Tainted Crown

by Jenn Vakey

  I spun around until we were nearly nose to nose. While he didn’t flinch, there was still surprise barely hidden in his eyes. That’s right, father. I wasn’t the good submissive son any longer.

  “What it takes?” I grated out. My limbs shook from my pent up anger. I wanted nothing more than to strike him. To use the Sentry training he insisted that I had against him. But I was better than he was. “You allowed people to be held and tortured simply because they were different. You let Lillith be tortured in that place.”

  My voice raised higher with each word. My group tightened around us. I wasn’t sure if they were getting into position to defend me if needed or to pull me off of him if I did break and tried to kill him right here. But no one touched me or tried to separate us.

  “That girl was never good enough for you,” he said, just as angry. “She’s the reason you chose to be a Grower instead of living up to your true potential. You could have been great. You were destined to take my place on the council before that piece of trash got in the way.”

  “Look around, father,” I said, waving my arm out toward the city. “Everyone in this city is Tainted, even if it hasn’t displayed yet. There are hundreds of people out there right now that came into their abilities today. Citizens willingly activating the genes so they can fight back against what this place has become.”

  Father’s head jerked back like I had struck him, his eyes wide with disbelief. When he spoke again, it was lower. Gravelly. “You did this to yourself?” His lip curled. “You’re a monster.”

  A laugh pushed out as I stepped closer until our chests were touching. “You not only supported the assassination of our king, but you tried to have his children murdered. One of your Sentry tried to drown an eight-year-old little girl two days ago because he thought she could be Princess Myrah. An innocent child. That was after they attacked the people in Alkwin who want nothing more than to live in safety. The Tainted have never hurt anyone except in self-defense. That’s all you’ve done.”

  “So you’re going to let them kill me?”

  This man was my father, but in that moment, at the sight of absolutely no regret in his eyes, I actually considered it. I thought about what the world would be like without people like him in it. What did it say about me that being related to him didn’t have anything to do with the answer I gave him?

  “They aren’t the monsters you make them out to be,” I said. I stepped back, shaking my head. “You’re going to be arrested so you can stand trial for everything you’ve done. Your Eden is gone.”

  He wanted to argue more, to dig at me and put me back in my place. Before he could, Lamont took him by the arm and pulled him back a step.

  “We need to move,” he said.

  I nodded. We had been stationary for too long.

  My words might not have had an effect on my father, but there was a shift in our group as we turned and started running in the direction of the nearest group of buildings. It would put us on the main path, but the risks of being seen were worth it. We just needed to get him into the prison where no one would be able to get to him.

  We reached the buildings without a single shot being fired in our direction. We didn’t have a way to communicate with our group that had gone after them, but I hoped it meant they had found and stopped the threat.

  But they couldn’t help us with what was to come.

  We had no sooner reached the main path before the first of my father’s Sentry came out of the darkness and charged right for us.

  We were evenly matched in number, but things weren’t as simple as fighting to get past them. Not when we had to make sure my father didn’t slip away.

  Lamont pushed forward and placed himself between us and the first Sentry to reach our group. He was a solid fighter. Not only was he Sentry trained, but he had also been training with the Alkwin fighters. His Tainted ability might not be useful when it came to fighting in the city, but he didn’t need it in hand-to-hand combat. I could see by his movements, though, that the shot he had taken earlier was giving him trouble.

  Our group circled around my father and me. He pulled to try to get out of my hold, but I tightened my grip both on him and the baston in my other hand.

  Everyone around us was locked in battle. I kept my head on a swivel, ready for anyone who managed to break through the wall to reach us. That’s when I saw something that made my stomach drop. Another group of Sentry running for us.

  “Your time’s up, boy,” my father bragged.

  I feared he was right. There were just too many of them.

  As they neared and I readied to fight with everything I had, I watched another group coming from the buildings around us. They didn’t move toward us, though. Instead, they ran straight for the group of Sentry.

  I couldn’t focus on anything else as I watched in awe as people armed with whatever they had gotten their hands on converged with the group. These weren’t Sentry. They were Makers and Growers. Healers. There was even an older woman in Scholar purple wielding a heavy looking book.

  They didn’t even stop when one of the Sentry pulled out a gun and started shooting. Even when they couldn’t have known from the angle that he was aiming for our group instead of these citizens trying to stop them.

  And as my father and I stood there watching, his Sentry started to fall. Some from being pummeled by the citizens. Others when those clever Healers slapped what must have been sedative patches on them.

  Then they were moving toward our group to help take out the rest of them. Twenty Sentry taken down by a mix of Tainted and citizens who should have feared them.

  “See,” I said. I didn’t bother looking at my father. I could practically feel his shock at the sight ahead of us. I wasn’t even sure he was breathing at this point. “The people don’t support you. This city will never be yours again, no matter what happens tonight.”

  By the time the last Sentry fell, even more people had come out to see what they could do to help. If looks could kill, Othman would be a pile of ash at my feet. There was no love lost between Eden’s citizens and my father. And it would appear they were done cowering under him.

  “Paxton,” a deep voice said, pulling my attention to a large man pushing through the crowd.

  I smirked as Greer, a friend of mine from the fields, stopped right in front of us. His eyes moved from my father to me, his eyebrows rising as he tried to make sense of the situation, but he didn’t question it. Instead, he asked, “What do you need us to do?”

  I looked around at the scene surrounding us. We had come out on top, but my team had taken a beating. Three were on the ground, one unconscious. He had a bruise on the side of his head where he had been hit and knocked out, but he was still alive. One of the others had been shot in the chest and already had a pair of Healers working on him. He was still talking, so I had hope that he would be fine. The other gripped an arm that was sitting at an odd angle. Broken.

  None of them would be able to continue.

  My attention turned to the buildings at our sides. It was harder to make out in the dark, but I was fairly certain we were only ten minutes from the prison if we stuck to a swift pace.

  “Our injured need to be moved out of sight and tended to,” I said, meeting Greer’s eye again. “The Sentry need to be restrained until we can have people out to collect them and get them to the prison. Use whatever you can to tie them up. If there’s enough, sedate them on top of that with the patches.”

  I let out a breath, not happy with what I had to say next. There wasn’t any way around it, though. “I’ll leave some of my men here.”

  Greer nodded and slapped my shoulder before turning to relay the instructions to the others.

  “Almost there,” Lamont said, walking up to stand next to me. Watching as people started using whatever they could to bind the hands of the Sentry spread out on the walkway.

  The tightness to his voice made me turn to look at him. His face was taut, jaw clenched. My gaze dropped to his shoulder.
The black jumpsuit was shining with fresh blood, his hands red.

  Shit.

  “I need you to stay here and get yourself fixed up,” I told him.

  Lamont shot his head toward me with a look of indignation. I shook my head, not letting him argue.

  “You’re losing a lot of blood,” I told him. “They’re going to need us in fighting shape after he’s dropped off and we go to the palace.”

  It was the only thing I could have said to make him relent. Although we hadn’t interacted much, Leeya and Rhydian had both told me about his dedication to them. The debt that he felt he owed.

  Our group that had been twenty-five strong not even an hour before was down to four when we broke from the crowd and started the final trek toward what could be the last building my father ever saw the inside of. Eden had always been strict with its laws, but there had never been a crime committed as serious as what he and his people were going to be charged with. He was amongst the worst of them, and I couldn’t see him getting a sentence less than life.

  We moved quickly, my father practically needing to be dragged between the two of us who were holding him. I counted every building we passed, each one getting us one step closer. Two. Four. Five.

  Then we were halfway there. Close enough that I could see the tall prison over some of the shorter buildings.

  The final block we took at a run. The man holding my father’s other side must have had enhanced strength, because even though he was on the thinner side, he didn’t have to struggle to keep our prisoner moving ahead.

  Before I knew it, the courtyard was the only thing standing between us and the front door to the prison. The moment we stepped out into it, though, all hell broke loose. Gunshots started to ring out and echo off of the surrounding buildings.

  So close. We had been so close.

  “Back!” I yelled.

  We pulled back, but we couldn’t go far. The sounds of people approaching were coming from all directions. I didn’t hold any delusions that some of them would be friendly. Orders were being called out, people saying where they thought we were.

  We turned and ran, not even bothering to stop my father as he called out to his people. They already knew where we were. The only way to stop him would be to knock him out, and there was no way we would be able to move an unconscious man of his size easily.

  Slipping into the gap between two buildings, we ran to try to make it to the other side. All we needed to do was get around it with the Sentry at our back. Hope that we didn’t get shot before we could get him through the doors where the prison could be locked down.

  Just before we reached the opening at the other end, a wall of black moved out of the shadows. Blocking us in.

  Without the need for words, we turned and started back in the other direction.

  But there was nowhere to go. Sentry almost seemed like they were materializing out of the darkness. Blocking us in from both sides.

  We were trapped.

  “Kill them,” my father bellowed. “All of them.”

  That should have hurt more than it did. Maybe it was the dread I was feeling at what I knew was to come that overshadowed it. Maybe it was my anger at the man and my desire to distance myself from who he was.

  It didn’t even hurt when he turned toward me, growling in my ear as he stated, “You’re no son of mine.”

  For some reason, that actually made me smile. It wasn’t from humor. If anything, it was because he wasn’t lying when he said it. There was a truth in it that told me it was exactly how he felt.

  I was as dead to him as he was to me.

  “King Gryffin is taking back his city tonight,” I announced, loud enough for them all to hear the confidence in my words. “Any who oppose him will be arrested along with Dex and the rest of the council. He has people with the ability to know when someone is being truthful, so this will be your defining moment. Unless you want to spend the rest of your days in prison, you’ll step aside so we can take Othman Meltzer into custody.”

  At the sight of them drawing their weapons, I felt the last of my hope disappear. My fingers pressed the controls on my wrist. There was no chance of anyone reaching us in time.

  And as they started moving toward us from both directions, I found whatever comfort I could at the thought of beautiful violet eyes. With the memory of her soft lips on mine.

  My Lillith. My heart.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  RHYDIAN

  I stood with my back pressed against a cold wall, looking out into the streetlamp lit night. We had nearly made it to the palace only to be pinned down before we could reach the gates. It wasn’t unexpected. We had known and planned for Sentry to be stationed heavily here.

  It was a struggle not to reach for my communicator and work my way through the channels.

  Jarrell and Trombly had gotten in and out of the power station without much trouble, and the Maker councilwoman was safely secured in one of the cells she had agreed to lock many of the people surrounding me in. They had joined the teams going out to pick up and transport any of Dex’s Sentry we had taken out.

  There was no word from Paxton’s team. The last communication I had received from him ten minutes ago said they were cornered. He told me to make sure Lillith knew how much he loved her just before the connection was broken.

  I hadn’t told Leeya yet. He had contacted me directly on a private line. There also hadn’t been anything from Lamont. The notion twisted at my stomach, but all I could think at this point was that they were dead. It was going to break my girl’s heart. I wanted to reach out in hopes of getting an answer from someone. I couldn’t with her abilities, though. I needed to be able to tell her in complete honesty that I didn’t know their status if she asked.

  Anything to keep her from being distracted when I needed her focus to be on the fight ahead.

  “We have to figure out how to get around them,” Leeya said.

  I nodded, peeking out as far as I dared to look around. There were Sentry positioned at the tops of the buildings closest to the courtyard in front of the gates. They had managed to take out a handful of our people before we’d taken cover.

  “Sir,” someone said before I could come up with an answer for her. I looked down the row of people resting against the wall to see Treyson Ganley pushing toward us. Aarys’ brother. I still hadn’t wrapped my head around that one yet. “You’re going to want to hear this.”

  There was something funny about his expression as he pulled his comm piece out and handed it to me. It wasn’t one of ours. This one was Sentry issued. I looked to it for a moment, wondering what could possibly have earned such a reaction, then slipped it into the ear that didn’t have mine.

  “That’s a direct order,” the voice was saying. “I repeat, all of the rebels are to be taken in alive. King Dex wants to exact punishment for their disloyalty. Incapacitate them, but do not kill. That’s a direct order.”

  My mouth hung open as I took the device out and held it back out to Treyson. His expression was questioning, like he was wanting me to confirm he wasn’t losing his mind. It wasn’t the words that had left me speechless, though.

  It was that voice.

  “What is it?” Leeya asked, grabbing my arm to get my attention.

  I blinked, shaking my head. “That guy has quickly become one of my favorite people,” I muttered. She scowled, so I explained. “Lamont is at Sentry command central. He’s issuing orders to take us all alive.” I grinned. “A direct order from King Dex.”

  We both turned and looked out toward the buildings we knew the Sentry to be atop of. Sure enough, the man we were looking at lowered his gun. It didn’t mean they wouldn’t still shoot at us, but hopefully they would avoid the more vital areas now.

  Screw just ensuring Lamont and his girl had a house. I was going to make sure it was one of the best houses Alkwin had ever seen. And maybe plan a trip to Denver so he could see that subway car Leeya and I had found. She’d said he was as interested in things
like that as she was.

  Turning, I looked out at our people. Many of the ones in Sentry black were touching their ears like they were also listening to the message. I hadn’t even thought to check if they were still listening to the Sentry commands. It was an oversight, because it also gave them the ability to relay anything to the Sentry if they weren’t really on our side here, but it was one I was glad for.

  “You,” I said, pointing to a dozen men and women. “Circle around to get behind those buildings. Move as fast as you can. We need those shooters disabled.”