Gray skies watched us impassively as we strode up the path towards the second tier of the mountain. The torches that marked the way were unlit since the morning light illuminated the rocky slope even through the overcast heavens. I rolled back my shoulders and blew out a breath.
After all of my messed-up feelings for Callan, and then everything with Henry’s family and also seeing all the one-handed dark mages, I found myself itching for a fight. Though, the ones I really wanted to kill weren’t these random dark mages. It was Chancellor Godric Quill and the rest of his parliament. And Lance Carmichael.
If it hadn’t been for them, none of this would have happened. I would never had been forced to go on that first mission to Eldar with Callan, which meant that I would never have been captured by him and would also never have gotten to know him better or helped him save his best friend. And I wouldn’t have had to go on this mission with him either where I had to constantly try to hide how I truly felt about him.
But I had been forced to do all of that because Lance and Chancellor Quill couldn’t just leave us dark mages be. Because they were entirely incapable of minding their own damn business, I had fallen for Callan fucking Blackwell. And I was going to kill them all for it one day.
“Heads up,” Henry said.
As we passed the halfway point, five people started towards us from the flat terrace-like area up ahead. Paige and Lance moved so that they were walking behind us. Callan, Henry, and I continued forwards without slowing down.
“Oi!” one of the guys called from where he and his friends had stopped a short distance from the settlement. “What’s your magic type?”
None of us answered.
“Depending on what it is, we’ll just let you walk past,” he continued. “We ain’t stupid enough to take on someone who’s aiming for the upper levels. So, what’s your magic type?”
Without turning to look at each other, Callan and I touched our palms together in silent answer. A massive poison cloud billowed out around us while a gigantic spinning force arc appeared above our heads.
They sucked in sharp breaths.
“Alright,” the first guy called while all of them spread their hands to show that they had no intention of attacking. “Just walk past. We ain’t dying today.”
“That’s just embarrassing,” I said quietly to Callan as we continued towards them. “What kind of dark mage rolls over like that?”
“Agreed,” he replied. “But this is Castlebourne. They’ve got their own dark mage code.”
“It’s disgraceful.”
“It’s also the reason why there’s a whole mountain of them while there are only six of us left in Eldar.”
I sucked my teeth. “Good point.”
We let our attacks fade out as we reached the five people still standing on the path. They kept their hands spread, and moved aside to let us pass when we closed the final distance.
“You,” I said while locking eyes with the guy who had spoken. “When was the last time someone tried to get up to this level?”
He blinked and then rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Oh, uhm, a week ago or something like that.”
“What did they look like?” Callan asked.
“Two women. Fire mages, both of them. Slim. Straight black hair.”
“Has there been any group that included one water, one lightning, and one wind mage? Two of them women, and one guy?”
“Not in the past few months at least. It’s been a while since we saw a water mage here.”
“Alright.”
We walked past them without offering any other kind of explanation.
Once we were out of earshot, Callan glanced over at me. “That means we got here before Lance’s friends.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Yeah, thanks, I did actually work that out myself too.”
“Watch that tone.”
“I will.” I flashed him a sharp smile. “When you stop spelling out the obvious all the time.”
He said something under his breath, but whatever it was, the words were drowned out by the noise of the crowd as we reached the flat terrace that had been carved into the mountainside.
The standard of living was a bit better up here. Fewer wobbly shacks and more sturdy walls. And almost no one-handed people. Many of the ones who lived here still looked like they had led a harsh life, but the toxic air of resentment and despair that we had felt last night was a bit less tangible.
Two people were fixing a hole in a roof, probably from the storm the other day, while others cooked breakfast over open fires. They all watched us as we passed between the buildings, but none of them made any move to stop us.
“What are the odds that those guys will just let us walk right past too?” Paige asked as we stepped onto the path again on the other side, and nodded towards the group that was already waiting for us higher up.
“Nonexistent,” I said. “The lowest level is for the ones who can’t do magic at all anymore, and the one we just passed is for the weakest of the ones who can. They will just keep getting stronger from here on.”
“But you can still beat them, right?”
“Of course.” I cast a glance at Callan. “Can you create a distraction for me?”
“What kind?”
“Something big.”
“Sure.”
We continued walking in silence. Gravel crunched behind me as Paige and Lance moved to their position at the back once more while the three of us led the way.
Our five opponents spread out in a line across the path, but none of them had called up any magic yet. Most likely because they didn’t want to reveal their magic type until we got closer. Unfortunately for them, neither Callan nor I needed to get very close in order to launch an attack.
“Now,” I said.
In a matter of moments, Callan had touched his palms together and thrown a massive force arc at them. It spun through the air in a blur of half-translucent steel.
Shouts of alarm came from the people before us, and magic bloomed to life as they tried to block the death coming for them. However, right after Callan had thrown his attack, I had launched my own.
A blast of wind from the woman on the left managed to knock Callan’s force arc aside. It slammed into the mountainside with a wham, sending bits of rocks flying through the air. But before they could summon any more defensive magic, my cloud of poison hit them straight in the face.
They all crumpled to the ground instantaneously.
“It’s like they’re not even trying,” I commented as we continued upwards.
“This is just the warmup,” Callan said. “The real battles are coming higher up.”
“True.”
“By the Current,” Lance said as we passed the five people now lying slumped on the ground. “Not to ruin your little ‘look at me, I’m such a badass villain’ moment, but have you given any thought as to how we are supposed to make it back down the mountain?” Raising his handcuffed hands, he pointed towards our defeated opponents. “Those people are going to be so angry when they wake up.”
“They won’t be waking up,” I said.
“I…” He trailed off while understanding dawned on his face. When it finally did, all he said was, “Oh.”
“Yeah, so problem solved.”
“No!” Lance shook his head violently as if snapping out of his shock. Exasperation bled into his voice when he spoke up again. “What is wrong with you people? Why is your default response always to kill everyone?” While locking eyes with me, he stabbed his shackled hands towards the dead guys on the ground. “You didn’t have to kill those people. You could have just knocked them out if you wanted to. You do it with me every single night, so I know you can. So why did you have to kill them?”
“Because they were in my way.”
“They were people! Not obstacles.”
“The moment they stepped onto this path to stop us, they became obstacles. I didn’t force them to get in my way. They decided that on their own.”
“That’s still not a valid reason to kill them! Have you no conscience? At all?”
Back at the academy, I had actually been in possession of a conscience. I had always been a bit ruthless when it came to something I wanted, but I had still felt bad when I did something despicable to get it. However, six years as a dark mage had whittled down that part of me until nothing remained. In our world, it was kill or be killed. And the people who hesitated or wrung their blood-soaked hands in regret afterwards were always the first to die.
I knew that becoming a dark mage had essentially turned me into a coldhearted villain with almost no compassion or regard for the lives of strangers.
But I was okay with that.
“No,” I replied, and gave Lance a nonchalant shrug.
“And that is why you will die the way you have lived.” He shot me a look full of righteous contempt. “Alone.”
It took all of my self-control not to poison him right then. Callan watched me with an unreadable expression on his face as I drew in a controlled breath and flexed my fingers. But thankfully, he didn’t try to mock me about how all of my people had sold me out to him, or anything else. Because if he had, I would have snapped and killed both him and Lance anyway.
People moved out of our way as we strode straight across the next terrace. These men and women looked healthier than the previous level, and none of the buildings had holes in them. I swept my gaze over the small houses around us while trying to force Lance’s words out of my head.
If this was what the third level looked like, I wondered what the one at the top was like.
“Incoming,” Henry said from Callan’s other side.
I looked up the mountainside.
We hadn’t even stepped onto the path on the other side yet, but people were already scrambling down from the next tier and getting into battle stances. They must have seen our brief fight from their terrace.
Good.
Because I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to slaughter people.
