“We really going to drag the president of America out of the White House to be arrested?” Selene asked. “That doesn’t sound like something we can do easily.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” I said. “Gawain is there, so I definitely want the chance to have a long, slow conversation with him about the error in being a . . . bad man,” I finished after remembering Astrid was in the room. Sometimes being a parent was hard. Harder still when you really wanted to swear and couldn’t. I didn’t want to be known as the parent whose kid ran around telling people to fuck off. Although, thinking about it, I could always blame Remy’s influence.
Astrid motioned for me to pick her up. “No, you can walk to me,” I told her.
She stared at me for several seconds before getting to her feet and toddling over to me. I picked her up and sat her on my knee. “You’re going to be a good girl for Eos?” I asked her.
Astrid looked over at Eos and waved. “Good girl,” she said enthusiastically.
“How did you two ever make a kid that cute?” Eos asked.
“She got all of Selene’s . . . everything,” I said.
“Wait until she’s a teenager and she turns into a mini-Daddy,” Selene said. “Burning down houses, throwing bolts of lightning at everyone.”
“I think by the time she’s a teenager, I’ll have concocted an elaborate escape plan for me to live underground,” I said, giving Selene a kiss.
“Oh, not without me, you don’t,” Selene said.
“You two sicken me,” Eos told us, picking up Astrid. “I’m going to go take this one for a walk, if no one has any objections.”
“Thank you,” Selene said.
Once Selene and I were alone, we went to bed, predominantly to get some sleep. Eventually, anyway.
I’d had a good extra hour when I woke up to the sound of the front door being rhythmically beaten.
“If that’s Mordred, give him a bottle of vodka and tell him to relax,” Selene said as I left the bedroom. I went downstairs to find Hel and Mordred at the front door.
“Nate,” Mordred said. “You wanna get dressed?”
I looked down, realizing I was wearing only a pair of shorts. “No,” I said. “I want to go back to sleep.”
“Sorry, but the team is ready for your incursion into Washington,” Hel said.
“Well, it was nice while it lasted,” Selene said as she walked down the stairs, pulling on a T-shirt.
“The White House has turned into somewhat of a battleground,” Hel said. “The humans went to arrest several senators who were there, hoping to get distance between them and the president, and it all kicked off. There are a lot of Avalon personnel in that building, and now quite a few dead Secret Service and FBI agents.”
“How long ago?” I asked.
“An hour,” Mordred said. “We only just got word, as our people there have been trying to stop Avalon insurgents from killing innocent people.”
“It gets worse,” Hel said.
“Of course it does,” I said.
“Looks like the president isn’t involved with Avalon,” Mordred said. “At least not how we thought. Gawain threatened to execute him if anyone tries to get into the White House.”
“So the president is one of the good guys?” I asked. “That’s not the impression we got from Poseidon.”
“Yeah, it’s all a little confusing,” Mordred said. “But right now, the president and his family are in the White House, and they’re hostages. Along with several dozen workers and members of Congress.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty bad,” I admitted. I ran upstairs and put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt before we left the house, and all of us made our way to the temple realm gate, where Leonardo and Antonio were waiting, along with several dozen others. Antonio hugged me and Selene in turn.
“Good to see you both,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I now live in this temple, considering the amount of time I’ve spent here. Leonardo wants to make it even bigger. He thinks there’s a way to move whole armies through the gates.”
“And you think?”
“I think he’s always trying to push the boundaries of what’s possible, and sometimes he doesn’t stop to think what’s safe.”
I smiled. “That sounds a lot like Leonardo.”
“I love him, but he can be hard work,” Antonio said, with a warm smile of his own.
“So we’re really going to send a group this big?” I asked Hades.
“The Knights of Avalon have been running skirmishes against a lot of the humans there. The army has been drafted in, but even with guns it’s hard to kill people who can throw fireballs at your face before you’ve even raised the weapon.”
“They’re going to start a war in the middle of the city,” Selene said from beside me.
“Yes,” Leonardo said. “Several from here have already gone through the realm gate. Nate, I just want to say that something feels off about this. From what I’ve been told, these KOA were attacking the human forces not long after the White House went into lockdown. It feels like this was planned.”
“Great,” I said. “So where does this realm gate go?”
“Ah, we changed the address,” Leonardo said. “It goes to a realm gate under the Lincoln Memorial.”
“There’s no realm gate under the Lincoln Memorial,” I said. “I know, because I’ve been there several times.”
“There wasn’t until three months ago,” Zamek said as he joined us. “Jinayca and the dwarves we met in Valhalla worked together to get one working. They found one under Valhalla—it’s what destroyed a big part of it—and while that didn’t work properly, this one does. They built six new realm gates; DC was one of them.”
“So these gates . . . they’re safe?” I asked.
“Completely,” Zamek said. “They’re dead gates until linked to another gate. And seeing how very few people can change the realm gate destinations, we didn’t need to worry too much about them being used for evil purposes. Besides, we made sure there are guards and the like.”
“You ready?” Antonio asked.
I nodded. “Keep safe out there,” I said. “And Leonardo, check to see if you can find anything about a gate in Atlantis.”
“Mordred already told me,” Leonardo said. “We’re looking into it from here.”
“It will be everything he does for however long it takes,” Antonio said with one of his usual warm smiles.
“Keep him out of trouble,” I whispered to Antonio.
“I’m not bloody deaf,” Leonardo snapped.
I stepped through the realm gate and found myself in a dimly lit basement the size of a football field. There were dozens of people from the resistance alongside me, with many more making their way up the stairs toward what I presumed was the exit.
Jinayca walked over. She was a dwarf who had seen her people taken almost to the brink of extinction, only to lead those who remained to survive for centuries. A second dwarf stood beside her, a young female whom I’d met a few times. She was Zamek’s sister, Queen Orfeda. When Orfeda and her people had learned that Zamek was alive, they’d tried to get him to take the throne. It had not gone as they’d planned. Zamek had no interest in being a king and was happy to let his sister lead the dwarves.