“I have no idea, but now isn't the best time to try and figure it out.” I turned to the rest of the group.
“What's the plan?” Kohen asked, and they all looked at me.
“Blythe said to use my power and told me how to make a clean exit if needed. Other than that, I have no idea.”
They still stared at me like I had died and come back to life—aside from Sebastian, who seemed pretty unfazed by all of this.
“Well, by the looks of it, if our army doesn't get a grip, the rest of the castle is going down,” Sawyer said.
I peered over the shrubs surrounding the patio. Spouts of water from sapphire gifted soldiers shot down the flames that raged inside the castle. I thought back to my visions and tried to remember if I saw the outcome of this, but all I could remember was the castle burning, not if it met its demise.
“How many of our troops do you think are left in the castle?” I asked, mostly to Sebastian.
“Uh, I don't know. Likely more Draemornians than our men. Those fuckers are searching high and low for you.”
I nodded. Good. The less of our kind I had to kill, the better.
“How about your father?” I asked next.
Sawyer scoffed, answering before Sebastian could. “That coward fled through the tunnels as soon as we all left the throne room. He's long gone by now.”
Okay—also good. Although he was a complete ass, I wasn't too keen on killing the father of the man I loved.
“By the way things are going, it looks like we are going to lose the castle anyway.” I paused to glance between the four of them. “I think we should lure as many Draemornians inside as we can. Then I’ll burn the castle and whoever is inside to the ground. If what Blythe said about me having the power to manipulate the stars is true, I should have no problem conducting enough power to finish the job.” My eyes bounced between my friends. “We can rebuild a castle, but we can’t rebuild lives.”
“Absolutely no fucking way we are doing that!” Sebastian shouted, grabbing me by the shoulders. “You don't even knowfor certain what your new powers are. And just because you have the power doesn't mean you should use it. It could kill you!” His eyes drifted to Pia and they gave each other a look that said that they knew something the rest of us didn't.
“What was that?” I raised an eyebrow in suspicion, acknowledging that I saw their shared glance.
Pia bit her lip and Sebastian dropped his arms from me, shaking his head in denial. “Nothing.”
I crossed my arms and pointed a finger at Pia. “The look on your face says enough.” Then I directed my finger at him. “And you're a horrible liar.”
Sawyer interjected before either of them had a chance to defend themselves. “Maeve, I gotta agree with them. No offense, but you don't have a great history with using your magic, and now is really not a good time to test fate.”
My eyes shot to him, then I flipped him the finger for not defending me. He scrunched his nose, but backed down.
Kohen took his turn arguing with me. “Sorry, Maeve, but they're right. You’ve never used this side of your magic before. You don’t know what you're capable of or how to control it.”
I tapped my foot in annoyance. “You do realize I could compel every single one of you to screw off, right?”
I swear I could see Sebastian tightening his shields as he flashed me a look of warning. “Don't you dare,” he snarled.
I was taken aback at his tone and prepared to counter when Pia jumped in. “Okay, everyonecalm down. The more I think about this, Maeve may actually be right in some sense.”
“Pia, stop.” Sebastian's eyes begged for her to listen.
What was he not telling me?
She ignored him. “I'm sorry, Seb, but we have to look at the big picture here. The castle is almost a pile of ruins, anyway—there's no chance Caelestis is winning this war. If you can even call it a war, I mean, it's been a day. But anyways, the best case scenario is that we destroy as many of Beaumont’s soldiers as we can before we get out of here.”
Sebastian’s nostrils flared and he clenched his fists. They were turning white when he looked back to me, his face softening as he pleaded for me to listen. “Let’s just all make for the dungeon. We can get out of here.” He put his face close to mine. “Please.”
Gods, he was beautiful. I loved him. More than I had ever loved anyone or anything. But I couldn't falter on this. I had to do this for myself. For my mother and Delani. My head hung as I shook it. I couldn't bear to see the betrayal on his face another time today.
His feet backed away from me slowly, and the sight hurt my heart—just as it did before. I would make it up to him later, right now I had some Draemornians to fuck up.
Sawyer piped in. “Fine. I'm in. But if we are doing this, I want a say in how it's executed.”
