Blood stained the cobblestones of Boellium War College. In the center of the courtyard was a pike.
On the end of the pike was Master Proxius’s head.
Acacia leaned to the side and threw up, while Avalon whimpered. Vox just looked back at me, and I saw in his eyes what we already knew. The Second Line had been discovered, and Proxius had paid the price. “You have to go. Back to the boat. Back to wherever the fuck you came from. Take Avalon with you.”
I hesitated, but it was Avalon who spoke. “Like fuck. My friends are in there. My family. I’m not running away.” She squeezed the hand of a deathly pale Acacia. “Are we sure this is the First Line?”
As if he’d heard his cue, Stanlus—the right-hand man to the Baron of the First Line and leader of his personal guard—walked through the courtyard, dragging someone I recognized as a member of the Eleventh Line by the hair.
“How many of your charges will you sacrifice for an imposter, Svenna?” Stanlus lifted the girl to her feet and placed a knife at her throat. “What is the life of one false Heir worth? A hundred of your kin? A thousand? Because the Dawn Army is on its way west as we speak, and someone will talk. How much innocent blood runs through the corridors of Boellium first rests on your shoulders.”
When he shifted, I saw Svenna. She was bleeding from dozens of small slashes in her skin, having clearly been tortured. She swayed on her knees, but her eyes were fierce. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Stanlus, you psycho. And even if I did, we both know you won’t leave anyone below the Sixth Line alive here today. You have your orders, you sadistic fuck.”
Stanlus smiled. “You’re right.” He sliced the girl’s head clean off, and someone screamed. Vox stumbled out from our hiding place, and I grabbed Avalon’s arm as she tried to launch out after him. She couldn’t show herself.
She struggled against my chest, but I put a hand over her mouth. “Hush. You can only make it worse.”
I watched as Vox pulled on the mantle of Heir like a comfortable coat. “What the fuck is going on here? Why is Master Proxius’s head on a fucking spike?”
“Ah, the little traitor prince has returned. Do you see that, Svenna? All your bravado was for nothing.”
Vox gave the man a cool look. “Watch who you call a traitor, Stanlus, or I’ll take your fucking tongue. I asked a question, and I am yourHeir!” he shouted, and it echoed around the courtyard. “What is going on here?”
“We got intel that the Second Line had arisen, and the Heir is here in Boellium, raising an army. Including you,my Heir,”Stanlus taunted.
Vox laughed in his face. Full-bellied laughter echoed after the screams of the Eleventh Line. “The Second Line? What the actual fuck, Stanlus? Are you believing children’s bedtime stories now?”
“Rovan is hardly my daddy, you little shit. He heard you conspiring in the woods at the tournament.”
Fucking Eugene Rovan.“I hate that prick,” Avalon muttered behind my hand.
“Conspiring to what? Overthrow my own power? Surely you can see how insane that sounds, Stanlus, even with your limited intellect. Eugene Rovan is a spineless shit with the brainpower of a chicken, who lies more often than he jerks off his tiny dick. Maybe you should have questioned him more thoroughly as he was sucking your cock.”
Stanlus glared. “The Baron didn’t think he was lying.”
Fuck.
The crunch of leaves behind me had me spinning, but it was just Lucio and Shay. They looked… rough.
“Report,” Hayle whispered.
“There are too many. Dozens dead, mostly Lower Lines,” Shay rasped, her voice shaky. She cast a look at Lucio, who looked like he was in shock. “Some from your Line have also fallen. The ships in the harbor were all sunk; I don’t know numbers. The Dawn Army soldiers are rounding up the Lower Line conscripts, smoking them out from the bowels and either murdering those who resist in the stairwell or herding them into the atrium. It’s bad.” She licked her lips. “Stanlus knows. We couldn’t stop him.”
Lucio wrapped an arm around Shay, pulling her closer. “We did what we could.”
Acacia launched toward them, gripping their shirts. “Viana? The Twelfth Line? My friends?”
Shay held Acacia’s wrist gently. “I don’t know. They aren’t in the atrium, but I haven’t been downstairs.”
Avalon made a choking noise, and I knew what we had to do. Vox was still out there, antagonizing Stanlus. Either Iker and I abandoned Boellium to its fate, taking Avalon with us, or we reset.
I grabbed Avalon’s hands. “We have to go back.”
She was shaking her head. “I don’t know how. I’ve never done it on purpose before. I don’t know what I’m doing.” She sounded frantic. “Grief triggers it, and I don’t have any control.”
I looked over my shoulder at Vox, wondering if she wouldn’t have to wait long for one of her paramours to die and set it off anyway. “You didn’t even know you had the power until now. With knowledge comes control. You can do this—I believe in you, Avalon Halhed. You are powerful beyond imagination.” I squeezed her hands tightly.
“Do what?” Lucio asked, but we all ignored him.
