The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series)

by Rachel Higginson

  “Is that how he got away?” Jericho asked quickly. I could feel the hope in his magic, but I refused to let myself have any of it.

  The Titans mocked him with a derisive laugh.

  “He didn’t get away from us,” Mitica spat defensively. “So what? He put up a fight, but nothing else. He was a weak human by then, we were the Titan Guard. He didn’t stand a chance.”

  “But he did get away,” I reminded them, although I understood their pride. “I agree with you about him being weak though. I’ve seen Eden’s memories, so I know he wasn’t capable of it on his own. He must have had help.” Everyone nodded along with him and I swore to myself that if they were just humoring me because I was King I would take away all of their retirement funds. “While he was down in the prisons, did any of you notice that he was particularly close to anyone in the Guard? Or how about when he escaped?”

  Now they shook their heads like they had no information to offer for my questions.

  Which was frustrating.

  I could feel their cocky confidence, hell I was practically choking on the chauvinistic arrogance these four guys were radiating and yet losing a guy like Terletov couldn’t possibly be their fault! He had to have been a human when he broke out of the Citadel…. had to have been. We’re still not sure if he has magic or not and if he does how he got it. So who dropped the ball? Had he even made it to the Citadel in the first place?

  Ugh… too many unanswered questions.

  “Alright, I want the four of you to split up and partner with one of my guys. Take them through exactly what happened that day and what your role was. I’m going to check out this basement holding room,” I waited for everyone to acknowledge me before announcing, “We’re not leaving here without some kind of answers. You can go. Jericho, you’re with me.”

  Xander, Xavier, Titus and Roxie had to be the ones to make the first move. I was glad to see that Roxie had chosen Christi to work with. I had no doubt the girl could hold her own, but I wanted this to go smoothly and I had a bad feeling any of the other Titans were going to give her a hard time.

  Jericho and I walked forward into the barn and started looking around. The old stone barn smelled like dirt and musty hay. Birds flapped unhappily up in the rafters, angry that we disturbed them. The barn was typical and unimpressive. Old farm equipment hung on rusted hooks protruding from the walls and short, stools and benches littered the hay covered earthen ground. The door that Eden blew off the handles still stood propped against the open hole it had ripped through. Nothing and nobody had been here in years.

  Jericho stood next to me yawning and when I gave him a questioning look he nodded at the open doorway that led down into the room Eden had woken up in after being shot in the chest.

  “I can feel it,” Jericho explained his yawn while tipping his head in the direction of the basement room. “It makes me feel tired, but also like I can’t move my magic…. like it’s slow and useless.”

  “You don’t need to be in here then,” I definitely did not like Jericho feeling anything but perfect form. “Send in Christi, I want to know if he can feel my magic when I’m down there.”

  Jericho nodded and walked off. I stared at the open doorway for six more seconds before deciding there was no use just standing there. I needed to get down. I needed to find something.

  I stomped down the wooden staircase, my body and weight shaking the weak structure. The room was dark and even mustier than upstairs and quite a bit cooler, but it was completely empty. I stood on the last stair assessing the room; it wasn’t large, but big enough that several people could have been held down here. A slithering feeling of warning prickled my skin and I felt my heartbeat accelerate before I could question why.

  Feeling anxious, I stepped off the stair and turned a slow circle in the room. A glint of metal caught my eye from the shadows underneath the staircase. I stepped forward, thinking it was possibly the bullet that had come out of Eden’s chest and realized two things at once.

  The first was that my magic was slower down here, I could still use it, but I felt sluggish and out of it. The second thing I realized was that there was a man standing in the corner pointing a gun directly at my chest.

  The glint of metal.

  Held by a man that had no access to his magic down here, but didn’t need it since he had a gun instead.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Even with the handicap of incapacitated magic I knew I needed to move and move fast. Not thinking about anything other than dodging the bullet I knew would be coming my way; I dove out of the bullet’s path just as I heard the click of the trigger. The bullet exploded from the gun aimed for my chest and like in slow motion, as if I were in my own horror film, it ripped through my t-shirt digging into my side and slicing through soft flesh. I hadn’t Time-Slowed the moment, but I still felt every second of pain as the bullet continued all the way through the hole it was digging and stayed lodged, buried in my side.

  I landed in an uncoordinated clump on the hard dirt floor, gripping at my side where blood spilled out over my clothes and hand. I felt the stinging residue of the magic that was in the bullet and my vision blurred in and out of blackness as I tried to hold on to consciousness. The man in the corner walked forward wearing a twisted smirk. He was blonde, with a blonde beard and even in my pathetic state on the floor I wanted to advise him to shave his flesh colored beard, it looked way unnatural.

  “I don’t think this is coincidence, your Highness,” the man muttered, his eyes glinting with excitement. A wave of darkness washed over me and my eyelids fluttered closed. I forced them open, digging my fingers further into the wound, trying desperately to get to the bullet and rip it out of me.

  Eden! I shouted into her head, jarring her from whatever it was she was doing, but she was already there, already sending her magic into me. I need you!

  I couldn’t hear anything from outside the room and I had no idea if anyone else had heard the gunshot. Had it been loud? On a silencer? I couldn’t remember and now I couldn’t focus through my blurry vision to tell if there was a silencer on the weapon or not. My wound burned hot like lava, spreading the torturous feeling through my body like a sickness. Most Immortals would be unconscious by now, most wouldn’t have to feel the pain as it moved through every inch of my body, paralyzing my magic and sucking away my breath.

  Avalon! Eden screamed, sending as much magic into me as she could, but to no avail, the pain consumed her magic as quickly as it had mine. Don’t close your eyes! Don’t let him win, Avalon! She cried desperately.

  Through shadowy vision I watched my attacker lift his gun to my heart, and then seeming to think better of it, to my head, right in between my eyes. Eden’s idea came to her as soon as she could calm her panic and forced herself to breathe evenly. I felt the blue smoke move into me, immediately taking away the sharp edge of pain. The smoke had traveled between us before, and Eden had used it to heal countless Immortals by now, but this was the first time she had pressed it into me while we were this far apart. I could feel how the smoke was still anchored to Eden, even as it cleansed out my veins and organs of the evil magic threatening to cover me in darkness.

  The blue smoke pushed against the invasive bullet. I felt a bit of it as the bullet moved out of my body, through the tunnel it had burrowed and clinked onto the dirt floor next to me.

  Relief.

  This all happened in short, breathless seconds and in the last possible moment the smoke finished with my open wound making me capable of moving again. Before my vision cleared completely I rolled out of the way as the gun went off again, echoing thunderously in the small basement room. The bullet hit the dirt floor and ricocheted off while I kicked my legs out with as much force as I could into the knees of my attacker. He grunted and stumbled, his gun swinging wildly in the air.

  I kicked my legs out again, only this time to jump myself into standing and flung my fist into the guy’s face, connecting perfectly with his jaw. I felt the bones crunch underneath
my knuckles, the sound of his jaw breaking was almost as loud as the gun shot. With my left hand I forced a strong burst of my magic into his gut, sending him flying against a dirt wall a cloud of dust poofing out being him. His weak hand dropped the gun to his side as he slid down to the ground in a sitting position. With one more burst of magic sent at his head, I knocked him unconscious and without hesitation picked up the gun that had sputtered a few feet away.

  I examined the gun in my hand, ignoring the shaking of my fingers. I had almost been shot…. In the head…. And I tried to reassure myself that I wouldn’t have died, no matter what. But the nauseous feeling racking my stomach and the trembling of my hands warned me that I didn’t believe that. He was going to shoot me in the head. And by doing so, he would have won.

  I growled ferociously out loud and pointed the gun at the son of a bitch that tried to assassinate me. It hurt like hell and I wanted nothing more than to wait for him to wake up and show him what it felt like.

  Except then he would slip into a coma and I’d have to wait until Eden could come heal him before I got my answers. I grunted again and kicked at his limp foot.

  I wanted a break and I got one. However, he almost got what he wanted too.

  “Avalon, what the-“ Jericho shouted from the doorway that he shared with Christi. Both looked

  into the room with wide eyes and confused expressions.

  “This…. this guy was hiding down here, under the staircase. He shot me,” I gestured to my blood soaked clothes and waved the gun around. “He’s out now, but he definitely works for Terletov. Get me some handcuffs, two sets,” I ordered.

  Jericho left right away to get the magical handcuffs that would hopefully keep this guy confined while I questioned him. I stood over him, not trusting him even in his unconscious state, until Jericho returned a few minutes later and tossed the cuffs down to me. I kicked his torso forward and then pulled his arms behind his body quickly, snapping the cuffs on him before he could get the chance to wake up. I did the same to his ankles, knowing that without magic those cuffs would be super tight and uncomfortable against his skin, but not caring. The handcuffs suppressed his magic and that was all that mattered.

  I picked him up under his arms, since my magic wasn’t strong enough to lift him and then I dragged him up the stairs and dumped him on the barn floor at the feet of Jericho and Christi. The others had heard our commotion and filtered in, staring at the bound man unbelievingly.

  “What are the chances,” I heard Titus mutter, but other than that mostly everyone was silent.

  “I’m going back down,” I declared, kicking the guy in the side to see if I could wake him up. “Xander, Xavier, don’t take your eyes off of him. Call down as soon as he wakes up.”

  I turned to go back downstairs when Roxie called out, “What are you going to do?”

  “He was down there for a reason. I’m guessing, before he even knew we were here. There’s something down there and I’m going to find it,” I explained. A few from my team and even the old Titans moved as if they were going to help me so I had to hold up my hand to stop them. “Listen, I don’t know what’s down there, or who’s down there. And nobody’s magic works down there except mine. If I run into trouble I will holler for you. Otherwise just assume that I’m investigating and that I’ll be fine.”

  I turned away before anyone could object, but not before I saw the disbelieving faces of the old Titans. For a brief moment I wondered if I should offer like grief counseling or trauma counseling or something. I felt like they might be kind of messed up after working for Lucan all those years and carrying out his orders. I decided to shelve the issue and talk about it with Eden later. No Immortal that I knew would be open for something like counseling, but Eden was different and raised in a human world where they saw the value of talking their problems out with an objective listener. She would know what to do.

  Back in the basement, I kept my eyes open, half expecting to meet another attacker. I went immediately to under the staircase and paused. The bullets were not large, but they were magic and emitted a magical current just like everything else. When I stopped to search out the tiny little electrical charges I could feel them, I had to concentrate extremely hard and borrow from Eden but I could feel them.

  Eden sat hovering in my head, watching as everything unfolded far away from her. I felt her frustration and fear, her concern and anxiety. It was all echoed inside of me and I wished more than ever before she was here with me. She would work off of me, her magic and mine would collaborate to find answers.

  We’ll meet up after this. She said softly inside our heads. Find answers here and we’ll meet you.

  I don’t want you in danger. I answered and it was the truth. Or half of the truth, because only half of me believed it, the other half knew what kick ass fighters we were together.

  Then we won’t meet where there’s danger. She snapped and I smiled. But we are going to solve this problem together. You’re not going to exclude me, I told you that a long time ago. Now figure out what I missed when I was here.

  Demanding little thing, aren’t you? I teased, but it felt good.

  She started to say something, but I cut her off with a spark of realization. There, in the wall was a handle. There was nothing spectacular about it, just a lift in the wall that was camouflaged well. As an Immortal, I knew we generally ignored everything not magical. It was a huge flaw, but until Eden, most people didn’t realize how debilitating it could be.

  Except apparently Terletov had figured it out before all of us.

  I lifted the handle and pulled on it. An angry scraping sound filled the room as rusted metal grinded against worn hinges to move. The dirt wall was a well-made façade and hidden behind it was a surprisingly large weapons room. When the door opened all the way, a light overhead flickered on filling the room with fluorescent lighting. Nothing inside the room was rusted; instead everything was clean, shiny stainless steel from floor to walls, to ceiling, shelves and the large table that filled the middle of the room. Guns of every kind hung on three of the walls and on the third were floor to ceiling shelves that were filled, stacked completely with bullets to match.

  Holy hell.

  Holy hell. Eden echoed. You’re going to have to carry this all out yourself.

  I laughed out loud, realizing she was right.

  My fingers brushed over the cold metal of the middle table as I took in every weapon, every bullet, every nook and cranny in the space. My magic pulsed dangerously in my blood as my temper heated with it. The wall of ammunition radiated with electricity, because they were clustered together the collective energy vibrated together in a plus of their own.

  “Avalon!” Roxie called down the staircase, “He’s waking up!”

  I turned my back on the room, ignoring the sickening twist in my stomach and the hundreds of ideas that were flipping through my head for what all of that could be used for. The idea that nobody else had the means to take over the Kingdom was naïve and foolish. If there were any other rooms like this anywhere in the world it would be enough to take the Citadel easily.

  All it would take to put me down would be a couple well placed bullets to my head and chest and to Eden’s. A growl of rage ripped through my chest at the thought. They would never touch my sister.

  Never again.

  At the top of the stairs I blinked against the natural sunlight filling the barn and made my way out to the yard where everyone stood congregating around the handcuffed assassin. I joined them quietly in case the interrogating had already started, my teeth tearing away at my raw thumbnail.

  “If there is anyone else, we will find them,” Mitica threatened and even through our differences I appreciated his intimidating presence.

  The man on the ground laughed mockingly. I could tell he was weakened and disoriented from the grip of the handcuffs against his skin, but the defiance and hatred in his eyes were unmistakable.

  Faraway magic nagged at my neck, making the hairs on
my forearms rise. I looked around, panicked and desperate. Were they coming for us? How many were there? Did they all carry guns?

  “Get him inside,” I ordered.

  The other Titans had started to feel it too. They looked around with their military trained eyes, all of their bodies tensing with the warning.

  A gargled laugh filtered up from the ground. “You can’t stop him,” the attacker said. “It’s too late. He’s going to change everything. Your revolution is nothing compared to what he is planning! He will change it all! He will change it all!” He finished, dissolving into deranged laughter. His aggressive eyes were alight with disturbing glee. This man was clearly unhinged.

  And then before I could make another clear thought in my head, the sound of a gun rang out through the quiet countryside. I heard my sharp intake of breath and then the slicing sound of metal meeting flesh. The man next to me dropped to the ground, my mind not even able to register who it was before a second gunshot boomed through the air and another bullet hit its mark.

  The older Titans had already taken off in the direction of the magic without waiting to find out who was hit, or if more bullets would be coming. I opened my mouth to order my team to take cover when my eyes grazed over the assassin, realizing he was the target.