The Reluctant King

I turned away before anyone could object, but not before I saw the disbelieving faces of the old Titans. For a brief moment I wondered if I should offer like grief counseling or trauma counseling or something. I felt like they might be kind of messed up after working for Lucan all those years and carrying out his orders. I decided to shelve the issue and talk about it with Eden later. No Immortal that I knew would be open for something like counseling, but Eden was different and raised in a human world where they saw the value of talking their problems out with an objective listener. She would know what to do.

Back in the basement, I kept my eyes open, half expecting to meet another attacker. I went immediately to under the staircase and paused. The bullets were not large, but they were magic and emitted a magical current just like everything else. When I stopped to search out the tiny little electrical charges I could feel them, I had to concentrate extremely hard and borrow from Eden but I could feel them.

Eden sat hovering in my head, watching as everything unfolded far away from her. I felt her frustration and fear, her concern and anxiety. It was all echoed inside of me and I wished more than ever before she was here with me. She would work off of me, her magic and mine would collaborate to find answers.

We’ll meet up after this. She said softly inside our heads. Find answers here and we’ll meet you.

I don’t want you in danger. I answered and it was the truth. Or half of the truth, because only half of me believed it, the other half knew what kick ass fighters we were together.

Then we won’t meet where there’s danger. She snapped and I smiled. But we are going to solve this problem together. You’re not going to exclude me, I told you that a long time ago. Now figure out what I missed when I was here.

Demanding little thing, aren’t you? I teased, but it felt good.

She started to say something, but I cut her off with a spark of realization. There, in the wall was a handle. There was nothing spectacular about it, just a lift in the wall that was camouflaged well. As an Immortal, I knew we generally ignored everything not magical. It was a huge flaw, but until Eden, most people didn’t realize how debilitating it could be.

Except apparently Terletov had figured it out before all of us.

I lifted the handle and pulled on it. An angry scraping sound filled the room as rusted metal grinded against worn hinges to move. The dirt wall was a well-made façade and hidden behind it was a surprisingly large weapons room. When the door opened all the way, a light overhead flickered on filling the room with fluorescent lighting. Nothing inside the room was rusted; instead everything was clean, shiny stainless steel from floor to walls, to ceiling, shelves and the large table that filled the middle of the room. Guns of every kind hung on three of the walls and on the third were floor to ceiling shelves that were filled, stacked completely with bullets to match.

Holy hell.

Holy hell. Eden echoed. You’re going to have to carry this all out yourself.

I laughed out loud, realizing she was right.

My fingers brushed over the cold metal of the middle table as I took in every weapon, every bullet, every nook and cranny in the space. My magic pulsed dangerously in my blood as my temper heated with it. The wall of ammunition radiated with electricity, because they were clustered together the collective energy vibrated together in a plus of their own.

“Avalon!” Roxie called down the staircase, “He’s waking up!”

I turned my back on the room, ignoring the sickening twist in my stomach and the hundreds of ideas that were flipping through my head for what all of that could be used for. The idea that nobody else had the means to take over the Kingdom was naïve and foolish. If there were any other rooms like this anywhere in the world it would be enough to take the Citadel easily.

All it would take to put me down would be a couple well placed bullets to my head and chest and to Eden’s. A growl of rage ripped through my chest at the thought. They would never touch my sister.

Never again.

At the top of the stairs I blinked against the natural sunlight filling the barn and made my way out to the yard where everyone stood congregating around the handcuffed assassin. I joined them quietly in case the interrogating had already started, my teeth tearing away at my raw thumbnail.

“If there is anyone else, we will find them,” Mitica threatened and even through our differences I appreciated his intimidating presence.

The man on the ground laughed mockingly. I could tell he was weakened and disoriented from the grip of the handcuffs against his skin, but the defiance and hatred in his eyes were unmistakable.

Faraway magic nagged at my neck, making the hairs on my forearms rise. I looked around, panicked and desperate. Were they coming for us? How many were there? Did they all carry guns?

“Get him inside,” I ordered.

The other Titans had started to feel it too. They looked around with their military trained eyes, all of their bodies tensing with the warning.

A gargled laugh filtered up from the ground. “You can’t stop him,” the attacker said. “It’s too late. He’s going to change everything. Your revolution is nothing compared to what he is planning! He will change it all! He will change it all!” He finished, dissolving into deranged laughter. His aggressive eyes were alight with disturbing glee. This man was clearly unhinged.

And then before I could make another clear thought in my head, the sound of a gun rang out through the quiet countryside. I heard my sharp intake of breath and then the slicing sound of metal meeting flesh. The man next to me dropped to the ground, my mind not even able to register who it was before a second gunshot boomed through the air and another bullet hit its mark.

The older Titans had already taken off in the direction of the magic without waiting to find out who was hit, or if more bullets would be coming. I opened my mouth to order my team to take cover when my eyes grazed over the assassin, realizing he was the target.

My hand dropped to my side, while the far away magic disappeared into the Latvian countryside. The assassin, still handcuffed, lay in a pool of his own blood. His eyes were still wide as if laughing at me, but they were dead now, emitting no light, no life. His mouth hung open and there was an indention in the side of his head where the bullet had entered. His magic filtered into the air, away from his dead body.

I forced my eyes to the other man that dropped.

Titus.

My heart pounded in my chest, ready to rip through my body and find vengeance itself. Rushing air, that’s all I could hear. My vision blurred into blackness.

Titus.

I dropped to my knees. This. This was not happening.

I reached out for him, but my hands were numb, frozen to my sides.

“He’s not dead,” Roxie whispered and somehow her small voice carried through the deafening whooshing sound. “He’s not dead,” she repeated louder.

He wasn’t dead.

I took a staggering breath, forcing air back into my lungs, forcing the rage to subside enough so I could see again. I lifted my head as if it weighed a million pounds and saw his wound then. He had turned, at the last second, Titus had turned and the bullet had gone through his neck instead. Inside one side and out the other. Roxie worked furiously fast to stop the bleeding.

“How the hell….?” Xander trailed off, I could hear in the silence how he struggled to piece together what just happened.

“Sniper rifle,” I answered with a gravelly voice.

“Sniper rifle?” Roxie gasped. “But how is that possible? How did it kill him?” Xander and Xavier had ripped off their shirts and she was using them to press against the open wounds of Titus’s neck. His magic was still in there, still struggling to heal him, but his eyes were rolled back into his head.

I was a strong man.

But I wanted to vomit.

“With the same bullets that incapacitated Eden when she was kidnapped,” I explained further. “Only these were made for a sniper. Get him in the car, now. Jericho, open the trunks of all three cars. I’m going to clear out the basement. I’ll bring it to the top of the stairs, and Xavier help Jericho load the cars. As soon as we have those weapons we’re going to meet Eden.”

“Where is Eden?” Roxie asked in a delicate voice. I could hear the thick emotion being barely contained.

Paris. She answered quickly before I could ask her. We’re on our way to Paris for Mimi’s birthday. We’ll meet you at Gabriel’s home outside the city limits. Do you remember where it is?

Yes.

Ok, see you then. I felt her sniffle.

I love you, E.

I love you too.

“Paris,” I rejoined my reality and answered Roxie. “Gabriel’s house. Get him loaded. And then Xander, find the rest of the Titans and tell them they’re coming with us. They are carrying ammunition for one and I want to go over this with them when Titus is more stable.” I snapped out my orders quickly, efficiently. My mind and body screamed against this injustice, but I knew how to hold it together. I knew how to stay the panic and terror and get things done. I would deal with these emotions later.

“He’s stopped bleeding,” Roxie announced, relief shaking her shoulders as tears streamed down her caramel colored face. “His magic is working again,” she finished in a tight whisper.

He still needed Eden.

I turned to sprint to the barn and Jericho matched his steps with mine. “We’re lucky the sniper missed you, Avalon.”

I stopped in front of the open doorway to the basement. “That bullet was never meant for me. The sniper had one job, and that was to get to the other assassin before he said anything he wasn’t supposed to. Titus was simply in the way.”

“But how did they know?” Jericho asked as his mind struggled to put all the pieces together.

I paused for one second more. How did they know? My eyes flickered quickly, but efficiently around the barn, looking for cameras, for anything that would give it away. I didn’t want another question to add to my never ending list. I needed answers!

There wasn’t time now. I needed to get the weapons and ammunition loaded in our cars and get the hell out of here. I needed to get Titus safe.

“Search the body, Jericho. Find out what you can.” I started down the stairs, determined to get this done and get out of there. “And then burn it.”

Chapter Eighteen

Big breaths. Big deep breaths.

That’s all I could focus on during our seemingly endless drive to France. Twenty-five hours of breathing.

And while I focused on breathing, Titus focused on not dying. Well…. not consciously. His ragged, uneven breathing mocked my own the entire way, but if I didn’t focus on something I would have lost my mind.

Eden was waiting for us when Jericho pulled into Gabriel’s gravel drive. She had been waiting for a while. We had tried several times to transfer the smoke and heal Titus with it, and even though I could produce it, it wouldn’t heal for me, it wouldn’t do anything for me.

To say I was extremely frustrated was the understatement of the year.

“Move!” Eden demanded when Jericho and I tried to move Titus into the house.

I stumbled out of the way while Eden released her healing blue smoke on the backseat of the tiny Fiat. Roxie sat pinned underneath him, cradling his head in her hands.