The curly-haired Luxian stepped forward, and I hadn’t realized how similar he looked to Raeya until he put his arm around her shoulder. They had the same dark skin, the same smile and mannerisms. “I won’t let anything happen to her, Kal.”
“Okay.” She was still hesitant, but she stepped up to Raeya and grabbed her face in her hands. “Stay with Rainer, I’ll be right back.” Then she bent down and kissed her.
Someone projecteda command across the courtyard ordering—no compelling—the humans to start using their weapons against themselves. The voice made my skin crawl.
I wished energy weaponry worked in reverse. That a Tennebrisian could vanish a weapon instead of create one because one by one the humans started slitting their own throats. Some turned their swords around and plunged it into their stomachs. The ones that were lucky enough to lose their weapons started searching through the dead bodies, looking for a fallen blade.
“We have to take out Athler,” the eldest prince said. Tezya, Dovelyn and Kallon weren’t even gone two minutes and all hell was breaking loose.
The Luxian soldiers, not having to split their time between the humans anymore, focused solely on us. I just barely took out the Luxian who charged Lilia and almost killed her. We were getting overwhelmed.
She had sweat pouring down her forehead, her pale blonde hair was sticking to her cheek. I could feel blood running down my own. I lost my eye patch at some point during the fight, and my stitches ripped open—it hurt like hell.
“The serum I made, there’s two parts to it. One’s a drink. It gives the person compulsion. The other’s a vapor,” Arcane said as we watched more and more humans kill themselves. “Whoever takes the serum can control anyone exposed to the vapor. The only way to stop this is to stop him. Athler and my father were the only ones who had access to my research.”
“How do you propose we do that?” the mortal with purple hair asked as she swiped her dagger across a Luxian’s stomach.
“I never create anything without first making an antidote,” Arcane said as an arrow slammed into a shield he erected. “I made a reversal for the mass compulsion in case this ever happened.”
“Your lab was destroyed,” Rainer called as he punched a Luxian in the gut, sending tendrils of lightning scattering around him. I felt heat at my back and knew someone else was using fire.
“What I need isn’t in my lab. It’s in my room.”
“And how are you going to get close to him?” Rainer challenged, fighting back to back with Raeya.
“His powers can’t get through my shields.”
“So you get the serum close to him and the compulsion the humans are under will go away?” the mortal questioned.
“Essentially, yes. I’ll leave my siblings to figure out what to do with Athler when they get back, but we need to stop the compulsion or all the humans are going to be dead.”
If they get back…If Scotlind dies, the Fire Prince won’t be functional anytime soon. Honestly, maybe never again.
I pushed thoughts of my brother out of my mind because if something happened to him, I didn’t think I’d be either. I couldn’t think about it, couldn’t imagine losing him too.
“I’ll go with you,” the mortal girl said, and it was still shocking as hell that she was human. I couldn’t believe it with how well she fought, how she wasn’t scared of anything.
I didn’t want Arcane to leave. Maybe this made me a selfish dick, but I didn’t care about the humans. I only cared about one girl, and without the eldest prince’s shields, it was going to get harder to protect her.
There were times when I couldn’t, where my fucking lack of an eye left me blind on that side, and I didn’t see a soldier charge Lilia. If it wasn’t for Arcane’s shields… I didn’t want to think about it.
The guy wasn’t a great offensive fighter, but defensively he was phenomenal. He seemed to pay attention to everything and everyone around him. Whenever my sight of vision lacked, one of his shields would be there, but now he was leaving the battlefield.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were spreading ourselves too thin, and that maybe it was exactly what this guy Athler wanted.
SEVENTY-SEVEN
SAVANNAH
Arcaneand I moved in silence. I could feel his shield hovering around me, which I was thankful for since I still didn’t have a mask.
The humans had to live. Seeing them kill themselves… It was ingrained in my head. I couldn’t stomach it. I was barely keeping myself together.
All I kept seeing was my own dad die over and over again. I couldn’t let that be anyone else. I couldn’t let any more of them die. How many fathers were in the courtyard? How many human children were going to be left without parents because of Advenian greed?
Athler needed to die. And I needed to concentrate enough to do it. But all I kept thinking about was how I was going to face Wells after this. How was I going to tell my little brother our dad died because I was reckless and didn’t listen to him…
We made it to Arcane’s room, and I whistled as I took it in. It was the only part of the castle I’d seen so far that wasn’t ruined by death and blood. I’d never been to Lux before. I was envious when I found out that Arcane had brought Wells in the past and not me.
