Rogue Royalty

by Rebecca Ethington

  "I can still change my mind." She winked at me and flipped another attack my way. The speedy thing buzzed and cracked its way to me. I barely dodged it, sending it in the opposite direction, toward the crowd who screamed and ducked before it hit against my shield, sending their panic into awe, a collective gasp buzzing through the barrier.

  "Well, now is your chance. You only get one shot," I nodded my head to Diarius, who while trapped on the other side of my shield, was already fighting against it. It wouldn't take her long to get past it though.

  "Stop this right this instant!" Poor Diarius. I kind of felt bad for her.

  "Don't tell your mom," Gemma said as she sent a ribbon of red my way, the weird attack heading right for me. It never made it.

  "It's my dad you have to worry about, trust me." I slammed my hands forward, my magic prickling and warming on the back of my neck as the orb of light I had created slammed through me. It blazed in a blast of light, soaring towards her, devouring her attack on the way. She barely dodged out of the way, flinging herself onto the floor, before the orb slammed into the shield, the floors of the massive amphitheater rattling from the impact.

  "Who's weak now?" I taunted, taking two wide steps to where she lay flat-back on the floor, attempting to push herself to stand. She was half sitting up before I stepped over her, holding her in place. Pressing my hands toward her, the air around them growing dark.

  Dark.

  My father’s binds were still in place but the powerful Drak magic was desperate to get out, to reach her.

  I quickly dialed down the intensity before it got out of control.

  I stood with the class behind me, the shield still keeping them from us as Gemma laid on the floor below me, glowering in wicked defeat. It if wasn’t for Professor Diarius still yelling at us to stop, I would have forgotten they were there.

  Neither of us moved, she was trapped and I just stared at Gemma, waiting.

  "You are going to make me say it aren't you?" She laughed, throwing her head back and ignoring my impending attack altogether.

  Normally I would expect my opponents to throw a sneak attack and send me tumbling through the air, but I didn't care if she did, I was frozen over her, her magic wrapping around me. Filling me.

  “Prince Rowan,” she began nefarious snark twisting her laugh as she reached toward me, toward my hands that were still buzzing with threatening magic. “You’re not weak.”

  She spoke calmly, every drop of snark gone as she whispered the words, as her hand wrapped around mine.

  The heat of her touch, of her magic, tickled over my skin, the warmth pricking at the back of my neck as everything began to spin, as the binds snapped, as everything went red and black and foreign.

  "Shit," I said, fear tightening up my spine. Her laugh ended as she lifted her head to look at me.

  All the joy in her face faded away. She saw.

  "Row--?"

  She didn't even get to finish my name. She didn't get to say anything more before I reacted, panic and fear taking control as liquid energy flew right at her unprotected, unprepared face. I was barely able to change the attack in time, the powerful force slamming into the stone behind her head and showering us with bits of stone and wood.

  Everyone screamed in shock, the screams growing as I directed another attack toward the ceiling, popping the shield and burrowing into the ancient mosaic that my father had commissioned for the ceilings. Tile, plaster, and paint fell over everything, the screams duplicating as I looked at Gemma, as I saw my own black eyes reflected in hers.

  I said nothing before I ran, not even bothering to grab my bag before I hurled myself through the window, my magic pulling at the wind and catching me before I hit the ground, supporting me as I took off.

  Desperate to get myself as far away from her, as far away from Gemma's knowing stare as I could.

  31

  Gemma

  Eyes as dark as the hollow end of a tunnel swallowed the light, they swallowed my breath as they sucked me into them. As he stared into me, the smile of victory nefarious underneath the ebony gaze.

  I had seen those eyes before. I knew exactly what they were and why the joy of this little match had evaporated.

  "Rowan?"

  His smile faded to shock, to fear, then to a panic as the stone beside my head shattered in a stone rain that beat against my face, tugging at my arms and shoulders as he took off, hands over his face as he threw himself out the window.

  "Rowan!"

  Everyone was still screaming. Still yelling. He had barely thrown himself out the window when I was up and running.

  I don't know why I went after him; I don't know why I cared if some dumb prince had thrown himself out the window. But I did.

  I didn't get more than a few steps towards that window before the ceiling came down, before the walls around us crumbled and everything fell apart in the sound of screams.

  Throwing both his and my bag over my shoulder I threw myself out of the window after him before I could think better of it.

  It was only after my feet had left the windowsill that I remembered I hadn't mastered that flying with wind thing. I didn't even know where to start to be able to accomplish that. I was sure the freefall out of the window wasn't the best time to figure it out.

  Too late.

  Luckily, the exploding and collapsing building behind me had garnered the attention of a few students on the grass, one of them seeing my leg-breaking fall and sending a cushion of wind my way. The pillow of nothing caught me before my feet had collided against the grass and sent my femurs through my knee caps.

  That would have put a damper on this whole thing.

  "Thanks," I heaved, readjusting the bags. He mumbled some question about me being okay before everything was drowned out by the groaning, crumbling stone of the amphitheater. We turned as the twists of metal and breaking glass cracked through the breeze like ice and the side of the building came down.

  "Oh my god! What is happening?" Someone else yelled in alarm, but I ignored them, running off in the direction of the dorms, leaving them all to stare in horror at whatever was happening. The earth shook as I bolted, the groan so loud now that I was sure the earth was opening up rather than a building imploding on itself.

  And he said he didn't explode buildings.

  Everything settled as I reached the door to the south side of the school, taking one look back at the dust and smoke that was concealing what was once a training hall.

  "Shit." I snapped, catching the eye of four tall Skȓítek guards that were taking off after me. Where had they even come from? "Good job, Gemma, the one time you aren't responsible for blowing up the building and you take off. Because I need to look more guilty. Hit a prince. Blow up a building..."

  I prattled on to myself as I weaved my way through the halls, bags bouncing against each individual ass cheek in a painful rhythm as I turned one corner then another before darting into the teacher's wing where I had spent way too much time lately.

  Always know everything about your enemy, that way you can make an easy escape.

  Or be aware that the guy you pretend not to like had inherited his mother's freaking Drak ability. Although with the horror on his face. With the way he had run, leaving rubble behind him, I had a feeling that that bit of information wasn't exactly supposed to be common knowledge.

  His door was two steps ahead, the thunder of footsteps and yelling behind me growing closer. I wrapped my hand around the knob, pushing my magic into the metal and sliding the lock open as I had slid manhole covers back into place in every other escape.

  "Oh god, oh god, oh god," I hissed to myself, relocking the door and turning on the spot. Heart in my throat, I stared at the door, waiting for the voices to pass, waiting for the door to open and me to... what? Attack? I was so used to running and fighting that I honestly had no clue what to do in a situation in which you were actually innocent.

  Well, except for stealing the prince's book bag and breaking into hi
s dorm room. Which made it even more asinine that I had gone there. Or why I was chasing after him, well, other than the look on his face, the fear in those black eyes. I didn't know black eyes could be so expressive, so consuming. His were.

  The voices faded away and I dropped the bags to the floor, books and fabric hitting against that ridiculously thick rug.

  "Rowan!" I hissed into the dark room, peeking around the room with the couches, and the room with the sinks, and the room with the bed. Far more rooms than I had in my place, which I was suddenly grateful for. Too many places to hide, especially after I discovered a door that led to a bathroom the size of my entire dorm, and four more that held clothes. So many clothes.

  The only other place I had seen so many clothes was in a store we had knocked over after we realized we could get shoes for everyone in one shot. He probably had just as many pairs. Clothes, bathrooms, a door that hid food. But no Rowan.

  "Prince Douche," I snarled through a bite of the apple I had found on the counter. There was no answer. He wasn't there.

  Putting the apple on the little foot table, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen there, ready to leave him a note, when I saw that someone else had already done so.

  'Row-

  Accidents happen. Good is in everyone and everything, Rowan. Even you. Cail gave me the letter at your insistence, I’ll take care of it. We are getting closer on the Demarco’s so you need to hold out a little longer. Call me if you need help.

  - Mom'

  I only understood about half of it, but it didn't matter. The part that I did understand set me on my ass, sinking into a chair that must have been partially made of a cloud.

  He was right. Sia wasn’t his girlfriend. The entire thing had been a total farce. But even more shocking, he was the one who asked about the food stuff. He was the one who had worked that out.

  Prince Douche.

  Damn it. Now I really can’t call him that.

  I swallowed. He may have destroyed my tree, but he had still been listening. He had learned something.

  I sat, stupidly staring at the paper that had been folded and unfolded so many times that the seams had started to fray. The twirling ink on the word mom worn over so that it was barely legible. Like the drawing from my mother that I used to keep in my pocket. She couldn't read or write, but when I had woken up and she was gone, a drawing was in my pocket. I missed her so much I wore it through.

  "Rowan!" I jumped at the screech that echoed through the window in the bedroom, the familiar agonizing howl trying to claw the nerve endings out of my eyeballs.

  Sia.

  Well, in the sake of running, I better get on that. Stuffing the letter in my pocket, I grabbed my book bag and took off. Not out the window, but through the front door, which I had the misfortune of not checking before I darted into the hallway and into an already shrieking face.

  "Row-- You!"

  "Oh! Hi, Sia," I tried to be nonchalant, choosing instead to get the hell out of there instead of prod the bitch like I usually did. But then I turned and saw the chalky ghost that Sia had become.

  She was covered with so much dust and rubble that she could have sprouted up from it. Building troll.

  "You know, if your rash is that bad you should probably stay inside."

  Sia was fuming so much that the dust was shaking off of her, making it look like steam shooting from her ears. She looked like the toilets on a summer day, when all the stank was drifting up. Okay, maybe it was actually the perfect look for her.

  “Sia the toilet," I said under my breath, which only made her fume more.

  "Where is he?" She finally roared, more ash shimmying off her as the same Skȓítek guards from before plowed through the hallway behind her. "Where did you put the prince!"

  "Where did I..?" Yep. I was right, running had been a mistake. "I didn't put him anywhere; He ripped a hole in the roof and flew out the window."

  "No! You killed him! I saw your magic go right through him before the roof came down on top of everyone." And she was crying. Again.

  "Okay, dipshit. If I killed him why would I come back to drop off his bag and not fly back home and celebrate the start of the fall of the royals?" My chest burned with each word, the plans I didn’t want any more feeling like acid in my mouth.

  I shook my head, completely missing Sia's flinging of sparking acidic ribbons flying right to me.

  Well, shit. This was going to hurt.

  "That's enough of that!" The magic attack vanished with a pop, the guards that had been pursuing me, finally catching up. Not just guards, Mira was right at the head. It was Mira who had spoken, her brow furrowed in condescending agitation as she glared at Sia. I hadn’t seen her there a second before, not that it meant anything.

  She was an Eternal, she could probably do that stutter thing, and that shield thing.

  God. I had really underestimated Rowan, for all I know he was in his room the entire time.

  Mira and the guards raced down the hall, all of them dressed in black from head to toe, as if they had been stalking us like shadow ninjas. Creepy. Especially given that Mira looked like she was ready to kill one of us. Her long blonde hair was pulled up in a knot on top of her head, her eyes narrowed as they darted from me to the window to the door and back again.

  "Gemma, we have been looking for you." Mira began, flipping her fingers in a tiny flick that I don't think she expected me to see. The guards did, however, a few of them vanishing from sight as the others shifted, stepping around us. Or, I guess me.

  I jumped. People vanishing was not really something anyone expected, or got used to.

  "You blow up a couple of buildings and no one trusts you." I sighed, stepping back from one guard, then the other. I must have looked like a ping pong ball.

  "So, you did blow up the building?" Sia shrieked, pointing her finger wildly in my direction.

  "No. I’ve blown up others. This one as all--.” I froze, looking from Sia to the pocket that held the letter, something nagging at me.

  “I know you did it. Confess!” Sia said, forgetting to fake cry so she could glare at me.

  “We were sparing. He was winning. And then..." I paused, looking between Sia who was shaking so hard dust was falling from her shoulders and Mira who stood calm as could be considering there was a chance I had killed their prince. Then, I did something I never thought I would do.

  "I said something nasty about his freaky ass mom," I said with as much venom as I could force into my voice, Sia's jaw sagging as though she had been poisoned. I could have sworn Mira was suppressing a smile. "He was so pissed, but I wasn’t about to let him win. I don’t lose. I attacked him, but he dodged it. He hit the floor, then the ceiling and then he was out the window, calling me a crazy bitch."

  "Well, one part of your story is true. You are a crazy bitch," Sia spat, lip curling until Mira turned to her, the fake tears sprouting up like the shower drains when the floods came through every spring.

  "So, you don't know where he is?" Mira asked, still looking at Sia who was now cranking it up a notch and trying to produce actual tears.

  "Nope. Hence why I came here. To apologize for being a bitch." I said, folding my arms over my chest as I glared at Sia, her tears slipping as she stifled a laugh. “That and not end up a ghost from a collapsed building.”

  The tears were once again replaced by a scowl.

  "Don't worry. I know my nephew, everything will be okay," Mira said, waving away the others who had been trailing behind her, the last of them vanishing without so much as a pop.

  I totally jumped again.

  "Wait. You are going to let her go?" Sia's tears were forgotten now, more dust falling off her as she pounded her fists against her thighs.

  "No, I am going to let you go, Miss Demarco, we have no use for you at this moment and I am sure there is another hallway nearby that you can haunt. Gemma and I are going to visit the headmaster, so off you go." I don't think I had ever seen anyone put Sia in her place so fast.

>   Mira might be my new favorite, would have told her so too if Sia’s expressions wasn’t flipping from crying, to furious, to pouting so fast that I was starting to wonder if her brain was broken.

  "Come with me Gemma," Mira said, pulling me from Sia who jumped nearly to the ceiling as a disembodied voice yelled “Boo!” right beside her.

  She screamed, three booming males voices laughed and I squealed with a sound I didn’t know I could make.

  Sia was staring furiously at me from the middle of the hall as we walked away. My squealing laugh continued as Mira pulled me around the corner and toward who knows what.

  “I can die happy now.” I sighed, stuffing my hands in my pockets and following after Mira with my nose in the air.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Nothing, just embedding her expression in my mind while you lead me to my untimely end.” I was trying to be totally nonchalant about this thing, but I couldn’t, my voice still caught, my heart twisting itself around my throat like it was trying to tango with the thing.

  “I’m not leading you to your end. Cail is not going to kill you. It’s a building, not a dynasty.” Mira’s response did little to calm my dread.

  “That would make sense, I mean, Headmaster Cail probably doesn’t carry out his own murders.”

  “Oh, he does all his own killing,” Mira said, her face so deadpan that I wasn’t about to question her. “But he also doesn’t kill innocents.”

  “You think I’m innocent?” I stopped in place; my mouth dry as I tried to swallow away my shock. There were dramatic pauses in the hallway from this girl, I had to run to catch up. “Or do you believe that mumbo jumbo that the queen’s been throwing around?”

  “I believe you.”

  “Why?” I gasped, earning myself a sigh. “I mean, yay!” I threw my hands in the air with exaggerated glee. “But why?”

  This might have to go down in history as a first.

  “Because it’s my job.”

  “It’s your job to believe me?” My voice echoed as we turned another corner. I could have sworn I heard the shuffle of feet, like we were being followed. But even with one quick turn, no one was there.