“Because we know you won’t share it evenly! We’ll get your scraps like we always do!”
“Everyone, please calm down,” Sterling shouts in an attempt to be heard over their voices rising. “This isn’t solving anything. If those from the capital would like to come down and get food, we will serve them as well. But it must be done in a peaceful manner.”
“They’ll fucking poison us,” a guard yells. “Magic is forbidden. Release the undead and put your hands in the air.”
“No thank you,” Mickey says. “I’m quite good, actually.”
And that’s when I feel an influx of power. I look to the right where I see Famine swing off her horse. She hits the ground gracefully as her hand runs down the horse’s neck. The animal is hauntingly beautiful in such a strange way.
As always, no one else seems to see her… but I do.
“Torin, Famine is here,” I say urgently, running toward her as I see her flip open what looks like a small pouch at her side. She scoops out something that looks like sand and holds it in her hand then blows it before I can reach her.
The sand hits the faces of the guards closest to her and some of the branded who’ve worked their way over through Mickey’s undead, but thankfully most of the branded are far enough back to escape the sand. The affected group freeze for a second before their guns go off, mostly hitting Mickey’s undead. I rush to stop Famine, but before I can even get close to her, her horse slides between us to protect her.
“So kind of you to bring them all together for me,” Famine mocks as she steps around the front of her horse.
My finger is instantly on the third notch of my pendant before I send a shard of ice flying through the air, but it moves right through her like she’s not even there.
She looks disappointed in me for even trying. “Why do you insist on fighting this again and again? You’ve seen that it has led you to death every single time. And still, even in this pitiful state, you try again. It’ll end in your death, just like when the god you love killed you and the god you freed killed you.” She nods toward Torin and Vero who are trying to stop the fighting.
The Death magic inside me swells up, but I still feel so uncertain of it that I don’t know what todowith it, and I don’t have Conquest’s bow with me to try anything. Just when it begins to swell to an uncontrollable level, I hear the guns go off again and notice that all of the undead immediately disappear.
They were the only thing keeping those from the capital back from the branded.
I turn from her to see Mickey stumbling back and the two sides rushing toward each other, driven to fight by the horseman who no one seems to be able to see but me.
“Mickey!” I shout as he sways. I don’t want to turn my back to Famine, but when I glance back at her, she’s gone, likely pleased to have driven both sides to war. I hurry over to Mickey, but Vero catches him before he falls. My breath catches when I see red oozing out of his side.
“I’m fine, I’m fine! I’m just…” Mickey holds his hand out, looking distressed.
I yank his shirt up, thankful to see that instead of the bullet going straight through him, it seems to have torn his side open. I press his shirt against the wound until I can find something else to stop the bleeding.
“That is enough!” Torin yells, but they don’t care. They’re determined to hurt the other side. The issue is that the guards have weapons but the branded have nothing, especially now that Mickey’s undead are gone.
“Where are Tommy and Joy?” Mickey asks, sounding panicked. “Where are they? Why can’t I feel them?”
“Hey, it’s okay. Their ammunition causes a disconnect with your magic,” I say.
“I need Tommy and Joy,” Mickey insists, looking frantic. So frantic that he’s not staying still while I try to clamp my hand over the wound that’s oozing blood.
“Knock it off, it’s temporary. You’re fine,” Vero says as he eases him onto a bucket to sit.
I hear a loud thunderous crack before Torin barks out, “That is ENOUGH.”
The ground shakes, and a few people scream as they scramble back to their respective sides while Torin stands in the middle.
“You will stop this pointless fighting now or I will stop it for all of you,” he growls, and the attention of both sides is on him. “Nowgo.”
But while most draw back, those who were hit with the sand seem almost mindless as they rush back to fight. Torin throws one back and a guard from the capital grabs the man.
“Stop this!” another guard yells while a man whirls on his own partner and just smashes the butt of his gun into his partner’s face.
“Torin, Famine blew something into their faces,” I call as a different guard tries to restrain the assailant, but another one who was hit by the sand starts attacking the first person he comes across.
“Vero, hold his side,” I say before I pull back from Mickey and rush over to Torin, who’s peeling one guard off another one.A branded man crashes into Torin, and I jerk the man back. As soon as I press my hand against him to pull him away, my Death magic that has been swelling up inside of me slams into the man. He screams as he falls back and begins clawing at his face.
I’m horrified by what I’ve done, not sure what I did to cause him to act like this, until someone dashes forward and throws a bucket of water on his face. That’s when I discover that instead of hurting him, my magic appears to have freed him, and once he was free, he was trying to get the sand off his face. I turn to the others, but they’re still fixated on killing anyone they can get close to.
