by Candy Crum
"I'm proud of you. Don't end up dead, otherwise, that deal I brokered to get you into the Arcadian Academy will have been wasted," the Governor told him, allowing his smile to grow for a moment.
His son reached behind him and pulled out a magitech rifle that had been leaning against the wall, which he handed to his father. "You're going to need this. The gates are closed, but they're coming. They'll be here soon. I'm going up to the wall. Turns out I'm one of the best shots in the city, but you'll just have to see that for yourself."
The governor forced a smile. "I have no doubt about it, son. Please, just make sure you come back to me. We need to save our city, but I don’t want to lose you in the process."
The sounds of magitech rifles being fired and remnant growling and screaming from the other side of the wall echoed down the main street, reaching them even a quarter mile away.
Nathaniel looked toward the wall before turning back to his father. "It's begun. I have to go now. Get as many magic users as you can to the wall, and have them form as many fireballs as possible. We need to kill all we can before they burst through the gate."
The governor nodded as his son ran toward the wall. He looked down at his magitech rifle momentarily before scanning the frightened city around him. His son was a brave man; he'd somehow raised him that way. Taking another deep breath, he convinced himself that he could be just as heroic as he ran back to the houses to enlist magic users to help save the city.
***
Amelia sat in her office, hands shaking as she held the letter from governor of Cella in her hand. The city had been completely overrun by a horde of remnant. The body count was uncertain as he’d written the letter, but it had been enough to tear the city apart.
He warned her to take precautions in case the worst should happen. His army had been small in comparison to Arcadia’s, but his had been well trained. They’d managed to kill them and keep their city standing, but only barely.
Tears ran down her face as she read the governor's account of what had happened.
There had been much blood and carnage, but the city had prevailed in the end. They had managed to kill most of the remnant, while the last of them fled for their lives.
It was everything Arryn and Samuel had worried about. Everything they'd all worried about.
Amelia had lost her own family to the remnant, so she knew just how dangerous and terrifying they could be. Just reading the letter brought back those memories.
She could hear their screams and cries, and she could remember how terrified she was while she hid, praying they wouldn't find her. Putting the letter face-down on her desk, Amelia wiped her tears away and pushed herself back in her chair, looking anywhere but at the parchment.
So much death. So much loss, and she needed to stop it. At this point, she was ready to give up looking like a hero—as long as her people were safe.
Sure, they wouldn't understand it when she began arresting seemingly innocent people, but they would come to understand she done it for a reason. All she had to do was gather proof, but she was beginning to feel like she had no other choice but to arrest now and ask questions later.
Students were dying, and the remnant were attacking. Something about the way it was all happening and the timeframe made Amelia suspicious. It all seemed a bit too coordinated and convenient for her liking.
Sitting in her chair, thinking about the young people whose parents she had to give terrible news to and answering their questions when she had no answers made her feel numb. She felt as though her mind could no longer carry the burden of walking the fine line.
She thought of Hannah then, wondering what the girl might do. Hannah was an act-first-and-ask-questions-later kind of girl, though she had certainly learned a lot of patience from hanging around with the Founder.
If Hannah had been Chancellor, Amelia couldn't help but think that she would've kicked Talia's ass by now. Who cared if she had proof? Like Arryn, Hannah would have ignored what was right and wrong; she would've stopped at nothing to save the lives of everyone in the city.
And that's what Amelia planned to do.
Amelia needed to talk to Arryn right away. She would need to get Talia into her office so she could be arrested quietly and taken to jail without the city knowing.
She’d taken enough vacations that it would be easy enough to say she'd left for a few days, and then Amelia could use that time to gather the proof she needed.
She was worried about what she would do if Talia turned out to be innocent, but deep down, she knew something was very wrong, especially now that the city was becoming more and more convinced of Arryn's guilt. There was only one way that could've taken root as hard and as fast as it did—mental magic.
Amelia stood, ready to tell Marie that she needed to see Arryn immediately, but she heard shouting outside as Talia burst through the door.
"The Chancellor is busy, and you need to allow me to introduce you properly," Marie scolded. Amelia was quite impressed with her secretary’s fierce expression and forceful voice—the woman meant business. "I sit at this desk for a reason, you know. Amelia, do you want me to get rid of her?"
Talia turned and looked at the woman, clearly offended. "Get rid of me? I'd like to see you try, mouse. Trust me, I'm not someone you want to fuck with." Talia’s voice was low enough that she believed Talia was trying to hide her words from anyone other than Marie, but Amelia heard them loud and clear. Talia turned to Amelia. "Not when there's an emergency. Chancellor, I think your life is in danger. I came as quick as I could."
Amelia couldn't help but think how convenient it was for Talia to show up when she had just decided to arrest her. Unfortunately, she didn't have guards ready to take her, and taking her on alone would be loud and messy. It would alert the city to something happening, and Amelia wanted to keep it as quiet as possible.
"What are you talking about?" Amelia asked.
Talia took a few steps forward. "It's Arryn. I’ve had several people come to me and say that Arryn was talking about confronting you. She said she's not going to spend her life rotting in a cell when she needs to find her father, and she'll take care of you if she has to."
Amelia had heard enough. This was beyond desperate.
She was about to respond when an explosion went off on the far side of the building. Talia and Amelia both fell to the floor from the vibrations, Amelia hitting her head on the corner of her desk as she went down.
Her eyes fluttered a few times as she tried to focus, but everything quickly turned black as her consciousness faded.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Arryn was on her way to see Amelia to find out exactly what was happening with the potential murder charges when she was stopped in her tracks by a loud explosion.
A few seconds passed before another sounded out.
Vibrations shook the ground even where she stood several blocks away. Suddenly, Arryn was filled with fear as she realized that the explosion had come from the direction of the Capitol building.
Wasting no more time, Arryn ran as fast as she possibly could, sprinting toward Amelia. As she rounded the corner of the last building on the last block, nothing standing between her and the Capitol building that was engulfed in flames on the west side, Arryn spotted three people on the left, fireballs forming in their hands.
Rage overtook her as she saw them pull back, ready to fire again. They were planning to take the whole building down, not just part of it.
Arryn knew just by looking at the condition of the west side that several people must have died in the initial explosion, but she refused to allow anyone else to succumb to their evil, especially Amelia and Marie.
"Hey, guys!" Arryn screamed, catching the attention of the three people terrorizing Arryn’s city. "Damn! You’re redecorating and you didn't even invite me? I love the color green. We should discuss curtains."
The trio moved closer toward her, stepping out of the shadows in the process. She immediately recognize their faces. Two of the
m were teachers that she worked with—Victoria and David—one of them being her own physical magic teacher, and the other was a student named Hugh.
She hadn’t seen much out of Hugh at all, and only knew him by other students talking about him. Unfortunately, it seemed like he knew her more than plenty.
Arryn swallowed hard, realizing that she would more than likely have to kill them. She definitely didn't want to, but she would have to in order to protect the people inside.
Voices began to fill the area, and Arryn became painfully aware that she had an audience now—even more people she would have to protect.
Victoria stepped forward. "We won't let you get any closer! You've done enough damage to the city!"
Confusion crossed Arryn's face, unclear what the hell she was talking about.
From the whispers behind her, Arryn understood that people thought she was the one who had blown up the building. She was about to ask what had made them think that when Victoria spoke again.
"The Chancellor has betrayed her city! Her friendship with you and every moment she protects you is another betrayal."
Arryn took a step forward, fists clenching at her sides. She was done with this. She didn't feel comfortable attacking the rebels in front of so many other people, especially with the allegations that were going around, but it had to end.
She needed to get inside to see if she could help. She couldn’t waste any more time.
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but there are people hurt inside. I need to help them." Arryn took another step forward, but was halted by a fireball exploding close to her feet.
Her physical magic teacher, David, had thrown it, and now took a step forward. "If you take one more step, I promise you I won’t miss again. You're not going near anyone in there. You've hurt enough people already. Why did you do this? How many have to die before the Chancellor finally sees what the rest of us do?"
Arryn could hear screams inside the building, screams from people who were burning, people who were dying.
Refusing to back down, Arryn took another step forward, her magic licking her palms. All three magicians had created fireballs, so Arryn immediately threw a shield up behind her to protect the growing crowd as she seized her opportunity.
"Everyone stay back! I had nothing to do with this, but I sure as hell plan to fix it," Arryn told them.
She jumped forward, landing on her hands and tumbling over once before planting her feet, narrowly missing the fireballs that were thrown at her. She swung her hand as though she were smacking someone in the face, and large chunks of stone broke from the street and hit the three in front of her.
Arryn only barely sensed the magic approaching in time to flex her entire body, a magical shield jumping into existence around her as a fireball hit her from behind.
Arryn turned and saw several citizens wielding magic, planning to use it against her.
But that wasn't the only thing that she saw.
There in the crowd was Scarlett, controlling what everyone saw. There was no hiding her bright white eyes, though no one else seemed to notice.
It made sense now why her colleagues and fellow students had decided to make such random accusations—it was because Scarlett was inserting those words and convincing the crowd of their truth.
Arryn was a cold-blooded killer.
Arryn had blown up the Capitol building.
Arryn was in a fight with three innocent bystanders, and was threatening to kill them.
As she realized what she was up against, Arryn began to fear the outcome more than ever. If she let them go, they would do far worse, but if she killed them, there would be no going back. They would see her as a murderer, and it would take quite a lot to convince them otherwise.
Arryn heard a deep laugh, and she turned to see David. "You should have left Talia alone," he declared, his voice only loud enough for Arryn to hear. "You should have left the city alone. It's ours, and we will restore it to the way that it should be."
More screams erupted from the building, and Arryn realized she could wait no longer. It didn't matter what people thought of her, only that they were safe.
Arryn turned to David and smiled. "Then I guess this is really gonna suck for you guys. Turns out, I was raised by the druids not to give a shit what other people think, but to always protect them from shitheads like you. Bye, now!"
Arryn's eyes turned jet-black as she arced her hands over her chest, pulling them away to reveal two bright blue fireballs. She threw the first to the ground at the rebels’ feet, the tiny explosion throwing them back on their asses.
Arryn could hear the roar of the crowd behind her as they prepared to approach. Extinguishing the other fireball, she turned and allowed her fear for the lives surrounding her to guide her hand.
She thrust her hands out and wind exploded around her, tumbling all the men and women back, though not harming anyone.
She turned back to her fight to see Hugh running, and she quickly threw her hand out, a thin, weak vine breaking free of the ground and wrapping itself around his feet to slam him to the ground.
David threw another fireball and Arryn thrust her hand out, pitching it directly back to strike him in the chest. He screamed as he hit the ground, rolling and struggling to put the fire out.
Victoria ran to Arryn to engage her in hand-to-hand combat, and at that moment, Arryn was struck in the back of the head by another citizen who was innocent, but still in the way.
She was worried that he would get hurt if he continued, so she did the only thing she could.
Arryn kicked him inside of the leg, buckling his knee and bringing him down before punching him hard in the temple. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and Arryn turned back just in time to block a strike from the other teacher.
Victoria wrapped her hand in Arryn's hair and yanked her head back, lifting a knife in her other hand to bring it down on Arryn's throat. Her eyes widened as she saw the steel glinting in the sunlight.
She grabbed the hand in her hair and spun, twisting Victoria’s arm before dropping to the ground and throwing the woman over her back. The teacher landed hard on her side, air exploding from her lungs.
Arryn dove for the knife, but the other woman recovered more quickly than she had anticipated. There was a brief struggle before Victoria grasped the dagger and swung, slicing Arryn's face as she did.
Without hesitation, Arryn kicked her hard in the stomach, the woman falling flat on her back as she once again struggled to breathe. Climbing on top of her, Arryn punched her hard in the face, disorienting her before grabbing knife and driving it through the woman's heart.
David shouted as he charged. Arryn quickly pulled the knife from the dead teacher’s chest and lightly tossed it in the air to catch it by the tip of the blade before turning and throwing it as hard as she could, hitting him in the chest.
Arryn stood, stumbling a bit as she struggled to catch her breath. Her head swam from the adrenalin and the hard hit she had received. She glanced around at the looks on the faces of the crowd. They were terrified.
Since she'd managed to subdue all of them with a gust of wind, they were too frightened to approach. Only one man had summoned his courage to do so, and she'd laid him out in two hits.
She saw herself through their eyes, and her heart broke. She had just murdered two people in cold blood as far as they were concerned, but she couldn't let that stop her. There was no more time to be wasted when there were lives at stake inside.
As she turned to head into the building, she saw something that she hadn't expected.
Talia walked out of the building with Amelia's arm wrapped around her shoulders and several other people behind her. They were all filthy, covered in ash and coughing terribly with every step.
She gently lowered Amelia to the ground before turning toward the building with her hands outstretched. Within seconds, several people came to stand next to her as they manipulated and controlled the fire.
I
n only a couple of minutes, the flames were completely gone, and all that was left of the west side of the building was charred and crumbled wood and stone.
Once the fire was out, Talia looked around, her jaw dropping as her hands rose to cover her mouth. Arryn was caught between wanting to rip her head off and laughing.
It was certainly one hell of a performance, and the crowd was eating it up.
Had Arryn been smart, she would have fought the crowd to get to Scarlett. Because of her, Talia had everything she wanted in that moment.
"What happened?" Talia asked as she looked at the two bodies on the ground. Hugh was shackled by vines, but alive.
Shouts and accusations began to fly from the crowd; men, women and children screaming Arryn's name. "She did this! The outsider!" one man cried.
"It's her! She blew up the building. She tried to kill the Chancellor! I bet she killed Amos, Dallas, and James, too!" a woman shouted.
Talia's expression was a truly convincing cross between horror and shock. "Arryn?" Her voice was barely a whisper, but Arryn could hear it just fine. "This can't be true. You? You did this? Why? Amelia was your friend. I was your friend."
Arryn looked at Amelia, who was struggling to stand. There was blood pouring down her face and arms.
Arryn, I know it wasn't you, but I can hear their thoughts. Scarlett's in their heads, Amelia sent telepathically.
Fighting the urge to nod, Arryn responded, I knew the outcome the moment I realized the crowd was building. They set me up. They set you up. This is Talia's challenge to you. You have to remain in power.
I can't do this alone. I need you. We need to take her down together, Amelia told her.
If you don't arrest me right now, Scarlett will turn the crowd on you. Talia will have full control, and there will be a coup. You and I will both end up in jail, and Talia will have the entire Guard at her command. Do it. Do it now.
Arryn saw Amelia's eyes close briefly, and she knew right then that Amelia was as much of part of her family as Celine, Cathillian, Elysia, and even Samuel.
