And then the magic faded.
Gritting her teeth, the woman glared. “I could have,” she growled.
At Ashe’s silence, she snarled wordlessly and spun, shoving past the guards as she fled the room.
Not breathing, Ashe slid her gaze to Sebastian, meeting his eyes.
He gave another chuckle, the sound forced. For a heartbeat, he hesitated, as though trying to think of something to say, and then he turned, striding out the door with the guards on his heels.
Silence settled over the cell.
Magic churned through her, roiling above aching rage and fighting desperately for a place to go. Her gaze dropped to the floor as her body remained standing, paralyzed.
A breath escaped her, loud amid the quiet.
Nervous as always, the smaller guard inched back into the room. At the sight of her, he paused, gripping the doorframe with a bloodless hand. Nausea flickered over his face and, swallowing hard, he shoved away from the door and darted down the hall, chasing Sebastian with requests that someone take his place. Cagily, the larger guard walked in, forcing himself to do what his companion could not, though he only made it a few paces before he also stopped and glanced back to the door.
His gaze locked on the empty space for a moment.
And then slowly, he turned and crossed the room.
Rigid with tension, she watched as he stopped before her, his bulk towering more than a foot higher than her own form. His eyes met hers, every trace of fear gone.
He sank to one knee before the splattered food at her feet. With a napkin from his pocket, he carefully cleaned the edges of the plate and then straightened, placing the tray on the small table nearby. Glancing to her briefly, he tore a piece from the hard-crusted roll lying half-submerged in cream corn and then dipped it into everything else on the plate. His gaze went to the door, noting the absence of anyone there.
And thoughtfully, he ate the bite of bread whole before looking back her way.
“To be certain,” he whispered.
She stared, uncomprehending, and then she blinked. Poison. Her brow flickered down.
“You are not alone, your highness,” he continued, his voice so low she could barely hear him. “Just hang on.”
Infinitesimally, he bowed his head before meeting her eyes again. Speechless, she watched him return to his chair by the door. Dread and nervousness dropped back over his face like a mask, indistinguishable from before.
White with terror, the smaller guard stumbled back into the room, looking between his companion and their prisoner as though shocked the man remained alive. With a shaking hand, he found his chair and lowered himself down. The guards from the hall returned and, glancing into the cell, they gave disparaging looks to the others for leaving the exit open in their own fear.
A clunk sounded as the metal door settled back into its frame.
She sank onto the cot. Numbly, she reached up, pausing a moment before wrapping her fingers around the roll.
Her gaze flicked to the larger guard, curious and cautious at the same time.
And then she looked away.
Rage and hurt still pulsed somewhere inside, emanating from emotions scoured raw. Sebastian’s words hovered at the edge of memory, accompanied by images of the night her family died.
But the pain wasn’t as strong as before.
Because she’d won.
And now she just had to hang on.
*****
She figured it was getting late when the lights of her cell dimmed. The fluorescent bulbs flickered down to a ghost of their former glow and, for the thousandth time, the tired guards hinted that she might want to sleep, though she could tell by their tones they’d long since stopped expecting the suggestion to accomplish anything. From the hallway, she hadn’t heard a sound since Sebastian left, and through the air vent, she could see the corridor lights lower as well.
Briefly, she toyed with the idea of letting her hands catch flame just to make more light, but with how tense the pathologically frightened smaller guard had become over the past day, she wasn’t certain he wouldn’t just blow up the room at the first hint of magic. Pushing the temptation aside, she shifted position on the cot, and then regretted it when the man flinched.
She buried a grimace. Every second hurt. People were in trouble out there. And if she could escape this cell and force the feral bastards to give her the cripples’ location, she might be able to do something about it.
Instead, she was waiting.
Her gaze twitched to the larger guard. Questions burned inside her, becoming more intolerable as the hours crept by. The man hadn’t said a word beyond suggestions of sleep ever since Sebastian left and, on some level, she’d started wondering if his whole display earlier had just been some kind of tactic to keep her in Darius’ custody. The claim of possible poison could have been solely for her benefit, and the guard never even said what she was supposed to be hanging on for.
Like everything else, it could be just another trick.
Every light in the cell went black.
In the darkness, a muffled shout rang out, followed by a heavy thud. Ashe scrambled to her feet, flames rushing up her arms.
“Your majesty, wait!” the guard cried, holding up his hands in the firelight.
The smaller man lay in a heap on the floor. The guard opened his mouth to speak when a clunk from the door interrupted him. Keeping one eye to her, he pulled open the door.
Ashe blinked. “Elias?”
“Are you alright?” he asked as he hurried inside, leaving three men waiting in the hall behind him.
She nodded, looking between the councilman and the guards.
“I’m sorry about the delay,” Elias said. “We’ve come to get you out of here.”
Relief hit her, followed almost instantly by caution. Darius had lied to her for months. Cornelius had betrayed her for the sake of the monarchy. Sebastian had just wanted an excuse to hurt her more. By all reports, the council thought she was insane.
And Elias wanted to defy them all by helping her escape.
She’d had enough of trusting anyone blindly.
“Why?” she asked as she glanced through the doorway, evaluating her chances of fighting past the wizards before they raised the alarm.
“Your majesty, we need to go.”
She scoffed, not moving. At the sound, the large guard shifted uncomfortably.
Elias exhaled. “Because this is madness,” he stated. “I don’t know what happened today, but I know you. I’ve worked with you for months. You’re not crazy and you’re not a traitor. But this afternoon I heard a man I’ve known for years suddenly propose we undermine the monarchy and put the council in control. He’s charging you with high treason, and the kangaroo court he’s set up is already planning what they’ll do once they find you guilty.
“Everything’s falling apart,” he continued. “And the only reason people are going along with it is because they’re scared. But this is insanity, and I refuse to risk that it could get the last member of the royal family killed.”
Ashe hesitated, eyeing the wizards again.
“Please, your majesty,” the large guard urged quietly.
She glanced to him, caution still in her gaze.
“Nathaniel was one of your father’s personal bodyguards,” Elias told her. “As were the others with me. You can trust them.”
“And Darius was his friend,” she replied.
Elias grimaced. “Give me some credit in who I chose to have watch out for you.”
She hesitated a moment longer and then nodded.
“Alright,” Elias said. “Katherine and the others are waiting. I can get us out of here if–”
“We can’t leave yet,” she interrupted.
He stared at her.
“Darius is holding a bunch of people hostage. I don’t know where. But if I leave, he said he’d kill them.” She paused. “We need Sebastian.”
“Your highness–”
“Can you
get a portal close to his room?”
Elias hesitated. “Yes,” he allowed. “But it’s going to attract attention.”
“Do it.”
His mouth tightened, and then he sighed. “This side of the door,” he said to the three men in the hall. He glanced to the large guard. “Nathaniel–”
“I stay with the queen,” the man finished, any alternative negated by his tone.
A grateful smile pulled at Elias’ mouth, though it didn’t reach his eyes before it died. He took a deep breath as the others came into the cell and then he extended his hand toward the exit.
The doorframe sizzled with electricity, the air pressure in the room plummeted, and then the view of the hallway was dragged into a vortex of gray smoke.
“Go,” Elias ordered.
She followed the guards through the portal.
Dim light surrounded them as they stepped from the stairwell doorway. The three guards hurried ahead of her, leading the way to Sebastian’s room, while Nathaniel fell in by her side. At the door, the men paused, looking back at her and then to Elias coming up behind.
She nodded.
They shoved the door open and Ashe followed them in.
Sebastian sat up sharply in his bed, and then his magic was gone. The guards rushed him and swiftly, one drove magic into Sebastian’s mouth, silencing him completely while the other two hauled him from the bed.
“You miss me?” she asked as they dragged him past her.
The hate in his eyes was answer enough. Struggling to shout past the gag, he thrashed in the guards’ grip as they headed for the door.
She hesitated, her gaze flicking in the direction of her bedroom. Her gun was back there. Of everything here, it was the only thing she didn’t want to leave behind.
Shouts rose from deeper in the building. Lights came up in the corridor and she could feel the air pressure drop from portals forming nearby. At the door, Elias raised his hands, and the view of the hall vanished into shadow.
“Your majesty?” he called.
She cursed internally, hurt swelling though there was nothing to be done. Drawing a sharp breath, she raced after the others through the portal.
The moist, concrete wall of the subbasement brought her to a halt.
“What took so – wait, why is he here?”
The flustered voice greeted her and she glanced over to see Katherine staring at them in the darkness, the red light of a distant exit sign reflecting from her gold glasses.
“Her majesty insisted,” Elias explained as the five wizards with Katherine joined the others in dragging Sebastian down the hall.
Katherine’s gaze flicked over her. “You are unharmed?” the woman asked, the words equal parts question and statement of what would be, regardless.
Ashe nodded. Katherine echoed the motion distractedly, turning to watch Elias follow the guards.
“This way,” the woman said.
By the doorway of a storage room at the end of the hall, Elias tugged out his cell, swiftly checking the locations he’d set his portal to reach. A grimace twisted his expression. “They’ve already prepped the main gate. Twelve guards. More than normal. Other access points for the shield aren’t any better.”
He glanced to Ashe, and she nodded at the question in his eyes.
Drawing a breath, he turned, running a hand over the door. The blue glow of wizard writing raced down the frame, sorting destinations faster than she could read. Ignoring the display, he yanked the handle and then stepped back. “Go.”
Guards blocked the chain-link gate beneath the irradiating glow of a security light. Eyes going wide, they tensed as Ashe and the others came through the booth doorway.
Like dominoes, she sent their magic cascading through their neighbors, toppling them all to the ground.
“Nice,” Elias said behind her. “They alive?”
She nodded, eyeing the faint haze of the factory’s defenses. As one massive security system, the barrier was tissue-thin and almost undetectable, though that didn’t stop it from being formidable. Wizards couldn’t pass it, nor could any other living thing, and a single trace of magic nearby was reported instantly to the guards monitoring it in the main building.
If he hadn’t known she was here already, Darius would now.
She glanced back as Elias yanked open the security box mounted to the booth wall. The keypad beeped rapidly beneath his jabs, and he gave a humorless grin to the gate as it began to roll back and the shield flickered enough to let them by.
“Council override,” he told her. “Run.”
The guards hefted Sebastian between them as they rushed toward the security booth on the other side. Darting after them, Ashe tossed a glance over her shoulder. In the darkness, a portal was churning. Her breath catching, she skidded to a stop beyond the barrier.
“Elias, hurry!” she yelled over her shoulder.
Cornelius rushed out, with Darius only a step behind.
“Your highness, wait!” Cornelius called.
Around the gag, Sebastian yelled as he fought the wizards’ grip. Energy surged around Darius, lashing out at the brief weakness in the shield, only to fizzle to nothing as it passed the barrier. At his back, his guards stabbed codes into the keypad.
Elias wove his magic through the booth doorway.
“Ashe, please!” Cornelius shouted. “Don’t do this!”
Magic surged behind him, radiating from Darius’ hands. The barrier flickered, the key commands taking effect.
She spun, racing after the others as the barrier around the gate vanished, Darius’ magic rushed her, and the darkness of the portal swallowed everything.
Chapter Ten
Puddles splashed beneath her feet as she came to a stop in the alley. Neon lights reflected from the rippling water and cast strange shadows into the doorways of the brick buildings nearby. From behind a dumpster, a cat fled, eager to escape the wizards’ proximity.
“Where are we?” Ashe asked, turning to Elias.
“South side of town. I’m not taking this bastard anywhere near a safe house, so if there’s something you want from him, now’s the time to get it.”
She nodded and then glanced to Sebastian, ignoring his attempt at a smirk despite the magic muffling him.
“Where are they?” she demanded.
His expression turned condescending and she jerked her chin at the guards. They let the magic blocking his mouth dispel.
He spat at her. A guard’s fist slammed into his face, knocking his head sideways.
Ashe wiped the spittle from her cheek and dried her hand on her jeans. “Where are they?” she repeated.
“Darius will know you’re going–”
“Then it won’t matter if you tell us.”
The contempt in his eyes couldn’t hide the sadistic anticipation peaked by her words.
“Where are they?”
He glanced to the guards and then gave a dry laugh. Shaking his head, he worked his jaw around. “Layton Marina,” he said finally.
She looked to Elias. “You know where that is?”
He nodded.
“Take us there.”
*****
After the first few weeks in Croftsburg, Harris had taken to driving the streets at night, hoping to catch sight of things no one else could see. The body count was high enough around here to justify the effort, though the cops attributed it all to serial killers, drug deals and gang crime. The populace was worried and most people stayed in after dark, except for those with agendas and those too burnt out on life to care.
And wizards.
Or so he hoped.
The news made him shake his head these days. Serial killers. Gang wars. They had it half right. They just made the mistake of assuming all killers were human.
But then, everyone always did.
Jamison’s people sent him reports of unidentified murder victims from all over the nation these days, feeding him whatever information he required for his part of their mission. After an
initial reluctance, the man seemed to understand Harris’ strategy, though he still left the detective working alone.
But that was alright. After what happened to Malden, Harris preferred it that way.
Shifting his grip on the steering wheel, he grimaced at the red light glaring in his eyes. By one in the morning, most stoplights in the better parts of town had switched to flashing in both directions. But on fringe streets like the marina road, such ground-breaking technology had yet to make an impression. And regardless of the fact he was probably the only car for a mile around, for the past minute and a half the light had perversely insisted on remaining red, while determinedly casting its green glow down an empty frontage road.
He hated Croftsburg.
For a long time, he’d wandered from city to city, kept afloat by funds from Jamison’s coffers and chasing one empty lead after another. But of all the cities east of the Mississippi, this sprawling metropolis had the most unidentified bodies, a statistic that hadn’t diminished as the weeks ground on. Some of the corpses were written up as outright homicides, while others were allegedly the victims of drug deals or overdoses. A few had been chalked up to suicide, while the others were filed under causes unknown.
None were burned, but it didn’t matter. Harris suspected her involvement in them all.
Some nights, when the streets were empty and even the criminals had gone to bed, he could almost picture himself catching her. With his car parked on the deserted stretches of dark city roads, he’d imagine seeing her again, the innocent victim act fallen from her face and the true intent finally revealed underneath. And he’d know what he’d done was right.
He’d have to call Jamison’s men to take her in; he knew that. Against so many of them, she’d have less chance to set anyone aflame. And they wouldn’t take her for any trial he’d be accustomed to, but he wasn’t certain anymore if that was the point. He’d have captured her. She couldn’t hurt anyone ever again.
The rest was immaterial.
Overhead, the infernal light finally deigned to become green, and with a sigh, he took a left turn. Past his window, the glimmering lake shone beneath the full moon, silhouetting the hulking storage buildings of the abandoned marina and the rotting boats dying slowly nearby. Yellow security lights dotted several buildings in an attempt to dissuade the local teenagers from using the harbor as a hangout, though the graffiti scrawled across the walls proved how ineffective the measures had been. He regarded the mess dryly as the rough pavement grumbled beneath his tires and potholes set the car lurching every few yards.
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