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Twenty-Nine
Our controlled glide carried us all the way to the water, and to the soft, lapping banks of freedom. At least, that’s how I felt when I landed. Lucien had been careful to explain how I was supposed to land so I didn’t accidentally twist something on the way down. Lucky for me, I had enough coordination to pull it off without getting hurt.
We had landed on a quiet section of a warehouse district just shy of Logan International. There wasn’t anyone here, the cranes were all silent, and most of the lights were out. As soon as I hit the ground, I shrugged out of the parachute backpack and let it fall to the ground.
Lucien was only a second or two behind me, touching down in a cloud of crimson that vanished as soon as his feet met the ground. He took his backpack off and set down the box he had been carrying since we left the Recondite temple.
“I just base jumped,” I said. “Right? Isn’t that what jumping off a building with a parachute is called?”
“It is,” Lucien said.
“I can’t believe I just did that.”
“I have to admit, I’m surprised we didn’t die.”
“You really thought we could?”
“There was a moment…” he trailed off. The serious look on his face deflated my excitement.
I walked up to him and placed a hand on his chest. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure.”
I glanced at the box, then looked up at him again. “Is it that?”
He shook his head. "The Recondites aren’t going to forget what just happened. They will retaliate.”
“I know.”
“Bee… I may have just restarted the Shadow War.”
I moved my hand up to his cheek. “Hey, none of this was your fault, okay?”
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
I shook my head. “You didn’t restart the Shadow War; your father did the day he…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. “You didn’t do this, okay?”
Lucien placed his hand against mine. “I’m already wracked with guilt over my part in all of this, and now I’ve gone and made things worse.”
“You only feel that way because you’ve been used. Used for your smarts, for your gifts, for your courage.”
“Courage,” he shook his head. “Courage would’ve been turning my magic on my father the moment it looked like he was going to… do what he did. Instead, I did what he told me to, just like I’ve done again today.”
“You didn’t have a choice. Neither of us did.”
“Didn’t I?” he picked the box up off the ground. “Don’t I?”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t have to give this to him. I could break the seals and use it myself.”
“You don’t even know what it does.”
“I don’t, but if he wants it, it must have some kind of power. Maybe enough that it’ll even the odds in a confrontation against him.”
“And if it doesn’t? What if it makes you weaker, somehow? You’ll regret having done something so reckless.” I paused. “I like to think I know a thing or two about acting without thinking, and you aren’t thinking now… right now, you’re just feeling.”
“I feel like I should do something.”
