by Sadie Moss
I shot him a grateful smile then pushed the doors open, leading the way into the room. It probably broke all kinds of palace protocol for me to bring my four men into a council meeting. I’d also forgone the fancy dresses for a more practical outfit of dark jeans and a long-sleeved top, but we were about to throw a metaphorical pipe bomb into the place anyway. Hopefully, once the Representatives heard what I had to say, my outfit and the company I brought with me would be the least of their concerns.
Just as they had the first time I’d shown up at a meeting, everyone in the room froze to look up at me.
Theron sat at the head of the table like always. In fact, everyone seemed to be in the same seats they’d occupied last time.
Including Rain.
The Chief Advisor sat at Theron’s left side, and he straightened in his chair at the sight of me, his eyes widening. Although he was a good actor, he couldn’t hide the brief flash of shock and fear on his face. Had he hoped I’d died on the mountain trying to escape? Had he thought I wouldn’t come here?
“Hey, Rain,” I said casually, coming to stand at the opposite end of the long table from Theron. “Surprised to see me?”
“Miss Lockwood.” His raspy voice was blandly pleasant. “I’m… relieved to see you.”
“What the hell is this? Is she allowed to parade her pets all over the palace now?” Nicholas shot out of his seat, jumping straight past the surprise at my sudden reappearance to his anger at the presence of my four.
I saw Jae and Akio step in front of Corin, and although I knew he must be chafing at the protection, I was glad for it. Not one of us doubted Corin’s abilities, but as a team, we looked out for each other.
“Miss Lockwood.” Theron raised his hand, not so much in a greeting as to quiet the room. He looked older than he had last time I’d seen him, his face more tired. “What is the meaning of this? I allowed you a place on this council because of the many years of dedicated service your grandmother gave us. But you’ve taken the good faith I put in you and twisted it beyond recognition. You clearly have no place in this government or in this palace.”
“Blighted-lover!” Nicholas spat, baring his teeth. His gaunt face was pulled into a threatening scowl. No one else at the large table looked much friendlier.
Victor Kruger rose slowly to his feet, and tension crackled through the room.
“I’m not here to try to reclaim Beatrice’s council seat,” I said, my voice rising with each word. I needed to get this out fast before things got ugly. “I’m here because I have information that concerns all Gifted.”
At that, Rain surged to his feet. “If you’re not a member of this council, you have no right to be here, Miss Lockwood. Leave, now.”
I tilted my head at him. “Aw, Rain. What about the obligation you have to my family? What about your promise to help me?”
“What promise?” Jonas Nocturne looked past Theron to Rain, who shifted uncomfortably.
“Oh, you didn’t hear about that? Didn’t you know he promised to help me root out who killed my grandmother? He could’ve made my search much easier by just admitting he did it.”
Rain scoffed as several sets of eyes turned to him. “You’ve gone quite mad, Miss Lockwood.”
I slammed my hands down on the table and leaned toward him. “Yeah, I am mad. I’m fucking furious. You lied to us all, Rain. Me and everyone in this room. You killed Beatrice. You’ve been the one abducting Gifted citizens from the Capital. You created the spell that caused the Great Death.”
The room went quiet, and now everyone was looking at Rain.
My heart thundered in my chest, but I didn’t move, keeping my gaze pinned on him.
His mouth opened slowly, as if he were considering his next words carefully. When he spoke, his voice was soft. “This was your plan, Miss Lockwood? March into a council meeting and accuse me of something so ludicrous, so outrageous?” He chuckled lightly, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepening. “How exactly did you think that would work?”
I clenched my jaw, my hands fisting on the table. I couldn’t tell if he was acting or addressing me honestly right now. Maybe a little bit of both.
“It’s true! He tried to pull magic from people, but it fucking killed them. And he’s planning to do it again. He’s got a bunker up in the mountains that he—”
Rain’s laugh interrupted me. “Listen to yourself, Miss Lockwood! You sound insane. Why would anyone on this council believe you when, as our esteemed Secretary General just pointed out, you’ve made your allegiances perfectly clear? The man behind you, Akio Sun, is a known Resistance member.”
“What?” Simon Gaunt’s head snapped in our direction, his too-smooth face aghast. I remembered how upset he’d been about the Gifted abductions and the attacks on the palace. He seemed to operate entirely from a place of fear.
“Known, huh?” I ground out. Jae’s magic swelled behind me, and I could tell he was preparing to fight our way out of here if we had to. But I wasn’t done trying to show the Representatives what was right under their noses. “Known to you, because you were put in charge of gathering intel on the Resistance—of hiring mercenaries to take out targets that might be a threat to the government. But you didn’t stop there, did you? No, you hired those same mercenaries to bring you Gifted and Touched lab rats for you to experiment on.”
Rain stood tall, somehow managing to look imperiously down his nose at me from several yards away. “This has gone on long enough. Secretary General, I cannot allow her to continue spreading such unconscionable lies about me.” He glanced across the table to where Victor and Nicholas sat side by side, practically salivating like junkyard dogs hungry for a fight. “Perhaps you were right. We have given the Blighted too much freedom. It’s time to put them back in their place.”
The two men grinned viciously, and Eben Knowles shifted away from them, as though the bloodlust emanating from them made him uncomfortable.
“He’s talking about you, you know!” I wanted to grab every person at this table and shake them, force them to see how their own prejudices were feeding right into Rain’s hands. “Once he performs another magic pull, you’ll be fucking Blighted. And whatever magic users are left will grind you into the dirt like you’re less than nothing.” I pointed a shaky finger at Rain. “He’ll make sure of that.”
“What evidence do you have, Miss Lockwood?” Olene asked. Her striking double-hued blue eyes were narrowed, making the dark rims around her irises look almost black. But my heart leapt at her words. If she was asking, that must mean she hadn’t decided outright that I was lying.
“I have nothing with me. But he told me himself. And I know where his compound is. He built some kind of a machine powered by magic—it’s in the mountains, where he kept me locked up for the past ten days.”
“Lies.” Rain’s raspy voice was louder now, a little less controlled than when we’d walked in. Was he getting nervous? His magic pulsed from him like a heartbeat, feeling stronger than I remembered. “Lies told by a woman who, whatever magic she may possess, will always be Blighted at heart.”
“At least I have a fucking heart, you asshole!”
“Minister of Justice, remove her.” Theron’s voice was hard, his wrinkles deepened by the scowl on his face. “And arrest the Resistance member. Arrest all of them.”
I straightened, taking two steps back to stand protectively in front of my four. Pivoting, I faced Olene. She was my only hope now. “Why don’t you just look? I can take you there. I can show you.”
“Where is it?” Olene rose slowly, her gaze fixed on me.
“In the Rocky Mountains, ten miles south of—”
“Jonas!” Rain bellowed, sweeping his arm toward me. Jae’s father leapt to his feet, his magic flaring.
Damn it. We were out of time.
Chapter 8
Jae stepped quickly to my side, throwing his hands out. A shimmering veil of white burst from his fingertips, settling into a wide barrier between the Representatives an
d us. It spanned the entire room, floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Nicholas and Victor had joined Jonas as he approached, but they paused at the sight of the barrier, scowling.
“What…?” I glanced at him.
“Shield. It’s strong, but it won’t hold them for long. And it won’t stop—”
Before he could finish speaking, the doors behind us burst open, and a dozen Touched guards in white-and-blue uniforms streamed in. Jonas must’ve summoned them. Light flared around two of the men. They shifted into panthers, dropping low onto their haunches as they prepared to pounce.
A warlock at the front of the group pulled the stopper on a small vial and flung the contents toward us. The droplets turned to mist as they neared me, and as the mist enveloped me, my body seemed to slow. It felt like I was moving underwater, or on a two-second time delay. I raised my hands to throw a fireball at the warlock and watched in dismay as my arms moved sluggishly upward.
He wasn’t hampered by the time slow-down like I was, and his movements seemed incredibly fast as he hurled another potion at me. Someone yanked me out of the way, and my brain felt like it hovered in empty space outside my body for several beats. Fen’s arms wrapped around me from behind, his breath hot on my ear. “You okay, killer?”
“Y…esss….” The word stretched out of my mouth like taffy, and before I was even finished speaking, he’d whirled us around. Blue fireballs flew past my head as Jae traded blows with a water elementalist. The white barrier he’d erected in the middle of the room was losing strength, becoming more and more translucent as the Representatives and guards battered it with spells.
Akio looked like he’d been hit by the same potion as me. Corin had an arm around his waist and was hauling him toward the door. It opened, revealing more guards on the other side. My heart thudded heavily in my chest, the beat too slow for the panic coursing through my veins.
“C…orin…!” I drew my hand up, fighting against the sluggish feeling of the spell so hard my muscles ached.
His head whipped around, and he delivered a punishing kick to the midsection of the first guard, a demon with blue skin. The first guard flew backward into the one behind him, and they both toppled over.
Fenris dragged me toward Corin and Akio, and Jae followed close behind us. My body still felt like it was filled with sand, but I reached inside for my magic, summoning wind this time. Not even lifting my hands to guide it, I just let it swirl around us, faster and faster, creating a small tornado with the five of us at the center.
The shield Jae had put up broke, and lightning flashed toward us from Nicholas’s fingertips. It got caught in the whirling wind around us, electrifying the air and making my hair stand on end.
“Tr…ansport spell!” I screamed, reaching for the one I had tucked away. My movements were too fucking slow, but Fen dug his hand roughly into my pocket, grabbing the small glass cylinder.
“Everyone hold on!” he shouted.
I felt a hand clamp onto my shoulder as he dropped the vial at our feet. Before it could roll away, he brought his booted foot down hard, shattering it.
Purple smoke rose up around us. Through the haze, I caught a glimpse of Jonas’s angry face and Rain’s triumphant one. Then my vision was obscured completely.
When the smoke cleared, bright sunshine poured down on us. We were in a field of tall grass, interrupted by a few tall cottonwoods. In the far distance, a line of dilapidated houses crouched like beasts on the horizon.
Fen released me, and I staggered forward, pitching from side to side as the world seemed to tilt underneath me. My limbs still weren’t functioning quite right. I turned around, scanning our group to make sure we had everyone—and that we hadn’t brought along any unwanted guests.
Akio swayed on his feet much like I did. Corin kept a hand on him to stop him from tipping over. Fen had a cut over his eye and was panting like a hot wolf. Jae looked calm, as usual, but even he was out of breath.
“Is everyone… all right?” I forced the words out, willing my mouth to cooperate.
“Yeah, we’ll live.” Fen wiped a sleeve across his forehead, clearing the blood. It was a small enough cut that blood didn’t keep pouring from the wound.
“Gr…eat. Where… are we?” I squinted at our surroundings again.
“The Outskirts,” Jae answered. “Near one of the portals to the Resistance base. But not too near. I didn’t want to risk leading the guards directly there if any of them managed to slip into our transport spell.”
He reached for Fen’s forehead, but the shifter batted his hand away, muttering something about not needing every little cut healed like Akio did. Akio overheard him and tried to fix an affronted look on his face, but his muscles wouldn’t cooperate.
This weird time-delay spell was starting to make me nauseated. It was like my entire body was an echo.
“Let’s go then.” I spoke clearly and slowly, and was pleased that the words came out a little easier this time.
Jae led us all through the field, toward one of the abandoned houses on the horizon. Fen hovered close by, but let me forge ahead on my own. My movements grew progressively less jerky, and by the time we reached the house, I was able to put one foot smoothly in front of the other again. Thank fuck for that. I still felt a little queasy, but now that I could walk in a straight line, the nausea was easier to ignore.
“We should’ve come here first.” As my brain and body synced up again, bitter regret lanced through me. “What a fucking waste of time that was. I should’ve known those assholes wouldn’t believe me. Not even to save their own skins.”
“It wasn’t a total waste.” Jae pushed open the door, which sagged on its hinges, and ushered us inside. “Olene believed you.”
I batted at a cobweb as we passed through the dark living room then wiped my hand off on the dusty couch. “No, she didn’t. She wanted to. Or she was at least willing to consider it, if I’d had hard evidence to give her. But what was I supposed to do? Bring that massive fucking ball of magic down the mountain with me? Take Kate hostage? And why would they take her word if they wouldn’t believe mine?”
“They wouldn’t,” Corin said grimly. We walked single-file up a set of rickety stairs and into a bedroom on the second floor.
“It’s exactly like Beatrice said,” I muttered. “My presence—your presence—challenges everything they want to believe. And so does suggesting the Great Death was caused by one man, and a Gifted man at that. If it’s true, then they don’t have a reason to punish and subjugate the Blighted anymore. They’d have to admit they did it with no cause in the first place. Are they really so desperate to cling to the way things are now that they’ll ignore the truth?”
“Yes.” Jae’s voice was soft but blunt.
“But if Rain does another magic pull, where will that leave them? If they turn Blighted, their actions now will only have made things worse for themselves.”
We stopped in front a pulsing blue portal inside the empty bedroom closet, and Jae shot me a glance, his green eyes sad.
“True. But I’m sure some would take that risk even if they did believe you. The fewer people who have magic, the more powerful those few will be; some of the Gifted would likely take that gamble, would risk losing everything on the chance of gaining even more.”
I gaped at him. “That’s fucking sick.”
“No argument.”
He walked through the portal, and the rest of us followed quickly after. The musty, dingy passage we stepped into no longer caught me by surprise. This was the network of tunnels underneath the abandoned factory where the Resistance was based. I hadn’t been here for several weeks, but it looked—and smelled—exactly the same.
Jae sent up a ball of light and led the way through the tunnels to the guardroom. Inside the room, two burly men and two women stood sentry by the entrance to the Resistance compound, all heavily armed.
I was used to being greeted with suspicion or open hostility by the Blighted Resistance members, so I was shocke
d as hell when their gazes fell on me and they dipped their heads in a sign of respect. One of the women peeked up, her wide brown eyes darting from me to the men flanking me.
“We’re here to see Noble. He’s requested a meeting with Lana.” Corin stepped forward, taking the lead as he usually did when dealing with the Blighted.
“The Crow?” One of the men peered around Corin to stare at me again. “I heard you saved a bunch of Blighted folk whose apartment complex got burned down. And you were the one who outed Christine as a traitor!”
I hesitated, taken aback. “Um….”
“Yes,” Akio said smoothly, stepping up to my side. “That was her.”
“I knew it. I recognized that red hair!” The man stepped aside, gesturing to his fellow guards to do the same.
Their gazes burned into me as we passed through the door, and as soon as it thudded closed behind us, I rounded on Akio. “Look, I don’t know what Noble’s plan is, but I don’t like having lies told about me. Did you charm them into believing you?”
“Oh, kitten. If I used charm, you’d know it.” His voice was teasing, but his expression darkened slightly.
Before I could identify the emotion on his face, Corin spoke. “He wasn’t lying, Lana. Those people living at Beatrice’s house? A gifted mob torched their building. You may not have been there when it happened, but you did save them.”
I blinked, unsure how to respond to that. I hadn’t even known. I’d just given them a place to stay, in rooms that weren’t even being used. That didn’t make me a fucking hero.
“Yeah, well, I don’t like ‘embellishing the truth’ any more than I like lying,” I said finally, as we made our way through the large compound. It was packed with people, at least twice as many as there had been last time I was here. “Tell Noble I’m either inspiring enough as I am, or I’m not. He doesn’t get to make shit up about me to fit whatever storyline he’s creating.”
“I dunno. I think you’re plenty inspiring, killer. Anyway, you can tell him yourself.”