“Take half of our people and form a barrier along these streets.” Levi’s commanding voice cut through the air like a blade. “We need to cut off their reinforcements before they can box us in.”
Skidding to a halt, I whipped my head from side to side while the dark mage Levi had spoken to took off down the street. Sam and Paige had remained in this spot, just like we had instructed. And so far, Henry, Levi, Malcolm, and Grant had arrived as well. My heart constricted painfully when I couldn’t find any trace of Audrey. But Sienna wasn’t back yet either, so that didn’t necessarily mean that something was wrong. I hoped.
“What the hell happened?” I snapped as I swept my gaze over them. “How did they know that we were coming?”
“That was my next question,” Levi growled, his gray eyes flashing with anger and violence. “I have never seen a dark mage attack fail this badly. Are you people amateurs or what?”
Fury flickered in Malcolm’s eyes. “Careful.”
“Or what?”
“Enough,” Grant interrupted. “What matters is what our next move is. We all saw the signal. Reinforcements are coming from the academy. So how do we get up the hill before they arrive?”
“My people should be able to hold them off for a while,” Levi said.
“And Audrey sent up that flare earlier too,” Sam added. His worried gray eyes shifted from face to face. “Which means that all those angry people you recruited should be coming here to help too, right?”
Malcolm nodded. “Yes.”
I just flicked another glance around the empty streets. Our rendezvous spot was tucked in between a small cluster of wooden buildings. It was far enough away from the hill to avoid attack, but because the ground that these streets were on rose up a bit, it still provided a partial view of what was going on.
“Where is Audrey?” I asked while terror carved its way through my ribcage.
“And Sienna?” Grant added.
“I spotted Sienna’s dark red flames a short distance that way.” Paige pointed towards the left side of the hill. “About three minutes ago.” Worry swirled in her eyes as she slid her gaze to me. “No sight of Audrey’s magic after that flare.”
“We need to…” I trailed off as a figure staggered around the corner.
Ice spread through my veins.
Audrey was leaning heavily against the wall with her right hand, while her left was pressed against the side of her ribs. Her hand and the clothes on that side were covered in blood. Black strands had escaped her ponytail and they lay plastered to her face, which was sweaty and far too pale.
“Sam,” I snapped while I took off in a sprint.
At the sound of my voice, Audrey lifted her head. Her normally so glittering green eyes were dull and glassy with pain, and for a moment, she just stared at me. Then her knees buckled.
I reached her right before she could hit the street. Scooping her up into my arms, I spun around and ran back towards Sam.
Audrey let out a pained groan and curled her fingers against my leather armor.
My heart almost shattered at the sound. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She was supposed to be fine. I—
“Put her down on the ground,” Sam’s voice interrupted.
Yanked out of my despair, I realized that I had reached the others again. With careful movements, I crouched down and placed Audrey gently on the warm stones. She let out another small groan of pain between gritted teeth.
“You can fix this, right?” I asked, glancing up at Sam who knelt on her other side. “She’ll be alright?”
“Yes. Now, stop distracting me and let me work.”
Shimmering turquoise blue magic appeared between his hands before he shifted them so that they hovered over Audrey’s side. He kept his eyes locked on the wound while a look of concentration descended on his features.
I just sat there, completely useless, and stared down at her pale face while I tried desperately to stop my heart from fracturing. Audrey. My Audrey. Reaching out, I placed my hand gently on hers. Her fingers curled around mine and gave it a small squeeze.
“You’re not allowed to die, you know?” Paige said as she lowered herself to her knees next to Audrey’s head. She lifted a hand and brushed the loose strands of hair from Audrey’s face. “You left me for six years. You’re not allowed to leave again.”
Audrey laughed, which immediately made her wince in pain. After gasping in a breath, she managed to press out, “Guilt-tripping a dying girl, huh?”
“Oh you know me, nothing is beneath me.”
Another strained laugh bubbled from her chest.
Sam shot her a sharp look. “Please stop moving so much.”
She gave him a sheepish grin. “Sorry.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Her eyes found mine again. “I got distracted.”
Before she could elaborate further, another figure appeared from the opposite side of the street. Red hair whipped in the air as Sienna sprinted the final bit to us. Slamming to a halt, she whipped her head, flicking her long hair back behind her shoulder again.
Rage burned in her eyes. “This is why I hate people. I did them a favor, and this is how they repay me?”
A cold weight sank into my stomach.
But it was Malcolm who spoke up, his voice deceptively smooth. “What favor?”
“I told the people who live in the buildings closest to the hill to take their pets and leave before the fighting started.”
She spoke the words as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Everyone else fell silent. Deadly silent. Ice sluiced through my veins. If I didn’t do something to deescalate the situation, heads were going to roll within the next minute. As if she could sense it too, Audrey pushed against my hand in a silent command to get up and stop our allies from slaughtering each other.
After glancing down to make sure that Sam’s magic was truly working, I gave her hand one more squeeze and then slowly pushed to my feet.
“Excuse me?” Malcolm said into the deafening silence. “I must have misheard you. Can you repeat that?”
Sienna frowned as if he was being an idiot. “I went to their houses earlier this morning and warned them to take their pets and leave.”
Before the final word had even left her lips, Levi grabbed her by the collar and slammed her up against the wall. Fear spiked up my spine when he growled, “You did what?”
I knew that voice. It meant that Sienna had exactly five seconds to explain herself before he cut her head off.
Dark red flames spread along Sienna’s arms until it looked like she was wearing armor made of fire. Locking eyes with Levi, she said in a perfectly flat voice that was terrifyingly devoid of all emotion, “Take your hands off me, metal man. Or they will be washing what’s left of your melted body from the streets tomorrow.”
Alarm bells were blaring inside my skull. This was spinning out of control. If we didn’t separate them now, they would kill each other. I took a step forward, but someone else beat me to it.
Henry placed one hand on Levi’s shoulder and the other one on Sienna’s. With calm movements, he used his massive frame to push the two of them apart. Both of them let out a low warning noise, but Henry only looked from face to face.
“We have more pressing problems right now,” he said. “Remember?”
“There,” Sam said from behind me. “All done.”
I looked down to find him releasing his magic and rising to his feet. Audrey, who looked like herself again, drew in a deep breath and then let Paige help her to her feet.
“You have no idea what you’ve done,” Malcolm said, his dark eyes still locked on Sienna. “This whole attack failed because of you. Because you warned people before our surprise attack!”
Levi had released her and taken a step back, but it looked like he was using all of his self-control to stop himself from murdering Sienna. Henry positioned himself slightly between the two of them, as if to prevent any lapses in judgement on their part.
“My fault?” Sienna snapped. “You think this is my fault?”
“Yes.”
“This is not on me.” Rage flared up in her eyes again, and she stabbed a hand towards me and Audrey. “You screwed up this mission long before I even got here.”
I frowned at her while Audrey moved over to stand next to me. “What are you talking about?”
“The hostage exchange. You could’ve just killed those students when they ran out to attack you instead of sacrificing the whole bloody mission.”
“So you would’ve killed thirteen-year-olds?”
“Yes!” She threw her arms out. “I don’t care if the people who attack me are thirteen or eighty-three. If they willingly and knowingly attack me, they die. But hurting animals… That’s where I draw the line.” She flicked a hand towards the buildings around the hill. “I couldn’t risk innocent animals getting burned alive in my flames during the fight. That’s why I told the people who lived there to get their pets and go. We all draw the line somewhere, and that’s where I draw mine.”
“Fucking hell, Sienna.” Tilting my head back, I forced out a long breath and raked my fingers through my hair.
Before she could say anything else, Grant spoke up. “We’re getting off topic. Those reinforcements are coming, and we need a plan.”
“How do we even know if the Blade of Equilibrium is still in the parliament building?” Paige looked from face to face. “Quill could’ve moved it the moment those people warned him about the coming attack.”
Cold dread twisted in my stomach. She was right. There was no way to know whether the blade was still in there. Not now. And we were about to be trapped between two armies. If we charged up the hill only for the blade to not even be there… Fuck.
“It’s still in there.”
We all turned towards Audrey and blinked in surprise.
“That distraction I mentioned?” She shrugged. “It was my sister. And she accidentally let slip that Quill moved the blade to the parliament building in order to keep the fighting away from the academy and protect the students.”
Malcolm narrowed his eyes. “She could have been lying. It could be bait.”
“It could have been. But she’s a shitty liar, so I know it’s not.”
“Are you certain enough to stake all of our lives on it?”
“Yes,” she replied without hesitation.
For a few seconds, no one said anything. Then we all nodded.
“Alright,” I began. “Then we need—”
“Stop.” Levi, who looked a bit less like he was going to slaughter us all, swept his gaze between all of us. “One thing at a time. Before we even begin planning how to get back up that hill, we need to handle the situation down here. My people will be able to hold those constables off for a bit, especially if those other people you recruited show up and help too. But we need something more. We can’t fight our way up the hill if we have to worry about being shot in the back.”
It was at times like these that I realized why I respected Levi as much as I did. He might be violent and arrogant and an utter bastard, but there was a reason why he had come to rule half of Malgrave. He was extremely good at what he did.
“I don’t know this city like you do,” Levi continued. “So if you have any suggestions, speak up now.”
A light flared up behind Grant’s blue eyes, and he turned to Sienna. “Do the constables who are coming in from the academy know that all of the houses around the hill are empty?”
We all shifted our attention to the fire mage.
She scrunched up her brows. “I don’t think so.”
“Good. Then we have an opportunity.”
“What kind of opportunity?” Malcolm asked.
“Sienna,” Grant began.
The fire mage frowned at him. “What?”
“Torch it.”
“Torch what?”
A malicious smile spread across Grant’s mouth. It was an expression I had rarely seen from the emotion mage. He usually kept his feelings well hidden, but now I could practically read the sneaky wickedness that hid behind his casual appearance.
“All of it.”
