“Oh no, not you. Galahad. Or more specifically, Shadow Falls.”
I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Shadow Falls was one of the few realms that had discarded Avalon rule and struck out alone. Galahad was their king, and from all accounts he was doing a splendid job. There were people in Avalon who felt that Shadow Falls’ very existence was an affront to their honor, or some shit. “What about it?”
“There have been murmurs of them beginning to think they could take more of America for themselves.”
“Galahad wants to take over America.” It was all I could do not to laugh. “You’ve met Galahad, right?”
“Not for a thousand years, I haven’t,” Arthur snapped. “Sorry. Look, I want to know if you can go there and maybe convince him to talk to me. Just me and him. No, I don’t think he’s trying something, but if I could assure the council of that, maybe I could head off whoever is starting these rumors before they turn into something more.”
I didn’t even have to consider it. “Sure, I’ll go to Shadow Falls and talk to Galahad. He is not going to be pleased that he’s under suspicion, though. And you’d need to promise to meet on neutral ground outside of Shadow Falls’ realm.”
“I’m sure I can arrange that.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“That’s all I can ask. I’m trying to consolidate my power, but having rumors of Galahad using this time of flux to strike for himself makes things worse. I don’t want to believe he, or his people, are doing anything untoward, and I know I can trust you to sort this without it going further.”
Arthur stood and offered me his hand, which after standing myself I shook. He pulled me toward him and hugged me. Arthur was a large man, broad of shoulders and several inches taller than my own five-eight. The hug enveloped me, and when he released me, he stepped back and slapped me on the shoulder. “It’s been a long time, Nate. I’m glad you’re doing okay.”
“It’s good to see you again.”
I walked Arthur to the front door, opening it while he retrieved his coat.
“I’ll speak to you soon,” he said as he left my house. “Take care of yourself, Nate. I get the feeling things are going to get more complicated the longer it’s apparent that I’m not going anywhere.”
“Glad to hear it,” I told him, and closed the door after watching Arthur walk over to his bodyguards.
“So, that was weird,” Selene said from the top of the stairs.
“He wants me to go to Shadow Falls and see Galahad.”
Selene’s expression of confusion and worry mimicked exactly how I felt. “Why?”
I explained everything we’d discussed.
“He’s met Galahad, right?” Selene asked when I was done. “There’s no way they’re considering an expansion of territory. Why would they even bother? There’s exactly zero benefit for them going to war to carve out a few more states.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” We walked into my living room and switched the TV on.
“Are you going to go?” Selene asked.
“Yeah. I want to know what’s going on. And if I don’t go, someone else might take it upon themselves to get involved. Hera and her cronies have been quiet for a few years, and I wouldn’t put it past them to start something so that Ares or one of the others could get a chance to grab his own realm. I’m going to sleep on it, though. I need to think about the best way to tell Galahad what’s going on. I don’t want to make this worse.”
“And it’s you, so that’s a distinct possibility,” Selene said with a smile.
I’d have argued, but to be honest she had a fair point. “It’s not exactly the easiest situation to deal with. It’s been a weird day, and it’s not even noon.”
“No kidding, Nate. A new girlfriend and a visit from the king in the same day. It’s been quite eventful for you, hasn’t it?”
I laughed and turned the TV on to the news channel, watching in horror as they discussed an explosion that had taken place in a New York coffee shop several hours earlier.
“What the hell is going on?” Selene said after we’d watched several minutes of footage.
“There was an angel,” a woman said to a reporter. “He healed my son.”
“An angel?” Selene asked.
“Mordred’s in New York,” I said. “You don’t think . . .”
“That Mordred was there? It’s a hell of a coincidence. Unless he was the target.”
I picked up the phone to call Mordred just as the news cut back to the studio to report on a missing passenger plane and several other attacks around the globe. I put the phone down and listened to the reports of violence and death, with occasional cuts to various cities to talk to witnesses and journalists who were there.
“My Liege has finally made their move,” I said, afraid of what the future now held.
“Whoever they are, they just declared war on Avalon,” Selene said.
“Not just war on Avalon. From the sounds of things, they’ve declared open season on humanity.”
CHAPTER 3
Nate Garrett
After five minutes of watching more of the mayhem and insanity that were spreading across the globe, my phone rang.
I picked it up, with one eye still on the TV, and someone spoke before I was able to: “Nate, that you?”
“Tommy?” I asked. “You watching the news?”
“Living it, mate. It’s all gone a bit wrong. Mordred was in New York. He called Olivia, told her that the man claimed it was for ‘My Liege’ before blowing himself up.”
“Wait, someone blew themselves up?”
“Two someones, from the sound of things. With their own magic.”
That made me pause. “How?” I wasn’t sure what else to ask, because I’d never heard of anyone ever being able to achieve death by killing themselves with their own magic.
“Not a clue. I’m hoping you can come over to Basingstoke so we can try and figure this out. Olivia is on her way, too. Shit has well and truly kicked off. Bring Selene and Remy with you. The more heads the better. These bastards are going after humans, Nate. Right now the death toll is four figures, and I only see it getting worse.”
“I’ll be there soon,” I told him, and he ended the call.
“I assume we’re off to Tommy’s,” Selene said.
I nodded. “I don’t know what triggered this, but a lot of people are getting hurt because of it.”
“What about Galahad?”
“There’s no way he’s involved in this.”
“That’s not what I meant. What are you going to do about seeing him?”
“It’ll have to wait for now. I want to know what’s going on with people committing mass acts of terrorism. I don’t think Avalon is in any position to do this alone, especially if it’s bad enough that Tommy’s already involved. If we can help figure out how to stop it, we should.”
“That why Olivia is coming to Tommy’s?”