While I understood their orders and the rationale, it didn’t feel right to me to sit here, waiting for something bad to happen when the rest of the camp was possibly in a battle. They needed help. How was I supposed to just kick my feet up on the couch and wait?
My heart rate skyrocketed as all the faces of the kids I’d seen in the residential and common areas during my time here came to mind. Chills spread along my body, and determination took root deep within my soul.
I decided that if there was a time for my voice to be heard, it was now.
“I think we should go,” I stated, making the room fall into silence as all of the eyes in the room turned to stare at me. I lifted my chin and continued, “If everyone else is fighting to defend the camp, we will as well. We’ve been training for this, and this is our home now too.”
I wasn’t a complete idiot. I knew the risks that fighting would place us all in, but I didn’t have it in me to let other people fight battles that concerned me. If the soldiers from Alfemir had come here looking for me, these people’s lives were on the linebecauseof me.
Steele glanced back at me, his expression shuttered and unreadable, but I kept my gaze unwavering in return. I wouldn’t back down from this, and while a part of me was scared to go into battle for the first time, I was even more scared of being a coward and letting people die for me. I couldn’t live with that possibility.
“Like I said before,move,”Steele demanded as his head swung back around to glare at the guards.
I wasn’t entirely sure if he was agreeing with usallgoing, but he didn’t outwardly say no.
“Or I can move them for you,” Bastian offered in a deep, seductive tone that sounded almost like he was hoping that was needed. His hair began to quickly flash between a wide variety of colors, and it felt like watching the rainbow appear over and over again on his head.
Maybe they had seen or heard of Bastian’s demonstration of power that first day, because the security team immediately caved, parting and moving out of the way. The lead security guard made a frustrated sound as his lips pursed, but he allowed us to push past them and toward the door.
Adrenaline surged through me, making my body feel like it was tingling in all of my extremities. This was it. We were going into a battle.
I wasn’t through the door fully before Steele looked back at me and commanded, “Stay here, Kieran.”
His words hit me hard. It felt like he didn’t trust me. It felt like he didn’t trust the trainingwehad been through and what I’d learned. My spine straightened. I kept my voice as even as possible, not wanting to fight with him, but not wanting to back down from what I knew I needed to do as I said, “We’re going together, Steele.”
I could tell he wanted to argue, holding my gaze for a long moment before he silently passed out the swords to the other men.
“I’m going to get into so much trouble for this,” Steele bit before letting out a heavy sigh and stomping over to me. He grabbed my arm roughly while reaching behind his back for something.
“Why are you—” I argued on instinct from feeling his touch on me again.
He growled, eyes narrowed on my face. “Can you just shut up for once, Princess? And take your sweatshirt off, it’s in the way.”
I rolled my eyes but did as he asked, dropping the sweatshirt to the floor and leaving me in Gabe’s shirt. I watched in fascination as Steele pulled out a skinny dagger that resembled a letter opener I had in Alfemir. Tiny symbols ran along the black metal as it glinted in the light filtering from the house. My brows hitched, and I saw Ronan and Bastian tense from the corner of my eye as he lifted the tip to my arm.
“It’s okay,” Gabe soothed as Niz let out a menacing growl, “it’s how he draws runes.”
My interest was piqued even further with that admission.
“These runes will aid you in battle by enhancing your speed, strength, and overall agility. Your vision will be enhanced as well. I’m also going to put a shield rune on you, but once it takes enough damage, the rune with burn out,” Steele explainedbefore I felt an icy burn along my skin as he began to draw the runes from my hand and all the way up to my shoulder, pushing the sleeve out of the way.
My eyes were glued to the precision of the beautiful marks as they began to glow a bright golden color as soon as he finished one and moved onto the next. My mouth fell open slightly as I watched in fascination. It stung slightly, but as he finished the final rune on my shoulder and put the dagger away, the pain increased significantly. It felt like my entire arm was on fire.
My eyes bugged out as he gripped my shoulders tightly and demanded, “Breathe. They are about to settle into your skin. You must accept them, or it will be for nothing.”
I did as he said, focusing on his eyes as I took deep breaths in and out. Seconds later, a cooling sensation flowed along my arm, as if it had been doused with water. I glanced down and gasped. The glow from the runes was gone, and my skin looked normal and unblemished, but I felt a constant low vibration running through my body. I felt their power.
“Why didn’t you give anyone else any?” I asked as he inspected his work one last time. If he had the ability to give us all an advantage, why wasn’t he?
“Runes like this are short term and have to be reapplied, but their longevity is directly tied to my own reserves of energy,” he explained with a heavy sigh before passing my sweatshirt back to me. “The more I make, the lower reserves I have to fuel each of them. This way, yours remain concentrated and will hopefully hold through the entire battle.”
He didn’t give me time to think about the implications of being the only person he chose to give the runes to. Instead, he forced a sword into my hand after I tugged my sweatshirt back on and then turned on his heel to go down the steps.
His wings snapped out the second his feet touched the ground, and he took flight, yelling, “Stay close to me!”
I didn’t hesitate to follow, Niz keeping pace at my side as we shot into the sky after him. As we made our way higher into the air, I caught sight of streaks of white feathers soaring through the night sky in the common space, not too far off from where we were. My heart rate skyrocketed as I swallowed nervously, deciding I would ask Gabe my questions since I didn’t have much hope Steele would answer without hostility, considering he blamed me for all of this.
“I don’t understand,” I said loud enough for Gabe to hear me over the sirens as I slowed down to be at his side. “I thought there were wards that protected this place.”
