A wide grin spread across my mouth as I watched Paige kiss Henry like there was no tomorrow. After two seconds of stunned disbelief, he cupped her cheeks with both hands and answered the kiss with equal passion. Next to me, Sienna let out a short teasing whistle.
Pulling back, Paige flashed Henry a devilish smile and winked. “In case my subtle flirting wasn’t clear enough.”
Henry looked like he was still trying to piece his brain back together, so he just stood there staring down at her with his mouth slightly open.
On his other side, Callan snorted. “Subtle?”
She shot him a mock glare, but before she could retort, Malcolm spoke up.
“I hate to break up this touching display of emotions,” he said in a voice that told us he wasn’t sorry at all. “But we do have a war to win.”
“I agree,” Levi muttered.
After Sam had finished healing the other two dark mages who had survived being hit by some of the falling stones, we all moved over to the door at the far end of the room. I wasn’t sure what metal it was made of, but it had a golden color and intricate designs were carved into it.
For a couple of seconds, we all just watched it.
“It will no doubt be locked,” Grant said eventually.
Callan nodded. “Agreed.”
“If we test the handle, we will as good as announce that we’re attacking right now.”
“I could melt it,” Sienna offered.
“By all hell.” Levi shot us a look of disbelief. “You people know that I’m a metal mage, correct?” Before we could retort, he jerked his chin. “Get ready. The moment I drop the door, they will attack.”
“I say we let them tire themselves out a bit before we go inside,” Malcolm said.
“I agree,” I answered.
When the others also nodded, we split into two groups so that we were standing on either side of the door. Callan raised a force wall up to our chests while Malcolm did the same with his shadows on the other side. After checking to see that we were ready, Levi touched his hands together.
The door rippled as if it had turned liquid. In the span of a few seconds, the previously solid slab of metal turned into a puddle of gold on the floor.
Magic shot through the doorway.
Callan and Malcolm raised their shields to cover our whole bodies while lightning and fire and wind and water barreled out of the now open doorway. Inside, someone was yelling orders. I adjusted the bracers on my forearms and my metal corset while we waited for the idiots in the Inner Chamber to realize that they couldn’t actually hit us with their attacks.
Thick clouds must have returned to fill the sky outside, because the light now falling in through the shattered windows had a pale gray hue to it. I swept a glance around the room, noting the mass of broken stone and shards of glass and dead bodies and nonexistent ceiling, and idly wondered which poor bastard would be charged with cleaning this mess up.
Eventually, the torrent of magic shooting through the doorway faded. Ringing silence took its place.
“Well then,” I said. “Shall we?”
Levi snapped his fingers as he looked at some of his dark mages. “You. Keep us shielded. Anyone who lets an attack get through will answer to me when we’re back in Malgrave.”
Fear flickered in their eyes. Dipping their chins, they answered, “Yes, sir.”
A layered shield of wind, water, shadows, and something I couldn’t identify, rose up in front of the door. Immediately, the attacks began again. Lightning zapped against the other side, but nothing made it through so we all formed up in front of the door and started forwards.
The shield expanded to the sides as we all strode across the threshold and into the Inner Chamber.
Attacks pelted us while we walked through and positioned ourselves side by side with Levi’s people behind us, and the barrage of magic continued for a solid minute after we were in place as well. The shield wobbled and rippled, but nothing made it through.
“Enough,” a very familiar voice suddenly rang out.
The attacks stopped.
“Lower it,” Levi ordered his people. “But be ready to raise it at a moment’s notice. The consequence of failure still stands.”
The layered wall before us slowly drew back down to the ground. I raised my eyebrows as the room came fully into view.
The Inner Chamber was shaped like a circle. Both the floor and the walls were made of pristine white marble with gold veins running through them. But there were no windows, so all illumination came from the massive gold chandelier that hung in the middle of the ceiling, as well as the gleaming candleholders mounted on the walls.
From my previous visit to this place when I was still a student at the academy, I knew that there were usually thirty-five tables and chairs arranged in a circle around the room. Now, all of that furniture had been placed like a barrier between the door we had come through and the rest of the space inside. Behind that frankly rather ridiculous barrier were the real threats.
Rolling my eyes, I muttered, “Seriously?”
All of the students we had fought in the Silver Hall stood positioned in two rows, with Leoni, Jessica, and Darren front and center. Behind them were five rows of constables. After that, the thirty-five members of Eldar’s parliament flanked two men. Chancellor Godric Quill and Lance Carmichael. I glanced down at the Binder’s hands to find him holding the Blade of Equilibrium.
Sweeping my gaze over the small army before us, I tried to calculate our odds. Even with the support of Levi and the sixteen dark mages who were currently with him, this was going to be an incredibly bloody battle. A little over forty students with dark mage level powers, one hundred constables trained for combat, thirty-five members of parliament who could use the Great Current as well, and one Binder. Forcing our way through was going to cost us dearly.
“You can’t win this,” Chancellor Quill called, as if he had read the calculations in my head. Lifting a hand, he motioned towards Lance. “And you will not be able to get the blade, because if you ever get close enough to take it from Lance’s hands, he will be able to seal your magic.”
Clever. Though I refused to tell him that.
“Have you forgotten that we don’t need to get very close in order to kill people?” I replied instead.
“Yes, you do. Because there’s no way your magic can reach us with all of these people in the way.”
A vicious smile curled my lips. “Look at you. Hiding behind students.”
Some of the other parliament members flicked quick glances at their Chancellor, as if this was something that they had argued about earlier.
“They’re twenty years old,” Quill said. His blue eyes were sharp as they locked on me from across the packed room. “They’re one month away from graduation. They are not students anymore. They’re full citizens of Eldar, and they’re here of their own free will.”
“When the fighting starts, they will be the first to die.”
“They—”
“Are you truly willing to let them die for your stubbornness?”
Fury flashed across his face and candlelight shifted over his gray hair as he slashed a hand through the air. “They’re willing to die for an ideal. For the belief that we are all equal. That we all deserve to have magic.”
“And to achieve that you steal it from people against their will.” I raised my eyebrows at him. “Yes, that sounds very fair and equal indeed.”
“It’s not stealing. It’s distributing something fairly.”
“Just like I’m sure you distribute all the money you make fairly too.”
“That’s not the same thing!” Leoni suddenly snapped from the front of their army. Her curly brown hair bounced around her face as she shook her head at us. “By the Current, are all of you dark mages really this dense? How can you not see that you are on the wrong side of history?”
Callan cocked his head while his gaze slid to her. “Careful with those insults.”
“Of course.” She shot us a vicious look. “We’re back to threats again.”
“Regardless of what you think about the redistribution of magic,” Chancellor Quill cut in before any of us could reply. “It doesn’t change the fact that this is a battle you cannot win. Even if you somehow managed to kill everyone in this room and take the blade for yourselves, you won’t win. If you kill us, we will become martyrs, and the whole city will rise up against you. You will never know a moment of peace for the rest of your wicked lives.”
“We know,” I said.
Surprise rippled through the students and constables and parliament members as they all blinked at us in shock.
As much as Callan and I and the other dark mages of Eldar wanted to slaughter Quill’s whole parliament, we still needed to be able to control the city even after Levi and his people had left. And six of us against a city in uproar would never work in our favor. The disgruntled former mages might be on our side, but it didn’t change the fact that the majority of the city had been taught to fear and hate us selfish dark mages. So we needed the parliament… as a puppet, so that we could rule from the shadows.
I swept my gaze over the stunned faces staring back at me before I added the final sentence.
“Which is why we have come to once again offer you a deal.”
