Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,60
everyone else will be too. We’ve all done things that we weren’t proud of.”
“My mum is finding it hard too,” Kase said. “I think she’s not sleeping. She’s upset a lot. She snaps at people.”
“Have you spoken to her?” I asked.
Kase shook her head. “I tried, but I was scared that we’d end up arguing. That I’d lose my temper at her. She doesn’t need or deserve that.”
“Go talk to your mum,” I told her.
“She’s so damn busy all the time,” Kase said.
“Now you’re just making excuses,” I said. “Go talk to her. Now. She’s probably still in the council room. I don’t know when any of us are going to get the chance to talk, so if you have something you need to say, do it now. Trust me: leaving things unsaid feels like shit.”
“Have you spoken to your mum?” Kase asked me.
“Touché,” I said with a smile. “No . . . no, I haven’t. She’s been off fighting everyone and anyone she can.”
“Sounds like someone else I know,” Kase said, looking at me with a smile.
“Also, if you can, talk to Harry,” I told her. “The man is in love with you, and you are in love with him, and frankly, now more than ever, you both need someone. Now go and try to relax. That’s an order.”
Kase stood and laughed. “You’re not the boss of me,” she said. “But I will go and talk to my mum. And if I have time, to Harry, too, but you need to talk to Brynhildr.” Kase leaned over and hugged me. “Thank you for listening and understanding and not bouncing my skinny ass over the White House lawn.”
I laughed. “You’re welcome.”
Kase walked toward the palace doors, where she stopped and turned back to me. “Nate, do you think we’ll ever be done here?”
I nodded. “I have to think we will. I have to think that your little brother and my daughter will grow up into a better world. We have to stop them, Kase, because anything else will destroy us all. Arthur will turn the realms into his own playthings.”
“We’ll stop him,” Kase said. “We’ll stop them all.”
I watched her walk away and turned back to the field before me. I walked across the field to the statue of Galahad, where dozens of flowers had been left. Galahad had been beloved by the people who had called him king, and that love hadn’t diminished even after his death. I placed a hand on the warm stone and looked up at the statue, at his sword in one hand, his shield in another, ready for battle.
“If I don’t make it back, it was a pleasure,” I said. “I don’t really know what happens to us after we die, but I really hope you’re at peace, my friend.”
I turned back to the palace. I had no idea how everything to come was going to pan out, but I knew that by the end of it either Arthur or I would be dead. Preferably the former.
Chapter Fourteen
NATE GARRETT
Alexandria, Egypt, Earth Realm
After Leonardo and his assistants had changed the destination of the realm gate in Shadow Falls, my team and I stepped through and arrived in Giza. Hades had already arranged transportation in the form of comfortable SUVs for us to get to Alexandria. It had been quite entertaining to exit the Sphinx via a secret door at the rear of the statue, much to the surprise of a group of tourists.
We arrived in Alexandria, and Hades’s contact arranged for us to get the horses we needed to ride through Duat, a prospect that Isis had been less than enthused about.
“So the realm gate is where?” Remy asked from beside me as he looked at the horses with distrust. He hadn’t taken the news of his having to ride that well.
“Apparently,” Isis said, “it’s close to the harbor. An old well that leads down to a cavern at the bottom. The realm gate is there. I’ve been to Duat before, but . . . not this way.”
Her tone suggested that this was a conversation that was over.
“I will be able to activate it when we get there,” Zamek said. “There are no guardians, and no one has been down there in centuries, so it should be devoid of life.”
Apart from Isis, Remy, and Zamek, my team also consisted of Selene, Lucifer, and Tarron.
“How do we get the horses down the well?” Selene asked. “Or did no one think of that?”