All the air is knocked out of my lungs and I desperately pant for breath. I’m not done yet. Not until this fucker goes down.
Stumbling to my feet, I summon my blood sword and charge at him, right as his back is turned, his attention on Silver.
The sword in my hand is gleaming and at least three inches wide.
“Close your eyes, Silver,” I yell out once I’m barely feet away from him.
She doesn’t need to see what happens next.
I swing my sword and slice it through Simpson’s neck, lopping his head clean off his body.
He had his back to me, which means it might not be the most valiant of moves against him. His death is certainly swifter than he deserves.
And then it’s done.
His head thuds as it rolls away from his body and I stumble to stand in front of it, trying my best to hide it from Silver.
“It’s done,” I say, propping my hands on my hips and trying to steady my racing heart. “He’s dead.”
Silver meets my eyes for a moment and nods. She then turns to the crowd and enunciates clearly. “Go home. There’s nothing you want more than to go home and forget this entire day everhappened.” Cocking her head to one side, she stands with her hands on her hips, controlling an entire crowd of at least fifty people. “Also, maybe start questioning your leaders. They have a track record of only being out for themselves. Now, go. Fuck off. Shoo.”
As though that’s the magic word, the crowd disperse, muttering amongst themselves. They look confused and more than a little frightened. I don’t blame them either.
“What the hell just happened?” Roscoe asks, staring around with wide eyes.
Silver chuckles, rubbing tiredly at her face. “Well, turns out I can do this thing with ghosts, send them to someplace and then it creates these weird orbs. If I let the orbs touch my skin, then I kind of... absorb some of the ghost’s power. When I fell, I guess my clothes ripped and the orbs in my pocket got absorbed, and then I could control an entire crowd. Freaky, right?”
“Or you just revealed your true goddess-level powers, sweetheart,” Roscoe says, wrapping himself around Silver’s body.
She shakes her head before tipping it back to lean against him. “Pretty sure I’m not gonna do that again in a while. There were a ton of ghosts in the cells, so it was a lot of power to have all at once. Felt kind of unwieldy and gross.”
“You’re amazing and we should all worship at your feet,” he continues.
“Fabian’s the one that... didthatto Simpson.” Silver nods toward Simpson’s headless form.
“I can’t believe the fucker’s dead.” Ro shakes his head.
Nor can any of us, it seems. It’s kind of surreal to have been so close to getting torn apart by an angry mob and then—
The danger has passed.
We’re safe.
Roscoe spots Zeph and Dante coming toward us and dances over to them, slapping them on the back and filling them in on what happened.
I wrap an arm around Silver, unable to stop myself from touching her for another second. The feeling when she melts against me is like nothing else.
“Let’s get home,” I say.
We don’t hurry back since Silver checks in with Seb and the others as we go and he confirms he’s almost back at the apartment.
“I guess it’s over now,” Silver murmurs.
“For now, at least,” I say. “Who knows what’ll happen with the Archarcans next? They’re bound to be reactive after Simpson and his cronies have been influencing them for months.”
“And we did release a bunch of prisoners into the city,” Ro adds cheerfully. “Plus, Nexus has only just stopped being on fire.”
I chuckle. But my nose twitches the closer we get to The Spire and I wonder if maybe Nexus is still at least partly burning. There’s the scent of acrid smoke, although I can’t see anything obviously burning right now. Maybe the smell is now a hallmark of the city, or it’s been scarred into my nostrils.
