by Sadie Moss
I hung back deliberately, and by the time we entered the large, crowded main room of the compound, Akio had rejoined us. I felt the heat of his gaze on me as we headed toward the war room.
The large table that dominated the room was now surrounded by people. I didn’t recognize any of them, but I assumed they were Resistance splinter-cell leaders and possibly new recruits. They stood as we entered. There was an awkward moment of silence as we all looked at each other before Noble burst into the room behind us and took control of the space.
“Thank you all for coming.” He settled into the chair at the head of the table.
Several other Resistance members stepped back, gesturing for me and my four to take their empty seats. I hesitated, but didn’t want to get this war council off to a bad start by denying their gracious offer. Besides, two of the men who stood were Gifted, and although it was a little, stupid thing, a Gifted man yielding his seat to Corin held meaning.
Noble drummed his fingers on the table as everyone got settled. The same girl who’d sat next to him yesterday was at his right hand today. As soon as our eyes turned to him, he leaned forward intently.
“The way I see it, we’ve got two possibilities for how to take down Rain. We can try to attack the palace, or we can bring the fight to the mountain hideout where he took The Crow. I’m not gonna lie to you—neither of those prospects will be easy. But we should do both. We’ll use force against the palace, and stealth against his compound.”
“Well, we know the palace is protected. How heavily guarded is the mountain bunker?” A Blighted woman with an eye patch over her left eye spoke up. A wicked looking scar emerged from the top of the black fabric, crossing her temple and intersecting her hairline.
“Very.” I grimaced. “And probably even more so now that he’s been exposed. When I was there, it was only guarded by spells and charms, but since Rain isn’t trying to hide his plans anymore, I’m sure he’s got real guards protecting the place.”
“Right.” She leaned back in her seat, pursing her lips.
“We need you to tell us everything you remember about the place,” Noble urged. “Layout, protections, any weaknesses. Even if there’ve been changes, it will give us a base of knowledge to work with.”
I nodded, and then launched into a description of Rain’s mountain lair. Images from my escape flashed through my mind in vivid color as I spoke, chilling my blood. When I mentioned the ball of magic suspended inside the giant metal prongs like a glowing star, several jaws dropped and eyebrows raised.
By the time I finished detailing my escape, the room was quiet.
“I know it’s daunting.” Noble spoke into the silence, his voice infused with the same passion and energy he always exuded. “But it’s what we’re up against. We didn’t choose it, and I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but we have to find a way to succeed. I, for one, am willing to die trying.”
“Hear fucking hear.” Eye patch woman raised her chin in agreement.
“The two of us can work together to break wards,” one of the Gifted men who’d offered his seat said, nudging his friend.
The second man nodded. “We’ll need backup, because it’s time-consuming and draining. But if you can lead us to the wards, we can get them open.”
“Excellent.” Noble slapped his hand on the table, his eyes burning. “We’ll send a small team into the mountains while the bulk of our force focuses on the palace. Once we destroy Rain’s machine, we can deal with him. I’ll lead the attack on the palace. We’ll have a mix of Blighted, Touched, and Gifted fighters, so we’ll need to team up strategically to maximize our advantage.”
“I can work with a group of Blighted and try to find a weak spot in the palace’s defenses. I’m good with a blade, and I can confound anyone who discovers us.” A fairy with blue hair raised his hand tentatively. His magic flared as he spoke, and I saw everyone around the table relax slightly. Confounding was the flip side of a fairy’s powers. While their magic usually made people around them feel unaccountably happy and at ease, they could also twist that magic to make people lose focus and motivation.
“Good. Good! What else?” Noble looked around the group, eyebrows raised.
Other hands began to pop up, new voices interjecting offers of help or thoughts on strategy. Noble’s enthusiasm and determination kept the ball rolling, and I sat quietly for a moment, looking around the table at the people gathered here.
My soul knew four of them on the deepest level possible. But many of them were strangers to me. There were Blighted, Touched, and Gifted people spread around the table—not seated on opposite sides, but intermingled together. Talking to each other, listening to each other. All in pursuit of one common goal.
A spark of hope lit deep in my belly, burning low alongside the ember of my magic.
Maybe, maybe someday, things could be better.
If a future existed for any of us, if we lived beyond this week, maybe there was a chance we could create the world Rain had feared was coming. One where the Gifted and Blighted existed so closely together that the differences between them became unimportant. One where magic spread and thrived rather than being hoarded and fought over.
It was too much to wish for, too big a prayer. I knew that.
But still, I wrapped myself around that flame of hope, shielding it like a candle guttering in the wind.
I wouldn’t let it go out.
Akio nudged me, pulling me from my thoughts. One corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk as he inclined his head toward Noble.
“What can you tell us about Victor Kruger and Nicholas Constantine?” the Resistance leader asked, repeating the question I’d missed. “Any weaknesses?”
I huffed a sigh, my mood plummeting. “Weaknesses? None that I saw. Unless you count being a major asshole as a weakness. I don’t know what Victor can do, but Nicholas—”
I broke off as footsteps clanged on the stairs. A moment later, a young man rushed into the room, darting through one of the open spaces that had once held a floor-to-ceiling glass panel.
“Sir! Sir!” He stopped at Noble’s side, gasping for breath.
“What is it, Justin?”
“You need to come, sir! You need to see! An attack—on a Resistance cell. They took—everyone.”
Chapter 17
Noble’s face froze.
For the first time since I’d met him, his internal tempo slowed, a starburst of pain flaring behind his eyes.
Then he snapped to full speed again, rising so fast his heavy chair skidded back, rocking on its legs.
“Where? Show me.”
The boy nodded, his mop of black hair flopping over his forehead. Then he turned and darted down the stairs, Noble close behind him.
I shared a glance with my four and, as one, we stood to hurry after them. My heart tried to crawl up my throat as the stairs clanged under our feet, and when we hit the main factory floor, I broke into a jog, catching up to Noble.
The dark-haired kid led us to the barracks, where a group of people was gathered in one corner. He shoved his way to the front, and the crowd parted silently as we followed him through.
Next to a cot, on an overturned crate, sat a small battery-operated television. It had an antenna sticking out from the top and was so tiny and old-fashioned looking it was almost comical.
Or it would’ve been, if not for the grainy image displayed on its screen.
It wasn’t a pavilion this time, but the palace steps.
And arrayed across those wide steps stood dozens and dozens of figures.
A Resistance cell, the boy had said.
An entire Resistance cell.
Most of the people were unbound, though several swayed on their feet with the telltale wooziness of someone wearing charmed restraints.
Mages stood all around them, boxing them in. Though the Blighted weren’t restrained, there was nowhere they could go, nothing they could do.
Above them, on the same balcony where he’d killed
Theron and wrested control of the government, Rain presided over the proceedings. Jonas, Nicholas, and Victor flanked him.
“There will be no tolerance for magic users who align themselves with the Blighted. And there will be only death for Blighted who threaten the rule of magic,” Rain shouted, his raspy voice ringing loudly. “I promise you, there is room in my glorious future for any Gifted citizens who embrace it, who prove their worthiness. As for the rest—they are already as good as Blighted. Let them die together.”
Nausea roiled my stomach, and I turned away from the television, slamming right into Akio’s hard chest. I stared up at him wildly.
“A transport spell. We need to get a transport spell! We have to—”
“It’s too late, killer. Look.”
Fen’s voice was hollow, and before I even glanced back, I knew he was right. My entire body resisted the movement, but I forced myself to turn around.
Rain walked to the edge of the balcony and pointed down at the people on the steps below. “These men and women are all traitors! I hereby sentence them to death.”
He began to raise his arm, and I stopped breathing.
A movement from one of the prisoners caught my attention. It was an older woman with silver hair flowing past her shoulders. She must be Blighted. Her hands were unbound, her expression clear.
She dropped her head, and as she did, she raised her hands high in the air, her wrists crossed and her thumbs linked together, the fingers of each hand splaying out like—
Like a bird.
Like a… crow.
In a heartbeat, the gesture was picked up by those around her, everyone who wasn’t restrained lifting their hands and bowing their heads.
Rain brought his own arm down swiftly, a snarl twisting his features.
The mages surrounding the prisoners sent jets of water streaming toward them. As soon as the liquid struck their bodies, it froze, encasing each captured Resistance member in a thick layer of glittering ice.
My heart hammered against my ribs so hard it hurt. I couldn’t blink, couldn’t look away. I stared at the prisoners arrayed across the palace steps, their bodies frozen in a final gesture of rebellion.
“No. We should have stopped it. I shouldn’t have let this happen.” My words were low and rough, forced out past numb lips.
“There was nothing we could’ve done. It was too late.” Noble stood next to me, but neither of us looked at the other. His voice was thick with pain that mirrored mine. “Rain is baiting you. He’s trying to lure you out, to make you come to him so he can fight you on his terms.”
My breath stuttered.
Lure me out.
All those pairs of hands, held up in the symbol of a crow.
Rain was killing them to lure me out.
And they had gone to their deaths believing in me.
Bile rose in my throat, and I pushed my way back through the crowd, tears burning my eyes. I didn’t care about the stares I drew, didn’t care that I looked weak. Something terrible was building up inside me, and I needed to get out of here before it exploded.
I knew it made me a fucking coward, but I couldn’t watch them die. I couldn’t stay and witness those mages shatter the blocks of ice—see dozens of bodies fall to the ground like wet rags.
The tears were streaming down my face now, but it didn’t relieve the pressure in my chest. I could barely breathe. Every inhale I took was short and ragged, burning my lungs.
I stumbled blindly through the Resistance compound, lurching through the common area and into a small, empty alcove. My knees wobbled, and I bent over, bracing one hand against the wall as I retched. Straightening slightly, I pressed my face against the rough wall, trying to ground myself as the world spun around me.
Hands caressed my back and hair; soothing voices whispered in my ear. But I couldn’t listen to any of them, couldn’t let myself relax into the calming touch of my four.
Those people were dead because of me. Because of a promise I’d made to them, a promise I had become, whether I wanted to or not.
But I hadn’t wanted to. I didn’t want any of this.
“Transport spell,” I gasped.
“Lana, no. You can’t go after him now. It’s exactly what Rain wants,” Jae argued.
“I won’t go… to the palace.” My stomach lurched again, my vision hazy from the tears that wouldn’t stop falling. “I just can’t be here anymore.”
“Okay. Okay, killer.” Fen cupped my cheek, his touch so gentle it made my heart squeeze painfully. I couldn’t handle tenderness right now. “We’ll get you out of here. But we’re coming with you.”
One of my four stepped away to find a transport spell.
I shouldn’t have asked for it. The Resistance had a limited supply of them, and we would need as many as we could get our hands on for the upcoming fight. But what the hell—I was already a liar and a coward. Why not add selfish to the list?
Maybe once the rest of the Resistance members found out who I really was, how weak and afraid and unqualified I was for any of this, they’d stop following me. Stop idolizing me.
A few moments later, a small cylinder was pressed into my hand, the cold glass shocking my senses. I dropped it at my feet and shattered it with my heel as four pairs of hands supported me. Purple smoke enveloped us, and when it dissipated, the foyer of Beatrice’s house came into view.
I pulled away from my men and stumbled up the stairs, heading for the far end of the sprawling house on the third floor. I wanted to be as far from any other people as possible right now. At the very end of the north wing, I pushed open a thick cherry wood door and slipped into what looked like a large study. A desk took up one corner, while a small couch and two chairs were situated in the middle of the room.
After kicking the door shut with my foot, I sank down onto the couch, drawing my legs up to my chest. No lights were on, but the curtains were only made of a thin cream-colored material, which allowed the warm glow of afternoon sunlight to filter in.
I wished I could turn it off and sit for a while in blessed darkness.
Maybe darkness would help me forget.
How the hell did Noble do this? Lead people into a fight knowing that even if we won in the end, many of them would likely die along the way? Was practicality about sacrificing a small number of lives to save many the sign of a good leader, or a bad one? I’d never been especially scared of dying myself, but the thought of risking other people’s lives sent ice-cold fear spiraling through my belly.
I couldn’t be responsible for that.
Except, I already was.
Pressing the heels of my hands to my eyes, I tried to snuff out the images of all those Resistance members, defiant even in death.
But their defiance hadn’t helped. They were still dead. Gone.
A cry of anger and pain fell from my lips as I scrubbed my fingers roughly across my face. More tears spilled from my eyes, like a river flowing through a broken dam.
“Fuck,” I whispered softly.
“That is often the best solution,” a voice drawled from behind me, and my head jerked up. Akio lounged against the door. He must’ve slipped in while my eyes were closed.
“What do you want, Akio?” I asked, wiping the back of my hand across my eyes. He’d joined the rest of my four in supporting me back at the Resistance base, but now that we were alone, I wasn’t sure if he was here to mock me or comfort me.
“To see if you’re all right.” His tone was neutral, and his dark eyes glinted as he sat down next to me on the couch.
I laughed bitterly. “No! I’m not. And I realize it’s selfish and horrible for me to be focused on how I feel when dozens of people just lost their lives. But I feel like shit, and I don’t want to do this anymore. I’ll fight beside you all. I’ll fight Rain to my last breath if I have to. But I’m done being a leader, being a symbol. I don’t want that responsibility. Let someone else do it.”
“That’s not how it works, kitten. You don’t get to dec
ide whether people believe in you.”
My throat tightened, and I gritted my teeth against a fresh wave of tears. “They shouldn’t.” I shut my eyes, breathing deeply through my nose. “I know those people didn’t actually die for me. But it feels like—”
“Oh, they absolutely did die for you, kitten.”
I blinked slowly, staring up at him in horror. There wasn’t a single thing he could have said that would’ve made me feel worse in this moment.
“What… what do you mean?”
He angled his head to look down at me. The warm light filtering through the curtains did nothing to soften his sharp features, and his face looked like it was carved from stone.
“Exactly what I said. You don’t get a say in how other people feel. You may not want to be a leader, but if you act and people follow, you are one—like it or not.” Akio’s voice deepened as he reached out to stroke my cheek with the knuckles of one hand. “And you are a leader, Lana. You draw people to you like the North Star. They will follow you anywhere.”
The rich, honeyed sound of his words poured into my ears like a sweet promise. My body came alive, my heart rate picking up as I found myself leaning into his touch, nodding unconsciously in agreement.
Then I froze.
Fucking hell.
I slapped his hand away from my face then shoved him so hard he fell back against the arm of the couch. Leaping to my feet, I stood over him, breath heaving.
“I told you, Akio! Do not use your godsdamned incubus charm on me!”
Before I could make a move for the door, Akio caught my elbow. “Kitten—”
I jerked roughly out of his grasp. “Are you going to charm me into leading the Resistance? Huh? Is that it?”
Instead of answering, Akio swept a leg out, catching me off guard and knocking me off my feet. I landed on my back with a thud, and the incubus was on me a moment later. His strong legs straddled me, his large hands pinning my shoulders.
“Is that what you think I’m doing?” he breathed, his eyes narrowed to slits.
