‘Tell your people to pay five percent tax, no more. If the Elites want thirty-five, then your wages must be tripled, electricity needs to be brought to the Dregs, and water sanitation increased.’
I laughed softly to myself.‘You’re dreaming. It will never happen.’
‘If you form a coalition and stop going to work until it does, it will happen. I can promise you that. You run this city. The Elite aren’t going to be disposing of theirown trash any time soon. You won’t find them on their hands and knees inside the sewers either. Your people may not have magic, but they have power.’
Chills raced up my arms at her words.
Your people may not have magic, but they have power.
I sat back on the couch for a long time thinking about what she’d said. I sat for so long in the darkness of the room that my mind began to wander off, and sleep pulled at my limbs. I knew I should have gotten up and made some tea, but things felt too heavy, and before I knew it, I was fast asleep.
Chapter Eleven
'Get up!'Valkaryn roared in my mind, barely a second before the blade came for my throat.
My eyes flew open, and I rolled hard to the side, hitting the floor as steel sliced the air where my neck had just been.
“Magic her!” a strange male voice hissed behind me.
“It’s not working! She’s shielded,” a woman spat.
Shielded?
Valkaryn pulsed at my side, glowing with a violet light. She was protecting me.
Still half-dazed, adrenaline slammed through me like a jolt of lightning. I gripped her hilt and rolled onto my back just as a cloaked figure loomed overhead, blade raised.
“End her!” the woman shrieked.
I lifted Valkaryn between us, but I couldn’t swing. Only if he fell straight onto the blade would I have a shot at defending my life.
Then white fur blurred across my vision. A wolf hit the cloaked man mid-strike, taking him down in a snarl of teeth and fury.
No time to breathe.
I kicked myself to my feet as the female attacker lunged. Valkaryn lit up again, purple fire arcing through the air. It struck the woman mid-leap, revealing the bandana wrapped around her face as she stumbled back, stunned.
She hissed and dropped low, throwing out her left hand as a glowing orb of fire splashed across my chest, dousing me with heat.
I gave a bloodcurdling shriek as it dissipated, leaving me unharmed.
‘She shattered my shield. Prepare for contact,’Valkaryn told me, and I held her up between us.
Prepare how? She can throw fire!
I braced myself, trying to recover from the shock of nearly being lit on fire, but Kaelric was already moving. He bounded over the now fallen man and slammed into the female with his full weight, knocking her into the wall so hard the stone cracked behind her as her head smacked against it.
Both attackers were down. One groaned. The other didn’t move.
My hands trembled around Valkaryn’s hilt, the rush of battle slowly fading, replaced by the dull, pounding weight of everything catching up.
Kaelric turned to me, panting. His white fur was streaked with blood, none of it his. His golden eyes found mine, checking me over, anchoring me to the present.
I gave a shaky nod.
'I’m okay. I think.'
His wolf padded forward cautiously, lowering his head. When he reached me, I didn’t move, and neither did he. We just stood there in the silence of what almost was.
