AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It doesn’t matter. They,” I point at the boys, “know I’m telling the truth. They know they are innocent. They know I believe in them.”
“You! Ophelia Apollinari.” The Headmaster is making his way toward us. “I have seen and heard enough. Guards! Get her.”
Ophelia stares at him. We both do. “What are you doing? Step back.”
“You thought you caught everyone in your net?” the Headmaster sneers. “I saw what you did to Miss Worthy. I was ready.”
“Goodness.” Ophelia presses a hand to her chest and lifts her brows. “You don’t say. And what are you going to do, Mr. Headmaster? Have you seen my power? Better keep your guards back.”
He narrows his eyes at her. “We have evidence of the fabrications of these boys’ families aiming to frame them for crimes they didn’t commit. They are innocent, and I want everyone here to know that!”
A susurration goes through the crowd. Despite the enchantment, those words manage to penetrate.
Or is it because of who my father is? I close my eyes, reach out with my other senses, and see him shining bright. His magic isn’t one of the four elements but seems to be pure light. And for the first time, he seems beautiful. Guess I understand now what my mother saw in him.
“Will you help me?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “I can’t, daughter. This is the battle of the Queens. You must fight and win on your own in this final stretch, to get your title.”
“I don’t care about the title. I want the boys to go free. I want Ophelia stopped. That’s all I want.”
“I’m afraid you can only do that if you defeat her.”
“Oh God, shut up, both of you!” Ophelia says. “Enough of the cheesiness. She doesn’t want the crown, so I’ll have it. And you are her father? A little too late to assert your parental rights, isn’t it?”
“I don’t assume I have any rights,” he says.
“Good. Now go away.”
“Mia.” He turns back to me. “I can’t help you win but you can do this. You are your mother’s daughter and she was the most amazing woman on earth.”
I watch him go, a knot in my throat. I want to ask him about my mother, what happened, why she died in the flames, and why he wasn’t with her.
But Ophelia’s enchantment is tightening. She’s still chanting under her breath and now I don’t have the tokens or the knife anymore. No more props.
Only myself.
And the boys. They are trying to move in my direction, but the enchantment holds them back with invisible bonds.
I close my eyes and find them, find their familiar magic. Our link is unbreakable, back and stronger than ever. I feel them in my mind, inside me, around me. We are one.
“That won’t work, cousin,” Ophelia hisses. “I got them. You can’t unhook them from my magic.”
“Want to bet?”
“You don’t have my power. I have siphoned so much over the past weeks, you can only dream of being this strong. In your dreams, cuz!”
The boys are resisting her spell, still trying to move away. Blood is running down their faces.
But I have more people who offered their magic. Eyes closed, I reach further and link into the boys’ seconds in command, waking them from her spell. Linking to them. And through them to their gangs. And to more students.
I don’t siphon. I don’t sink hooks and suck. I ask and I’m given. My magic rises uniform and strong.
And then I feel my father’s magic—that cold light I can’t name, an element I can’t place but which is part of the weave of the world nevertheless, and it flows through me, giving me a boost I didn’t expect.
“What the hell are you doing?” She raises her hands again to the moon. “This has taken long enough. Time to complete the ritual and finish this.”
“You can’t,” I grind out, turning my focus to her.
