The first line of soldiers hit my Unseelie trap first. A black hole appeared beneath their feet, sucking them downward. They screamed as they were dragged into the black pit, until the hole closed up on the floor and left not a trace behind.
Spooked, the other soldiers advanced slowly, on the lookout for other traps. One of the soldiers stepped into a trap Arthur had set and was tossed across the room, fifty feet. He hit the wall, and there was a crunching sound as he slid down it.
By this point, the rest of the soldiers were terrified. They turned their backs to flee, and that’s when we had our shot.
“Attack!” Arthur cried. All at once, we flung ourselves out of the shadows. They outnumbered us, but we had the element of surprise. Offensive spells flew everywhere, and the cries of soldiers as they died resonated throughout the library.
We side-stepped to avoid our own traps as we ducked battle orbs and tossed back spells of our own. A group of soldiers surrounded me, pressing me into the wall, but Tygrys shook his little head and gave a harsh growl. He flew in front of me, and set off a telekinetic blast that shot the soldiers straight through the grand library window, shattering the glass.
“Good boy!” I praised, and Tygrys purred. I tossed an Unseelie spell at a soldier. It hit him in the chest, and he went down.
Our traps were working. A couple of soldiers were on the ground, holding their heads in agony as the griffins’ empathy trap caused them to inwardly crumble, rendering them incapable to fight. Portals had been set up around the room, transporting soldiers from here to gods-knew-where once they stepped into them.
The rest of the soldiers figured out our ruse and cast magic, to see where the traps were. Even then, we didn’t give them much time to fight back, as we were tossing out spells just as quickly as we could conjure them.
Delmare was back on her feet, but she needed to hold onto Stefan to steady herself as she tossed battle orbs. They exploded on impact, toppling over bookshelves and setting books ablaze. As the fire began to spread, smoke filled the room, and I coughed through the haze, lungs aching and chest tight.
“This place is going up!” Stefan cried through the smoke. The rest of us staggered against the flames, wheezing within the confines of the smoggy air.
“Hold your position!” Ethan demanded, before giving another ragged cough. It was getting hot in here— sweat was pouring down my face at the heat the fire emitted, and more books were catching aflame every moment.
The soldiers that were still alive had given up, bolting toward the door. We had the advantage, but I heard the sound of approaching boots marching outside. Ethan ducked his head out the library entrance, and his jaw dropped open in terror.
“More soldiers are coming!” he shouted, and I watched my friends go pale.
Shit. Every trap we’d placed in the library had been set off, and we didn’t have time to place anymore. Here in the library, we were sitting ducks. If the soldiers didn’t kill us, the fire would.
“Run!” Ethan cried. We darted out of the inferno and into the open hallway. At this point, the soldiers were waiting for us. We had to flatten ourselves to the floor as they began tossing spells, and they flew over our heads. If anyone got to their feet, they’d surely be dead.
“What do we do?” Amantha screamed, but nobody knew. I was certain this was it, until I heard footsteps run in front of us. My jaw dropped open in amazement as I watched Professor Mara come in from an east corridor. She was alone, and had a fiery look in her eyes, blood smeared across her cheek.
Mara weaved her arms, expanding a shield around her body. She forced it outward, pushing it against the army. The soldiers fought back, pressing their bodies and their magic into the shield, but Mara’s magic refused to bend.
“Get out of here!” Professor Mara cried. Her hands shook as she kept the shield sustained. We got to our feet, and I felt a lump in my throat grow as I watched her sink to her knees. Her shield hit the ceiling. The stone began to collapse, falling onto a group of soldiers and squishing them flat, leaving behind a giant hole in the roof.
“Leave!” Mara gasped. Her magic had reached the extent of its limits. Professor Mara’s eyes contracted, and she slumped forward. A spell broke through her shield and whizzed through the air, severing her head from her shoulders.
Finlay let out such a great cry of grief, it shook me to my core. He rushed forward toward Mara’s headless corpse, but Amantha held him back. The soldiers were rushing through the gap, climbing over the stones and bodies Mara had dropped. It wouldn’t take them long to clear the debris and get to us.
I darted ahead and forced myself not to look back. Professor Mara had sacrificed herself so that we could get away— so the Malovian Revolution could continue. I wouldn’t waste that sacrifice.
The soldiers loomed closer and closer, and I kept running and running. As my brother and I stopped to catch our breath in an abandoned hallway, I turned in a circle—
And realized that we were utterly alone.
“Didn’t they follow us?” Arthur asked, near hysterics.
“Apparently not.” Fuck. Under fear of being caught by the soldiers, everyone had scattered in different directions. The only person that remained with me was Arthur. Who knew where the rest of my friends were?
Ethan? I cried out in my head, feeling panicked.
I’m alive, he replied.They cut me off before I could get to you. We’rerunning from soldiers in the south gardens.
I caught a mental picture from Ethan, who was with Stefan, Delmare, Kiara, Alexei, Odette and Theo, all trying to escape an onslaught of a battalion outside the school walls. The image suddenly cut off, as if Ethan had to divert his attention elsewhere.
“Ethan’s on the south side of campus. Where’s Vara?” I asked Arthur, turning to him.
Arthur tilted his head to listen, then said, “She took off with Finlay and Amantha. They’re near the dining hall.”
