remy limped over to her side and grabbed the sabre,
pulling
it free, and making Kelly shout out. “Silver blade,” he said. “Won’t kill her, will hurt like fuck.”

“How did you get in here?” I asked Kelly. “You didn’t go through the main realm gate. Hendricks didn’t lie about that.” It dawned on me almost immediately. “There’s a second realm gate in Albion, isn’t there?”

Kelly smiled, although the pain remained in her eyes.

“Where is Enfield?”

“Who?” she asked with mock innocence.

An explosion from behind made me turn around to see Remy’s house as part of the front wall collapsed.

“Sorry, Remy.”

He turned back to Kelly and advanced on her, his claws out. “Where is Enfield?”

“Probably killing your friends by now,” Kelly said, and had to stop herself from laughing.

“The hospital,” I cursed. “He’s there isn’t he?”

Kelly nodded slowly.

I passed Remy his sabre. “Stay here; get Elaine or someone to come help sort her out. If she fucks around, kill her.”

“I think I can take a fox,” Kelly said. “Enfield is going to kill you, sorcerer.”

I smashed a ball of hardened air into the side of her head, which knocked her cold. “Shut up,” I snapped.

The street was beginning to fill with people leaving their houses. It hadn’t been long since the first explosion, and I noticed that several of those standing around were armed. I didn’t want anyone trying to stop Remy.

“My name is Nathan Garrett,” I shouted. “You can call me Hellequin.”

There were murmurs, which I waited to finish.

“This woman here is Agent Kelly Jensen of the SOA. She’s tried to kill my companion, Remy Roux, another SOA agent, and me. She is a traitor to Avalon and its way of life. If anyone wants to contact Elaine and get her here, that would be very
useful
. This whole area is about to be crawling with various
Avalon
officials
, but if you want to help before they get here, make sure she doesn’t escape. And make sure no one tries to kill her. If any of you are considering helping
her
, know this. Once I’m done with her boss, I will come for you. It will not be a nice
conversation
.”

People looked from me to the still prone Kelly, who now had the tip of Remy’s sabre at her throat. Several members of the crowd removed phones and began dialing, while others showed their credentials as an agent for one of Avalon’s agencies.

“You going to be okay?” I shouted to Remy, who gave me the thumbs up. I spoke to several members of the crowd, one of whom passed me his phone so I could talk to one of Elaine’s guards, a man I trusted. They assured me that they would be there within minutes, so I set off toward the hospital hoping for the best. Hoping that Kelly had been lying, but knowing in my heart that I wasn’t going to be that lucky.

I managed to get one of the cars to take me to the hospital, which was certainly faster than running would have been, although the fact that the car couldn’t speed was more than a little infuriating.

I almost tore the door off as I left the car, immediately sprinting toward the hospital front entrance, which I barreled through and continued until I’d reached the lifts. The wait for one to arrive and then to take me up to the right floor was agonizing. I considered using my air magic to propel me up the stairwell, but I had no idea what I’d be facing up above. Even so, I felt considerable relief when the doors opened and I stepped out and saw that the guards were still at their station.

“Has Alan been this way?” I asked.

“About twenty minutes ago,” he told me.

I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the guard before setting off toward Fiona’s room. Each of the three checkpoints was manned, and there didn’t appear to be anything untoward
happening
as I reached the high-security area.

My confidence fell apart as I moved around the corner to where Fiona’s room was. The half dozen SOA agents outside the room were prone across the floor. I didn’t need to move to each of them to tell that they’d been killed. Blood soaked the hallway floor, with more splatter along the walls. The first agent had stab wounds along with signs that fire magic had been used on him.

I moved to Fiona’s door and readied a ball of fire as I kicked the door open and stepped inside. Fiona was sitting on the floor beside her bed, her eyes were open, although they looked glassed over, and she was still out of it.

Alan was being held by the throat up against the far wall, his feet dangling helplessly off the ground. The Faceless who held him in place didn’t even turn to look at me until I’d taken a step toward him.

“I will kill him if you come any closer,” the Faceless said without emotion.

“I will kill you if you hurt him,” I said. “Enfield.”

A chuckle escaped the Faceless’s lips and he dropped Alan to the floor, before removing his mask—the same mask that Kay’s faceless wore—and tossing it aside. “How’d you know?”