Sykouri should have been empty. It’s been a ghost city for years. Mother’s spies must have gotten wind of our planning a training exercise, and then she used compulsion to lure us here. Bellanca couldn’t have known. Most people never experience the scraping pain of someone infiltrating their brain.
We’re almost to the gate when I feel her—Mother and her polluted magic pulling on the air. I kick out hard, getting rid of an oncoming attacker, swipe my dagger across the chest of another, and then whirl to face her, my sword glinting in the light of Bellanca’s fire.
Mother is next to the exit. She looks at me, and then a great, green blast of telekinetic power rattles the keystone and finishes off the utter destruction of the huge arched gateway into Sykouri. Stones fall with a nightmarish thud, crashing down on top of the nearest combatants, ally and enemy alike, and cutting off our escape.
No!It only takes a second for the demolition to happen. Dust billows. Grit in my eyes. I recoil. I can almost smell the blood.
Horrified, I watch Mother climb atop the fallen keystone. The noise of battle, previously clanging all around us, dies as all eyes turn to her, Sintan, Tarvan, and Fisan. Lingering power makes her black robes billow around her. Her green eyes glint in the sun, and the remnants of her magic reflect off her crown of Fisan pearls. It’s the Origin’s crown, the symbol of absolute power as old as Thalyria itself.
Mother uses a fresh graveyard as her podium, and the look on her face tells me everything I already know: we’re surrounded, outnumbered, and trapped in a ruin without a door.
I throw the knife in my hand straight at her. It veers to the side, right into the gauntleted hand of a Fisan Metal Mage.
Anger pounds through me. Trying again would be a waste of a blade.
“Less hesitation this time,” Mother says, her tone mocking. “Is it because I almost had your husband eaten by a horse?”
I narrow my eyes. It’s time to bluff like there’s no tomorrow—because there might not be. If I can make my lightning work, I can still save the rest of our people. No Metal Mage or anyone else could stop me. I’ll use Mother’s own lesson against her.Conceive. Believe.Want it. Make it happen.
I reach into my well of power, searching for that elusive spark. “Surrender, and I’ll let you live.”
She chuckles, and her laughter makes the metal breastplate she’s wearing over her dress move. Like her, the armor is ostentatious and hard. “You never were this funny as a child. It’s almost a shame to end you. You’ve become so entertaining of late.”
“You didn’t find it entertaining when Ares and Persephone showed up and chased you off with your tail between your legs.”
She arches dark eyebrows. The withering expression on her face turns my stomach, mostly because I know I can look exactly the same way. “But it was vastly entertaining to throw you into a volcanic pit.”
I feel more than see Kato’s sharp look and know his cobalt eyes are boring into the side of my face. Flynn makes a growling sound deep in his throat. I probably should have told them about that myself.
“It must have been a lot less funny for you when I flew back out,” I say.
Her mouth pinches, and her body language screams disapproval. Mother never could stand it when I refused to enter into her mental games or managed to subvert her razor-edged questions.
“Which is why I’ve decided to concentrate less on the show and more on the result.” Magic gathers around her. “Any last words?”
Throwing my own words back at me is a joke to her, I suppose. I start to move forward. There are people between us, and she’ll go through them to get to me. Griffin, Flynn, and Kato follow my lead, flanking me.
I can’t help looking at the fallen. The twins are there. They were leading us toward the gate, blowing fire to clear a pathway. Bellanca, Carver, and Lukos nearly knew the same fate.
The three of them draw toward us, condensing Beta Team into a line with our soldiers behind us. When there’s nothing but empty space and crushed bodies between Mother and me, I look her up and down with disgust.
I have no Dragon’s Breath left. I let out burning words instead. “I spit on you and everything you stand for.”
No one moves. Nothing does. The collective stillness is the result of fear. Mother’s soldiers fear her wrath. Our soldiers fear for us.
“I stand for me,” Mother answers, something defiant in her tone.
Is that really what she wants? Whatanyonewould want? That’s the most unfulfilling and lonely life I can think of. “It’s too bad you can’t see beyond yourself. You’re a dark hole, and the world is full of color.”
Mother’s expression seems to turn even more brittle as she stares at us. She looks at me, at Griffin. At Beta Team on either side of us.
Her chin lifts. She barks a command, and more Metal Mages pull hard on our weapons, making them shudder in our hands.
“Secure your weapons!” Griffin orders.
We’ve trained for this. Our people slam their swords and knives back into their sheaths. The blades still rattle.Gods damn it!We’re surrounded by them—Metal Mages everywhere.
Weapons are no longer an option. We’re down to fists and what little magic we brought with us. I could steal a Metal Mage’s power, but it wouldn’t do us any good. I could grab a weapon, but one of them would just take it right back.
