I cringed, knowing that Alistair wouldn’t stop. He’d forced Mazur to gouge her own eyes out if it meant telling him where Eddie was located.
This was going too far. I was about to say something, before Mazur wailed, “They’re dead!”
The cell block went dead silent. Even the ghosts had stopped making noises.
“Whatdid you just say?” Alistair demanded.
Mazur took a few ragged breaths before continuing. “The Elves were being kept at a camp across the island,” she confessed. “We were moving them to the mainland when our guards were attacked. There was an explosion, and the Elves fought back. They died— each and every one.”
My heart turned to stone before it crumbled into a million pieces. I always thought we’d have more time to find Eddie. I didn’t know what the hell they’d done to him at that camp, but I thought for sure they’d keep him alive until we could finally break him out. It seemed too soon to lose him.
This wasn’t real. I didn’t want to believe my guard— my friend— was gone for good.
“I don’t believe you,” Alistair accused. “If they’re really dead, where are the bodies?”
“There were no bodies left to recover,” Mazur admitted. “All that was left after the explosion was a crater in the ground. Your friends disintegrated on impact, as they deserved for the vile beings they were!”
“Vile!?” Alistair roared. “You’re the vile one, for the hand you played in exterminating the Elves. You deserve a far worse fate than theirs!”
“You’ll never understand,” Mazur wheezed. “Doctor Taurus has sworn to create a world without suffering, and as long as people likeyouand your crippled kind continue to exist on this planet, it will never be so! This earth deserves to be mastered by perfect people, instead of infested with a bunch of sickly freaks!”
Professor Mazur had always hated me from the beginning, for seemingly no reason. Now I understood why. She hated everyone who had an illness or a disability, because they didn’t fit into her vision of a painless utopia. Disabled people didn’t live in her idea of a blissful paradise. She wanted us— me, my friends, and people like us— eliminated and exterminated.
Alistair’s rage could be felt in our bones as he screamed, “You’re the one who deserves to suffer! I don’t want to live in your perfect world, and you’ll never get to see it!”
Mazur screamed so loud that it shook the entire cell block.Alistair’s anger permeated the air, fueling a spell he shouldn’t be able to pull off. My Elf magic sensed his power as Alistair forced Mazur to siphon her own life energy out of herself. He wasn’t like me, who could steal someone’s energy. Instead, he used his mind control to force Mazur to drain her own life force using her angel magic.
Her screams turned to desperate rasps as she gasped for breath. Mazur’s voice aged decades with each passing second.
None of my friends protested, and I remained surprisingly calm. It should have bothered me that I showed no remorse for letting this happen, but to be completely honest, I was kind of glad Alistair had made us keep our distance.
Professor Mazur slumped to the ground. “The God of The Mission will punish you for this,” she rasped in a dying breath. She gave one last sigh, then… nothing.
Alistair heaved and dropped to his knees. “Youbitch! Youkilled him!” he screamed, though Mazur could no longer answer. Sobs filled his chest, and his breath became unsteady as he slammed his angry fists against the ground.
He was so enraged that his hold on us loosened, and we could move to our own will again. We all felt the tragedy of death filling the room.
Except it wasn’t a tragedy at all. Eddie was gone, and it felt fitting that we’d enacted revenge for his death. I didn’t fault Alistair in the slightest.
Ava was the first to speak up. “We have to do something with the body.”
“Leave her here to rot,” Alistair spat. “She doesn’t deserve a proper burial.”
“The Warden’s going to notice she’s missing!” I said. “He knows about death row, and he’ll send guards all over the prison to find her. This was a sloppy job, and the Warden will find evidence of who’s responsible. Ava’s right. We have to clean this up if we don’t want to get caught.”
“Let him do his worst,” Alistair raged. “If Eddie’s gone, none of it matters.”
“Then get your revenge!” Ava yelled. “You just proved that you can kill an angel, which none of us thought we could do! Let’s use your power to kill the Warden, and have this over with!”
Alistair scoffed. “The Warden’s way stronger than this bitch, and he’s got protection spells up the ass guarding his mind. You all know it, because Marcus has been trying to read his mind all semester, and he hasn’t got a single peep out of him! But even if that wasn’t true, you know what? I don’t really give a shit anymore. Eddie’s dead. So as far as I’m concerned, I couldn’t be bothered to give a fuck about who lives or who dies. You want the Warden dead, kill him yourself.”
His cane clattered as he got to his feet. He pushed past us, and Pig followed behind him.
“Alistair, stop,” I begged.
“Don’t follow me, Charlie,” he snapped. “You promised we’d rescue Eddie, but your promises are as empty as the Warden’s. You all can fuck off. You want this mess cleaned up? Clean it up yourself. You’re the ones who exposed Forevermore and got Eddie locked up in the first place. I suggest you get to work, before the Warden finds you missing from your shifts.”
With that, Alistair stomped out of the room.
