“Maalik, no!” I yelled.
He must have been loud enough for Erix to hear him because a fireball the size of my head flew towards Maalik from the river. In the golden red glow I saw my twins’ face, eyes narrowed in concentration.
Maalik saw it, too. He thrust his hand out… and the fireball dissipated before it hit us.
“Yes!” Maalik exclaimed in delight, pumping his fist as he Suppressed my brother’s power.
He held his hand out again, this time focusing on my brother, his white hair a beacon in the darkness.
I knew what I was seeing. Maalik had developed the Elusian ability to Suppress Mageia abilities, and he was using it on my twin. I saw Erix double over in pain, then saw his body pitch forward onto the skiff, rolling toward the water.
“No!” I screamed, running toward Maalik, and tackling him from behind. Desperate to break his concentration I began striking him, over and over. I had to keep him from Suppressing Erix’s abilities, or my brother would drown.
Maalik was older than me, and taller, but I had always been the better fighter; and at that point, I had nothing to lose.
Sometime later the guards, summoned by Maalik’s screams, pulled me off Maalik, but I knew it was too late. I struggled for a view of the water as they began to drag me away, peering into the darkness, but the skiff was empty, and I had lost sight of my brother. I barely felt it as they held me for Maalik while he beat me with his fists until I finally passed out.
They threw me in a storeroom for the rest of the night, two guards posted outside. They refused to answer questions about my brother, no matter how I begged. When they came to escort me to my father in the morning, they chained my wrists in front of me before taking me to his office.
I’d only been in his room a handful of times before. Large bay windows looked out over the river. My father, King Cyrius Alexus, sat behind his desk, his face impassive.
The guards walked me in like I was some kind of criminal. Which, I probably was. Helping a Mageia escape was illegal, and punishment was harsh.
“Your Majesty,” one of the guards said.
The King just nodded, dismissing the guards, who quietly stationed themselves by the door.
He looked much the same as the last time I’d seen him, that night Agnes had struck Mitera. In the light of day his hair had a little more silver. Maybe there were a few more lines at the corners of his eyes.
We shared the same eye color, a piercing blue. His currently looked as hard as ice as he surveyed me. I realized I was looking him in the eye and shifted my gaze to the floor. I’d seen slaves get whipped for less.
“I understand you tried to help a Mageia escape,” he said.
It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t respond.
“And you injured the new Crown Prince,” he said, looking down at a piece of paper on his desk. “Assuming, of course, he passes the DNA tests. You injured him rather severely, at that.”
My heart shriveled within me. Of course, Maalik was a prince now. He had developed Elusian powers. Shit.
“Too bad,” he said, standing to move in front of his desk. He leaned against it casually, the gold trimmed black linen coat he wore falling open. To a thirteen-year-old, he looked the very vision of adult power and control.
“I had high hopes for both you and your brother,” he said. “Erix had… such a fine mind,” he said, shrugging and walking back to his chair.
I couldn’t keep my voice steady.
“Is… is he okay?” I asked, hope choking me. “Is he going to the Legion?”
The King turned back to look at me thoughtfully before saying, “His body washed up downstream,” he said coldly. “I told the sailors to dump it out to sea.”
It felt like my stomach dropped to the floor, then the world was spinning around me.
“No!” I screamed in agony.
Around me glass shattered, books and papers began flying and furniture slammed against the walls. I could hear the guards yelling as they struggled to reach me through the maelstrom, but I didn’t care.
“How? How can you not care!” I demanded in a booming, echoing voice I didn’t recognize as my own. The wind lifted the King and slammed him into the ceiling, then the floor, then the ceiling again.
“He was your son!” I screamed. “He was my brother!”
