by Candy Crum
Amelia stepped forward, using every bit of the strength she had left after fighting her way through fire to save the people who were behind her. As she raised her hand, the crowd quieted. Their accusations quieted. Their shouts for action quieted.
Amelia took a deep breath and prepared to speak, but she had one last thing to say to Arryn.
I'm sorry, Amelia said to Arryn.
Amelia, make it good, or you haven't even begun to be sorry, Arryn replied.
"Guard!" Amelia shouted.
She began to topple a little, and Talia was quick to catch her. Arryn quirked a smile as she saw Amelia hold on to the Dean for support. Several guards approached and stopped, awaiting instructions.
"Killer! Murderer! Monster!" came from the crowd, everyone shouting different things as newcomers were filled in by others as to what had transpired.
"Kill her just like she killed the others!" someone yelled.
Amelia held her hands up again, the noise of the crowd dying to a dull roar. "Arryn, for your crimes against Arcadia, against our great city, you are under arrest. The Guard will take you immediately to the prison, which we are very blessed wasn't destroyed in the blast. You will remain there until an investigation has been completed and we have what we need to try you for treason."
Tears ran down Arryn's face, and every one of them was as real as they could get.
She’d come back to Arcadia to fight for it, to be its hero, and now she was seen as a monster trying to destroy it.
"Do you accept these charges?" Amelia asked, taking a strong step forward, her eyes turning black as she did. "Or will we have to take you by force?" As Amelia issued her threat a fireball appeared in her hand, one that was not only large, but intensely hot. It seemed she’d taken Arryn's advice and decided to make a good show of it.
Arryn slowly dropped to her knees, signaling her surrender as she lowered her head. The Guard seized Arryn, tying her hands behind her back and carrying her to the east side of the Capitol building, which had not been destroyed and contained the jail.
Sit tight, Amelia sent. I'll stop at nothing to get the proof we need, and I’ll get you out of there.
I appreciate that, but I don't plan to wait that long.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Cathillian, Celine, and Samuel all sat on the couch, listening to the terrifying description of why Arryn wouldn't be home. Amelia had to wait until well after dark before she could sneak away, but she knew they would be worried.
Cathillian shook his head, fists clenched hard and rage dominating his expression. "If I'd only believed her. It wasn't that I didn't believe her, I was just worried. She was obsessed. When the bitch came here I was convinced she was an innocent bystander to Arryn's irrational anger."
Amelia nodded slowly. "Yeah, well… I have a theory about that. Scarlett is a mystic. I don't have any hard proof, but Arryn believes it and call me crazy, but I'm sure as hell not going to brush away any more of her theories. They've all been right so far. It's possible that Scarlett was messing with your head to convince you that Talia was perfect so it would cause problems."
"Aye," Samuel added. "Livin' in the Heights, I've seen more than me fair share of those brain jockeys. Granted, I ain't never met a bad one, but I've seen what the good ones can do. I can only imagine what the bad ones are like."
Celine leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees and clasping her hands together. "So, what exactly did you arrest her for? How do we get her out of there?"
Amelia took a seat on the floor in front of the fireplace, folding her legs in. "It's very complicated, but I'll explain what I know. Students have been going missing for weeks, and they all show up murdered in the same way—throat slit, blood drained. Recently, there has been two murders. The last one was a boy named James. From the looks of it, he was the one killed in Arryn’s old house.
“We found a knife by the body of this one. That was a little back story for you so you can see just how long this has been going on. When I had Arryn arrested today, it was because she had gotten into an altercation with three people, killing two of them and subduing a third in front of a crowd of people."
Shock crossed Cathillian's face. "What? That can't be accurate."
Amelia nodded. "It is. There was an explosion at the Capitol building. It was during the time you were outside the city walls teaching nature magic, so I can understand why you didn't hear it. That said, I'm pretty sure Arryn found them attacking the building. By the time she got involved, Scarlett had arrived with a crowd of people that she was controlling. I haven't had a chance to talk to Arryn, but I saw Scarlett, and I saw her eyes. I don't know if she realized that I saw her, but I did. She was using far too much magic and was spread so thin that it didn’t have any effect on me."
"Okay, so Arryn killed the people involved. What then?" Celine asked.
"It was a mess. There were shouts about her being a traitor and telling me to sentence her to death. It was horrible. The crowd saw Talia lead me and the rest of the survivors out of the building safely. That along with Scarlett’s magic set in stone that Talia was a hero, and they had seen Arryn kill two people—so she was the obvious threat. I had no choice, and Arryn knew it. She told me to arrest her. I had to do it to stay in control."
Amelia took a deep breath, brushing her hair back. It was obvious to Cathillian that she was fighting back tears. He couldn't exactly say that he blamed her given all she'd been through, all she was currently going through, and all that would still happen.
"I arrested her to safeguard my title and keep Talia out of the Chancellor's chair. I promised an investigation, and I immediately initiated it. Unfortunately, during the fight, Arryn stabbed both people in the chest. The knife she used was the very one that had been in my office; one that had gone missing, and I hadn't even realized it. I didn't know until I got back to my office after Arryn was taken to the jail. It was the same knife we think all the other people had been killed with, which only added to the evidence against her. But that's not the worst of it."
Cathillian sighed, his eyes closing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It gets worse than that? Seriously?"
Amelia continued. "There were several people who told me they saw Arryn throw the fireballs that caused the explosion. Obviously, this was Scarlett’s work, but other people heard it. I had no choice but to take it under advisement. Not only that, but along with the blood that was found in her childhood home, the people who saw her walking to her old house that night, and Dallas' friend who identified a cloaked woman with long dark hair, Arryn isn't just one of the choices. She's the choice."
Samuel sat back on the couch, popping his knuckles as he made a fist over and over. "What do we do? How do we get our girl outta there?"
Amelia smiled. "That's the best part. Or, I guess I should say the only good part. I don't think we have to worry about that. You see, I put Arryn in the cell next to Elon, who was best friends with Arryn's father, Christopher. He harbors great guilt about what happened, so I have a feeling that Arryn won't be in there for long."
Samuel laughed. "Is that so? Is that why Elon is still in there after all this time? Seems like he's not gonna be much help at all."
"Elon was the Chief Engineer. I doubt there's anyone in the city smarter than he is. Believe me, that man could've gotten out of that jail a long time ago if he wanted to. The only thing that holds him there is guilt. He won't allow Arryn to suffer. He made a few mistakes that he can't take ever back, not only with his son, but years ago with Arryn and her family. He can't make things right with his son, Gregory. I have faith that he's going to do everything he can to help Arryn. Keep an eye peeled—she’ll more than likely be here before the night's out, but I can't know anything about it."
Celine nodded. "That's smart. If the mystic finds her way into your head, she'll know Arryn is gone."
Cathillian's expression had slowly turned from worry and rage to amusement. "Fantastic. Now, all we have to do is wait for Arryn to lose her
temper and break out of jail. Thinking back, I have no idea why I was worried. That shouldn't take more than ten minutes or so."
***
Arryn had done her best to heal herself with the limited energy she had available. She wasn't the best healer anyway, but exhausted by magic use and fighting, she was even less effective.
Her face had been injured the worst, the knife having sliced her from her temple down the side of her face and across her cheek and chin.
She was lucky the knife had missed her eye. Healing abilities or not, that shit would've hurt.
"Arryn?" a masculine voice called from the cell beside her.
She was just waking up, but she found the energy to respond. "Yeah? Who the hell wants to know?"
There was a pause before he spoke again. "I don't know if you remember me, but you were great friends with my son, Gregory. My name is Elon. You look so different, I never would've recognized you had they not said your name when they carried you in."
Arryn sighed. "Ah... You're the one who set our downfall in motion. I wonder, had you not opened your big mouth, would my parents have succeeded? Would you and I be sitting at a large banquet table, Gregory at my side like my parents always teased me about? Or would I have found myself an orphan in the Dark Forest anyway?"
"I suppose that I deserved that. I deserve a lot of things. Least of all, forgiveness from you or my son. I don't give a damn about anything else."
Arryn gave a sarcastic, unamused laugh. She wasn't exactly sure what to say, or if she wanted to say anything. She'd had a thousand questions for that man, but just at that moment, lying on that crappy bed and staring at the ceiling seemed like a better way to spend her time.
"What landed you in here?" Elon asked.
Arryn almost laughed again. Where the hell should she start? Her story was long, and one she didn't exactly feel like telling at that moment.
"I'm rather enjoying my quiet time, so I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. Your favorite person in the world had a daughter. Did you know that? Because I didn’t. Not until recently. Turns out, that's what my father discovered about Adrien that led him to be killed."
"I did know that. He told me himself, but I spent many years pretending I didn't know. It was very important that no one—including me—was aware of her. And why do you think your father's dead? I told Amelia he was taken. Far as I know, he’s still alive out there. If anyone in this world could survive, it would be Christopher. It's hard to kill a heart that pure."
Arryn laughed, but it was angry. "That's a funny story ya got there Elon. Almost as funny as how they gutted my mom. She had a pure heart, and they ripped it out pretty easily, wouldn’t you say? So, don't dare lecture me on my parents or pure hearts.”
She sighed, settling into the hard bed as best as she could. “As for the rest of it, I don't know what to believe, though I have hope. Hope that I'm not going to share with anyone—outside of this conversation, of course. I only say it to you because you actually knew my father, and I want you to know exactly what I go through every day because of you. I go back and forth between thinking he’s alive and thinking he's dead, whatever drives me most that moment."
There was another pause. "But in your heart, you know you'll find him, don't you? You'll never stop until you do."
Arryn shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see it. "No, I will never stop. Only getting answers or my own death will stop me."
"Yet, you let yourself be taken. Why?" Elon asked.
"Not that it's any of your business, and you wouldn’t understand loyalty anyway, but I did it to protect Amelia. I did it to keep the city safe from Talia. If I’d fought, it's hard to say what would've happened. I wasn't about to put my own life above theirs."
Arryn heard the clang of bars. She couldn't see him, but she could sense his energy by his cell door. She imagined him standing there, gripping the steel bars.
"And Talia? You plan to stop her?" he asked.
Arryn sighed, rolling her eyes. "What is this, an interview? A game? Are you writing a book, or taking notes? Damn, man. Trying to be arrested in peace over here. Yes. Talia must be stopped. She's far worse than her father, if you can imagine that. I didn't think it was possible. Clearly, the rotten piece of shit didn’t fall too far from the monkey in the tree."
"You can't stop her from in here, you know."
Arryn's arms fell to her sides with a thud as she gave a heavy sigh. "You know, I hadn't thought about that. Amelia wasn't joking. You really are the smartest man in the world! Thank you for that earthshattering advice. I'll never forget it. I really hope you did take some notes over there. I can’t wait to read the book. Educational stuff there."
Arryn heard a familiar creak and she jackknifed to a sitting position with a start. Elon stood in the open door to her cell. As soon as she saw his face, she was flooded with memories of her childhood.
She did remember him.
He had seemed so happy when she was a child, so fatherly. She didn't understand then, but once he started disappearing more and more for work, he began to change. He no longer seemed proud of Gregory, just annoyed by him.
Arryn wasn't around him much after that, but she remembered him from before, and the look in his eyes told her that the earlier man stood before her now.
He took slow, careful steps across the room before sitting on the end of her bed. "I know you don't trust me. You’re smart not to, but though I’m only the shell of the man I used to be, I would never hurt you. Still, you’re wise not to believe it. However, I have great regret. The decisions I made about your family set me on the path that made me capable of trying to kill my own son for a man who was more than happy to let me do it."
Arryn looked at the door and at Elon. "If you had the ability to escape this entire time, why didn’t you? Why have you stayed?”
He smiled sadly. "I belong here. The moment I was arrested and paraded through a room full of rebels…" He shook his head as he trailed off. "That room full of children, teenagers, adults, and our elders that had fled something I made… Something I crafted because I wanted to save the city in Adrien's honor… I thought what I was doing was right, but when I walked into that room and saw my son sitting among them alive and well because of them, I realized I was the monster. I wasn't given the opportunity to speak to him, and I didn't deserve it at the time."
"And you think you do now?" Arryn asked.
He shook his head. "No, probably not. But like you, I haven't given up hope. Amelia tells me that he's on some grand adventure to save the city with Hannah, the girl from the Boulevard. I have no way of knowing if that's true or not, but I kind of hope it is. I kept him under my thumb the way that Adrien kept me. He deserves adventure. He deserves a life. He deserves to be happy. I will wait here and serve my time until my son comes home. If I die before that happens, that's fine, too."
Arryn swallowed, forcing back her mixed emotions. She fully believed Elon deserved to be locked away for life for what he done, but the man who sat before her now was the man she remembered from when she was child. Humble. Kind.
At the very least, she was happy he could serve his time, however long it would be, as the old him.
"How do you plan to do it?" Elon asked.
Arryn looked down at her bed, pulling a loose string on her sheets before meeting his gaze again. She shook her head. "I have no idea. Things are dangerous with Scarlett involved. She's a mystic. She controls the minds of others, convincing them I’m a monster and Amelia isn’t much better. I don't exactly know what I plan to do, but it has to be me."
He smiled, seeming to be moderately amused. "You're going to need to do better than that. I know, more sage wisdom. But you do, and I think I can help."
"How?"
"There’s a basement under the Academy. I'm not sure how many people remembered that it existed, but Adrien had it sealed off. Well, that's what he told everyone. In reality, he had the entrance rerouted to his office. I'm betting that if you go into Adrien's
old office in the Academy tower, you'll find whatever evidence you need. That being said, no one can know that you're missing. You cannot be seen."
Arryn sighed heavily, closing her eyes. "That must be where she's been killing them. The Hunters have been tearing the city apart, and they have found nothing. The victims have been killed somewhere else and taken to wherever they were found dumped. The only exception was a student who was killed in my childhood home. That was when the framing began."
Elon nodded. "Then that's where I would start. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that's where you'll find what you need. Also, there was once a lockbox that Adrien commissioned me to make years ago. It was rather feminine for something he would want, so I imagined it to be a gift, though for the life of me, I couldn't figure out who he would give it to, though now I’m betting it was Talia. Find that lockbox. I would imagine the lockbox’s contents and that basement will give you absolutely everything you need."
"I would assume there's a magitech lock on the box, correct?"
"That was the best part. I was actually quite proud of myself. He said that the key needed to be hidden but accessible, so I crafted a pendant, a necklace. It had eyelets on either side to keep it from turning over, and carefully tucked away in the hollow back is a key attached by a tiny hinge. The pendant is silver and has a blue gem in it. It's really quite beautiful."
Once again Arryn rolled her eyes. "You mean like the one Talia wears? Fuck me! All of this was right in front of my face the entire time. I don't believe it."
"You don't have to believe it, you just have to prove it's true. You can’t get the key since she’s probably wearing it, but if you get the box, you can bring it to me and I’ll get it open for you. It should be dark now, and if I were you, I wouldn't waste any more time. You should get going while the city sleeps, but be careful. Adrien obviously wasn't a stupid man, and no offspring of his will be either."
