I cried harder then, clinging to her with my whole body, heart, and soul.
“Are you sure you aren’t part cat?” Legacy asked, her tears mixing with mine. “Nine lives and all that?”
“I’m beginning to wonder.” I laughed, which only poured my tears down harder.
Varna sniffled. “I hate to break you two lovebirds up, but we’re not exactly finished here.”
Reluctantly, Legacy and I pulled apart. I stared at her, at the familiar curve of her smile, the sparkle in her eyes that had haunted my dreams for countless nights.
She gently cupped my cheek. “Promise me you’ll never die again.”
“No way.” I covered her hand with mine. “Not with you by my side.”
With a nod, we silently reaffirmed our vow—to end this war. Once and for all.
We moved as one towards the advisors' meeting room at the end of the hall. The air crackled with magic from underneath the door.
Legacy brushed her hand against mine in a fleeting touch of reassurance. I couldn't help the warmth that spread through me at the contact.
Outside the door, we stopped. Low murmurs carried from within.
“On three?” Legacy mouthed.
With a mischievous grin, I shook my head and wrenched open the door. I’d waited long enough for this. The three of us strode in with the kind of confidence that can only be born from a complete lack of better options.
Tannin, the other advisors from both the Montrose and Caputo sides, and high-ranked soldiers spun around in their seats around a long stone table, their eyes wide with shock.
"Ah, the smell of treachery," I said and sniffed the air melodramatically. "I knew it came from inside here."
Tannin sneered, trying to reclaim some semblance of control. "I see you’ve brought friends to your own execution, Collie.”
“Lies,” I snapped. “You need me alive, and you know it.”
"Enough!" Tannin lifted his gauntleted hand. "Seize them!"
The soldiers rose from the table and lunged, a force of gleaming steel and snarling faces.
But we were a whirlwind of resistance. Legacy quickly relieved a soldier of his sword and stabbed him with it. Varna outsmarted a coming storm by lobbing chairs at the overeager fools who thought they could take us.
And me? I realized we were absurdly outnumbered but ducked swords as threads of magic tangled around my ungauntleted fingertips.
Meanwhile, Tannin and his advisors rushed to the back of the room toward another door.
"Cowards," I shouted, fighting my way towards them. "You don’t want to scuff your armor?"
"Shut her up." A soldier grunted as he swung wildly, only to meet empty air where I'd been moments before.
"Not possible," I muttered, seeing Legacy's fleeting smile in the fray.
Before Tannin and the others made it to the door at the other end of the room, a wall of shimmering blue light appeared, blocking their exit.
I looked to my right and found Varna aiming a stolen gauntlet at the door from her sideways position on the floor. A bloody gash marked her cheek, but she was the one now holding a dagger in her free hand.
As frail as she looked, she would not go down without a fight, it seemed.
Grinning, I kept pushing my way toward Tannin. Legacy's blue eyes blazed with an inner fire as she headed in that direction, too.
"Getting tired, Tannin?" I called out. "Your soldiers are dropping like flies. Just surrender, and it’ll all be over."
