“We don’t make deals with dark mages,” Chancellor Quill snapped.
A sharp smile spread across Audrey’s mouth. “No, you just send students, children, into a dark mage battle instead.”
“You forced our hand. You had taken our loved ones hostage.”
“What kind of deal?” another parliament member cut in. She had light brown hair, and pale green eyes that were currently brimming with both worry and hope.
“A deal that lets all of you walk out of this chamber alive.” I locked eyes with her for a few seconds before sweeping my gaze over the rest of them too. “A deal that lets you all go home to your parents and your children.”
Candlelight from the golden chandelier above their heads glittered in their eyes as many of the students and about half of the parliament members glanced around hesitantly.
“Don’t listen to them!” Leoni’s sharp voice echoed between the white marble walls. “I have seen firsthand how cruel they can be, so trust me when I tell you that these people cannot be trusted.”
“Leoni,” Lance said, speaking for the first time since we walked into the room. His voice was surprisingly gentle, and his blue eyes were soft as he looked towards her. “Hasn’t there been enough killing? Enough death? If we can save our classmates from dying right here today, shouldn’t we at least hear them out?”
“No!” She looked both furious and stunned as she twisted her head to stare at her friend. “What’s gotten into you? You know that we can’t trust anything these people say.”
“I also think we should hear them out,” another parliament member said.
A third one nodded. “I agree.”
“We do not make deals with dark mages,” Quill growled.
“Maybe we should.”
“No, the Chancellor is right. We can’t sell out our city’s future just to save our lives.”
“What city? Didn’t you see outside the windows earlier? Everything is burning. There won’t be a city left if we don’t do something.”
“You’re just afraid.”
“I’m not. I’m thinking of the future.”
I scanned the students before us again while the parliament members kept arguing amongst themselves. Worry blew across a few sections, but they all remained standing resolutely on the gold-inlaid floor. Whatever decision Chancellor Quill and his parliament reached, they would abide by it.
“What are our odds for fighting our way through?” Grant murmured, softly enough so that only we would hear.
“Would we win in the end? Yes.” I flicked a glance up and down our line. “Would all of us survive it? No.”
“I figured as much.”
“I will not die here,” Sienna growled under her breath.
“Neither will I,” Malcolm added.
“Then let’s make sure to convince them,” Audrey said.
The parliament members were still arguing, but it sounded like more and more of them were reaching the conclusion that a deal might be the best solution. Red splotches had appeared on Quill’s cheeks as he angrily snapped back at them for even suggesting such a thing. Throughout it all, Lance Carmichael only stood there in the center, clutching the blade in his hands and staring at us with unreadable blue eyes.
“Last time we tried to make you a deal,” Audrey called over the noise, “Quill sent children, your children, to attack us. We left, giving up our leverage, instead of killing them. So maybe we’re not the ones you really need to worry about. If—”
“No!”
Everything happened so quickly that I had barely managed to touch my hands together before it was all over.
Leoni, her brown eyes flashing with rage, had whipped up a hand and shot a lightning bolt straight towards Audrey. But before our shields could even rise, someone else blocked it. The same person who had also screamed the word no.
I stared in utter disbelief as Jessica’s body jerked back when the lightning bolt slammed into her left side instead after she had jumped out in front of it. Her blue eyes rolled back in her head and she crashed down on the ground while her slim body shook violently.
“NO!” Lance screamed from the other side of the room.
It tore out of him with such desperation that the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Chancellor Quill had hooked his arms around Lance’s shoulders from behind, forcibly stopping him from running straight to her. Leoni was just staring at her friend with her mouth open and shock pulsing across her face.
“Bring her here,” Audrey ordered in a voice that sliced through the stunned silence. “Sam.”
“N-no,” Leoni began, snapping out of her shock. “It’s a trick.”
“She will be dead in less than thirty seconds if you don’t bring her here,” Sam said in a calm voice.
Without hesitation, Darren dropped to his knees and scooped up Jessica’s shaking body. He sprinted across the pale floor and immediately set her down in front of Sam’s feet.
Brushing my palms together, I shifted my position and then placed a force blade to the side of Darren’s neck. I didn’t want any of them this close to our healer without some insurance. The wind mage, though, didn’t even seem to notice. His brown eyes were locked on Sam’s hands as the healer poured shimmering turquoise magic into Jessica’s trembling body.
“See!” Leoni called from the other side. “It was a trap! A trick!”
But her voice sounded frayed and hollow. Behind the ranks of constables, Lance had stopped fighting against Quill’s arms. Instead, he just hung there, staring at his girlfriend.
Jessica’s body had stopped shaking, and her blue eyes shifted back so that they were staring up into the pale ceiling. For another minute, Sam kept pouring magic into her.
Then she sucked in a deep breath.
Letting his magic fade out, Sam rose to his feet again and took a step back.
No one said anything. In fact, I wasn’t sure if their half of the room was even breathing anymore.
“Jessica,” Lance called, shattering the silence like a broken mirror.
She drew in another deep breath and then sat up. Uncertainty washed over her features as she looked between all of us.
“Stand up,” I said, both to her and to Darren. “Keep your arms spread.”
Both of them rose slowly from the ground while holding their arms out at their sides.
Across the floor, Leoni stared at us and her friends with a mix of dread and panic and regret on her features.
No one moved.
I jerked my chin. “You can go back to your friends.”
They blinked at us in disbelief. When we only looked back at them in silence, they exchanged a quick glance and then began slowly retreating towards their side of the room.
Keeping them as hostages would only have turned them all against us. At least now, we had a better chance of getting what we wanted without having to risk our own lives in the process.
“Why did you do that?” Leoni blurted out when Jessica and Darren reached her. “Why did you protect her? A dark mage? You could’ve died!”
“Because if that cheap shot you took at her had gone through,” Jessica said, her voice surprisingly steady, “they would have slaughtered us all.”
Quill at last released Lance and moved to stand next to him again. Drawing a hand through his gray hair, he smoothened it down. Lance only kept staring at Jessica as if making sure that she was truly still breathing.
“What’s the deal?” a voice interrupted before Leoni could reply. It was that parliament member with light brown hair and green eyes from before. “What do you want?”
“The deal is the same one we gave you last time,” I called back while letting my force blade fade out.
“We’re giving you what you never gave us,” Audrey filled in. “A choice. If you had just let mages choose if they wanted to give up their magic or not, none of this would have happened. But your Chancellor refused to negotiate, and now your city is burning and your people are dying.”
On my left, Malcolm raised his chin. “We want the Blade of Equilibrium and we want you to abolish the laws forcing mages to share their magic against their will. Do that, and we will stop the killing and the destruction.”
“We do not negotiate with dark mages,” Quill repeated.
But the green-eyed parliament member ignored him. “How do we know you won’t just kill us all anyway once you have what you want?”
“Because you are the ones who started this war.” Malcolm locked hard eyes on her. “You came into the hills and destroyed our homes and killed our people. All we have ever wanted was for you to leave us alone.”
Well, to be fair, we were going to destroy the blade so that no one could use it even if they wanted to, we were going to kill Quill, and then we were going to use the parliament as a front while we ruled Eldar from the shadows. But they didn’t need to know that.
“You love democracy, don’t you?” Audrey called before she could reply. “So, put it to a vote. Anyone who votes to take our offer will be allowed to leave completely unharmed.”
“This is not how we do things,” Quill snapped, his furious eyes sweeping across his parliament.
But the woman only looked at the rest of her companions and said, “All in favor?”
For a few seconds, no one moved. Golden light from the multitude of candles flickered over their faces as they looked at one another. The rows of constables shifted uncomfortably on their feet, but none of them turned to look. The students, however, didn’t have the same discipline. Several sections cast hesitant glances over their shoulders.
Then hands began rising.
A satisfied grin tugged at my lips as the vast majority of parliament members raised one hand in favor of the proposal.
“Would you look at that?” The smile on Audrey’s lips was full of wicked smugness as she locked eyes with Quill and raised her eyebrows. “Democracy has spoken.”
“It’s not democracy when the decision is made under duress!” Quill spat back at her. His eyes burned like blue flames as he glared at his parliament. “I recognize that you acted in this way due to fear, but know that I will remember this when the war is over.”
“The war is over,” the green-eyed woman said. “We have already voted.”
“I am the Chancellor, Marjorie. I can veto any decision. And I am vetoing this.”
“You—”
“I know that you are afraid, but we will not bow to dark mages.” Raising his voice, he called across the room. “Get ready for battle. We will fight to the last man.”
The constables immediately straightened their spines and squared their shoulders while calling magic to their fingertips. It sent a ripple of certainty and purpose through the whole chamber. At the front, the students shifted into fight stances as well. The only one who looked uncertain was Jessica, who edged a step back while glancing over her shoulder at Lance. All the other students, Darren and Leoni included, were preparing themselves to go down swinging if need be.
Poison magic swirled in front of Audrey while black shadows flickered like snakes around Malcolm’s wrists. Half of Sienna’s body was already covered in dark red flames, and Grant’s violet mist billowed around his shoulders. On my other side, Henry had summoned wind magic. Even Paige had water twisting in her hands. Levi hadn’t summoned anything yet, but I was sure that was because his attack would be shooting up from underneath the floor.
My heart pounded in my chest.
We would most likely win this battle. But at what cost? I had almost lost Henry back there in the Silver Hall. I couldn’t go through that again. If we started this battle now, some of us would die. There was no way around that.
Fuck! We had been so close. So close to convincing them to just give us what we wanted. And now some of us were going to die because Godric fucking Quill couldn’t see past his own stupidity.
“We will not bow to dark mages!” Quill yelled again.
The constables let out a sound of agreement.
My pulse thrummed in my ears. I glanced up and down our row. Levi’s people weren’t used to fighting with us like this, so we wouldn’t be able to rely on them to shield us in between our own attacks once the battle started. And due to the limited space, we would have to avoid hitting each other’s attacks too. Shit. This was never going to work.
“We will fight for democracy!” Quill bellowed. “We will fight for equality! We will stand our ground and never let the forces of darkness win.”
The constables, and some of the students this time too, let out an even stronger cry of agreement.
My body practically vibrated with pent-up tension. To my left, Levi dipped his chin in an almost imperceptible nod. Whatever sneak attack he had been preparing was finished now. The rest of us exchanged one last look. My heart pounded against my ribs. It was time.
Quill’s eyes blazed with righteousness as he continued, “Someone has to stand up against evil! And today, that burden has fallen on you. Today, you—”
His words were abruptly cut off and his eyes went wide with shock as Lance Carmichael shoved the Blade of Equilibrium through the side of his neck.
