The Complete Chosen Trilogy (The Chosen #0)

by N. M. Santoski

  “Leiani… I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry. Lani… she is at peace. I will put her to rest next to Uncle Robert as soon as you are well enough to be there. There’s something I have to do first. I’ve failed you in every other way… I will not fail you in this.”

  He kissed her forehead and left the room, his mind on one thing.

  Justice.

  ***

  Alan wasn’t stupid. He knew that he could overpower Kale with his numina, but…that felt too impersonal. Besides, he couldn’t drown him—even the most rudimentary Water user could breathe through that.

  It had to be something else. And he wanted to feel the life leave the man who raped his wife and killed his child.

  He made only one stop, and then he was at Kale’s door.

  He didn’t knock. Instead, he turned his shoulder to the door and rammed it with all of his rage-fueled strength. It took five shuddering hits for the lock to give and the door to burst open, sending him stumbling into the Davis’ suite of rooms.

  “I’m calling for the commandos!” Kale was screaming from his position behind the couch. “I’m warning you!”

  Alan would have smiled if he weren’t so determined to finish this. Two heavy-handed blows to the face, and Alan was hauling a screaming Kale by the hair out into the hallway. He threw him down the first staircase, kicked him down the second, and bent down to drag him forward into the Atrium from the bottom landing. They’d picked up quite an audience, but no one moved to interfere.

  “Kale Davis, you stand accused!” he shouted as he pushed a stumbling, shaking, bleeding Kale into the center of the Atrium. “Take your last breaths of fresh air before I end your miserable life.”

  “You can’t kill me!” He was sobbing now, on his knees. “I deserve a trial!”

  “You would be right if you weren’t caught in flagrante delicto, as it were. Was it worth it?” He backhanded Kale again. “Was your filthy lust worth the death of an innocent child and the defiling of a good woman?”

  “I didn’t do anything I wasn’t allowed to!” he protested. “I was given permission to…”

  “To rape a pregnant woman? Your Lady Younger? That is your defense?” Alan spat. “How dare you! Kale Davis, line ender, defiler of women, murderer of the innocent, I declare you guilty of crimes against one of the Nine—rape, murder, and attempted line theft! The punishment for any one of those is death. Reach to Neptune now for mercy, for I will show you none.”

  Ignoring the massive crowd watching, Alan stepped behind the kneeling man and removed the one item he’d had to stop for. With a single stroke, he slit Kale’s throat and left him to bleed to death on the Atrium floor.

  He dropped the knife and walked out. Not a single person stopped him.

  ***

  “Three!” Manas hissed, spreading the irrefutable proof in front of his father. “We’ve followed them all, and there can be no doubt! Three of the teachers in this hallowed place, spreading lies and subverting our authority. It cannot stand!”

  Michael nodded, his jaw clenched so tightly that small white spots stood out on either side of his face.

  “We must act, Father.”

  “Your suggestion?”

  “A Decimation.”

  Michael’s head jerked away from his son. “Are you mad? We could never hold Caer Anglia with the numen in revolt—and they would revolt.”

  “So we hold it over their heads.” He looked at his father with burning eyes. “These three must die. Do you agree with that?”

  His father inclined his head and eased forward to his original position. “Go on.”

  “We have to make it a public execution, and tell them that it is only through our mercy that it isn’t a true Decimation. Treat the traitors like the animals they are. They have subverted the will of the Council and they are supporting the cause of a dead man. They must die.”

  “You are right,” Michael said after a few moments. “Do it.”

  “Do you I have your blessing to handle it as I wish?”

  “I will speak to the Councilors. We must give at least the appearance of compliance. I am sure we will have enough votes to condemn them to death. When Aeron comes—and he will—we will be ready. I want you beside me when we end the Fulmen forever and save your mother from her fate. Go now, if you can—I want this done as soon as possible. Join us in the Artifex rooms when you are finished.”

  Manas clasped his father’s hand in a grip that verged on painful.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  “That is the evidence we have thus far,” Michael finished, leaving the photos spread out for all to see. He turned to survey the gathered Council members. Alix was having a fairly good day, thank the gods, and the others watched him carefully. “My recommendation is for their execution. An example must be made.”

  “Don’t you think execution is a bit of an… over-exaggerated response?” Veronica asked. Despite her hatred of the Aerons, Claire Connor was one of her own. “Surely a warning…”

  “A warning?” Arias countered. “Aeron and his… disciples!...have been making a mockery of our finest traditions and institutions! It’s clear he has no respect for this body or his place on it. I say we execute the followers and up the effort to find him, then execute him as well!”

  “I’m not comfortable with issuing an execution order for Matthew. He is one of the gentlest men I know. Completely lacking in enough numina to heal more than a paper cut, but he has empathy and passion for the subject for miles. Besides… you’re speaking of treason,” Mina said. “I cannot condone that.”

  “Am I? The boy has yet to take his place at this table. Right now, Michael leads us. I say it is they who are treasonous, not us.”

  “What do you think about this, Lord Gravis?” Azar asked, every pointedly courteous word like a slap. “After all, one of the accused is yours.”

  “And one of Aeron’s closest compatriots is your son,” Angus shot back. “Would you be comfortable with issuing a kill order for your own son when the time comes?”

  “Pyrrhus is a grown man—he makes his own choices. I warned him long ago that his path was foolish.”

  “Perhaps we should table the discussion about what to do with Aeron for now,” Keopelani suggested, her voice hollow. The loss of her granddaughter weighed her down all the more due to her hand in it… matters of death were unpalatable just now.

  “That’s not possible. If we condemn these three to death for supporting Aeron, how can we then condemn him or his other confederates to anything else?” Azar asked. “No, we should vote. Now.”

  “I agree,” Michael said. “We vote. I vote yes for execution. Lady Tempus?”

  “Yes.”

  “Lord Zephyrus?”

  “Yes.

  “Lord Gravis?”

  Angus sighed and looked at the two men to whom he had promised his support. “Yes.”

  “Lady Aqua?”

  “Yes.”

  “That is a majority. We do not need—“

  “I would like the record to show that my vote would have been no,” Azar interrupted. As Michael frowned at him, Veronica chimed in, “As would mine.”

  “And mine,” Mina said, her eyes filled with tears.

  “Noted. With a vote of five for, three against, and Fulmen abstaining, the motion passes. You are all dismissed.”

  ***

  Alan returned to Leiani’s room and immediately locked the door. He stripped to the waist and began rinsing the blood from his hands and face—the spray from his severing of Kale’s carotid artery made quite a mess. Once he was mostly clean, he banished the water from his skin and hair and climbed up on the bed next to his still sleeping wife.

  He took advantage of the quiet to study her face. She had changed. They both had. He worried his bottom lip with his teeth as he gently stroked her hair.

  “I love you.”

  He snatched his hand away, alarmed to realize that her eyes were open and she was staring at him with a solemn look.
>
  “You’re awake,” he managed. “I—“

  She took his hand from the pillow next to her and pressed it to her cheek, turning it over to kiss his palm. Unbidden, tears sprang to his eyes. “I love you,” she repeated. “It took all of this to remind me. How selfish and cruel that… that…” She stuttered to a stop. “Where’s Lani?”

  “Here.” He slid his arm under her shoulder slowly and pushed her into an upright position, adjusting the pillows to support her. Once he was sure she was secure, he retrieved the locked chest from the bedside table and placed it in his lap so she could inspect it.

  “Oh, Lani…” she moaned. She reached out and traced her finger over the engraved medallion bearing her name. Her hand collapsed in on itself, tightening into a white knuckled fist. “That sadistic son of a bitch! I’ll kill him!”

  “It’s done, Leiani,” he breathed into her hair, shifting to take her in his arms. “I have avenged our daughter’s death and the grievous insult to your honor and dignity.”

  “Tell me he suffered.”

  “I slit his throat in the middle of the Atrium, in front of countless witnesses, after accounting for them his horrific crimes.”

  Leiani’s mouth curled to match his own. She looked like a beautiful monster as she simply replied, “Good.”

  “We have to talk about what to do next.”

  “I won’t leave you again, my mother be damned.”

  Alan raised an eyebrow. “I’m glad to hear it, but it’s not something I ever thought I’d hear you say.”

  “Times have changed. My mother set herself on the wrong side, Alan. The last thing I want to do is fight with you, but the time is now. We have to find Nolan.”

  “You’re right.”

  She let out a sigh of relief at his low admission. “Speaking of things we never thought we’d say…”

  “Let’s take tonight to breathe. You’re in no shape to be running anywhere. Kuriyami said you keep pulling your incision open.” He silenced her immediate protest with a gentle finger to her bottom lip. “I cannot be tried for avenging my daughter—even if you were no longer my wife by Keopelani’s decree, she will always be my little girl.”

  Moved beyond words, Leiani leaned forward and caught his lips with hers. The soft kiss was simple and sweet, and the most honest kiss between them since this whole mess began. She tilted her head to the side a fraction, and the kiss deepened.

  Alan withdrew after a few more lingering kisses, pressing his forehead to hers. “You’re trying to kill me.”

  “Perhaps.”

  He smiled. “There are worse ways to go.”

  “I meant what I said.”

  He didn’t have to ask what she was referring to. “I know. I love you, too.”

  Before they could go any further, the sound of the dinner gong resonated through the building. Alan frowned. “It’s almost midnight. What—“

  “In the name of Lord Artifex and the Council of the Nine, all numen are to report to the Atrium! Immediately—no exceptions!”

  A fist pounded on Leiani’s door. “You too, my Lady! Get dressed—you have five minutes to comply.”

  They exchanged a hopeful glance. “Nolan?”

  “Perhaps,” Alan allowed. “Get dressed.”

  “What about you?” she frowned, acknowledging for the first time that he was stripped bare to the waist.

  “Had to wash the blood out of my shirt,” he grinned, though there was no mirth in it. “If Michael needs to see us that badly, he will have to excuse the breach in etiquette.”

  “Grab me a dress?” she asked, easing herself to the edge of the bed.

  “Of course.” He rummaged through her closet and found one she could pull on without much twisting. “I will be carrying you to the Atrium.”

  “Alan!”

  “No. Kuriyami said not to let you out of bed. If we have to go, you’re not walking.”

  She huffed, but he could see she was secretly pleased about his concern.

  He helped her into her dress as quickly as they could manage, and then carefully lifted her into his arms. Time to see what Artifex wanted.

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  A sudden knock on the door to Matthew’s rooms made them pause in their work.

  “I’ll get it,” Claire said, dropping a kiss onto Matthew’s hair as he nodded his thanks, still buried in his notes.

  “Who is it?” she asked.

  “It’s Elliot,” a voice responded. “Can I come in? I need to speak to Dr. Graves—it’s urgent.”

  She opened to door to see him smirking at her from across the hall. Claire stumbled back as Selocrim came barreling through the door instead, leading a flock of security guards that wrestled her to the ground. Her vision swam as her head slammed into the tile, and she felt more than saw Matthew drop next to her.

  “You two are under arrest.”

  “What’s the charge?” Matthew mumbled through a mouthful of blood. He spat sideways to clear his mouth, but Selocrim leaned down anyway to answer.

  “Treason.”

  She was hauled to her feet and shoved down the hallway and down the stairs. She assumed they were to be placed in the holding cells, but they turned the other way and headed into the Atrium.

  The entire residential body of Caer Anglia were already there, half asleep and terrified. The room was oddly quiet for the number of people it held, but Claire was already focused on the figure standing on the dais, another figure kneeling at his feet.

  Manas Warrington was standing above them all, feet planted firmly with his arms behind him at parade rest. Far enough away to be out of range was Sensei Anna, glaring through one rapidly blackening eye. As they got closer, Claire realized that Sensei’s legs were encased in solid stone.

  From the audience, Clara cuddled one of the smaller Zephyra children closer to her body and watched with wide eyes as Claire and Dr. Graves were pushed up to join Sensei on the dais. The pair looked worse for the wear, certainly. There were some murmurs from the crowd, but no one protested too loudly—any token protests had been silenced when the best fighter Caer Anglia had was led in as a prisoner. Her fiancé stood at Manas’ side, looking slightly queasy.

  “Ladies and gentlemen!” Manas shouted, gaining their undivided attention immediately. The three prisoners now knelt facing them, Manas towering over them like an avenging god. “I bring you here tonight for a purpose… a grievous crime has been committed in these walls. Treason!”

  He didn’t wait to let the confused muttering die down, but plowed ahead. “These three—Claire Connor, Matthew Graves, and Anna Stone—stand accused and convicted of aiding the criminal Nolan Aeron and his accomplice, Gia Disanza, by sowing discord among our young students and their families. The punishment set by the vote of the Council for aiding Nolan Aeron is death.”

  Clara cried out before she could stop herself—thankfully, many others joined in, her voice blending into one with the rest of the indignant crowd. She could see the three struggling against their bonds with limited success. Even Sensei, as strong as she was, couldn’t break through the solid stone bonds that Manas was maintaining. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Leiani surge forward, only to be held in her seat by Alan. Still, she was shouting at her mother, who was blankly staring out over the crowd. Keopelani, Angus, and Arias were the only standing Council members to join Manas on the dais, but their presence led an air of respectability to the horror in front of them.

  “History has called for a full Decimation in the face of such insurrection, but Lord Artifex is merciful. These three will serve as your lesson: do not aid him. Do not encourage him: in word, in deed, even in thought.” As he spoke, he formed the same razor sharp sword that was becoming his trademark and slid down to the end, where Sensei had stopped struggling at last.

  “Final words, Miss Stone?” he mocked her.

  She ignored him. Instead, she pulled her spine up straight, tipping her chin up almost regally. Her hands remained bound behind her back, but s
he carried herself like a wronged queen.

  Clara wanted to look away, but she didn’t dare. Her brother was watching her from the back of the dais, daring her to act. Her husband-to-be locked eyes with her, making it impossible to turn away. Instead, she tucked the small child’s head into her shoulder and crooned nonsensical words of comfort.

  “Nothing? So be it. Thus perish those who follow Nolan Aeron!” Manas drew his hands back and swung with all of his might. Sensei’s head came off in one clean blow, tumbling down her side in a torrent of blood and splattering Matthew with droplets. The head came to a rest at his knee, where he refused to look at the still open eyes dulling as the blood flowed away. Several people in the room screamed, and Selocrim marked them in her mind to be interrogated later. Neither of the remaining condemned said a word, however.

  Manas stepped to the side again and came to rest behind Matthew. “Final words?”

  Matthew looked at Claire, forsaking the crowd. “I’m not sorry we did it, but I’m sorry we’re here,” he said to her quietly. “I was falling in love with you, though I hadn’t gotten up the courage to tell you yet. I’m sorry for that, too.” Claire simply nodded, her heart in her eyes.

  Manas waited until Matthew nodded that he was finished. As he raised the sword a second time, Matthew closed his eyes and said, “Don’t look, Claire.”

  She turned her head away until she heard the crowd moan and felt the thump of his head striking the dais next to her. She kept her eyes closed as Manas leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Final words, Miss Connor?”

  A rage rose from her stomach in a fiery wave, filling her with a self-possession she’d never felt before. She mumbled, purposely keeping her voice low enough that Manas leaned around to mock her to her face.

  “Come now, Miss Connor. Surely you want us all to hear your…” She opened her eyes and spit into his face, taking a savage pleasure in his shock. “I said Semper Aeronius!” she screamed, only inches from his furious scowl. She continued to scream it at the assembled crowd as Manas swung at her neck, continued to chant it as he missed and took a chunk out of her shoulder, tipping her over sideways, and continued to whimper it as she saw the sword descending for a second time. Even after her head was lying next to Matthew’s, her lips continued to move.