“I am so ashamed of you.”
It took every ounce of my self-control not to flinch at my father’s words. At the look on his face. On my mother’s face. On Jenny’s face. They were all staring at me with such utter disappointment that I felt like I was fourteen years old again, being scolded for performing a too vulgar dance at the midyear exams. It made cold acid spread through my whole chest, and I didn’t know whether I wanted to scream or bawl my eyes out.
“I don’t understand where we went wrong.” He shook his head at me. “How could you turn out like this? You’re a… a villain. A murderer. How could our sweet and well-mannered little girl turn into… into this?”
It felt as though everything was suspended in time. I could hear Callan’s voice gently say my name on my right, and a hand brush over my arm in a comforting gesture on my left, but I couldn’t focus on any of it. All I could do was stare at my family while the next second seemed to drag by in slow motion.
I hadn’t spoken to my family since before I ran away six years ago. Not one word in six years. And this was the first thing they said to me? No statements about how worried they had been about me or relief to see me alive and well after so long? No, the first thing out of their mouths was, I am so ashamed of you.
That broken little girl inside me that was desperate to please people in order to prove that she deserved love rose up to the surface inside me, and her first instinct was to apologize. The words were right there on my tongue. Like a reflex. A behavior so ingrained in me that I barely needed to think about it.
Disappointment was etched into every line of my father’s strong jaw and brimming in my mother’s green eyes. And Jenny, she looked at me with… pity.
I couldn’t breathe.
Barely a second had passed since my father stopped speaking, but I didn’t know how to make time start moving again. I couldn’t concentrate, and my poison cloud wavered before me.
Why were they here? Now? They shouldn’t have been here. I wasn’t prepared for this. I—
A lightning storm shot towards me.
Jerking back, I tried to snap myself out of the cold black ocean I was currently drowning in. But I wasn’t fast enough. The white bolts of lightning barreled towards me straight from Quill, Leoni, and at least five more members of parliament.
Deafening booms ripped through the morning air, loud enough to shatter the stunned haze covering my brain like spiderwebs. I snapped back into the present right as the storm of lightning crashed into Callan and Levi’s layered wall of force and metal.
Shouts echoed between the buildings, and more attacks zapped through the air. Next to me, Paige threw up a water shield to turn a yellow fireball into hissing mist while Henry shoved aside a water blast with a gust of wind. Darren and Jessica and Leoni were pelting Callan and Levi’s shields with their dark mage level powers.
On the ground before us, the hostages were screaming.
The hostages.
My mind finally caught up, and I yanked the poison cloud down.
Fury, the likes of which could have set the whole world aflame, seared through my body and burned out the last of those broken feelings until all that remained was rage and hatred. The strength of my poison increased in a heartbeat, and every single person on the ground doubled over. Panicked noises came from their throats as they choked and gagged and clawed at their necks.
“Quill,” I bellowed across the booms of colliding magic. “Stand the fuck down. Right now. Or they die.”
From across the street, Quill’s hard blue eyes locked on me. I stared back at him, letting him see every wicked, every depraved, every blackened piece of my soul and the gigantic hole where my missing morals should have been. If he didn’t stand down, I was going to kill every single one of these thirty-five completely innocent people. And even if he did stand down, I was going to kill him. Because he brought my family into this. And that had just bought him a guaranteed death sentence.
“Stand down!” Quill called.
All the members of parliament, as well as Lance’s three friends, ceased attacking and spread their hands. Lance, who was the one person present who didn’t have long-distance magic, just looked at me with pleading eyes. It did nothing to affect my stone-cold heart.
I kept the poison around our hostages, making them writhe on the ground in fear and pain and panic.
“Enough,” Quill snapped. “We’ve already ceased fire.”
For another few seconds, I just stared at him with hard eyes.
Then I at last raised the poison cloud so that it hovered above their heads again. They all sucked in desperate breaths and coughed against the pale cobblestones.
“What do you want?” the Chancellor ground out.
Callan discreetly brushed the back of his hand against mine, as if to make sure that I was okay, before replying, “We want the Blade of Equilibrium.”
“Never.”
“Hand over the blade, and abolish the laws that forces mages to complete the graduation ceremony,” Callan continued. “And we’ll stop this whole war right now.”
Confused murmuring spread through the group of parliament members. On Quill’s right, Lance blinked at us in genuine surprise.
“What do you mean stop the whole war?” Lance blurted out.
“I meant exactly what I said. We won’t attack you. None of the dark mages will. We will just keep going about our lives the way we did before you decided to declare war on us.”
His pale brows creased slightly. “You would actually do that? Just back off?”
“Yes. Despite what you’ve been told, we don’t actually want to kill people just for sport. We just want you all to stop trying to steal our magic.”
A sneer twisted Quill’s features as he interrupted, “Those hostages would disagree.”
I gave him a smile dripping with poison. “You attacked first.”
“Give us the Blade of Equilibrium,” Callan cut in before he could retort. “And abolish those laws, and you can have your people back. No more war. No more destruction. No more death.”
Well, apart from Quill, who we were definitely going to slaughter anyway. But he didn’t need to know that.
Another wave of murmuring washed over the parliament members while Lance looked questioningly over at his Chancellor. I had no idea how my family was reacting, because I refused to look at them.
Quill held up a hand, silencing his people. Steel crept into his eyes as he looked between me and Callan. “No.”
I raised my eyebrows. “No?”
“No.” He jutted out his chin. “We do not negotiate with dark mages.”
“And that, right there, is the root of all your problems.”
His furious gaze snapped to me while he stabbed a hand towards the still gasping people kneeling before me. “You have committed a war crime.”
“I’m sorry, a what?”
“A war crime.”
I snorted and flicked my hair behind my shoulder. “Darling, there are no crimes in war. Only winners… and losers.”
“Look, Quill,” Callan began before the Chancellor could pop a blood vessel. “I know you’re a smart man, so let me spell it out for you. Either you do what we want, or we will execute all of these people, and then we’ll just attack the academy and take the Blade of Equilibrium anyway.”
For a few seconds, no one said anything. Leoni looked like she was ready to fry us with lightning any second. But both Jessica and Lance glanced between us and Quill as if they desperately wanted him to take the deal.
Some kind of owl hooted from a street on our left.
A smirk curled Quill’s lips. “Funny you should say that.”
He jerked his hand forward in a cutting motion.
Battle cries split the air.
I whipped my head towards the left to find a horde of… teenagers barreling towards us. Shock and confusion rippled through me.
Black shadows and orange fire and massive lightning bolts shot towards us. Callan and the others threw their own magic towards them, blocking the attacks, but the teenagers just kept coming. Conviction shone in their eyes and they were screaming at the top of their lungs as they sprinted towards us while slapping their hands together and calling up more magic.
They were students. Students from the academy who had snuck up to ambush us. It took me another second to realize that they weren’t there randomly. Based on the satisfaction flashing across Quill’s face, he had set this up earlier and brought them here to attack us.
I snapped my gaze between my friends while a sudden pulse of dread shot through me.
Since they were from the academy, they all had the power levels of dark mages, which would be difficult for us to deal with when there were so damn many of them. But that wasn’t why alarm crackled through me.
Some of the students looked to be close to graduating, but at least half of them were under fifteen.
There weren’t a lot of lines that I was unwilling to cross at this point, but killing thirteen-year-olds was one of them. No matter how delusional and misguided they were, I wasn’t so far gone that I could justify the slaughter of children.
“I’m not killing kids,” Paige said, echoing my thoughts, while she used her magic to parry attacks from the parliament members.
“Agreed,” Callan said as he shoved a force wall to block the twisting mass of shadows and fire coming from the students. “We make a run for the building behind us. Henry, blow the windows. We need to split up.”
Henry grunted in acknowledgement.
“Levi,” Callan continued. “Can you find your way back through the city?”
The King of Metal slammed up a wall that blocked Leoni and Darren’s combined strike of lightning and wind. “I’ll manage.”
“Audrey,” he said without turning to look at me. “Get your magic ready.”
The hostages had thrown themselves flat on the ground, trying to duck the hail of attacks shooting through the air above them. I could use my poison magic to follow through on my threat and kill them all right now, but it wouldn’t accomplish anything other than to make sure that every member of parliament dedicated their entire life to hunting us down. And that would make it harder for us to get what we wanted. So instead, I shifted the poison cloud towards the left.
“Now!” Callan called.
While he used his force magic to clear a path for me, I hurled the glittering mist towards the first ranks of students. They collapsed immediately.
“NO!” Lance screamed.
“They’re not dead,” I yelled across the chaos while Callan and the others whirled around and darted for the door behind us. While shooting another poison cloud towards Lance’s friends, I held the Binder’s gaze and called, “They’ll wake up in half an hour. Because as opposed to your Chancellor, I don’t kill children by sending them into an adult dark mage battle.”
Emotions rippled across Lance’s features, but I couldn’t spare any more time so I whipped around and sprinted into the doorway while Callan and Levi covered my escape.
Shattering glass exploded through the athletics hall while I slammed the door shut behind me. Henry’s wind blast had blown out every window on the ground floor.
“Go!” Callan yelled.
Without a second glance at each other, we all raced towards the windows on opposite sides of the building.
The door banged open behind us right as I leaped up and dove through the broken window.
Fabric ripped as part of my shirt sleeve got caught in the shards that still remained on the frame. I tucked in my head and landed on my shoulder as I rolled across the ground outside. Pain pulsed through my body at the rough landing, but I shot to my feet and sprinted down the nearest side street. A short distance to my right, I caught sight of Paige’s blond ponytail whipping through the air before she disappeared down another street.
Grabbing the edge of the building, I swung myself onto the next road while shouted orders echoed through the bright morning behind us. It was followed by the pounding of feet as they no doubt tried to round the building and follow us.
Wind ripped through my hair and clothes as I hurtled down the alley. There were people strolling past on the next cross street, but I couldn’t slow down because I had to put more distance between me and my pursuers, so I just skidded around the corner and kept running.
Two women leaped out of the way as I almost mowed them down, and several more people gasped in shock and outrage. I was drawing attention, which wasn’t good, but right now speed was more important than stealth.
I sprinted through the streets, angry grumblings following in my wake.
My heart slammed against my ribs. I didn’t dare look behind me since it would slow me down, so I had no idea how much distance I had managed to put between me and my hunters. Darting through another cluster of stunned morning shoppers, I threw myself around the next corner.
And screeched to a halt.
Constables were marching up the street, coming right towards me.
I whipped my head from side to side.
There were constables in every direction.
Dread pulsed through my chest like cold waves.
Shit. All of the people who had been fighting us in the hills were now returning to Eldar, which meant that the entire city would be crawling with constables.
Slowing to a walk, I forced myself to move at a leisurely pace so that I wouldn’t attract too much attention. Blood rushed in my ears. I had to get off the streets. There was no way I would be able to make it all the way back to our house while an entire army trickled through the streets. I had to find somewhere to lie low until they had all gotten back to their headquarters.
The squad of constables up ahead was getting closer. Keeping my head lowered, I moved along the edge of the road. My heart hammered in my chest and my lungs begged me to suck in deep breaths after my mad dash across the city, but I forced myself to breathe normally.
By all hell, if those constables looked in my direction right now, they would spot me. They would see exactly who I was. Fuck. I needed to get out of sight.
A tavern appeared on my right.
Making a split-second decision, I yanked the door open and slipped inside.
The gloomy light in the building was a stark contrast to the bright morning sunlight outside, and I had to blink furiously to get my eyes to adjust enough to make out the faces inside. While staying close to one of the walls, I moved farther into the building.
The patrons inside were a mix of customers who looked to be enjoying a hearty breakfast before work, and people who still hadn’t stopped drinking from the night before. There weren’t any good seats left so I was forced to sit with my back halfway facing the door, which made my skin crawl with unease, but I drew in a bracing breath just as the tavern keeper wandered over.
Rage and panic and frustration crackled inside me like a lightning storm. I didn’t usually drink strong spirits like whiskey, but after staying awake all night and then seeing my family and then dealing with that damn ambush and the students and the constables, my nerves were raw and my whole soul felt frazzled. So when the tavern keeper asked me what I wanted, I ordered a double shot of whiskey.
A muted sense of amusement pulled at my lips as he returned with the large glass and set it down in front of me. Callan would’ve been proud.
It wasn’t until I reached forward to pick up the glass that I realized that my hands were shaking. Gripping the glass tightly, I took a large gulp.
Hell fucking damn it all. What an absolute fiasco this had turned into. After all of our scheming and careful preparations, Quill had managed to walk out the victor. Not only had they managed to get their loved ones back without handing over the Blade of Equilibrium, but Quill had also managed to rattle me. And I hated it.
His bloody stunt with my family had thrown me off my game, and because of that, I had almost messed up our entire plan. Guilt wormed its way through my chest. And now Quill and Lance and all the other constables were back in Eldar, which meant that we had lost the element of surprise.
Four of the most cunning people I knew had helped me come up with this plan, and we had still been outsmarted. Or rather, outplayed. Using the students to attack us… I really hadn’t seen that coming. And that turned out to be our downfall.
Fuck. I was going to kill Quill. As long as we took him out, the rest of his parliament should be easy to threaten into submission.
Raising my glass, I took another large gulp of whiskey while considering.
We needed to figure out a way to—
Fire flickered in the corner of my eye, but I was still holding my whiskey glass so I didn’t manage to slap my hands together fast enough.
My stomach lurched as I was yanked up from my chair and shoved back first up against the wall.
“I thought it was you,” a man growled in my face. He was alone, but he was wearing the telltale uniform of a constable. “I would recognize you anywhere after you poisoned my best friend out in the hills.”
Yellow flames danced around his hand as he held it up in front of my face and leaned closer to me while his other hand tightened around my trapped wrist. Rage flickered in his brown eyes.
“Now, you and I are gonna—”
I spit out the whiskey in my mouth.
The amber liquid sprayed straight into his flames, making them blow right into his face. Since he wasn’t fireproof in the way a real fire mage was, he was forced to jerk up his other hand to shield his eyes and protect his face. The move made him release his grip on my wrist, and I slapped my palms together. Glittering green poison shot straight into his throat before he could finish screaming from the flames that licked his skin.
His legs gave out and he toppled over. Wood clanked as he crashed into my table, knocking my chair over in the process, before the body hit the floor with a series of loud thuds.
Deafening silence hung over the whole tavern as everyone turned to gape at me.
Crap.
Slamming my palms together, I called up my biggest and fastest attack. Poison mist exploded across the dimly lit room. A few people had begun to summon magic of their own, but my cloud hit them before they could finish.
While every single person in the tavern slumped down, unconscious, I darted towards the door. My heart pounded in my chest as I glanced out through the small gap.
No constables in sight.
Yanking the door open, I sprinted across the threshold and took off down the street.
Hopefully, the others were having an easier time.
