Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,31

and slaughtering everyone who annoys her. Her dad’s loss is really affecting her.”

“She’ll be fine,” I said, remembering that Kase hadn’t even spoken when we were sorting out the assault on the White House. Tommy being missing was causing us all anguish.

A door further along the corridor opened, and Diana and Zamek exited the room. “We wondered where you’d all gone,” Diana said as we walked over to join them. “Map room was very nice.”

“No maps, though,” Zamek said. “I’m honestly disappointed. On the plus side, the three thugs in there made me feel a bit better.”

“Any alive?” I asked.

I got a glimpse of the bodies inside the room.

“Not unless they can live without a head,” Zamek said.

“They do look pretty dead,” Remy said.

The six of us all took the stairs up to the first floor, where there were no guards at all.

“Anyone else find this odd?” Selene asked.

“We’ll leave the hostages until last,” I said. “Search these rooms; I don’t want to be ambushed.”

I set off with Remy to the Green Room, where I pushed open the door to find it covered in blood. Kase stood in the middle of the room, bathed in the stuff from head to toe, her hair matted with it. She was in her human form, and as I looked around the room, I saw dismembered limbs and organs. Ice covered one wall, with at least one person beside it having been frozen before being torn in half.

“Oh fuck,” Remy said from behind me.

Kase turned toward us, growling, with nothing but rage in her eyes.

“So I’m guessing this is not your definition of fine,” Remy said to me.

Chapter Seven

NATE GARRETT

“Kase, I know you’re struggling right now,” I said. “But we don’t really have time.”

Kase let out a low growl.

I turned to everyone behind me. “I’ve got this—go secure the hostages. Be aware of more guards.”

“Why didn’t they shoot?” Diana asked, looking at the dead. “Their guns are still holstered.”

“I must have dumped her right in the middle of this lot,” I said. “She was probably too fast. And there’s nothing in this room for them to use as a weapon. Fists against a werewolf is never going to end well.”

“It’s all in here,” Zamek said, looking through the passage from the Green to the Blue Room. “The exits on the other side into the Red Room are boarded up.”

“Diana, go with him; see if you can make sure that no one tries to escape from the dining room.”

Kase tracked them both as they exited through the passageway to the room beyond. Then she looked back at me, her eyes showing nothing but a need to fight. To hurt someone.

“Kase,” I said softly. “Come on—I don’t want to have to fight you.”

“You should be looking for my dad,” she said, her words flooded with rage.

“I don’t know where he is,” I told her.

“Why aren’t you looking for him?” she shouted at me. “Why aren’t you tearing this realm apart, tearing all the realms apart, searching for him? You’re doing nothing.”

I knew that this wasn’t Kase talking; this was a year of emotion boiling over and letting out the beast inside of her. The beast only wanted to fight, to kill, and I was as good a target for that anger as anyone else. She was close to losing control, and if that happened, we were going to have a really big problem.

“That’s not fair,” Sky said from behind me.

“I don’t care,” Kase said. “He was meant to be my dad’s best friend. And he’s done nothing. My dad has been kidnapped, and Nate and the rest of you have gone about your day like nothing happened. Arthur has my dad.” She screamed the last few words.

“You could have triggered the guards to kill the hostages,” Sky said. “People could have died here.”

“I landed in here,” Kase said. “I lost control. I lost my temper. I didn’t care about anything but hurting these people.”

“Sky, go help everyone else, please,” I said.

Sky looked between Kase and me before nodding and walking away.

“Why aren’t you looking for him?” Kase asked.

“What am I meant to do?” I asked calmly. I didn’t want to trigger her anger and give the beast more control. I needed her to calm down; I needed her to realize how close she was to losing the fight against the werewolf inside. “I don’t know where he is; I don’t know where Arthur or Merlin are. There’s no way to get into Avalon, and the only