Prison of Hope (41 page)

CHAPTER
41

T
he few hours after I’d put Hope down were hectic to say the least. Hera and her people scarpered once it became apparent that both Hades and Avalon had Brutus’s okay in terms of working within London, something Hera wouldn’t have gotten even if she’d paid for it.

The last I saw of them was Ares helping a dejected Deimos out of Earls Court. Selene stayed behind, talking to various
Avalon
members about what had happened and what she’d seen. Occasionally, I found myself staring at her, but I looked away when she glanced toward me. It was childish and silly, but I felt angry with myself for what had happened between us, and angry with her for never revealing the truth.

“So, Pandora is no more?” Tommy asked as he sat beside me, carrying a sandwich.

“Where’d you get food?”

“Went to the shop,” he said and took a bite. “So, you going to answer my question?”

“Hope’s in charge now. I assume she’s much less happy with me than she was.”

“Last I saw, she was cursing your name while being loaded into an Avalon transport. I get the feeling things won’t be done between the two of you.”

“I couldn’t let her get to Hera. We’d be at war if she died.”

“Tough choice to make. Save Hera or allow a war to
happen
. Neither of those outcomes is all that great.” He finished his
sandwich
. “So, you and Selene. You spoken to her yet?”

I shook my head. “What do I say? For a century I was led to believe she’d discarded me through some act of callous
self
-advancement. ‘Sorry’ doesn’t seem to really sum it up.”

“You’ll figure it out. Oh, Brutus says thanks by the way. I think he was pretty happy how this ended without a bloodbath in his city.”

“Probably for the best. I forgot to ask: Where’s Kasey?”

“Olivia had her agents take her to Winchester. She had a little temper tantrum, but I’m led to believe none of the agents were going to allow a fourteen-year-old girl to tell them what to do. I suggested they tranquilize her. They told me that it was always an option. I think they were joking.”

Selene was suddenly walking our way, and Tommy made his excuses and left, patting me on the back for good luck as he went.

“We need to talk,” Selene said to me after nodding a thanks in Tommy’s direction.

“Probably.”

“My sister told you why I had to leave.”

“Yes. She explained about the threats and blackmail. About how you did it to keep me safe. You should have told me.”

“I couldn’t. I had to keep it to myself. No one could me
ntion it.”

“So, why did Eos? And what about Petra? Did she
know more?”

“Petra figured out that something wasn’t right just after we separated. She didn’t know it all, but she knew enough. Eos told you because she’s got a big mouth and no longer cares what Hera thinks. She figured if you knew, you could do something to stop Hera from telling everyone. Can you?”

“Are you leaving Deimos?”

“I think that’s pretty obvious. I was never really with him except in title. I don’t know what he thought was going to happen, but having a wife who didn’t care about him probably wasn’t on his bucket list.” She reached out and took my hand in hers. “Can we work again?”

I shrugged. “A century of feelings won’t just vanish. I think we both need to find out what we feel.”

“I need to find out who I am,” she admitted. “A century in that regime has changed me. Maybe we could be friends.”

“I’d like that. If it happens, it happens, but maybe you need to take some time for yourself. I don’t want to rush back into something and then fuck it up because I’m still angry and hurt by everything that happened.”

“Deal,” she said with a smile. “I don’t expect you to wait for me, Nate, if you find someone . . .”

I stood and kissed her on the cheek. “Go see your family. Don’t worry about me.”

“Can you stop Hera from releasing all of that information about you?”

I shrugged. “We’ll see. I have an idea or two.”

“I never loved you any less,” she whispered. “When I found out. If anything, I loved you more for beating the darkness inside you. I’m not sure I could have done it. I want you to know that.”

I took her hands and pulled her toward me slightly, kissing her on the lips as I moved one hand up to the side of her head. I pulled away and she licked her lips.

“I missed that,” she said.

“I missed you,” I whispered.

“I will come find you. When I know who I am and what place I have in this world. I promise, I’ll come find you.
I love you.”

Hades called me over. I turned and waved that I’d be a moment before turning back to Selene who was walking out of the rear double doors at the back of Earls Court.

“I know,” I whispered with a smile.

CHAPTER
42

P
retty much everything was dealt with so that what had happened in Earls Court was put down to some drunken idiots’ gate crashing. Most of the people there would have put the whole incident out of their mind as a weird moment they’d rather forget, and to the best of anyone’s knowledge, no one was going to write a book about what had happened. Or if someone did, it would be fiction, and no one was going to believe it.

Hades called me at home after a few days and told me
he neede
d me at the complex above Tartarus in Mittenwald. I made my way there and was surprised to find both Lucie and Sky at the entrance when the car that had picked me up from the airport stopped.

“Hi,” I said to them both. “What’s going on?”

“Hades has arranged a meeting between yourself and Hera,” Lucie said. “She’s in one of the meeting rooms in the complex. She’s not very happy at being called here. She arrived with her entire entourage in tow.”

“Well, he left that little bit of info out when he invited me here,” I said. It would have been nice to at least be asked if I wanted to see Hera, but I was here now and quickly resigned myself to the idea of the whole process. Hera still had a lot on me, and I doubted very much she was going to give it up without getting something in return. I hadn’t managed to figure out what I was going to do to stop her from going public with the information she had on Hellequin. Hopefully, Hades knew.

“How’s Pandora?” I asked Sky and then paused. “Sorry, ho
w’s Hope?”

“Pissed off,” she said as we walked through the compound. “Mostly at you. She was secured in Nevada this morning. Unless she can enthrall rock and metal to do what she wants, she’s not getting out of there in a hurry.”

“She’ll escape one day,” Lucie said. “She always does.”

“Probably,” Sky conceded, “but not for a while.”

Cerberus met us at the entrance to the underground lift. He was walking without a stick for assistance.

“I assume your leg is okay?” I asked.

“It’s getting there. Thanks for your help here. You saved lives.”

“What happened to that piece of shit, Wayne, who’s now missing his hands?”

“We have him,” Lucie said. “He’s undergoing
questioning
. He’ll crack. Sooner or later.”

We took the lift down to the floor where Hades had given his talk to the class of children, and we walked to a meeting room in which Hera, Ares, and Demeter were all sitting in chairs around a small table. None of them appeared all that pleased to see me.

The sadness I felt that they had decided not to like me was, obviously, overwhelming, and for a second I did consider throwing myself upon their mercy, but then I remembered they were all nasty little fuckers and decided I couldn’t be bothered.

I sat opposite them, with Sky and Lucie on either side of me.

“So, Mr. Garrett,” Hera began with an air of smug satisfaction, “please tell me why I shouldn’t reveal your horrific deeds to the world. You have, after all, ensured that the marriage between Selene and my grandson is no longer viable. She knew what would happen if she were to betray me. Apparently, her love for you is less than you imagined.”

“Hera,” I started, “I think I can speak for everyone wh
en I say—”

Before I could finish my incredibly witty reply, Sky
interrupted
.
“Although it was Pandora’s plan, you didn’t know that. You
followed
it through and had people arrange for Cronus
to escape.”

“I believe I explained to Avalon that Hyperion and Sarah Hamilton were the ones responsible for that. Sarah was suckered into Pandora’s plan, and Hyperion fell for her lies in an attempt to remove me from power. In fact, I believe your father is arranging for his transfer back to Tartarus.”

“Yes, that was well timed,” Sky said. “Selene leaves your employ, and Hyperion is found to be the one responsible.”

“You think you know someone,” Hera said with a sly chuckle.

“Except we know it was you who hired Sarah, after Deimos brought her to your attention. It was her information—fed to her by Pandora—that you used to break Cronus free.”

“Where is the evidence?” Demeter demanded. “You can’t accuse people without evidence. And Ares’s son, Deimos, is a deeply disturbed individual. We had no idea he was working with Pandora to try to kill his own grandmother.” She turned to Ares and patted him sympathetically on the arm. “We’re heartbroken by the betrayal.”

That part at least was true. Not the heartbroken bit—that was bollocks. She probably hadn’t known her grandson
Deimos was work
ing against her. I’d have liked to think she wouldn’t have let it go as far as it had.

“Well, this has been fun,” Hera said, standing. “But it’ll be even more fun when this information is made public.”

“Oh, you’re leaving so soon?” Hades asked as he entered the room. He pushed a file across the table. “These are the e-mails between Demeter, yourself, and Sarah, planning Cronus’s little excursion.”

Hera’s face contorted with anger.

“I’m not an idiot, Hera,” Hyperion said as he walked through
the open door. “I kept files of everything you were doing. If
we go to Avalon with this information, what would happen?” he turned to Lucie. “For those who don’t know, Lucie here is the assistant director of the SOA.”

Hera sat down.

“Well, you’d be expelled from Avalon,” Lucie explained. “
Merlin
and your enemies would certainly want you to be branded traitors, and any control you have in Avalon projects would be removed. Your assets would probably be frozen too. You’d likely get them all back, but it would take
years
to sort out.”

“What do you want?” Hera asked.

“The information you have on Nate,” Hades said. “All of it. You will also relinquish all claim on Tartarus. You have one week to do both. If it’s not done, Lucie here will go to Merlin with the information we have on your role in Cronus’s escape. And one last thing: you will never take action against, Eos, Selene, or their friends and family.”

I was dumbfounded. I had no idea that Hades had any kind of plan in place to deal with Hera, but the fact that he was doing it, even partly, to protect me made me very grateful for his
friendship
.

“And if we say no and decide to go it alone anyway?” Hera asked. “I’ll have destroyed Nate’s life; that’s quite an attractive prospect.”

One second there was no one behind Hera, and the next, Eos was standing there with a blade against Hera’s throat. “If you do, then I’ll kill you,” she said, her voice utterly calm. “Also, now that my family and I are free from your influence, if you ever cross us again, there’s not enough light in the world to stop me from getting to you.”

Hera had no option but to agree to the terms. Everyone left happy. Well, not Hera, but I didn’t give a shit how happy she was.

Ares stopped at the door and turned toward me. “You hurt my boy,” his voice was deep and menacing. “There will be
recompense
for that.”

Images of Mordred and what he’d done in Ares’s name flashed into my mind “One day, you’ll try,” I said without breaking eye contact, “but not today.”

He looked around the room as if really considering it. “No, not today.” And then he left.

Everyone else filed out, leaving Hyperion and me alone. “You hated me for a long time,” he said.

“I was wrong,” I admitted. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. You got Cronus back without having to kill him, stopped Pandora, and helped my children break free of Hera. I’m sorry you needed to be lied to for so long. I assure you Selene didn’t want to do that.”

“I know, and thanks.”

“So, you two . . .” he trailed off.

“I don’t know. We’ll see, I guess.”

He walked over to me and offered me his hand, which I took. “You’re a good man, Nathan. If it does work out between the two of you, you have my blessing. She’s been unhappy for too long. Change it.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“One last thing,” he said before he left the room. “Don’t come back to Tartarus anytime soon. Cronus will kill you. Or at least try. I’m only going back to ensure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll make sure it’s not on my list of holiday destinations.”

Once the meeting had finished and Hera had stomped her way off the grounds, I found Lucie and Sky as Lucie was
getting
into her helicopter and thanked them for their help. Sky punched me on the shoulder and walked off.

“What you did back then, after your wife was murdered,” Lucie said, “it was wrong. But right now, having you on our side is better than not. We’re going to need your help one day, Nathan, and you will say yes to that.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” I asked as the helicopter’s engine started.

“You’ll find out. Good-bye.”

I watched her fly off and was suddenly joined by Eos. “You should stop that,” I said.

“I like making people jump,” she said with a smile. “Have you spoken to my sister?”

“Not since we caught Pandora. I get the feeling that’s a
question
I’m going to be answering a lot. Your dad got there first. We both need time to deal with things.”

“So no wedding bells in the immediate future.” She gave me a piece of paper with two phone numbers on it. “Top one’s mine, bottom one’s Selene’s. She doesn’t know you have it. Don’t call unless it’s an emergency. But I think she’d like you to have it. I’m sure she’ll contact you soon enough; after all, she’d lost you for a century. I saw her yesterday, and she was like a teenage girl. She fucking giggled, Nate. I don’t know what you did, but it’s very discombobulating to hear my dragon-kin sister giggling.”

I laughed. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, well, I just wanted you to know. I think my father likes you. He feels bad about everything.”

“We spoke. He gave me his blessing to date his daughter.”

Eos laughed again. “Bloody hell, did he try to crush your hand or tell you not to stay out after curfew too? I think maybe he’s been watching too much TV.”

I joined in the laughter. It felt good.

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again.” She walked off, and I went to find Hades, who was sitting on a bench overlooking a small pond at the rear of the complex.

“Thanks for what you did,” I said.

“I look after my own. Even those who aren’t technically my own. You did a lot to help me, Nate. I owe you more than I can possibly say.”

“You don’t owe me anything.” I said and sat beside him. “Did Persephone tell you how much of Cronus’s ass she kicked at Stonehenge?”

Hades nodded. “She’s a rare woman. You pissed off some powerful people, Nate. Ares isn’t about to give you a pass for what you did to his son, and Hera will definitely be keeping a close eye on you. And then there’s Pandora.”

“I’m used to it,” I said and got up.

“You staying in town?” he asked. “Persephone is in Tartarus, but we’ve got some of our other children over in a few days. It’s been awhile since the whole family was together, and it would be nice to have you there.”

“I’ll be around. I’m off to go see Kurt and Petra.”

“Give them my regards.”

I took a few steps and then paused. “We still don’t know who the Vanguard’s
liege
is. Pretty much everyone who worked for him is dead, but someone is out there pulling the strings. Could it be Hera or one of her people?”

“Possibly, but they’re unlikely to tell us, and I think I’ve used up my ability to get answers from them for the foreseeable future. They’ll all be watched more closely now. Whoever it was made a move and lost this time. They’ll make another. No one puts this much effort into a plan that fails without having a plan B in store. Someone screwed around with those Vanguard’s heads and someone sent them here to die. We’ll find out who did it
and stop them.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Then we’ll be dead. So it won’t matter.”

“Maybe I should go back to Avalon. Someone there is
definitely
involved. I could talk to a few people.”

“You really think you’d be welcomed back? You think you could stand to see Merlin again?”

I thought about it, about why I left, about what had
happened
between Merlin and me. “No. There’s almost nothing in this world I’d rather not do.”