Golden’s forehead wrinkled in confusion, clearly wondering why I would want to speak to him. Good, he knew he was beneath me. It was about time for him to learn that he was beneath the princess, too. “Uhm, of course!”
“Follow me.” I didn’t give him a chance to clear his spot at the table before turning and striding from the dining hall. I felt his presence behind me, so I knew he’d followed and shuffled quickly behind to catch up.
Once I reached a deserted hallway and found a blind spot to the cameras, I spun and faced the golden-haired boy whose confidence had been sitting a bit too high. The instinct to inflict unimaginable pain upon him thrashed through me, but Icouldn’t be rash. Not now. Not when we were close to making a massive discovery that could aid us in the insurgency’s mission to take down the king. I had to try and keep it together.
“You’re fourteen, right?” I inquired, lacing my arms across my chest. My blood whooshed and pulsed through my body, somehow calming me like river water.
“Ye…yeah. Why? What’s going on?” Golden bit his bottom lip to keep it from trembling. Funny how he wasn’t a badass now.
I gave him a grin, positive that it was more unsettling than welcoming despite my efforts. “I hear you’re climbing your training levels pretty fast. Impressive.”
Golden’s shoulders relaxed, his eyes lighting up with the praise, reminding me of a child. “Really?” he squeaked but quickly recovered by clearing his throat. “I mean…thanks.”
I shrugged. Taking a calculated step toward him like a predator ensnaring his prey, I crowded his personal space.
The little shit took a nervous step back, to which I followed.
“So, if you’re excelling in your training, why don’t you stick to challenging those who are on your level, instead of those below you? Otherwise, you look like a twat.”
Golden’s eyes nearly burst from their sockets, fumbling for words that his brain couldn’t form fast enough.
“If we wanna play by your rules, I could always challenge you in public if you like. Since you’re doing so well and all. What do you say, Figgaro?”
I couldn’t stop the king from hurting the princess, but I could stop assholes like him. My shoulders and hands shook, my power threatening to burst free. Just thethoughtof him laying his hands on her had my magic wanting to fly loose.
Relief flooded me following the invisible pulse that purged from my body. The blast smashed into Golden, throwing him into the back wall of the corridor. A loud crack echoed, his head colliding with the thick drywall, before he slumped to the floor.
I stalked over to him, not caring that the cameras could now see us. “You’ll never beat me. Never be a Warrior worth remembering,” I said, hovering above him. “You’ll never be relevant to the king, no matter what you do. So, stay on the ground where you fucking belong.”
The temptation to slice my blade across his throat had me reaching into my weapons belt. But I backed away before I lost too much control. I’d done enough, reminding Golden of his place. I was teetering on the edge of crossing a dangerous line. The worst part was that I didn’t care. The raging beast within me wanted blood, and it almost didn’t discriminate who was worthy of its wrath.
“See ya around.”
“Why do you smell like cigarettes?” Peri demanded. Her nose scrunched up in disgust while she assessed me as if she’d find the smoke wafting from my hoodie pocket.
After the incident with Golden, I went for a drive alone. I parked outside of a movie theater and watched all the human teens going about their normal teenage lives, completely oblivious to the brewing war right under their noses. They had no idea how close they were to living vastly different lives, if they survived.
I lit cigarette after cigarette as I pondered every possible scenario, envisioning a world where humans knew Kinetics and Elementals existed. None of them ended peacefully.
“Because I’ve been smoking,” I responded to my sister with a shrug, rummaging through my wardrobe that stored all my blades.
“Ew.”
I ignored the comment and continued to strap myself down with various Kinetic weapons. The plan for the prisons circulated through my mind on repeat, ensuring I had every detail memorized before we moved forward.
“Are you ready?” I asked while I scraped a knife’s blade across the pad of my thumb, testing its sharpness.
“All set.”
“We’ll meet up with Onyx in ten minutes in the weapons room by the camera’s blindspot.” I still couldn’t believe I was allowing her to tag along for something like this. We all risked our heads by going down there. If Forest secretly harbored a horde of Endarkened in the prisons and we were caught seeking them out, the consequences could be devastating.
I had to make sure nothing went wrong and that we all made it out unscathed. Despite being loaded down with weapons, this wasn’t a mission I could fight our way out of if caught.
“You okay?” Peri asked, skepticism pitching her tone.
“As always, little sis.” I closed the wardrobe and patted myself down, double-checking all the weapons before facing her.
She was dressed for the part, albeit not exactly in Warrior attire. Her black leggings clung to her thighs while the black turtleneck did the same to her lean torso. With her hair pulled back in a sleek, tight bun, there was no way that any strands would fall in her eyes.
