Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,107

you were a good person who was dragged into something he’d wanted no part of, made to be the villain in a story that wasn’t even his. I was wrong. You were always the villain; I just didn’t want to see it.”

“Grow up, Nathaniel,” Merlin snapped.

“Yes,” I said. “I think I should.”

I created a sphere of magical lightning in one hand and sprinted toward Merlin, who reached out with his matter magic to shield himself from the blast.

I drove the sphere into the ground a few feet in front of Merlin and detonated the magic. It flung him up into the air, where he was met by a sphere of light magic that Mordred had thrown.

Merlin couldn’t move the shield he’d created in time to stop the sphere of light from hitting him in the side. Mordred snapped his fingers, and for a moment I was blinded as the sphere detonated.

I blinked several times but couldn’t find either Mordred or Merlin. The building where Merlin had been was collapsing, and then I saw a blast of light from further away as Merlin and Mordred continued to fight.

I paused, not wanting to leave my friend.

“He’s got it,” Zamek told me as he joined me, pointing to several figures in the distance sprinting over to help Mordred.

I nodded as part of the citadel exploded high above us, raining down huge chunks of stone between where we were standing and the battle being waged between Mordred and his father.

“Judgement isn’t the only one up there in the citadel fighting Arthur,” Zamek said. “One of the soldiers saw your mother and Lucifer head in after her. They need help more than Mordred.”

I didn’t disagree. I sprinted into the citadel. I tried the lifts, but the doors were completely destroyed, so I made my way up the first few flights of stairs, using my air magic to make me faster and more agile, jumping the stairs three or four at a time as I bounded up toward whatever I was going to find above.

There were dozens of bodies that had, judging from the mess they were in, met Judgement on her way up, and I hoped that when I reached them, Arthur would already be dead. Job done.

I kept running until I reached the tenth floor. I stopped momentarily by a large window at the end of the floor and looked out over the city as the buildings crumpled all around, as if they were being flattened by some invisible hand.

“What the hell is going on now?” I wondered aloud.

I continued up the stairs at a lightning pace, just in time to reach a hole in the wall, beyond which I saw Arthur drive a blade of fire into my mother’s stomach. Lucifer was on the floor, bleeding from a wound, and Judgement was barely moving in the corner.

A whip of fire trailed from Arthur’s hand, and he was two feet away from the wall when I vaporized it with my magic, throwing Arthur across the far end of what appeared to be his throne room.

I stepped inside, magical power crackling all around me, lightning moving up over my hands and arms. I cracked my knuckles. “My turn, motherfucker.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

MORDRED

Realm of Atlantis

Mordred had become separated from Nate when part of the citadel had fallen, and Merlin had tried to use it as a distraction to escape. Mordred had spotted the attempt and given chase, which he had to admit might not have been the smartest idea he’d ever had.

He caught up with his father next to two large buildings, both of which were at least fifty feet high. Mordred noticed that there were no windows on either building. They were basically fifty-foot-high bricks.

“You like?” Merlin asked.

“What are you doing here?” Mordred asked him.

“We’re going to finish what we started,” Merlin said. “I can’t stop now.”

“You could have always stopped.”

Merlin laughed. “The evil I’ve done for the cause, the methods I’ve used to put us where we are today—there’s no coming back from that. I sent you to your death. I didn’t know you were going to be tortured for a hundred years at the time, but I knew they were going to try and bring you over to our side.”

“Your side?” Mordred asked. “I was turned into a weapon to murder everyone I cared about. You and your friends did that to me.”

“I wasn’t kept informed of the methods,” Merlin said. “I wanted you beside us. Arthur was scared that you’d want to be king,