Three columns of fire, water, and lightning shot into the air from atop the hill. I threw a massive cloud of poison towards the constables barreling down the slope while I flicked a quick look up at the magic tearing into the sky above.
That could only be a signal, which meant that reinforcements would soon be coming. A sudden flash of panic shot through me. Back-up was coming… from behind. They were going to trap us between the army on the hill and the reinforcements that were no doubt moving towards us this very second. Shit. We were supposed to be the ones launching the sneak attack. How the hell had we managed to fail this badly?
Men and women collapsed to the ground and tumbled down the hill as my poison magic slammed into their charging ranks. Lightning shot across the grass as the survivors aimed for me. I dove sideways, rolling out of the way. Before I had even gotten to my feet, I sent my fastest attack towards them.
I needed to get out of here. I needed to warn the others about the attack that would be coming from behind. We needed to figure out what the hell had gone wrong and how we were supposed to win this now.
Glittering green mist exploded across the grass, making the constables slam to a halt and throw up interlocking magic in order to avoid getting hit. I didn’t hesitate a second. Whirling around, I sprinted the final bit down and leaped onto the street.
A jolt shot through my legs as I landed on the stones, but I just slapped my palms together and blindly threw another poison cloud behind me while darting towards the next street and the cover it would provide. Grabbing the edge of the building, I skidded around the corner while casting a glance over my shoulder.
The constables had trailed to a halt. Some of them were just standing there, staring after me, while others split off to attack some of Levi’s dark mages who had been positioned to my left and right, and who were also trying to retreat now.
It made sense that they would want to remain on the hill. After all, they had the high ground and they knew that more of them would be coming to push us back towards the hill again.
But I still wasn’t taking any chances, so I ran as fast as I could from them and towards our rendezvous spot.
The reinforcements would no doubt be the people that Quill had stationed at the academy, which meant that the former mages we had recruited no longer needed to keep up their ruse.
While darting around the next corner, I brushed my palms together and shot a glittering green column into the air. Since my magic was the easiest to both spot and distinguish from Quill’s forces, we had told the people we had recruited that I would be the one sending up a flare if we needed them to come. Hopefully, they wouldn’t chicken out on us now. We needed them to follow the constables and keep them distracted so that we could get up the hill before they could arrive and box us in.
My breath sawed through my chest as I took a left down the next street.
Right then, someone else ran around another corner up ahead and skidded to a halt just a few steps in front of me.
I called up a poison attack, but the mist dissipated when my eyes focused on the person’s face. Slamming to a halt, I just stared at the dark-haired woman. Her chest was heaving, as if she had just sprinted here too.
“Audrey,” she said.
Her voice snapped me out of my trance, and I lifted my chin slightly as I replied, “Jenny.”
My sister watched me with sad gray eyes. Eyes full of pity. The sight of it made my blood boil, but I managed to restrain myself.
“Please stop this.” She shook her head at me. “You can still come home with us, and things can go back to the way they were.”
I could feel the steel creeping into my voice and the way my features hardened as I locked eyes with her. “And what makes you think that I would even want to?”
“Because we’re your family.”
“Really? Is that why you have pretended that I don’t exist for the past six years?”
“You’re a dark mage, Audrey!” She threw out her arms in an exasperated gesture. It made her long black hair ripple around her shoulders. “You betrayed the whole city. You betrayed us. What were we supposed to do?”
I didn’t have an answer to that, and I was suddenly thoroughly done with this conversation, so I just shook my head at her and started forwards again. Clouds drifted over the sun, casting the pale stone street in temporary shadow. A few yellow flowers trembled on a windowsill as a gust swept between the stone buildings, making the colorful petals flutter.
“Look, I’m sorry that I didn’t help you last time.” Jenny took a couple of steps to the left until she was standing in front of me, blocking my way down the street. “But I’m here now.”
“To do what?”
“To help you. It’s like I always tell my students, it’s never too late to start doing the right thing.”
Anger rippled through me, and I bristled at the way she compared me to her students. As if I was some kind of troubled teen who didn’t know what I was doing. I wasn’t troubled. Or confused. I had chosen the dark mage path knowing full well the consequences it would have. That it would turn me into a person with dark morals and an even darker heart. That it would fill my life with threats and blood and violence. I knew all of that when I decided to escape Eldar. And now, six years later, I still wouldn’t change a thing.
“Step aside, Jenny,” I simply said in reply.
She threw her arms out wide, as if that would actually stop me. “No. I can’t let you do this. I can’t let you go back and hurt more people.”
“I hurt people?” I stabbed a hand in the direction of the academy. “Quill sent students to attack us. Students! Maybe we’re not the ones you need to worry about.”
“Trust me, after you ran, Chancellor Quill got an earful from the rest of his parliament about that. Why do you think he had to move the—” Panic flashed across her features, and she abruptly snapped her mouth shut.
A smirk tugged at my lips as I raised an eyebrow and finished, “Why he had to move the Blade of Equilibrium to the parliament building instead of the academy?”
Embarrassment blew across her face, and she cleared her throat. “You knew about that?”
“Of course we do. Otherwise, why would we be here, attacking it?”
“Yes, well…” She trailed off. But she looked immensely relieved now that she knew that she hadn’t just shared an important secret with us by accident. Pulling her usual confidence back around her, she raised her chin. “Chancellor Quill moved the blade to the parliament building to protect the students, who will remain at the academy until this is over. So he is not the one putting people in danger right now. You are.”
Lifting an arm, I forcibly pushed her sideways and then took a step forward. Her hand shot up and grabbed my shoulder. I shrugged it off as I whirled around to face her again.
“Please, Audrey,” she began before I could spit out the words on my tongue. “I can help you.” Her gray eyes were pleading. “This is what I do all day. Helping troubled students find their path again.”
Rage roared through me. “I am not your student. And I have already found my path.” Brushing my hands together, I summoned a poison whip that snaked around my wrist while I locked hard eyes on my sister. “Now, get the hell out of my way.”
“Please, you…” She trailed off as boots pounded against the ground. Relief flickered in her eyes.
I snapped my gaze towards the street that Jenny had come from. A moment later, four constables rounded the corner and poured out onto the street. I hurled my poison at them, making it expand into a cloud. Since my attack had already been ready and waiting while they were still rounding the corner, they didn’t even have time to bring their hands together.
All four of them collapsed dead on the ground as my lethal magic forced its way down their throats.
A terrible coldness seeped into my chest as I dragged my gaze back to Jenny. “You knew they were coming.” It was a statement, not a question. “You were just trying to keep me occupied until they got here.”
Wind hit me in the chest. It was hard enough to make me stumble back several steps. I blinked at the scene before me while shock clanged through my head.
Jenny was standing on the pale cobblestones a short distance away. She had shifted into a battle position, and wind magic whooshed around her. I stared at her, dumbfounded.
Another blast of wind shot towards me.
I leaped aside, and it slammed into the stone wall on my left instead.
“You’re going to fight me?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“You just killed four people!”
“All the more reason for you to back off.”
“I am not afraid of you.”
“You should be.”
“Doing the right thing might be hard.” She shot more wind at me. “But someone has to stand up against all the bad things. And good will always win against evil in the end.”
I sidestepped the wind blasts and rolled my eyes while touching my hands together. “You sound like Lance Carmichael.”
“Because he is right to—”
Green tendrils shot through the air. I slapped my hands together in rapid succession, shooting a hail of poison straight for her. Panic flashed in her eyes as she summoned wind to block it. But she had spent the past six years teaching people to do the right thing. I had spent them slaughtering anyone who got in my way. The difference in skill and power was ridiculous.
She sucked in a gasp as a poison tendril forced its way down her throat. I let the magic sweep through her body. Her arms dropped down by her sides and her knees buckled, sending her crashing down on the street.
Cocking my head, I watched her choke and dry heave there on the ground for a few seconds. “I can’t believe I wanted to be just like you.”
Only strangled noises answered me.
“All that time, I tried so hard to live up to the insanely high bar you set. To be you. But here’s the thing… I don’t want to be you. Hell, why did—”
The back of my neck prickled, and I yanked my body sideways on pure instinct.
Pain burned through my side. I sucked in a gasp, losing the grip on my magic, as I whirled around. The clouds above blew clear, and sunlight glinted against a sharp sword.
Leaping backwards, I barely manage to avoid the second strike as the constable who had snuck up behind me swung his blade again. He pressed the advantage. My whole left side felt like it was on fire, and I couldn’t stifle a cry of pain when I twisted sideways to avoid the next lunge.
Steel whooshed as the sword cleaved the air a mere inch from my chest.
Before he could get it back into position, I slammed a hard kick into the side of his knee. Pain flashed in his eyes as his leg buckled and he staggered a step to the side. I slapped my palms together and shot a poison cloud right into his face before he could recover.
Dark blue eyes widened in shock. Then he toppled backwards and hit the ground with a series of thuds.
I glanced down at my side. Blood welled out of a deep cut along the side of my ribs.
But before I could do anything about it, someone else moved at the corner of my eye. Jenny. Pushing to her feet, she moved her arms as if she was going to summon magic again.
Shit. I couldn’t fight her while I was also bleeding out.
With great effort, I slammed my hands together and shot another poison cloud before Jenny could even get fully on her feet.
“Audrey—” she gasped out.
Then she too crumpled to the ground.
My own legs hit the cobblestones a couple of seconds later. Gritting my teeth, I lifted a hand and pressed it against my side while pain burned through my body. Warm blood welled up over my fingers and ran down to form a small red pool on the stones.
Fuck.
After sucking in a bracing breath, I pushed to my feet again. I needed to get to Sam.
Pain ricocheted through my body, and I wobbled slightly. Throwing out an arm, I braced myself on the wall next to me. My hand left a red smear on the pale stones.
Then I looked back at Jenny.
She was only unconscious for now. A part of me wondered if I should just kill her too and be done with it. But in the end, I only turned my back on her and staggered towards the other side of the street.
Blood ran through my fingers, leaving the ground splattered in red behind me.
