You are now a mutant human with a unique Storm, but you are still human. You can not go up against a Royal Amphiran attack and hope to survive without your gauntlet shield. But we both know your shield works.
I smile to myself. “Thanks, Allele. You saved my life.”
More than one. Go get Aura. He needs you. They all do.
38: Aurelius
Amphirans are suffering because my father is letting it happen. I see it now on his face. He was fooled by the Talhuskin’s cloak. But it has not deterred his hatred for Genesis or his desire to torture anyone who betrays New Order.
More Denarsoans pour in through another portal that a Royal has opened on a Denarsoan ship.
“Is this really what you wanted?” I ask my father. “To kill your own people?”
He glares at me. “You believe in the natural order of life. Natural selection means the strongest survive. The strongest are my people.Youget to keep whoever is left.”
I want to destroy all the kings and Elders and delegates, all who accept the deaths of their own kind simply because they have different beliefs about instincts and love. My Storm stutters, trying to ignite me and burn, but I am under triple arrest. Such a task is impossible.
Come on, Storm. They hurt Jovie! Why won’t you wake up?
I know it’s futile. But I’m livid that the kings would bring death and destruction here.
“I will not…” Eluni peels a king’s hand off of her throat and spins around, back-kicking him in the chest. “Let any of you Royalassestake another Lightbringer’s life, ever again!”
She punches a ball of electric fury into his core inside his shield, knocking him back and to the ground with a smoking hole in his center.
A Royal guard tackles her to the floor, and they become a tornado of fireworks and Arkus shield bursts.
Blaize is in a wrestling match with a different Rogue. Fieri slashes his way through Denarso, freeing females, while Jorusk continues his battle for dominance with the Talhuskin.
And I’m lying here like a worthless slug.
I’m jailed in an arrestor ring, in an arrestor net, with ship dampeners on. It’s an impossible set of shackles to break for any Royal.
But I don’t want to accept my fate. Pronkus and all the others who ever hurt our people or tried to keep us from listening to our Storms deserve to suffer.
Especially Pronkus.
And I’m not an average Royal.
I fight inside the restraints as gunfire slices up the air from all directions. Amphirans are down, some shot, some bleeding out from Denarsoan teeth. Denarsoans lie interspersed among them, holes in their chests. But so many more flood in through the portal that I know Genesis onGravionis going to be annihilated if I don’t dosomething.
Portals open all over the plaza, dumping in Rogues and Royals, New Order members, and green-striped Genesis. I am happy to see some Royal portal-wielders have chosen our side.
Vybron comes through with his team, sees us, and starts in our direction. He slows when he notices how many Amphiran Genesis refugees are down.
“Dampeners!” I shout.
Pronkus punches me in the face, knocking me sideways as the plaza lights up with gunfire and savagery.
The forces collide like colorful rivers, and I have to close my eyes just to process it all through the wave of hot pressure building in my skull. My kingdom, the one I was destined for, is in shreds. Amphirans that didn’t need to die have. Denarsoan soldiers have died because they were led into our ship under false pretenses, and we defended ourselves from an internalthreat and a circle of treachery. And the one thing that makes it worthwhile has been taken from me.
I wish Pronkus’ hit would’ve knocked some sense into my Storm. “Stars, you’re a pissy thing. Did your mama not love you as a child?”
He hits me again. My muscles bulge from my frustration. A cable snaps.
Warping blasts light up Pronkus’s Arkus shield, throwing him back. A metal ball rolls through the crowd, spouts legs and a gun, fires, and turns into a ball again, rolling away. All I catch isRAM-4on the side. Talros isn’t far, sniping Denarso from behind a pillar.
I look down at my arresting net. I still have a tool that arrestors can’t take from me.
