Three men bolted around the corner—not guards or castle staff, but men in grungy garb wielding rough weapons. The first intruder got instantly incapacitated when Chance smashed the guy’s face with the gold lamp. The man tumbled back—out for the count—as I sneak-attacked the second enemy with a stab to the side. Chance dropped his lamp then dropped low. He touched the shoes of the third man whilst snapping his fingers. The guy stumbled as his boots turned to gold, and I spun around and hammered my fist into his spine.
Shield.
I smashed the guy in the face. He fell to the ground, un-conscious. Chance punched out the second man, whom I’d stabbed.
All men down, the prince touched each of the intruder’s shirts and turned them to gold. “That weight will keep them from getting away if they wake up.”
I poked one of the unconscious men in the leg with my boot. “This looks like typical magic hunter attire.” I glanced at Chance. “They’ve worked with the antagonists before. Do you think they’re here for Mauvrey?”
“They broke into your school twice to kidnap you under the antagonists’ orders. They could’ve been hired to retrieve Mauvrey. Why else would they be here?”
“I don’t know, but how could this happen? I thought your castle was impenetrable.”
Chance’s eyes were confused and vaguely panicked. “It’s supposed to be. No one can come at us from the outside. This has to be an inside job.” The noise of combat and another explosion echoed through the halls. He turned to me, face pained with worry. “I need to find my family. My little siblings can’t defend themselves.”
“Go,” I urged. “I’ll head to Mauvrey’s tower.”
“Be careful.”
Another explosion. Chance’s expression paled. In a caring impulse, I reached my hand to touch his face. “Hey,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. “It’ll be okay. I’m sure they’re fine.”
He looked at me, nodded, and then bolted away. I took off in the other direction. Mauvrey’s tower was on the opposite side of the castle. As I ran, I discovered stains of calamity sullying the halls and walls I passed by. The battle had already been fought through here. I found myself dodging fallen tables, draperies, and the occasional body—both of the Darling guard and intruder variety.
I wasn’t intending to stall; I had no way of telling how long any of the guards had been dead, but I assumed it was longer than three minutes. But then I came across one guard who was gasping for breath. He wasn’t dead; he was dying. I could help! I flicked my hand and golden energy activated around my fingers.
Here’s hoping all my practice taking life makes giving life easier too.
I crouched and touched the man’s chest. Gold shot into him like my hand was an enchanted defibrillator. Just like that, his chest started rising and falling with more vigor, and golden energy shone through his shirt as his mortal wound healed.
Huh. That was easy.
Okay then. IT’S ON.
As I continued toward the tower, I pumped magic into several more guards on their last leg of life—restoring and saving them. It cost me time, but I could never leave a person in mortal peril when I had the ability to help.
Finally, I bounded onto the penultimate floor, where I discovered Divya and Girtha fighting a half dozen men on their own. I’d been right; the intruders were going after Mauvrey.
But if that’s the case then where are the rest of them? Why attack the whole castle?
Girtha took a particularly gruff punch to the gut, and I put my second-guessing thoughts away for the moment. My friends didn’t have any weapons and the intruders had quite a few.
Spear.
I launched my weapon at the leg of a man. He hollered and went down. Divya used the man’s back as a launching board to leverage herself onto the shoulders of another attacker. She brought him to the floor with dual punches to the ears combined with a wicked leg choke around his neck. My tiny friend jumped off him just before he hit the ground. She came down against the knee of a nearby enemy, dislocating it with one foot. Changing directions with a hybrid pirouette, she then ducked under a sword, spun around an attacker, and got off three jabs to his lower spine. She did all that in the seconds I took running up to them.
“Thanks for joining the party,” Girtha said to me. She yanked one man by the back of his collar and threw him against the wall.
I ripped my spear from the downed man’s leg while considering my next move. Magic would end this faster, but I didn’t trust my emotions right now. Magic Instinct could get the better of me and I didn’t see a need to risk that in order to magically kill these guys. We could beat them just fine the old fashioned way.
With Divya’s speed, Girtha’s strength, and my multi-weapon madness, we had all our attackers knocked out in under a minute. At that, Girtha and Divya took off for the stairs, not even pausing for a breath.
“Some got past us,” Girtha called as I followed behind them. “Kai and Daniel are up there defending Mauvrey.”
We burst into Mauvrey’s tower and found our friends engaged in combat around her sleeping body. Girtha grabbed a passing attacker by the neck and hurled him against a mirror, shattering it. With our combined forces, the five intruders soon lay unconscious on the floor.
“How is it possible that there are so many attackers inside the castle?” Kai asked, wiping a hand across her forehead.
“I guess this place has more ways in and out than the Darlings think,” Daniel replied. “Knight’s palace has secret passages. Maybe theirs does too. All it takes is one traitor to light the way.”
“That’s the wrong question,” I thought out loud. I stared at Mauvrey. Something was bothering me.
“What?” Kai said.
“The big issue isn’t how they got in, but why? My first instinct was that they wanted to take Mauvrey, but now I think that’s wrong. Or at least only a partial motivation. Kidnappings work better with small teams that don’t draw attention to themselves. There has to be dozens of attackers assaulting this castle, and they’re causing damage all over the place—taking out guards and defenses, and getting everyone’s attention. Why risk all that? What’s the bigger play?” I paused. “And where are the rest of the Darlings?”
The pounding of footsteps echoed in from the stairwell and we all raised our weapons. Surprisingly, Jason rushed in, axe in hand and out of breath. “Crisa, it’s you,” he said, eyes wide and panicky.
“Yeah, hi.” I lowered my spear.
“No, it’s you,” Jason said. He took a breath. “These people aren’t working for the antagonists and they’re not here to take Mauvrey. They’re magic hunters aligned with the commons rebellion, here to capture anyone with magic, particularly you.”
“But they came to Mauvrey’s tower,” Divya argued.
“Probably because Kai was guarding her,” Jason said. “They detected her magic.” He turned toward me. “They already have half the Darlings rounded up in the throne room, along with Blue. They let me go so I could find you and tell you to surrender. They’re angry with you, Crisa. This is personal.”
“Knight?” Daniel said. “What did you do?”
I could lie. I could deflect. But I chose not to.
“I’ve been killing rebels,” I said bluntly. “At Lenore’s command, I’ve been using magic to tear apart their cause however I can. Sometimes that means taking their lives.”
“What?” Kai gasped. “How many have you killed?”
Anger burned inside me. “Not enough, clearly.”
Shield.
“Take me to them, Jason. The rest of you stay with Mauvrey, just in case.”
“You need our help,” Girtha insisted.
“That doesn’t matter,” Jason said. “If I come back with anyone other than Crisa they say they’ll kill hostages.”
Kai opened her mouth. “But—”
“Stay here,” Jason said with unsettlingly sternness. “Blue’s with them and we’re not risking it.”
“Knight—” Daniel started
to say. But Jason and I were already on the move.
We descended the stairs of the tower at a run, then worked our way across the castle. At one point we spotted SJ, Javier, and a handful of Darling soldiers fighting a group of attackers. It went against all my natural instincts to pass them by, but we didn’t have time to stop and I believed our friends could handle themselves.
Further along, we also spotted Cereus and Trenton in battle. With Cereus’s powers, Trenton’s hero training, and the guards they had with them, I had no doubt they’d be fine too.
“You’re not actually going to surrender, are you?” Jason asked as we moved.
“Don’t make me laugh while I run,” I said. “But I need information. What’s the exact situation we’re dealing with?”
“The king and queen and a couple of the kids escaped to their bunker at the start of the attack. Blue and I made sure of it. They’re fine. But when we went to find the rest of the Darlings, we got jumped. They took us to the throne room. When they let me go, there were fourteen guys guarding the hostages.”
“Who are the hostages?”
“Blue, Daphne, and the triplets. The attackers are using Stiltdegarth cuffs to suppress their powers.”
Jackwagons.
We made our final approach to the throne room. The closed doors came into view.
“Here’s the plan,” I said. “Don’t enter right when I do. I’m going to cause a floor ripple with my powers that knocks everyone down. Once that happens, we rush in. You get everyone out and I’ll handle the rebels with my magic. I have this cool glass attack that I can conjure with the windows in the throne room. Trust me, it’s effective.”
My eyes darted to the right. Near the throne room doors a fallen guard twitched, his back to me. There was a lot of blood on his uniform, but he was alive.
“Hold on one sec,” I told Jason.
I veered right and approached the man while activating my magic. I crouched and was about to touch him when he flipped over.
In his hand was a small weapon with a familiar shining streak and an Alderon insignia.
“Got you.”
He fired the FGW and everything went black.
I felt like I shouted at the top of my lungs, but I could barely hear the sound. My brain was too overwhelmed with haze. The pain was excruciating, all consuming. My eyelids were a swirl of red and gold and flashing light. It was like someone was ladling burning magma on my stomach. Then—suddenly—I sat up. Air returned to my lungs and golden light came out of the HOLE IN MY SIDE.
Holy bananas.
My powers had grown so strong that my resurrection reflex was actually magically reconstructing the portion of me that had been blasted away by the FGW!
I screamed again as my vision warbled and golden light ejected from my side. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, I was on my hands and knees and clarity started to return. Breathing heavily, I looked up.
It took me a moment to process everything around me. I was crouched exactly where I’d been shot. Jason stood a few feet away, axe dripping blood, two men pointing FGWs at him. Three intruders lay unmoving nearby, bleeding from various slash wounds—courtesy of my friend, I was sure. Beyond Jason, the throne room doors were now open. Blue and the captured Darlings stood in the threshold of the doorway with their hands cuffed, surrounded by guards. Adiana made eye contact with me. She was scared. A knot of fire formed in my throat.
That’s when someone’s legs came in front of me. My gaze tracked up a bloodied Darling guard uniform until I met the eyes of the man who’d shot me. It was the long-gray-haired, older rebel who’d escaped the Tunderly attack. His FGW was pointed at my head. Three other men stood around me, assorted weapons drawn.
“Who bet that she would come back to life?” the older man asked his friends.
Another rebel curtly grabbed me by the rear of the neck and threw me down. I rolled to my back, my side still aching. I’d had a lot of magical practice lately, but this was only my second time bringing myself back to life and it hurt like heck. I felt woozier and weaker than I had in very long time.
I guess I shouldn’t be complaining though. My body had just magically reconstructed itself in order to keep me alive, and I felt the pain of even that diminishing by the second. The light had ceased shining out of my stomach. Golden scars appeared on my diaphragm where there used to be nothing but a gaping hole.
Incredible.
Like a cup being refilled, now that the healing process was complete, I sensed my strength returning and my focus crisping by the second. If given another minute, maybe I could get myself together. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a minute.
A magic hunter snapped Stiltdegarth cuffs over my already genie-cuffed wrists. My magic fumed protectively in response, shining around my hands, but that only caused pain to sear my wrists as well. I had to shut it down.
“Bondo!” a gravelly voice shouted to my shooter. “I found the smallest magical one hiding under a bed.” Another man joined the circle of enemies around me; he carried baby James. The little prince was silent, but his face was puffy, red, and wet with tears. Seeing that snapped me out of the last of my pain.
Bondo gave an approving nod. “Well done. The rebel leaders will be glad to absorb the magic these kids are carrying.”
Hearing that made me forget that I’d ever been incapacitated at all.
I got back up from the floor and onto my hands and knees. I glared directly at Bondo—my expression sharp as a sword. “You try to kill one of them, I will definitely kill all of you. You got it?” I barked.
Bondo and his men snickered, actually, they full-on laughed. At least twenty men against a cuffed teenager? Hilarious.
I felt the heat build in my arms. Bondo flipped open a Mark Two. “Elias Fray,” he said.
A woman answered. “Hello?”
“We have Crisanta Knight, Princess Daphne, and a handful of additional magic carriers. We’re escorting them from the throne room now. Tell your other men to set the fuses in five minutes and blow the rest of the castle. We may not have gotten all the magical people in this place, but these ones will help the cause just fine. The other protagonists can get buried in the rubble.”
“Wait, no!”
That was Agatha’s squeal. My head snapped toward the throne room. That’s when I noticed that two of the triplets hadn’t been escorted out. Through the open doors, I could see Agatha and Isabelle being tied to the legs of the thrones. The magic hunters knew these two Darlings didn’t have magic, so they were going to leave the girls there as they blew up the area?!
A rebel yanked me to my feet then thrust me toward Bondo. The former kept his hand on my back while Bondo grabbed me by the elbow and directed me forward. “Let’s go.”
“Hold on!” a new voice shouted from down the hall. “I’ve got two more!”
I turned. A rebel had the barrel of his FGW pointed at the back of Chance’s and Javier’s heads as they walked in front of him.
Bondo raised an eyebrow. “Why are you bringing me both these boys? Only the prince has magic. Shoot the other one.”
Chance looked at me, then darted his eyes to his little brother. “James, shiny!”
James sniffled and then his entire body abruptly turned to solid gold. His magic power. The rebel who’d been carrying him couldn’t support the weight. Gold statue James fell to the ground, crushing his captor’s foot. The rebel shouted, generating a distraction. When I looked back down the hall, Chance stepped in front of Javi right as their captor’s FGW heated up. Light filled the weapon’s barrel. Chance reached for it. Just as the FGW fired, he covered the barrel with one hand and snapped his fingers with the other. A huge eruption of light occurred and Chance shouted.
A yell from the other end of the hall drew my eyes to where Blue was. She’d evidently just head-butted a rebel and now ran shoulder-first into another man—ramming him brutally. Daphne elbowed her nearest captor and then smashed her cuffed fists into his face.
Bo
ndo started barking at his men and I made my move, elbowing him in the chin hard enough to drive him away from me. I backed up, but a loud clunk had me whirling around. Chance’s magic had beat out the power of the FGW; the gun and some of the beam it’d ejected had turned to gold and fallen to the floor. Chance cradled his hand though. He may have been successful in saving Javier, but the FGW had burned his skin significantly. Javier rushed in to defend Chance in retaliation. He punched their former captor in the throat.
Javier had that handled, so I turned my attention back to Bondo. But wait, where had he gone? I quickly glanced around the mess of fighting. It looked like Daphne had gotten a key and unlocked herself, and Jason was also free. While the latter retrieved his axe, the former summoned a wave of liquid gold from the nearest picture frames and tables to take down two rebels at once. She drowned them, then started to raise another wave, and then—
“Everybody stop!” Bondo yelled.
I spun, there he was. He’d grabbed Blue by the neck and held his FGW against her cheek.
Rebels and allies froze as Bondo addressed my friends. “Anyone here with magic is going to follow us out of this castle, and the rest of you are going to stay put.” He tilted his chin toward me. “Princess Harbinger of Death over there may be able to survive a disintegration ray, but this one can’t. So do as you’re told, or I’ll kill her.”
I stepped forward. My magic started to glow. The responding pain from my Stiltdegarth cuffs was like someone pressing hot coals against my skin—and yet, as the seconds ticked by, the burning of the cuffs turned numb like frostbite. It was as if my rage this time was stronger than any pain the anti-magic cuffs could inflict.
I subconsciously knew what was happening but didn’t care. I slipped into Magic Instinct willingly. It was what the situation called for. Pure Magic at its finest was what the situation called for.
Into the Gray Page 42