“This is a long list indeed. Your crimes are unprecedented and unforgivable, and we will not tolerate such treachery in our realm. You will not live. Nor will that girl, or any of your bond brothers. Your crimes are too great.”
“Too great for a trial?” I scoff.
“You’re too dangerous for a trial,” she counters, narrowing her eyes.
“This is all bullshit,” I mutter, and her eyes flash. I’ve never used language like that in her presence before. I’ve always been the perfect son for her – until now. “All lies. Bardin told me everything. You’ve been having talented students at the academy murdered – students from the Quarters outside Onyx – in cold blood, just to keep your power.”
“What utter nonsense,” she says. “Have you lost your mind, Lincoln?”
“No. I see the truth as clearly as I see your face now, Mother. And I know that our people were responsible for the demons. That our actions led to their creation.”
“What actions?”
“The annihilation of the light wielders. And you’ve been ensuring they can’t return.”
If I thought she would confess, I was wrong. She stares at me with hard eyes and says nothing.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way,” I press on, clinging to the smallest hope that we can find some kind of resolution. “Let Briony live. Let the Light return to the realm. And let her destroy the demons once and for all.”
“And that’s all?” she asks. “That’s all you demand?”
“And the system has to change too,” I add. “No more Quarters. No more academy. No more trials. No more deaths.”
“And what will we get from this wonderful bargain?” she asks coolly.
“Your son will live,” I say. She continues to stare at me. “And the world will be fairer. The people safer.”
“You truly believe that?” she says, scoffing at me. “My naïve child. You don’t understand how the world works, or how people work. They need a strong leader to guide and protect them. They need a common enemy to distract them from their mundane lives and their miserable problems. Take those things away, and you might as well light the spark that burns the whole realm to ashes.”
“I don’t believe that’s true,” I say. “I think fate chose Briony and me and the others to change things. Fate wants something different.”
“And what if fate wants chaos?” she asks.
I shake my head. Fate couldn’t bring me something as beautiful, brave, and damn right imperfect as Briony Storm with the intention of leading us to a conclusion so cruel. Fate couldn’t show me the world could be different, that I could be loved, that I could love in return with an intensity that burns through me – even now, out here on this cold platform – if her intentions were evil.
I have to believe fate’s intentions are good. Pure. Better. That’s what we’re fighting for.
“I don’t want to fight you, Mother. I want this all to end now.”
“But it can’t be that way,” she says. “We took this throne from our father with the promise to maintain the realm, to keep our power and our stronghold. We will not relinquish that, Lincoln. We will not let the Light shine and destroy everything we have worked so hard to build.”
“Then this may be the last time we meet.”
Should I feel sad about that? Should my heart ache? Because all I feel is numb. A numbness that creeps into my fingertipsand crawls up my arms toward my heart. It’s hard to care for a woman who has never cared for me, though she should have.
“She’s my fated mate,” I tell her. “I could never give her up. I never will.”
“You’ve always been sentimental, just like your father,” she says. “Unfortunately, it’s a weakness. A weakness that will lead to your demise. We are sorry for it, but it is inevitable.”
And with those last cold words still hanging in the mist, she waves her hand and disappears.
I stare at the empty space she’s just vacated, the mist seeping in to reclaim it. I tip my head back and look up at the gray sky, inhaling the cold air, exhaling it slowly through my teeth. I think of that image I saw in my mind – that glimmer of what I hope is the future – and I cling to it now as I displace back to the academy. Back to my fated mate, my bond brothers, my allies, all ready for the battle that will now come.
Chapter Forty-Two
Briony
As soon as I see his face, I know it hasn’t worked. Not that I expected it to. And yet, perhaps a little hope had lingered in my heart.
