Reign of Evil

YaYa took advantage of the moment and intentionally bumped into Holmes. He was shocked as he felt the familiar nastiness of clammy static. Their eyes met.

Hoover began to bark. She went for Walker, trying to bite him.

Walker jumped out of the way and leveled his rifle at the dog.

Yank grabbed the gun right as the SEAL opened fire. Dirt kicked up near Hoover, who was able to leap sideways and out of the way.

The Marines escorting them leveled their weapons on the fighting SEALs.

Yank struggled, one hand on the barrel of the rifle, the other on Walker’s arm. “What the fuck, man?”

“Let go of my fucking weapon. The dog… she’s possessed.”

YaYa knew if he said anything that all hell would break loose. He’d lose any advantage that he had.

Yank struggled with Walker, who was still trying to level his rifle at the dog.

YaYa realized that the Tuatha must have passed from the dog to Holmes and now Hoover was trying her best to save the situation. He couldn’t leave her hanging.

The witch was struggling to figure out what was going on, glancing from one SEAL to the other. When she rested her eyes on YaYa, he mouthed the words, Tuatha. Holmes. Walker. Tuatha.

She got it right away.

She began to mouth indecipherable words as she reached out to touch Commander Holmes with her wand.

But he was prepared.

He pulled his pistol and shot her in the stomach.

She went down hard.

“Sam?” Laws screamed. “What are you doing?”

“It’s not him!” YaYa yelled above the chaos. “It’s Tuatha. They’re possessed. Walker and Holmes.”

Holmes spun toward YaYa, but the lithe young SEAL was ready. He grabbed the pistol with his prosthetic hand, stronger than any human hand and reinforced with titanium alloys; he twisted the weapon out of his commander’s hand as if it were a toy.

Holmes staggered and fell against MacMasters.

Meanwhile Yank had Walker down on the ground and disarmed him. Magerts came up and helped, bringing zip ties from his cargo pocket. He bound Walker’s hands in front of him, then his feet.

Laws had his rifle pointed at Holmes.

“Sam. What are you doing?”

Holmes blinked his eyes. “Tim, it’s me.”

A horn came again. This time it was closer.

YaYa noticed a bank of fog rolling toward them.

“How do I know it’s you?” Laws asked.

“Whatever it was is gone.” Holmes glanced around and saw the witch on the ground. “Sassy. Fuck.” He ran to her and pulled a QuikClot bandage out of his cargo pocket. He applied it to her wound and pressed to stanch the flow.

“If it’s gone, then where is it?”

Everyone began to look at everyone else.

YaYa stepped forward. “I can tell you. I just need to—”

“Marines, disarm these men,” ordered MacMasters. “I don’t know what kind of bloody shitstorm you’re trying to bring to the royal family, but I won’t have it.”

YaYa’s eyes narrowed as everyone turned their weapons on one another. SEALs against Marines. Magerts’s Marines against MacMasters’s Marines. Then Ian put a hand on Magerts’s shoulder.

“Marines,” Magerts called. “Follow MacMasters.”

The Tuatha had hopped from one person to the other and were now in command of the largest military forces in the area. YaYa finally saw them for what they were. This had been the plan all along. The SEALs were now outnumbered thirty to six. The chances were grim. With all the modern technology at their disposal and the latest gear, the SEALs had been outmaneuvered by the Tuatha Dé Dannan, a race of beings who’d slipped into the shadowy crags of mythology more than three thousand years ago.

In his mind’s eye he pulled up and out. His group of SEALs stood in the center of a circle, Holmes on the ground trying to save their witch. They were surrounded on all sides by Royal Marines, all pointing the working ends of their SA80s at them. In the distance came the fog and with it the Wild Hunt. And somewhere inside Sandringham Estate was the Queen. Myrddin and Arthur didn’t even have to kill her. All they had to do was possess her and have her abdicate her throne on national television. It would be a relatively peaceful coup d’état with no one the wiser that they’d entered an Era of the Tuatha, when Arthur would once again be king.

What the fuck was SEAL Team 666 going to do?

CHAPTER 56

SANDRINGHAM ESTATE, NORFOLK, ENGLAND. 1540 HOURS.

She was in a deep pool of pain, falling deeper and deeper. As terrible as the flechettes had felt, the bullet in her abdomen was far more awful, introducing her to an ache so profound, she found it hard to think of anything but fleeing from the pain. So she swam away from it, pushing and pulling her soul into a tight little ball where she could rock herself, much like she had when she was a little girl and Hitler’s buzz bombs roared across the London sky like nightmares made real.

She was only remotely aware of hands around her wound. She heard chaos, she heard angry voices, but she was too far away to understand them. But then a single voice came to her.

Sassy.

If she ignored it, maybe it would go away.

Sassy Moore.