“And what's that?”I demand.
Selene pushes the door to her cell, and it swings open smoothly, not even locked.Horror fills me as that happens.
“I'm the one in control here,” Selene says.She gestures to her cell.“Thisis for your benefit.All this is a show.I’m going to get what I want.Don't go calling for the guards.Not all of them serve me, but enough.You're not the one they would help.”
She's suborned at least some of the guards.We imprisoned her here, but she has more control and freedom than anyone in her position should have.
I start to draw myself up, anticipating a fight.
“What are you going to do, Lyra?”Selene asks.“Try to kill me?I’m sitting happily in my prison, waiting to fight out my five seasons.You’re going to undermine your own Republic like that?”
I would be going against the Senate, going against a decision we’ve already made.I would be putting myself above everyone else.Like an emperor.
“Besides,” Selene says.“Do you really want to fight me here like this?Are you so confident your dampener still restricts me?I know their magic better than anyone.”
Could I beat her?Could I win one-on-one in a space like this?I don't know, but she seems far too confident.
“I think you should go, don't you?”Selene says.“None of the guards will bother you on the way out.You have my word.Run back to the senate.Run to the so-called first senator.Tell him what happened here.Tell him the way things are going to change in Aetheria.”
I back out of the cells, keeping my eyes on her for as long as possible.As soon as I'm back outside, I run for the gates of Ironhold, heading out to the fortress even as guards watch me with unfriendly expressions.
I start to run for the city.I need to tell Rowan just how much danger we're all in.
EPILOGUE
I’m sweating and exhausted by the time I get back to the palace.I hurry to Rowan’s offices, trying to work out what I should say to him.I hammer on the door.
“Yes, what is it?”Rowan calls out.
I go inside and he's waiting at his desk, going through a series of reports with the kind of painstaking care he's had to learn in the days since the empire fell.
“Lyra?”he says with a frown.“Is everything all right?You look flustered.”
I hesitate, and in that hesitation, he speaks again.
“Does this have anything to do with Alaric’s rebels attacking what turned out to be an illegal fight in a temple last night?”Rowan asks.“Is that something you know about?”
“I'm not here about that,” I say, carefully not mentioning that I was there and know everything that happened.“Although when it comes to that, Alaric isn't the only one implicated.Marcus was running the fights.”
“How do you know that?”Rowan asks.
“Just accept that I know,” I say.“I don't have evidence, but he's behind them.”
Rowan frowns.“I can't do anything without evidence.But you said youweren'there about the whole mess last night?”
I shake my head.“The city has bigger problems right now.”
“Bigger than one of its senators putting on death bouts behind our backs, while one of its nobles runs a rebel group that seems to want to disrupt everything we do?”
“Much bigger,” I say.“This is about Selene Ravenscroft.”
Rowan sighs.“Please don't tell me that you've come around to Marcus's idea of trying to have her executed.”
What do I want to happen to her?I'm not sure.It's more important that Rowan is made aware of the danger.
“This isn't about Marcus or about what I want to happen next,” I say.“I was just at Ironhold, speaking with Selene.She told me that she plans to make herself the ruler of the city.”
“That's going to be hard for her to do from inside her cell,” Rowan points out.
