“You said if I handed myself in – if I stopped shooting – he would live.”
Sterling shrugs slightly. “I changed my mind. Are they here, Miss Storm?”
“We’re here,” a voice booms from the darkness.
And then a white wolf leaps out of nowhere, knocking Sterling off his feet and landing on his chest. In a moment the wolf has ripped the man’s throat clean away, blood dripping from the wolf’s jaws and staining its white fur crimson.
Chapter Fifteen
Briony
Several of the soldiers scream in alarm. Their gazes dart around in horror and confusion, and then, to my utmost surprise, one displaces. Then another. And another. Until only a handful remain: the two guarding Fly, the one holding Clare, and a couple of others.
“You’re outnumbered,” Beaufort says, strolling up onto the stage and peering down at the now-lifeless form of Sterling. “So you have a choice. Join us, or get the hell out of here.”
Two of the soldiers displace immediately. The one holding Clare flicks his gaze around the five of us.
“What do you mean, join you?” he asks.
“I think you know,” Beaufort says, walking to Fly, taking hold of his arm, and pulling him away from the two soldiers still lingering in stunned shock. “What you’ve been told is lies. I think that’s why you’re still here. You know we’re not traitors. You know there’s something strange about all this. And I think you want to be on the right side of history.”
“What is the truth then?” the soldier asks.
“That the Empress has been killing lumomancers like me,” I say. “That the shadow weaver emperors and empresses have been doing so for hundreds of years to stop my people from returning.”
“Why would we care if magical people like you came back? Lumomancers are weak. That’s why they disappeared in the first place,” he says.
The Professor scoffs. “You really believe she’s weak? You saw how she took on Sterling, didn’t you?”
The soldier’s gaze returns to me. He releases Clare, pushes her forward.
“I don’t know what I believe,” he says, and then he’s gone.
The other two remaining soldiers vanish as well.
Beaufort’s shoulders slump. He shakes his head. “I thought they’d stay. I thought we’d at least be able to convince some of them.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say.
“Itdoes,” Beaufort replies. “Because the only way I see us getting out of this alive is if we change things here, Briony – if we overthrow the Empress. And if we have any chance of doing that, we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
I don’t respond. I don’t know what to say. I’m not like him. I’ve never had people look to me with anything but derision – or simply look right through me. I’m not the person to lead a revolution.
I climb onto the stage and stride up to my best friend. I’m about to wrap my arms around him and tell him he’s okay now, but just like the white wolf had come bolting earlier, now a tall redheaded boy does exactly the same. He barrels right past me, flings himself at Fly, and wraps him in a tight embrace. He’s sobbing and crying, and I catch words like “I thought you were going to die” and “so glad” and “I love you Boo-Boo”.
Fly hugs the man back, and I realize it’s the same redhead he’s been in an on-and-off relationship with since we joined the academy.
I smile to myself, stepping aside to give them some privacy, and walk over to Clare instead. She’s missing her glasses and she squints at me, blinking rapidly.
“Are you okay, Clare?” I ask her. “Did they hurt you?”
She shakes her head, then sniffles, and tears slide down her cheeks. She wipes them away with her hands, and I hug her.
“It’s going to be okay, Clare,” I tell her, even though I have no idea if it will be or not.
I’m so busy whispering to her, I don’t hear the other people gathering around us until a voice calls out: “Is that true, what you just said?”
I release Clare and turn around.
