Cold Front

by Nikolai Joslin

  “And you don’t worry about me now?” she snapped back.

  “Of course I do! But only because I love you, not because I think you’re incapable.” Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Regan was right; she wasn’t up to par with us, but I knew she was the best she could be right now, and that was enough for me. As long as we faced enemies like this, the odds would always be against her, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t betting on her anyway.

  “Bullshit. You know as well as I that I’m holding all of you back. I’m useless like this.”

  “And the other humans who will be adding to our numbers soon? Who will be laying their lives on the line as well? Are they useless? Should I tell them to just go home as well?”

  “You know that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that I can’t protect you like this. I can’t protect you when I can barely protect myself from these things!” She closed the distance between us and gripped my shoulders tightly. “I love you, Casey. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I can’t stop you from getting hurt without any powers.”

  I pried her fingers off me and shook my head as I said, “I don’t need to be protected is the thing. I can handle myself. You don’t need to save me from anything. I am perfectly capable of rescuing myself. And if I need help, someone will help me. Whether or not it’s you, doesn’t matter. You can’t ‘protect’ me from everything.”

  “I can’t sit back and watch you get hurt, or even die, because I’m useless out there either!” she shouted.

  I shook my head. “You’re not getting this. You’re not useless. We need you on the field. The thing is, I don’t need you on the field. I don’t need a knight in shining armor.” She opened her mouth, but I held up my hand to stop her. “I know that was technically your job last year, knight protector, but any mage could tell you it was a purely honorary title. We don’t need saviors. Your job was to make sure we didn’t go rogue. I’m glad you’re here, Regan, I want you here, I want to be with you, and I want to do this with you, but you need to get over this crazy idea that I can’t handle myself. I am getting ready to lead a war. I can’t be pampered and kept in a tower until you think I’m safe enough. I have work to do. You’re going to have to find a way to deal with it.” I sighed heavily and tilted my head back to look up at the ceiling. “I don’t want to do this right now. We can talk another time. Maybe then you’ll realize that I’m not a child. I need to go to sleep right now. I have a long day tomorrow. Good night.” I stood on my tiptoes and kissed her cheek before walking up the stairs to my old room.

  Cinder was lying on the bed that Martun used to sleep on. He looked up and thumped his tail once or twice.

  I’m sorry, he said after I collapsed on the bed and entwined my fingers behind my head.

  I always forget that even if you’re not in the same room, you know what’s going on.

  I can’t believe she would ask for something like that. She knows what it was like with Jaysun. And she saw how it drove him over the edge. He couldn’t get enough power. He kept pushing and pushing for more. I could hear the worry in Cinder’s voice.

  She’s just angry with herself right now. She doesn’t know what to do. Give her some time, and she’ll realize that it wasn’t a good idea. I knew Cinder could tell I wasn’t as sure as I tried to sound; there was no hiding it from him. “Let’s just go to bed. We’ll deal with this when we have to.”

  Fine. But there’s no getting around it. At some point it will come back up.

  I know.

  I reached over to the lamp on the nightstand and turned it off, falling asleep almost instantly.

  I DIDN’T dream that night. I had been afraid Jaysun would come to congratulate me or play his little mind games in some way, but instead there was nothing.

  It was early in the morning when Cinder woke me. I had only had a few hours of sleep, and Cinder was calling out into my mind to wake up.

  “What? What is it?” I groaned and rolled over, pulling the blanket up higher.

  I’d say you have about a minute to get up before people start bursting in this door looking for answers. They’ve already come in the building and someone is bringing them here. I could hear them talking when I was walking around.

  Who was it? I asked as I got out of bed and ran a brush through my hair a few times. I didn’t shower after my fight with Regan; I had been too worked up, and now I looked practically feral.

  Take a guess.

  Laquin.

  Cinder let out a quiet growl in response.

  I set the brush down and pulled out a notebook from one of the drawers. I was surprised they were still here actually. I would have thought they took everything out of the room when I left. I had just pulled out a pen and began writing down some information that we knew about the dark elves and how the battle went last night when the door was thrown open.

  “Here’s who you want to talk to,” Laquin’s squeaky voice snapped.

  I stood calmly and turned to the door to see three large men, all with broad shoulders and heavy weapons. I held a hand out to the one who stood in the center and had an air of superiority. “My name is Casey Kelley.”

  He gripped my hand tightly and placed another hand on top of mine, a sign of dominance. “Alex Ronan. I head the military of Iric.” The country was mostly independent and didn’t need much federal oversight, and for the last hundred years or so there hadn’t been a real threat from other countries, so the military had been shrinking in size. Even so, to get a personal visit from the leader of the national military was quite impressive. It meant they saw this as a real threat. It also meant I would have to fight harder to keep my position of power, which I had promised I would do.

  “A pleasure. Please, sit down. We have a lot to talk about.” I gestured to the chair I had been sitting in earlier.

  He frowned, a little caught off guard, I thought, by how the positions seemed to have changed. “That we do.” He walked across the room but didn’t sit. Cinder had been sitting in the corner of the room and growled when he unknowingly got close. He jumped and looked down at Cinder with terror in his eyes.

  Cinder got up and padded across the room to my side and sat back down. He was almost my height even sitting, and I let a hand rest on his back. “His name is Cinder. He’s a cinderwolf I found last year while hunting a necromancer down. He’s my spirit animal, and so long as I’m around, he is too.”

  “That was you?” Alex narrowed his eyes in speculation.

  “A story for another time, perhaps. Right now we have more important business. Dark elves are trying to retake the surface with plans to either kill or enslave all humans, elves, and mages here. I need your men to help stop this from happening.”

  “You need my men? I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, but—”

  I straightened my back and heard a deep rumble in Cinder’s throat. “I’m talking to the leader of a military who can help stop a threat to his country. There are more than dark elves coming back to the surface. You have no idea what you’re getting into. You don’t know who is coming at us, and you don’t know what to do. Nobody does. Except for a handful of people who are following me, not you, and if you try and bullshit your way into power because it makes you feel better, we can’t help you. Do you know what you’re going up against?” He stayed silent. “Trolls. Do you know their weakness?” Again, he didn’t answer. “I didn’t think so. I have people with me who do. I also have a large group of pixies, who are kind of like mages, following me and only me as directed by their chief. I have dwarves with weapons you desperately need who will only join us in battle if I’m in charge and if I fulfill a promise I made with them. You do not know what you are doing. This is something you can’t handle, and you need to back down and help instead of getting in my way.”

  “You’re a child; you don’t know the first thing about war!” he snapped. “I am not letting a kid run this show. You want to help? Fine, but you are not getting in my way.” He stepped forward, pointing a finger a
t me.

  Cinder stood up and took a step toward him as well, burning paw prints into the floor. “No, Mr. Ronan. I don’t think you understand what I’m saying.” I was calm and collected as I spoke. “You aren’t going to be running this. You want to try? I’ll walk out and take everyone I’ve gathered and my information with me, and I’ll do my own thing without you. I don’t need you, but you need me. If you want to help, I would gladly appreciate it. I don’t know much about battle tactics and the like and could use advice on the matter. But I know war. You have probably never been in true battle. You’ve been at peace longer than you’ve been alive. I never knew peace. As a mage I was sent away from the humans, hated because I have a power that scares you. Last year on my seventeenth birthday I was forced to hunt down a necromancer and save your cities. A little over a week ago, I was contacted by a friend who helped me kill that man about a new threat, dark elves planning an attack. So I went underground to meet something long forgotten by us surfacers. The underfae, creatures we cast aside as myths. I went to a pixie camp and watched children die horribly violent deaths at the hands of vicious animals. And then I came here, to my home, and we were attacked without much warning. Many of us died last night. People I knew. Friends and teachers of mine were killed in front of my eyes. Can you say you have experienced war? You are older, I’ll give you that, but in terms of battle experience like we are about to face, who here has more?”

  I could see his jaw clench. “That’s not the point.”

  “That is exactly the point. I am here to save people just as you are, and if you are truly invested in helping everyone, then you’ll realize that it’s best to follow the person with the most information and experience with the threat you are about to face.” Senior Laquin let out a huff behind my back, but I just ignored her.

  “I will not listen to a child!” he shouted, his voice cracking on the word child.

  “I believe you are a little out of your depth, son,” an old voice said behind me.

  I looked over my shoulder to my grandfather, his head held high and dark gray beard styled to a point. His brown eyes glared past me to Alex Ronan. “Good morning, Senior Elloberer. I assume Senior Laquin told you about Mr. Ronan here, leader of Iric’s military.” I cast a glance to Laquin and saw her cheeks burn red.

  Iric. Almost a foreign word to me, even still. Almost my entire life, Iric had been a concept more than a home. I was of the Temple, not from any particular nation. Sure, the country had owned the land I lived on but never claimed me as a citizen, more as a troublesome ward. I hadn’t even learned the names of the cities I had saved until I had settled down with Regan and looked at the maps. And now I was meeting a figurehead of the country I technically lived in, and still I felt like a trespasser.

  “No, she had forgotten to tell me, but there is little that goes on in this Temple without my knowledge. Now, Mr. Ronan, I believe you should listen to Miss Kelley, as not only this Temple but Temples around the nation plan to.”

  “What do you mean by that, Ryan?” Laquin hissed. It was unusual to hear my grandfather’s first name, to the point where I forgot that he had a name other than Elloberer. It was an old family name that was lost, thankfully, when my mother married my father. It had been useful in school and now, no one would see it as family favoritism, which I had never received from him.

  “While you were showing Mr. Ronan around, I was in the middle of a conversation with the other High Council members in the country. I have talked over the situation with what happened last night and how Miss Kelley handled herself and saved us. We agreed we should help in her fight against the dark elves, considering we are part of the population she is saving from them. She has the mages with her now. It has been decided by the High Council of Iric.” Laquin’s face went beet red, but she couldn’t say anything. It had been a High Council session, and she was a Council member of this Temple, but not all of Iric. It was my grandfather who represented this Temple.

  “You, however, were not who we decided to help. You have sent mages here for too many years and have spit upon us when we consider asking for your help or when one of us leaves this place. Should you ask for our help, we would need to discuss our previous interactions and if it is worth helping you, only to be caged back onto this island. You would not win our favor against Miss Kelley. You show us a world of oppression, of being dogs for your war and then put back in our kennel until you need us again. Miss Kelley shows us a world with humans. Perhaps not tomorrow, but she is at least giving us a chance for progress with the humans. You do not live in a human world, Mr. Ronan. It is time you begin to see that.” He turned to me and bowed his head slightly. “We offer you our help, Casey.”

  I looked to Alex and lifted my chin slightly. “So, is it going to be humans versus dark elves versus everyone else, or will it be us against the dark elves?”

  The men on either side of Alex shifted their weight uncomfortably while Alex tried to straighten up and look like he was still in control. He pursed his lips into a thin line and said through gritted teeth, “You have my soldiers as long as I have your word that I will be your military advisor. I do not want countless men and women to die just because you don’t understand battle movements.”

  “I will hear your advice, along with many other people’s advice. I won’t say I will take it every time, but I will listen to it carefully and take it into consideration.”

  “That will have to do, then,” he growled.

  “Good. Now, before we start calling meetings and making plans, I have one more thing to do,” I said as I turned back to the table and picked up my phone.

  “And what is that? To finish some stupid game? Text your ‘BFF’? We have important things to do now. You can’t just blow it off to bury your head in your phone!” Ronan snapped.

  I pressed Call and held the phone to my ear. “I have to call a prince.”

  Chapter 15

  TWO HOURS later, the door to what we had renamed the war room burst open. In the opening stood a tall, slim man with pale skin and golden eyes. He wore a white shirt that laced at the collar and loose fitting jeans.

  “Casey Kelley.” A large smile broke across his face, and he strode over to me and pulled me into a tight embrace.

  “Liam, you know you can just call me Casey,” I mumbled into his shoulder, returning the hug.

  “For old times’ sake.” He pulled away and looked down at me.

  “I’m sorry I took you away from your family. I know they aren’t well. I wouldn’t have called you if I didn’t need you.”

  He looked at the floor and took a step back. “Don’t worry, Casey. You didn’t take me from anyone. They passed a week ago. I tried to get word to you, but you weren’t home. Now I understand why.”

  “Oh, Liam.” I took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” he said weakly. “They have been with us for a very long time. They were ready. I should actually thank you for getting me out of Haven. There has been a lot of excitement over my becoming king and there was the funeral and it’s just been a lot over there. This will get my mind off of personal troubles.” I pretended not to notice his eyes flicker toward Ston who was conveniently pouring all of his energy into looking at one place on the map in front of him. “At least for a while.”

  “You got here pretty quickly,” I mentioned, trying to get away from the topic.

  He laughed. “Helps when you’re not walking everywhere.”

  I shrugged noncommittally. “It’s good exercise. Now, let’s get to business.” I turned to the table and unfolded a map of the country.

  “Old school, I see,” Liam commented sarcastically.

  “Hush. I didn’t even have a phone until Regan got me one a few months ago. And I don’t recall you using one last year either,” I said as I searched for us on the map.

  “Well, when the person leading the group hasn’t heard of one, it’s a little pointless to use one.”

  “Point
taken. I have one now, so feel free to text me whenever you feel like it.” I put a finger over the little island that we were on. “Here. This is us. And this”—I let the word get dragged out for a moment until I found the cave I had entered only weeks ago—“is the closest entrance to the underground. Unless you know of a closer one, Ston?” I was only familiar with the two or three Ston had shown me. I wasn’t really one to say much about them.

  He leaned over the table to get a closer look. “No, not that one. That was the one closest to us from your home. The closest one to here is in this area.” He tapped a small spot on the map. “It’s also pretty close to a dark elf city, Dramash, which explains why we didn’t see as much magic as we expected. Dramash doesn’t send many to the capital to learn magic. They are an outlying city. However, they are fiercely loyal and will die for any cause fed to them by our royalty.” Ston made a face and pulled away. “Or by the Malcars. They run the royalty. So it makes sense that they’d be the first to die for it.”

  Skye scoffed from her corner of the room, “They do a lot more than just run the royalty. They run everything: trade, the war, agriculture, magic training. You name it; they’ve got a hand in it somehow. There are rumors that soon they’ll finally take their last step, kill the royals and make it all official. And who would stop them? You?” She watched Ston intently.

  “If they wanted to, nobody could stop them. But I think they’ll hold off on fulfilling those rumors. They’d want everyone to trust them. They know ruling by fear alone is weak. They’ll want people to feel like they deserve that place. They’ll wait until after the war,” he answered, still focused on the map.

  I filed that away for later—but right now it held little importance—and went back to the original topic. “Then you think they came from there?” I tried to think of something to do with that information.