“I don’t want to make you repeat your trauma, but pistols could help us avoid something even worse in the future. If we had these pistols back in Cellblock 9, or even the Infernal Underground, maybe we could’ve avoided everything terrible that happened to us. We didn’t have to be tortured, pidge. We can use these guns for good to protect ourselves and help people. They don’t have to be used for an awful purpose.”
I was unable to speak, so Oberi did for me.Pistols are human weapons.
“Not the way I’ve conceived them,” he explained. “During my lesson with my grandfather, he had me practice creating a pistol. I’ve been studying them since, learning all the different parts and how they work. I understand them now, and how we can use them to concentrate our powers to the best of our ability.”
Those late nights when he’d waited to come to bed until after I was asleep were starting to make sense.
I didn’t like this. But if it helped us win, I was going to have to learn to be okay with this, because if the Warden was in my place he wouldn’t think twice.
Charlie noticed my hesitation and rushed to say, “We don’t have to use these if you don’t want to. I don’t want to force you to do this. I know you have a problem with guns, since?—”
“How I feel about something doesn’t matter if it can help us win,” I said harshly, cutting him off. “Just… tell me how they work.”
Charlie…Oberi warned. The unease throughout our bond told me my Familiar wasn’t keen on this, either. I didn’t like that Oberi was as clueless about this as I was. Charlie had kept both of us in the dark.
Charlie hesitated, before he began to explain. “It’s not like it’s a real gun. It’s made of illusion— it shoots magic. It just enables us to cast faster, and the accuracy is more precise. It’s much easier to harness our power through them. We can fire a few rounds quicker than the time it would take to conjure and throw a single battle orb with our hands.”
I felt the blood drain from my face as I said, “You’ve already created one.”
He nodded. “Yes. I just wanted to see if it would work. And I tried it— it does. But it’ll only work for demigods, so you don’t have to worry about it being produced on a mass scale. I had Chancey and Alistair try to fire it, and it wouldn’t work for them. Not just anyone can pull the trigger, because it focusesyourmagic. The magic doesn't come from the illusion. You have to combine your powers with the illusion of the gun, and only demigods are strong enough to fuse it with the technology. Normal, or even talented supernaturals can’t access it, but we can. And this is a weapon we can use to beat the Warden.”
It could be. These weapons could be the edge we needed. We had lost the fight with Esther and her demigod cronies, and we couldn’t lose again. If these pistols could prevent that, I had to learn to get comfortable with them. “Are you sure these can help us?”
“We need to have something that can fire faster than our regular magic can, just in case we get outnumbered again,” Charlie said gently. “I get that this is tough, but what happensif we aren’t fast enough at the end of the day? We might lose a friend, or worse, we might lose each other. If you don’t want to use it, that’s completely fine, but I feel likeIhave to. To protect you, if nothing else, because you’re the most important person in the world to me. Nothing’s taking you away from me again.”
“If you’re carrying a pistol, I should be, too,” I insisted. “I need to be able to protect you as best I can.”
We need to be careful,Oberi objected.I’m worried this could have more consequences than we realize between us.
“Look. We weren't strong enough fighting Danny,” Charlie said. “He wiped the floor with us, and he’s not half as strong as the Warden is. But I think these will give us an advantage. Are you okay with going forward with this? Because we need an edge, and this could be it.”
Charlie was right. I needed to get over it and get with the program. No matter how I felt about using pistols, we were part of a crime family. I had to be willing to do whatever it took to defend that family and make things right.
I was a chosen one. I didn’t have the luxury ofmaking choices, like normal people did.I had to do what was right for the world, no matter how uncomfortable I felt.
“I’ll be fine,” I stated. “Let’s do it.”
Ava, are you sure? Oberi asked. He knew I was lying, but I didn’t think Charlie noticed.
“Yes. We have to at least try them out,” I said. “Let’s go early to our demigod lesson, to experiment.”
Charlie seemed relieved. I caught a stray thought of his that I’d taken this idea better than he figured I would.
Yeah, well. If it came down to making myself comfortable or defending Charlie’s life, it’d be Charlie, every time.
We left our suite and arrived in the training arena a short time later. The professors hadn’t shown up yet, and neither hadDanny. I waited by the door, while Charlie and Marcus got to setting up targets for today’s practice.
Kallie strode in, carrying a wooden chest. She conjured a table, then set the chest on top of it.
“What’s in there?” Marcus asked curiously as she opened the top.
“Pistols,” Kallie replied. My stomach dropped as she began distributing them to Charlie and Marcus. “Charlie made them, but I perfected them with my illusion magic to work out any extra kinks.”
Kallie hesitated as she looked at me. She knew my problems with guns and wanted to double check if this was okay. “Did Charlie talk to you about this before I made them, Ava? I didn’t want to help create the pistols without you knowing about it first.”
I frowned. “Yeah. Of course. Let’s get started.”
Charlie didn’t say anything, and I bit my lip. I didn’t like how he’d waited until the last minute to spring this on me, but I somewhat understood. He knew there was a risk I wouldn’t take it well, and he didn’t want to upset me before they were ready.
