Boom.
I looked around wildly, trying to catch the disc in my sight, and frowned when I realized it was headed nowhere near me. Also, it didn’t look cardboard, like the others. This plate had a metallic glint to it.
Dread sank into my gut as the disc crashed into one of the beams of the queen’s tower. A resounding crack splintered the air and then the lower half of the beam sheared right off, crashing to the floor.
Shouts of alarm rang throughout the field and pure shock raced through me. The tower creaked and swayed as a handful of Royal Guard rushed onto the edges of the field. They pulled swords, and bows, and arrows, pointing them at the woods behind me, but there was no time to process what was happening when another cannon went off. The silver-glinted disc was hurled expertly through the air, headed right for the queen’s tower, slicing the other pole in half.
That’s when the entire tower began to fall forward, and my heart leaped into my throat.
What the fae?
It was at that moment that I registered what was happening.
This was an assassination attempt on the queen.
“Shut down the cannons!” someone yelled.
The single guard who stood outside the door to the queen’s private boxed area aimed his bow to the woods, but it was in vain.
It all happened so fast. I stared up at the queen then, taking in the fear in her eyes as the entire tower pitched forward and she fell out of it like water being poured from a cup.
Without thinking, I rushed forward, throwing my arms up and screaming as I unleashed unknown magic from my palms. A force field of telekinetic power slammed into the queen’s body and her speed slowed, much like the pieces of paper I had practiced with. My brain felt like it was being squeezed in a vise as I fought to concentrate. People were screaming, guards were rushing forward, it was chaos. But I slowly lowered Queen Solana to the ground just after the wooden box tower fell, and unfortunately her guard plunged to his death.
The tower splintered into a hundred pieces beside the queen as she sat on the field, chest heaving, looking up at me in shock.
I stood straight, lowering my palms for the first time. My hands shook with the adrenaline coursing through my system.
The Royal Guard rushed onto the field then, Ayden and Ariyon included, and before I knew it, the queen was being whisked away and whispers of assassination were rampant through the field.
“Are you okay?” Ayden asked as his aunt was rushed off campus.
I swallowed hard, nodding.
What the fae just happened!
“I’ll catch up with you later,” he said and then ran off the field as well, two Royal Guards urging him to safety.
Another fleet of guards rushed into the woods, seemingly to find whoever had loaded the cannons with the metal blade discs.
Someone appeared beside me then, and they were holding out my gloves to me. I took them gingerly and looked up to see Master Clarke beaming down at me with pride. “Your magic isn’t powered by rage like your mother, it’s driven by the urge to protect.”
I swallowed hard, still processing what had just happened. “I…have no idea how I did that,” I confessed.
He nodded. “Sometimes we just need to open up and allow the magic to do what it needs to.”
“But I’m supposed to learn to control my magic, so that it won’t control me,” I reminded him.
He gave me a quizzical look. “You seemed pretty in control just now. You knew what you wanted to do, just not exactly how to achieve it. Your desire, mixed with the intelligence of your magic, saved our queen’s life.”
I saved the queen.
Holy fae, that was a big deal.
Master Clarke looked out into the trees, as if assessing an unknown threat. “We should probably head inside and let the Royal Guard do their investigation.”
“Oh, right.” There was still an assassin probably out in these woods.
The entire time I walked over to where Eden waited anxiously for me, I couldn’t stop staring at my hands, and for the first time, slightly fearing what I was capable of. But I had to push all of that from my mind because the Belles Ball was tonight, and I was more excited than ever.
