Tainted Crown

by Jenn Vakey

  They nodded and took off at a run into the darkness. Gryffin, who had been talking with people further down, started walking toward us.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  I smirked. “The Sentry have been ordered not to kill us. As soon as our people take out the ones positioned on the buildings, we’ll be ready to move.”

  He looked down at his watch. I did the same. We were running out of time. There was only six minutes left before Neema Trombly would initiate the override to unlock the gates. It wouldn’t go unnoticed, so we needed to be in position to open them before they could be barred again.

  The four of us, Treyson still at our side, stood at the edge of the building and watched as the minutes trickled by.

  “Come on,” I whispered. I glanced down for what felt like the fiftieth time. Only two more minutes.

  “Ready,” Leeya called out loud enough for our troops to hear. The air shifted, tensions and anticipation growing. People ready to move.

  “Come on, come on,” I said again.

  One minute.

  Just when I was ready to issue the order to move, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to avoid losing some people, I saw what I was looking for. The Sentry turning like he heard something. Movements. A fight. A scene that was repeated on the two other rooftops I could see from our position.

  It was as good as we were going to get.

  “Now!” I yelled.

  A wave of people flowed out from several buildings, all converging with us as we ran toward the gate. Through it I could see the Sentry bracing. Watching. They had no idea what was coming.

  The first of our people had barely touched the gate before it was swinging open and we were flowing through it. There were cries of alarm from the Sentry on the ground inside the gate. They had been too distracted at the sight of us surging toward them to recognize the sounds of the locks disengaging.

  Not that they could have done anything about it.

  There were at least fifty Sentry armed and waiting for us. With Leeya at my side, we met them head on.

  The sounds of battle filled the air. People on both sides fell, but I kept my focus on what was important. Gryffin had stayed toward the back of the group, with a dozen Sentry specifically tasked with protecting him. Something he made clear he wasn’t thrilled about. I didn’t bother telling him that our people would have done it even if they hadn’t been ordered to. They were loyal to us. They wanted to protect their king. Hell, it had been hard enough to keep them from trying to do the same to me. It took them watching me in the first fight we encountered for them to accept that I wasn’t some pampered, helpless prince. I had the only person I needed to have my back at my side. She had earned their respect all on her own, even with the mutterings I had heard. People questioning who she was. Speculating our relationship and whether or not she was their princess.

  On a lighter note, I found something that earned just as many eye rolls from Leeya as referring to her as Orson’s daughter did. I would have fun with that in the future.

  Through the fighting, I caught sight of movement coming in from behind us. My heart soared. Citizens, some dressed in their jumpsuits and others in regular clothes, started to pour down the walkway toward us. Some of them were armed with everyday items. Others came with nothing more than their hands to fight with.

  Our people.

  Returning my full focus to the Sentry I was fighting, I found myself filled with an energy like I had never felt before. My strikes were stronger as Leeya and I knocked down one Sentry after another. She laughed beside me, twirling like the ballerina Gryffin called her. Her hair spinning around her as she dropped and knocked the feet out from under the woman who had tried to stop her.

  She was beyond beautiful.

  “Incoming up top!” someone yelled.

  I cracked my staff against the head of a man as my eyes turned up. The second wave of Sentry assigned to protect the palace were coming out and lining the railings of the veranda at the top of the stairs we needed to ascend. There were only about fifteen of them. The thought crossed my mind for only a moment that Dex could be running out of troops. That we were close to finishing this.

  That was wiped completely from my mind when I saw what they had planned for us.

  “Everyone take cover!” I yelled, although I didn’t know how that was even possible out in the open like this. There wasn’t anything to protect us from what they were preparing to throw.

  The bomb had barely left the Sentry’s hand before I was pulling Leeya into my arms and covering her with my body. At the same time, I kept my focus on the cylinder flying toward us.

  Images from the last time we were in this position threatened to take over, but I pushed them down and put all of my power into what I needed to do. Protect her. Protect everyone I could.

  My ability worked almost opposite of how Leeya’s did. She pulled energy from others, and if she tried, she could use it to build her own. To heal herself. My telekinesis, especially when used on something moving, took energy from me. I felt that faint weakening kick in as I pushed my will on the bomb. It rose slightly before flying back in the direction it had come.

  Dex’s Sentry didn’t have a chance to react before the explosion rocked through the night. I hadn’t really been aiming it. My goal had just been to get it away from us. Away from Leeya.

  My ears were ringing as I held Leeya, my face tucked into her hair. Her body trembled under me. It was the first sign of fear she had shown all night. It made me hate Dex even more than I already did. Leeya wasn’t weak. I wanted him to hurt for even making her feel that way.

  I didn’t move until after the debris stopped falling. When I did look back up, the air was filled with dust. All around us, people were pulling themselves up. Gryffin was on his feet moving toward us, his group of Sentry close by. They were looking around for any sign of a threat, but the fighting had stopped.

  That’s not to say that all of the Sentry had been taken down by our army. There were still quite a few collecting themselves. Apparently, though, having a bomb thrown at them by their own people had killed their desire to keep going.

  Well, with that problem solved, at least temporarily, we could get back to what needed to be done.

  “People with telekinesis,” I called out, looking around. I pointed back up to where I could see the Sentry gathering again. At the top of the stairs that had been destroyed. Shit. “Use it to redirect bombs they throw.”

  Several people started to move forward, allowing me to turn my attention to my brother. I didn’t completely take my focus away from the Sentry. They might have the ability to do what was needed, but that didn’t mean they would be successful. They were all too new with the abilities.

  “Is there another way in?” Leeya asked, looking toward the ruined stairs. It wouldn’t be impossible to get up by climbing the rubble, but it was too much of a risk with the Sentry still positioned there.

  I nodded at the same time as Gryffin answered, “There’s a tunnel. It’s too narrow to take more than a small group. No wider than three shoulder widths.”

  “Keep moving forward and get to the main doors,” I called out to the rest of the people we would be leaving behind. With the Sentry that had been on the ground level either standing back or walking toward the gates, everything was at a standstill for the moment. The Sentry braced to fight back anyone who reached them, and our people watching for them to send something down they would need to push back. Hopefully the fact that the bomb had nearly reached the Sentry who had thrown it made them think twice before attempting it again.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  Leeya stayed close to my side, while Gryffin and his group of Sentry guards followed close behind.

  The tunnel was one of those closely guarded secrets that not many people outside of the royal family knew about. It was how I had gotten into the palace that night I had come for Linley. The only opening that I knew about, though, could only be accessed from inside the gate
s. There were rumors that it also let out in a few other places in the city. Gryffin and I had played in there and searched when we were children, but we never found any of them.

  It was a shame, because it would have made this all a lot easier than having to march through the city.

  We moved in a tight group along the side of the palace until we reached a small building that sat in the corner where the fence met the wall. Ironically, it was a storage building that held essentials that would be needed if the palace ever had to be locked down. Extra Healer supplies, weapons, tanks of drinking water, and nonperishable food rations. We had already broken through the gate. Why not use the building meant to supply those locked inside to actually get us into the palace.

  The door was locked, but that didn't really stop me. Not with a simple lock like this. All I had to do was concentrate on the lock and the way I knew the internal layout to be. It was one of the few things I could move without needing to look at it directly.

  “Well, that’s handy,” Gryffin said when it clicked and I pushed the door open. “Remind me to upgrade the security around here after we take the trash out.”

  Several of the Sentry snickered. I smiled myself, then led the way into the small structure and to the hidden door behind one of the shelving units.

  Very few places in Eden had underground levels. Most people only knew about the Grower levels. The large subterranean fields that lie under nearly a quarter of the city. Even as a prince, I had only seen them once. Aside from the occasional tour given to school aged children, access was generally limited to Growers.

  Our group paused for a moment as everyone stared down the flight of stairs leading into the ground. Other than my brother and Leeya, I doubt any of them had been underground before. Leeya’s experience in Denver had also been very different than this.

  After the shock cleared, we moved down the stairs and started down the long hallway that would take us right into the heart of the palace. The problem with having another member of the royal family as our adversary, though, was that he also knew about the tunnel. That meant there was a group of Sentry waiting for us just around the only turn in the passageway. We ended up losing two of our party before we reached the exit door and stepped out into the palace pantry.

  “Where would they be staying?” I asked my brother. I swiped the back of my hand over my freshly busted lip. It was the only injury any of us had. A lucky blow since I was the first to reach the turn. Had they not been using guns, we would have easily overpowered them.

  “They’ll be in the meeting room,” he answered. “It’s the most secure place in the palace. The walls are reinforced to protect against explosive attacks.”

  Leeya huffed out a breath. “No wonder Dex was so willing to let his Sentry throw bombs off the front steps. He could destroy this whole place and all he would have to do is order the citizens to rebuild it. Tyrant.”

  I put my arm over her shoulders and pulled her against me. Though I did actually try, I couldn’t keep from smirking. She’d had a long day. We all had. While my girl loved fighting, the cranky way she spoke made it pretty clear she was more than ready for this to all be over.

  At the gesture, many of the Sentry shifted as if they were uncomfortable. That only grew when Gryffin couldn’t completely muffle his chuckle and she reached out and pushed him back. They could explain away the way we had been touching each other by assuming we were married. The same couldn’t be said when she touched Gryffin. Or his lack of outrage for it.

  When all of this was over, I’d have to talk to my brother about some of the laws. I hadn’t even thought twice about it when I was living here. It was just normal not to touch anyone of the opposite sex before marriage. I had grown increasingly more annoyed with the restriction since then, as I had to deal with the new people arriving in Alkwin. Leeya was unique in that I had found some amusement in making her uncomfortable. That, of course, was before I realized that I took great pleasure in touching her.

  “Don’t make me kick both of your asses,” she said, narrowing her eyes as she looked up at me. “And with witnesses around.”

  Her words might have been challenging, but there was a twinkle in her eye when she said them. She had also picked up on the unease of our guards. Instead of ignoring it, it would appear that she decided to have some fun herself. To shock them.

  I really loved this girl.

  “Let’s get out there,” I told her. “I’ll let you kick Dex’s ass. I can’t think of anything more enjoyable than watching my cousin get beaten by a woman.”

  And honestly, I didn’t really trust myself not to kill him if I was given the chance. Not after everything he and his father had taken from us. From my family.

  We didn’t speak as we slipped from the room and moved silently through the empty halls. There were sounds coming from the front. Shouting, but no bombs. Nothing that suggested there was fighting going on. That meant that our people still hadn’t found a way up the broken steps. It also meant that the Sentry out there didn’t consider that we could have gotten in another way.

  The meeting hall was located on the ground floor of the palace, close to the back. Even though I had only stepped foot in this place once in the past four years, I still knew it like the back of my hand. We moved through the empty dining hall and the sitting room that had been my mother’s favorite place to read to us. Not wanting to be seen by the Sentry outside the front doors, we passed through the study and down the staff corridors before doubling back.

  It wasn’t until we reached the wide hall outside of the meeting room that we saw the first signs of life in the palace. At this point, though, there was no point trying to hide our presence.

  It was also enough to tell us that we were in the right place.

  Positioned in front of the large double doors leading into the meeting room was what appeared to be the entire household staff. The old butler who had been here since long before I was born. Two maids. A few people who I guessed to be kitchen staff. And, of course, three Sentry armed with batons.

  All eyes found us as we came into view. The Sentry tensed, but there was nothing short of shock on the faces of the staff. Maybe even something akin to relief.

  “Everyone who doesn’t want to be involved in this is to leave now,” Gryffin said in that commanding tone of his.

  There was some shifting as several people looked toward the opposite end of the hall. They didn’t want to be here. They were practically hostages, ordered to stand there as a shield to protect Dex and the council. Cannon fodder.

  “If you even think about abandoning your posts, your king will string you up outside so everyone will know what happens to traitors of the crown,” one of the Sentry sneered.

  One of the women whimpered, but no one made to move.

  Gryffin stepped forward. The anger coming off of him wasn’t something I was used to seeing. “You don’t threaten my people,” he growled.

  I gripped my staff, ready to advance. Before any of us could move, though, the older butler took a step closer to the Sentry. Was he siding with them? My answer came quickly when he gripped both of them by the backs of their jumpsuits and slammed them into each other. Then, while they were dazed, he threw them.

  Threw. Them.

  This man, who had to be close to eighty-years-old, picked up each man and hurled him ten feet across the room, slamming them with force into the wall.

  No one moved. Not even the third Sentry. He was still looking at his fallen comrades like he couldn’t understand how they had gotten across the room when the butler sent him to join them.

  Four of the men behind us moved to contain the fallen Sentry, while the rest of us just stared at the butler. It was clear by the utter shock on the faces of each of his fellow staff members that not a single one of them thought him capable of such a thing.

  “You thought you were the only Tainted people in this palace?” he asked as we looked on dumbly. “Who do you think got word out when your sister started displayin
g?”

  “Thank you, Pavel,” Gryffin said, still sounding at a loss himself. “Can you please get the staff somewhere safe? There are still Sentry outside of the front door keeping the rest of our people from getting in.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” he said, bowing to my brother. Then he faced me with another bow. “Your Highness.”

  That was another thing I hadn’t missed after leaving Eden. It actually didn’t bother me this time. Not when it was said as a means of declaring my brother the true king.

  When the Sentry were bound and we had locked them in a closet, we turned to the doors.

  This was it. On the other side of this single remaining barrier was everything we had come for. Dex and the five remaining councilmembers. There was still no word as to Othman Meltzer’s location, but he couldn’t stand up against us on his own.