Then I pulled her body into mine and hugged her while she cried against my lie.
Once she was safely on her way, I turned my attention to getting to the center.
I didn’t want to put anyone else at risk. Gemma knew this was a suicide mission, and so did I. Bringing another person along, regardless of whether or not they were willing to go, would be akin to murder.
And just because Brula would likely win this didn’t mean I was about to let her turn me into a murderer.
So I hopped on the four-legged creature, grabbing onto its mane and feeling more at home on it than I had any right to feel.
The last time I climbed onto this thing, I thought of somewhere safe. Now, I was thinking as far away from safe as I could.
I thought about the center, about the certain death that was sure to find me there, and then I squeezed my legs against the creature’s body, beckoning for the creature to run for me.
It didn’t.
I leaned forward, whispering into its massive left ear. “I know this doesn’t make any sense. It probably seems like the craziest thing in the world from where you’re sitting. But I just had this conversation with my sister, and I honestly don’t think I have it in me to convince you too. So, if you don’t mind, how about just giving me the benefit of the doubt on this one?”
A groan left the creature’s mouth, but it dashed forward, jerking me back as it moved.
I rocked back and forth as the creature galloped along, pushing me toward my horrible destination.
Oddly, there was a kind of peace that came with it. I was letting it go. I was finally through running. Whatever happened, I would never have to worry about Brula finding me ever again.
The creature pulled to a stop before the visage appeared in the air. I was thrown forward as it stopped, but I managed to keep my seat.
Looking up, I saw her in the sky. Brula was broadcasting from the center, and she wanted to make sure everyone in the sector could see it.
“No,” I gasped. “It hasn’t been an hour. Not yet.”
Brula stood from her throne, marching over to Park and Henrick, still chained on the steps.
“I tire of waiting,” she said, looking at whatever device was broadcasting.
“It hasn’t been long enough,” I screamed at the hologram. But she couldn’t hear me. She was in the center. She was too far away.
“The fugitive in question has yet to show herself. She is in direct opposition to my word, and, as was given to me in the beginning, my word holds the power of law. Now I am forced to show her what happens to those who break the law.”
“No!” I squeezed my legs around the creature again, beckoning it forward faster than it had been going before.
I had to get to the center. I had to stop this before anything could happen.
But even as I rode, the horrible images still played out before me. Stretched throughout the entire sky. No matter how fast I rode, I could not outrun it. It was always there, staring back at me.
Brula moved toward the men, first settling in front of Park. “This one, the source of my greatest disappointment.”
I looked up at the sky, trying with everything in me to get to the center in time. I could see the building coming up in the distance. I was almost there.
“Your prince, your Beacon,” she said. “And now, your martyr.”
A blaze of red energy shot from Brula’s hand, slicing Park’s neck wide open.
I cringed as blood spurted from his body. He fell to the floor, magically free from his chains, and started convulsing.
As if the creature beneath me knew it was over, he slowed, and then stopped, turning its head toward the sky while I watched in horror.
This couldn’t be real. I couldn’t be seeing this.
But the sinking feeling in my stomach told me the same truth it was telling everyone else in the sector.
Prince Park—the Beacon—was dying before our very eyes.
My stomach clenched at the sight, and then churned when Brula continued toward Henrick.
“And this one,” she said. “He seems almost like an afterthought now.”
She threw her hands in front of her, and the same red blaze of energy shot out.
I cried out as it neared Henrick, something inside of me breaking. But just as the energy was about to touch him, it fell to the ground.
A surge of power pulsed through me, and I could feel not only my own power, but also Brula’s as she fumed.
She tried again, but the energy fell to the floor once more.
It was then that Mi-Ta’s words rang through my head.
Love is powerful to our people. Your love will protect him. It will keep him safe.
It was me. I was keeping Henrick safe…because I loved him.
Brula turned toward me, as if she could see me. “You think you can save him?” Her face was nearly on fire. “You think you’re a match for me, native girl? You have three minutes!”
A mass of energy pooled around her hands. It rushed toward Henrick, circling him in flames.
The four-legged creature lurched backward. I could feel the heat. Could feel the power pulling at me. And I knew, as Brula must have known, that I wouldn’t be able to hold it for long.
“Three minutes,” she repeated. “That’s how long I predict it will take for my power to turn your lover into a charred corpse.” She cackled. “You better hurry.”
I gasped, my body aching and burning, and rode toward the center to my death.
Chapter 27
The people of the circle lunged back when they saw me galloping toward the center on the back of a creature that no one outside of the woods had ever seen.
The power in me was raging out freely at full force. Blue ice and a whirl of blizzard-like winds circled around me. I wouldn’t have been surprised if my eyes, hair, and lips were blue too.
I must have looked like a monster.
Normally, I’d have never made it this close to the center. There would have been armed guardsmen floating around me the instant I made myself known. But here I was, nearly at the gates.
And they were opening up for me.
Brula wanted me there. She wanted to hollow me out and use my body to wreak havoc over these poor, unsuspecting people for another sixty years or so.
And here I was, galloping toward her at full speed to let her do it.
And why? Because—against all odds—I’d fallen in love.
The gates slid all the way down, slamming against the other side with enough force to shake the ground underfoot.
A line of open air formed before me as people made space for my creature and me.
Did they know what was happening? Did they think Brula was right, that I was some horrible person who was about to get what I deserved? Did they think that it was me, and not Brula, who was the real criminal here?
And, if so, would they cheer when Brula came out wearing my body and telling them how, once again, she had thwarted a threat to the safety of the sector?
I shook my head, a whirl of cold air tickling me.
It didn’t matter. What they thought was irrelevant. And it wouldn’t stop me from doing what I was about to do now.
All that mattered was Henrick and keeping him safe.
My three minutes were almost up. The creature’s hooves slammed against the bridge. Before I had the time to breathe, I had crossed it and was now riding through the entrance to the center.
A flash of energy blinded me. When it subsided, I saw it had transported me into the throne room. The creature I was on stumbled to the ground, throwing me off.
I hit the ground hard, slamming my shoulder against the marble floor and sliding to a stop.
When I looked back, I saw that the magnificent creature was bloodied and hurt. It winced, screaming and gurgling on its own blood.
It had all happened from that flash of magic, and it could have just as easily been me instead.
Except Brula didn’t want my body to end up like this creature’s. She
wanted it to be perfect, to be hers.
Blinking back tears, I steeled myself.
This couldn’t happen. I couldn’t let this break me, not if I was going to save Henrick.
I released a pulse of energy that shot out on spikes of ice. Each cold icicle that tore out of me sprang at the guardsmen all around. But I was too focused on Brula—too focused on Henrick and the fire that was about to burst through my energy and burn him alive—to see the damage I’d done.
“Impressive,” Brula said, a sly smile creeping across her aged face. “I’ll have to try that out once I’m all warm and snug inside that body of yours.”
“Why don’t I give you a better preview?” I asked, my teeth gritting together.
Throwing my hands in front of me, I shot more ice spears in Brula’s direction.
When she tossed her hands up, the spears melted, falling in a puddle to the floor.
“Let’s not make this harder than it has to be,” Brula said, her eyes turning red and her skin sizzling.
A wave of heat rushed out from her, taking my breath away and sending me to my knees. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. My eyes were burning and my throat was closing up.
And worse than that, worst of all, was the fact Henrick was still in danger. I could feel my energy dissipating from around him. The only thing that protected him—the only thing stopping him from burning alive—was quickly disappearing. And there was nothing I could do about it.
My lungs were burning. My face was burning.
And I needed to stop this right now.
Thinking of everything I had lost, everything this horrible excuse for a woman had taken from me, I began to stand.
She cackled, and I could feel the temperature around me rise. She was growing ever hotter, and my skin was beginning to burn.
But all I could think about was Mother, the way she used to hug me after a long day, the cookies she made as a reward when I did something right, and the kisses on my forehead.
And Father—his strong hands and the way they helped me learn to use a backhoe, the long hours he spent in the fields to make sure everyone in the Dustlands could eat, and most of all, the way he loved me even though it turned out he didn’t have to.
Brula had taken them from me. She had taken them from Gemma. She had taken so much from so many.
And, if I had to die today to get it done, I was going to make sure that she never took another damn thing from anybody else.
A scream, loud and justified, boomed from my lips. With it, a torrent of pure energy exploded from every pore in my body.
Cold, deep, and debilitating energy rushed through the room. It was loud, violent, and destructive. I could feel the old me melting away with the release of it.
Whatever I had been…I wasn’t that anymore. I was something else. The things holding me back, keeping me from the truth of myself, was gone.
My power forced Brula backward. Her red hair and crackling skin disappeared as she crumpled to the floor.
I had never seen this before—the regent on her knees—but I didn’t have the time to revel in that particular visual. Henrick was still in danger.
The flames had crawled closer to him and were now licking at his skin. Because my rush of power had pulled the energy from him, he couldn’t fight back.
Brula’s fire was taking him over. His jaw clenched as his gaze came to mine. There was so much written in his expression, but most of all, there was pain.
I lunged toward him, blasting him with blue energy just as the fire caught his clothes.
Henrick keeled over on the ground, his body jerking beneath flames that just wouldn’t quit. I ground my teeth together and stalked closer, blasting Henrick with even more energy.
Why wouldn’t the damn flames go out?
Realization dawned on me: The fire was connected to Brula. It wouldn’t stop so long as she was alive.
I had to put her down. And I needed to do it before the fire consumed Henrick.
Turning to Brula, I found she was back on her feet. She raged at me, her burning hands clawing at my face. But I was quick. I slammed a fist into her aged ribcage, and she stumbled away.
It wasn’t enough.
Fire poured from her hands. It bore into me, knocking me backward.
“You can’t win this, native girl,” she said, fire emanating from her very flesh.
She would blow this entire place up if she had to, so long as she could take my body over.
Brula settled in front of a huge statue of herself as an apparition of her first body. The crown that still weighed her head down was placed on the statue’s head as well.
“I am a god! Do you understand me?”
I shot ice at her, but it melted away long before it could do her any harm.
I couldn’t beat her like this. Maybe I couldn’t beat her at all. And Henrick would be dead in moments.
“You cannot defeat me! No one is more powerful than I am!”
I looked up, the answer coming to me like divine inspiration.
“Fine then,” I said, lifting my hands over my head and shooting out my energy. “Beat yourself.”
My ice power surrounded the huge statue, and I focused it on the hilt until I heard it snap.
By the time Brula looked up, it was too late. Her statue—the huge, stone boulder carved into her ugly shape—came crashing down on top of her, smashing her borrowed body.
Instantly, the heat in the room disappeared.
Could this truly be the end? Just like that, the evil witch was dead? I glanced around the room, trying to see if she had somehow rematerialized in someone else’s body. I didn’t exactly know how that worked. Thankfully, it didn’t appear like I was about to find out.
Forgoing everything else, I turned back to Henrick,
“Murderer!” a guardsman called from behind me.
I grunted and froze them all where they stood.
They weren’t going to stop me—not from this.
Rushing over to Henrick, I saw the steam coming off him in waves. The fire had left when Brula did, but it had done its damage. He was burned and hurt.
But he was also alive.
“Hey you,” I said, lifting his head and brushing his singed hair out of his eyes.
His face met mine. His eyes brightened, and his lips spread into a grin.
“I love you. Do you know that?” I said through my tears.
“Of course I do,” he answered weakly. “What’s not to love?”
“Shut up.” I chuckled before kissing him deeply. “You know you love me, too.”
Chapter 28
Henrick stared at me from across the breakfast table. “Are you sure this is how you want to go about things?”
It was strange. His eyes were just as intense as they had been the first day we’d met. But there was something else in them, a softness I liked to think I helped put there.
He had healed up well in the weeks since Brula’s death. As I looked at him now, there was barely a sign he had ever been hurt at all.
“I think so.” I lifted a glass of juice and took a sip. “It seems like the right thing to do.”
On the day the worst woman who ever lived had finally died, there had been a near war. But with the threat of the regent gone, it wasn’t difficult to outnumber her guards. The center had been shut down and taken over with Henrick and myself at the helm. But staying here didn’t feel right. This wasn’t home.
“You don’t even want to think about it some more?” Gemma asked, picking up a pastry and scraping off the powdered sugar.
She lived with me, along with Henrick. It was almost like back in the Dustlands, except instead of trying to keep under the radar, we were in the limelight, the center of attention for everyone in the sector.
And it had been that way since the day I liberated them, but that didn’t mean I knew what to do next.
“You are, technically, the next in line for the throne,” Gemma said, taking a bite of pastry. “Seeing as how
you—”
“Crushed the regent,” Henrick said with a grin.
“Stop it.” I smiled, looking over at him. “Just because I could do something doesn’t mean I should.” I shook my head. “We all saw what having a dictator did to this place before. None of us want that again.”
“Except you’re not Brula,” Henrick said, taking my hand. “You’re kind. You’re compassionate. You’re just, powerful, and amazing. Not to mention that you’re pretty easy on the eyes. You’d make the perfect regent.”
I leaned in, kissing him gently on the lips. “But that’s the thing. I don’t believe there can be a perfect regent. Because I don’t believe in it. At least, not in the way we’ve had one in the past.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and looked back up at them. “People should get a say in the way they live their lives. There is not one person more important than anyone else. Dustland folks, center people, natives, even the people in this castle… We’re all the same. And, until we realize that, none of us are ever actually going to find happiness.”
“You can help people understand that,” Henrick said.
“And I will, as part of a group.” I leaned forward. “I’m thinking of something a bit more structured, a bit more considerate. A place where people can act as representatives for others. So that no one person has complete control.”
“That sounds like a dream,” Henrick said, lifting my hand and kissing it.
“It sounds fair.” I rested my head against his shoulder, feeling fuller than I ever had in my life. “Everyone should get a piece of what we have,” I said, closing my eyes and feeling completely safe.
“And maybe they will,” he answered, kissing my temple. “If they’re really, truly lucky.”
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Under: an Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 5 (The Othala Witch Collection) Page 19