by Erin Hayes
With Adira draped over his shoulder, Alec sped through the arc of the forest surrounding most of the Sector. When he reached the open fields of the old farm land, he slowed. On the other side of the electric shield that separated the outskirts from outlands was his old home. His mother and father’s home.
But he couldn’t’ go there. And not just because it was in Ravager territory now. He couldn’t go anywhere familiar. Those would be the first places Dvorak would look for them.
Except for…Adira’s place.
Alec froze and turned slowly to face back the way he’d come. Adira’s place had never been discovered. She’d lived there for over a decade, undiscovered. Alec was the only one other than her that knew the location because she’d sent him there to gather her belongings.
He took off in a run, weaving through the trees until he arrived there, breathless. He broke through the entry and quickly shut the door behind him. Adira was still carrying on, but his adrenaline had drowned her out. His head was spinning. He hadn’t thought this through.
Now what?
He wasn’t about to keep her prisoner. But he needed to get her to listen to him.
With a deep sigh, he scanned the room, and spotting her cot, sat her on it, keeping his hands firm on her shoulders. She tried to pull away, but without her magic to fight back, he was stronger.
“Adira! Calm down!”
She stopped, staring into his eyes with the most haunted expression. Her eyes were dry of tears, but the emptiness there was frightening. “Alec,” she said evenly, “you need to let me go. I need to save these people.”
He crouched in front of her, still keeping her in his grasp. “Why?” His face tightened, and he shook his head. “These are people who cheer on the death of innocent women. They aren’t worth saving.”
She tilted up her chin. “You were worth saving.”
The words cut into his heart like a sharp blade of ice. He swallowed hard. “That was different.” His voice broke. “Come on, Adira. You know it’s not the same. Let me protect you.”
“No, Alec! Let me protect you.”
“I’m going to let you go now,” he said. “But I want you to hear me out. Then, if you still want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
She nodded slowly, and he lowered his hands off of her. She remained still and implored him with her gaze. “Well?”
Alec told her everything he had discovered in the Regent’s books. All the things he hadn’t yet had the chance to tell her. She didn’t so much as blink.
“Okay,” she said. “May I go now?”
“Adira, please,” he pleaded. “You are amazing and strong and made of heart. If anyone can overcome the Regent, it’s you. You don’t need to prove that.”
“But I do,” she said. “To myself, and to those whose lives depend on it.”
He shook his head, his heart sinking. “I’ll never forgive myself if you die.”
“And I’ll never forgive myself if those people die. So why would you ask me to live with a guilt you yourself do not desire to live with?”
“It’s not the same.”
“Isn’t it, though?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Let me tell you something, Alec. You will never forgive yourself if I die, but if this Sector dies because you stopped me, I will never forgive you. Which then would be harder to live with?”
He stood and raked his hands through his hair, blowing out a frustrated breath. “Fine. Go,” he mumbled. “But I’m coming with you.”
She stood with all the grace and calm and acceptance that he himself could not muster. “You do what you want, Alec. All I ask is that you don’t get in my way.”
Alec had tried to get Adira to at least tell him what she had planned, but she refused, and that worried him more. What could be so bad that she wouldn’t tell him?
Adira made it back to the castle in time for the wedding. Soon after, she was escorted to the marketplace with one of the usual processions. But instead of setting up the altar at the usual venue, they set it up where the Regent’s dispensary kiosk normally stood: on the large circular runestones embedded into the ground. The edges normally glowed blue, but now the emanating glow was orange, with the overlapping pattern of rings glowing the brightest.
Alec wasn’t sure what Dvorak was up to, but it couldn’t be good. Especially if he was breaking this many traditions.
The entire Sector was in attendance. Since Dvorak believed Alec to be dead, hiding in a crowd of people who would recognize him was not a wise idea. Instead, Alec took cover in a nearby abandoned home, peering out a hole in one of the sheet-made-curtains.
Adira had no father to walk her down the aisle, but that was never how these unions went anyway. It was always two armed guards who walked the Doomed Queen to Dvorak’s side. Adira, however, took each step with more confidence and grace than any Queen before her. Nothing about her belied fear or unease that would match that roiling in Alec’s stomach.
When the officiate began to speak, Alec curled his hands into tight fists and clenched his jaw.
“To all present, I say: We are gathered here today, not to witness the beginning of what will be, but rather what already is. The law deems these two destined to be wed for the good of our Sector, and we give thanks to the willing parties before us today, who join today in perfect love and perfect trust.”
The crowd cheered their trained response. “In perfect love and perfect trust!”
“This marriage is more than the joining bonds of two people,” the officiate continued. “It is the union of our well-being, of our safety. It transcends love for one another and represents a love for mankind, a love for humanity. Today, as Regent Dvorak takes Adira Chovanek’s hand in marriage, we witness their love not for each other, but for this great Sector and all who live within it.”
“Thank you, our Regent!” the crowd chanted.
Alec bit his tongue.
The Regent raised his hands, quieting the crowd, and smiled widely. “I want to thank you all for being here to bear witness,” he said, his voice booming over the murmurs of the crowd. “We have confidence that together we can make this Sector great again!” He raised is finger, as though admonishing his point. “And let us not forget the sacrifice the entire world before us has made for our survival. Our actions today are but a small part of that. We must remember that division is what has allowed us to survive. United we stand,” he said, picking up the intensity of his tone, “but divided, we conquer!”
“Divided we conquer,” the crowd echoed, some pumping their fists into the air.
At the thought Alec had once not been a far cry from these people, he shuddered. Mindless drones, brainwashed from birth by Dvorak’s reiterated speeches.
Alec’s gaze drifted back to Adira. Calm as ever. But while Dvorak’s attention was on the crowd and the crowd on him, her hand slipped to the folds of her dress and then back up to her mouth. The movement was so innocuous, one would think she had merely touched her lips. But Alec’s eyes were trained for slight of hand, and he noticed the vial between her fingers.
The wheels in Alec’s mind turned. She’d been working on something in the woods when he’d found her. A potion. What was in that vial?
When the crowd settled again, the officiate continued. “If any of you has reasons why these two should not be married,” he said, “speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Alec scoffed bitterly to himself. As if anyone would dare object.
“Then it is with great honor—”
“I object.”
Alec’s heart sputtered in his chest. That sounded like... He shook his head. She wouldn’t.
“Excuse me?” the officiate said.
Adira straightened her posture. “I said, I object.”
The crowd erupted into a storm of whispers.
“Silence!” the Regent bellowed. Following the immediate obedience to his command, he continued in a quieter voice. “It is the lady’s choice, of course. Should she not want to wed,” he said th
rough his teeth. “Unfortunately, the law dictates she would then be exiled.”
Normally the crowd cheered to witness a banishment, but this time, they remained awkwardly silent. This was new. Wedding Days were the purest days of hope for these people, and this was being taken from them. As angry as they surely were with Adira, some part of them were just not prepared to see a savage murder at this time.
Dvorak leaned closer to Adira, his mouth by her ear, but Alec couldn’t hear what was said. Then the Regent, the officiate, and the guards stepped out from the circle, leaving Adira standing along on the large glowing runestone.
Every muscle in Alec’s body urged him to run out there, but he’d promised not to stop her.
And deep down, he trusted her. Even with her own life. As terrified as being out of control made him feel, some core part of his being knew she really was strong enough for this.
Whatever this was.
The Regent broke the nearest runestone and changed the boundary lines, putting Adira on the outside.
But the Ravagers weren’t going after her. It was as though they couldn’t smell her, couldn’t sense her. They just wandered around, not noticing as she side-stepped out of her way.
Dvorak yelled something Alec couldn’t make out, and rays of light shot upward on the edges of the embedded circular runestone Adira stood on, knocking her to her knees and trapping her inside with several of the grotesque beasts.
But as he did so, one of the other boundary stones broke.
An uncontrollable, uneasy energy wavered through Alec’s body—not a magical energy, though. A nervous one. The need to move. To do something.
As he stepped out of the abandoned home into the alley, he was nearly knocked back inside by some of the retreating crowd. Alec pushed his way through, coming to the opening and staring at where Adira was imprisoned.
His mind took a moment to process what he was looking at, and his heart soon crashed to his stomach as realization set in.
Another one of the boundary stones had failed, and Dvorak’s attempts to reseal the boundary were failing.
Ravagers were infiltrating Sector One.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Adira closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pushing down all her panic, all her fear, all her doubt. This moment had always been inevitable. But at least she’d taken into her control when it would happen.
A Ravager’s breath crawled down her neck. She clenched her teeth. They couldn’t sense her. They couldn’t sense her because they tracked life. They hunted and obliterated life.
But Adira wasn’t alive.
The origin spell had worked, which meant she had only minutes left to do what needed to be done. After that, her death would be permanent. It would not just be a death of her essence, but of her spirit.
Her eyes flashed open, and she spun in a slow circle, assessing the situation. The boundaries had come down, which hadn’t been part of the plan. Her goal had been to kill the Ravagers without magic, the whole Sector in attendance to see.
Even the Witch Hunters used magic borrowed from the Regent to kill those beasts. No one had ever killed a Ravager without magic before. And technically, she wouldn’t be either. But the Sector would think she had, and that would have been enough to overthrow the Regent.
But this… She shook her head. This would be a massacre. There was no way she could kill so many of them by herself, not even with the Ravagers unable to detect her. And with the potion shutting down all the systems in her body, she didn’t have much time.
Before she could do anything, she needed to repair the border runestone. But the question was: could she? She’d repaired a runestone at Miss Balek’s before…but that was just an object-powering rune. Even the Regent couldn’t repair the border stones. In fact, the last known witch to repair a border runestone had been one of the Original Sixteen. A true Othala witch.
Adira’s wobbled as pain shot through her stomach. She didn’t have time doubt herself. She needed to take action. Which meant it was time to get the Regent’s metal cuff off her wrist so that she could use magic.
She reached up to her neck to feel for the sundial charm. It wasn’t there. Her hands started to feel around her neck, patting down her body, her breath freezing in her lungs. It. Wasn’t. There.
Her eyes went wide as she scanned the ground. Had she dropped it? She dropped down to her hands and knees, her heart hammering in her chest. Her vision blurred, doubled. Tears prickled her eyes. She didn’t have time for this.
The Regent’s shoes stepped into her vision. “Looking for this?”
Her eyes tracked up to his hand. She couldn’t make out what he was holding, but she didn’t have to. She knew.
He’d taken her sundial.
Without it, she wouldn’t be able to repair the stone. She wouldn’t be able to reverse the effects of the potion. She was going to die.
The screams of the Sector beyond the Regent suddenly seemed louder. More Ravagers were crossing the border. Meanwhile, the ones surrounding her lied in heaps. The Regent had used the magic of the dispensary’s large ground runestone to kill them. Now it was just Dvorak and herself trapped inside the dome of glowing light.
She’d rather have the Ravagers.
Adira tried to climb to her feet to face him, but stumbled forward, her cheek crashing against the stone beneath her. She rolled over onto her back so she could look up at him.
“Don’t do this, Dvorak,” she said. “People are dying.”
He circled her, tilting his head. “People need to die, Adira. They need to be reminded why I do the things I do.”
“To what end?” Pain radiated through her, and she curled up tightly. Her vision darkened. “If you let this happen—” The sharp sensation in her stomach was unbearable. “—there won’t be—a Sector left—for you to…protect.”
“And whose fault is that, Adira?” He crouched down beside her and lifted her chin. “You did this.”
She pulled away, her head dropping to the side. Beyond the glowing wall of the runestone she lied on, Alec and several men from the guard fought against the Ravagers. But if the border didn’t seal soon, they would be outnumbered, and no amount of the Regent’s borrowed magic would help them.
“Ah, yes,” Dvorak said from behind her. “Alec Kladivo. Back from the dead, fighting the good fight.” The Regent’s chilling laughter broke through the battle cries. “Well, he might have retrieved that sword, but it won’t do him any good. He’s as good as dead. Just…like…you.”
Adira ground her teeth together and rolled onto her stomach. She pulled herself across the ground toward the broken runestone, but Dvorak grabbed her by the ankle.
“I haven’t decided what to do with you yet,” he said. “Do I let you die? I have a dungeon full of other eligible witches, after all. Still, you’re stronger. Well, not right now, thanks to your little suicide mission. But we could fix that. One way or another, I could get you to procreate with me.”
Sick. Asshole.
Adira kicked, trying to get Dvorak off of her so she could close the distance between herself and runestone, but with the Origin spell’s potion killing her, she didn’t have the energy to shake him. There was nothing she could do without magic anyway. She needed that sundial.
The glowing dome around the dispensary’s runestone flickered. Dvorak couldn’t keep it up much longer.
“You’re gonna get yourself killed,” Adira said through her teeth. “Just give me…the sundial. I can fix…this.”
Dvorak pushed his foot down on her spine, holding her to the ground. “Now you’re worried about me?” he asked. “Don’t fret, my love. I’ll be fine.”
With a deep breath, Adira rolled hard toward Dvorak, and he lost his footing and stumbled forward, tripping over her body. The dome flickered again as he lost his balance near the edge, and a Ravager swiped at his back.
Grimacing, Dvorak’s hands curled into tight fists as he stalked back toward Adira and grabbed her by her hair, lifting her
from the ground.
“You know what? You’re too stupid to bear my children. Your friends will have to do.”
As he went to throw her, Adira grabbed his wrist, holding on with what little strength she had left. He toppled down with her, her back thudding against the ground and the weight of his body crushing into her stomach. The wind rushed from her, and as she gasped in another breath, her lungs seized.
Dvorak attempted to pull free, but Adira’s grip was like stone around his wrist. Her muscles, even her fingers, were stiffening. Every movement ached, but she managed to yank him back to her.
As the breath slowly collected back into her lungs, she hissed in his ear.
“I will not let these people die.” Her fingers crawled toward his hand that held the sundial.
The fall had taken him off guard; the dome was down. Ravagers roamed into their circle now. The light flickered a few times, searing and killing two of the Ravagers, but it was too late. Three Ravagers had already made it inside, and if Dvorak lit up the rest of the stone, it would kill everyone on it—Adira and himself included.
“Looks like you’re done,” Adira muttered.
As one of the Ravagers came down on top of Dvorak and herself, she snatched the sundial away and squirmed out from under Dvorak’s body. The Ravagers still couldn’t see her, but that was about the only thing working in her favor.
She sat up, the world around her spinning and dimming, and slashed the sundial against the metal cuff on her wrist. The metal fell off, revealing a row of deep holes, encircled with swollen red skin, around her wrist where Dvorak’s magical poison had entered her system.
A glance toward the Sector revealed the Ravager’s had outnumbered the Guard. She needed to reseal the border before any more got inside.
Dvorak’s ability to protect the border without repairing runes was unique to him. Adira didn’t know how he did it. But that’s what the Origin spell was for. She didn’t need to know how Dvorak’s magic worked. She knew how the magic of the Original Sixteen worked, and she was going to use it…if the poison didn’t kill her first.