Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,38

far wall had been cut through. The president, his chief of staff, and three senators were all sitting on comfortable-looking sofas. The president had a smug look on his face, which told me pretty much everything I needed to know about what was going to happen next. Nothing good.

The opposite door was ripped apart, and Zamek, Remy, and Sky stormed inside.

“What the . . . fuck?” Remy said, a sword in one hand and a gun in the other, ready to raise hell on anyone who moved.

“We surrender,” Gawain said.

“Not going to lie,” Zamek said. “I didn’t expect that.”

“Snipers are clear,” Diana said in my ear. “We’re heading down to you.”

“What does that do?” I asked, pointing at the damaged glyph on the wall.

“We felt that if we were going to be arrested, we should remove the glyphs stopping your power,” Gawain said. “As a show of good faith.”

“Good faith?” Selene asked.

“You want me to talk, I will, but right now, I imagine you must have your hands full with a large contingency of my allies coming from the north.”

Remy laughed. “Hey, butt plug, I don’t think you should be considering backup to be your best way forward at this time. I think they’ve got their own problems.”

“Butt plug? Remy, that wasn’t great,” I heard Zamek whisper.

“Yeah, I can do better,” Remy admitted.

Zamek stood by one of the senators and put his arm around the seated man. The senator, normally a man of power, looked like he was going to pass out from fear. “And your own problems are much more immediate.” He hissed the last word into the senator’s ear, and the man visibly paled.

“You have absolutely no proof I’ve done anything wrong,” the president said, still looking relaxed and smug, while the senators beside him looked a lot more terrified.

“We have lots of proof,” Sky said, looking up from the third paladin she was disarming. “Like, all of it.”

The president frowned. “Well, that’s that plan gone to shit.” He looked at Gawain with raised eyebrows. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“What you were paid for,” Gawain said with a pointed look. “Improvise.”

Everyone turned to look at the president, who gave them a snide smile. “Is he going to juggle or something?” Remy asked.

“Sky, can you please remove the president from my sight and make sure he makes it outside in one piece?” I asked her.

“I feel like that was directed at me,” Remy said. “I could guard the president. I’ve never stabbed a president before; I see no reason why I’d start now.”

The president stared at Remy with pure hatred.

Remy blew him a kiss.

“Why surrender?” I asked Gawain when everyone else had gone.

“Because you won’t kill me. You need me,” he said.

“I’m not sure I’d use the word need,” I said. “This feels like a trap.”

“It might be,” Gawain said, sitting back in the chair and putting his feet up on the desk. “I could be sitting here lulling you all into a false sense of security.”

“You’re not smart enough,” Selene said.

“She needs to keep quiet,” Gawain snapped, pointing at Selene.

“Does he need all of his fingers to talk?” Selene asked, her eyes narrowing in anger.

Gawain wisely stopped pointing. “You see, there’s a lot I could be telling you,” Gawain said. “I know where Arthur is, I know how to get to him, and I know you want that information. I might talk; I might not. I’ll see how I feel and how nice you are to me.”

“Arthur is in Atlantis,” Zamek said. “We know.”

Gawain’s expression was quite frankly worth the trip to Washington. Although he soon had his mask of smugness back in place. Gawain smiled as he stared at me. “You still missing Tommy?”

Selene placed a hand on my shoulder as my anger bubbled inside of me.

“Fuck you, Gawain,” I snapped.

“I know the things that have been done to him. The torments he’s endured.” Gawain laughed. “But more importantly, I know where he is. But sadly, he’ll be dead before you ever get there.” Gawain laughed again.

I blasted him in the chest with a torrent of lightning and air, which tore the entire back of the Oval Office apart, flinging Gawain into the garden a floor below.

I walked over the ruined desk and stepped out into the darkness. It had started to rain heavily, and Gawain had hit a patch of grass, ripping it apart and quickly turning it to mud as he scrambled to get away. I used my air magic to slowly float