Chapter Eleven
NATE GARRETT
“To really explain who I am, I need to explain more about Avalon,” I said. “If you already know this, I’m happy to move on, but . . .”
“Pretend we know nothing,” Brooke said. “That way you can’t leave anything out.”
“I’m sixteen hundred thirty years old, give or take. The identity of my father is unknown to me, and my mother was a Valkyrie by the name of Brynhildr. I worked for Avalon, a sort of nonhuman United Nations, for several centuries, before it became apparent that they had less-than-altruistic goals in mind for everyone.”
“Anything else?” Ava asked.
“We all thought that Arthur was the Second Coming of something or other, that he was going to lead us all into an enlightened age. In fact, he’s a monster. A man who lives for nothing but gaining power and using it to subjugate those he deems beneath him.”
“The terrorism thing from a few years ago?” Brooke asked.
“All bullshit,” I said, remembering the massive number of casualties that Arthur and his allies had inflicted just so that he could ride in on his metaphorical white horse and proclaim himself the savior of mankind. “Avalon had people in all walks of human life for centuries, making sure that you mostly behaved yourself and that you didn’t make our presence too widely known. Arthur changed all of that by murdering vast numbers of his enemies and humans and blaming it on Hellequin.”
“I remember—they said that Hellequin was dead,” Jess said. “That we were now safe because Arthur and his people would hunt down Hellequin’s allies.”
“Yep,” I said. “I was Hellequin. They took my name and blamed me for the murders of millions of people. And then I died.”
“Okay, that feels like you missed a step,” Ava said.
“I have curse marks on my body. They were put there by my parents to ensure that my magic came to me as I grew in age and power, but Hera—yes, that Hera—screwed around with the ritual, and I spent over a thousand years with those marks and no way to remove them. Well, they started to vanish, but the only way to unlock them all was to die. So I did. And then I returned without any powers at all. Hence me here, right now. Completely human.”
“So what are you?” Jess asked.
“I’m a sorcerer,” I told her.
“Like that Orestes guy?” Brooke asked.
I nodded. “Sorcerers can use different types of magic. They all use elemental, so earth, fire, air, and water, and most can use two of those, in my case fire and air. I can also mix them to create lightning. There’s another set of magic called omega magic, which is mind, matter, light, and shadow. I can use shadow and matter. The third type is blood magic, which all sorcerers can use, and it’s all about healing, increasing power, and using blood curses. It’s addictive and vicious stuff, and using it too much will turn you into someone who is capable of utter evil just to get their fix. There’s a fourth kind, but very few can use it.”
“What is it?” Ava asked.
“Pure magic,” I said. “It’s a destructive force like nothing you’ve ever seen. I got blasted with some once, and it’s not something I’d like to go through again.”
“So is you being a sorcerer why I can see you in my dreams as the whole you?” Ava asked.
I shook my head. “My father was a sorcerer, which is pretty much all I know about him, but my mother was a necromancer. A Valkyrie, like I said. So I get both my father’s sorcery and my mother’s necromancy. That’s why you can see me. At least I think it is.”
“You can summon the dead?” Brooke asked.
I shook my head. “I can absorb the spirits of the dead to gain power and take their memories. But I can only do it from those who died in battle. And I can’t do much of anything at the moment.”
“So everyone thinks you’re dead?” Jess asked.
I nodded. “My friends all agreed to have blood curse marks attached to them, making them believe I died. When they see me again, those marks should vanish, but until they do, everyone believes I’m dead. I was meant to get my powers back a year ago, but, well, as you can see, I’m still here.”
“And your friends are fighting Avalon?” Jess asked.
I nodded. “I hope so. Chris won’t give me too much information because he knows that I’ll try to get to them and help. And seeing how Hades put me here to keep me alive, that would probably not be a good idea.”
“Wait, Hades?” Ava asked. “Like, the Hades?”
“When I say the name of someone from mythology, it is a hundred percent certain that yes, it is the person. Most of the people from mythology aren’t the same as the stories would have you believe. Hades, in particular, is a kind, intelligent man who loves his wife and children very much. Persephone, far from being forced to marry him, eloped with him. The stories in myths are written by people who have a grudge against the party in the story or by the person in the story trying to make themselves look good. Hades and Persephone were never big on either thing.”
“Okay, I have questions,” Ava said. “Lots of them. All gods and goddesses are real?”
I nodded. “Don’t they teach you about Avalon at school?”
“Yeah, but we get the approved version, apparently,” Ava said. “It’s all about how great Arthur is and how he helped Avalon save us from those who want to destroy us. We have Avalonian lessons at school for an hour a week. And it’s just propaganda. We’re kids, not idiots.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“So where’s Zeus?” Ava asked.
“Dead,” I said. “Hera, Ares, and a few others killed him a few centuries ago.”
“And the Norse pantheon?”
“They locked themselves away a long time ago. There was a civil war, and Odin apparently wanted no part of it spilling outside of their realms, so he made sure it couldn’t. It sounds like it was Avalon’s first attempt to take control of the other realms.”
“What about Ares?” Brooke asked. “We never hear about him.”
“He’s dead,” I said.
“What happened?” Jess asked.
“I cut his head off,” I said.
When no one had said anything for several seconds, I continued. “To be fair, he was trying to kill me at the time, and he’d spent several months torturing me to try and break my mind so that Arthur could have me join his side as his right-hand mass murderer.”
“Just how powerful were you?” Jess asked.
“I did okay,” I said, downplaying anything close to my full power. No one needed to know exactly what I was capable of, or what I’d hopefully be capable of once my magic returned. “I was powerful enough that people feared me for good reason, but mostly I was just tenacious. I got my ass kicked and just kept getting back up. I think that shakes people.”
“What happens when you get your powers back?” Ava asked.
“I have no idea,” I said. “Like people keep telling me, it’s not a science.”
“So you used to be some kind of assassin?” Ava asked.
I shrugged. “Depends on your point of view. I didn’t just go around killing people for money or anything like that, but yes, I did kill people.”