The room explodes. “Bullshit,” someone from the Guild yells. “Prove it, old man.”
“Yeah, show us.”
Hennessey slams his mug onto the desk. “In here? Don’t be morons. Magical-suppression has been in place for years, and they upgraded us to Null-Fields last week. Inside these walls, you are nothing, and you’ll never feel that glory. But outside?”
He lifts his eyes toward the stained ceiling tiles. “Outside, the sky is full of things you can’t even imagine. Harpies, hippogriffs, kobolds. Even here in Ashgrave.”
Fuck. Mom and Dad? Can they fly? Are they safe?My brain is spinning in a hundred different directions.
“This happened last night?” Aurora whispers.
“They’re calling it the Great Awakening.” Hennesey continues, gesturing around the room with his mug. “But not for you. Here the old rules still apply. Think about that. You, and every other WMO prisoner in Havengard, are the last relics of a dying age. Completely magicless.”
Big whoop. I’ve been magicless my whole life.
I took after my human father rather than gaining any of my mother’s magical bloodline.
But now? Innate magic? Outside these walls, I could shift?
Knowing my luck, I’d turn into a toad.
I glance at Aurora. “Is that really possible? Is this a trick?” she whispers, more to herself than me.
“The ability to shift is real,” I mutter. The memory of golden dragon scales flashes through my mind. “Witnessed it myself.”
She turns her head, her face inches from mine.
“Bullshit,” she hisses.
Up close, I can see the gold flecks in her blue eyes and the way her breath hitches. My heart does a stupid, heavy thud against my sore ribs. In that moment, I realize I’m in far more trouble than a prison power struggle.
“I call bullshit,” she says again.
“Whatever.” I don’t elaborate. I can’t. If I keep talking to her, I’m going to do something stupid, like touch her face.
Hennessey’s eyes glaze over as the gin must finally hit his sweet spot. “Someone hand out the textbooks. Read chapters seventeen to twenty-four. Or don’t. Just don’t make any noise while I close my eyes.” He leans back, his chin hitting his chest.
That’s it?A fucking bombshell of a world-altering event, the fall of the Conclave, and the birth of a new age, and it isn’t even enough to keep him awake for the hour?
Waste of space.
No one touches the books. Instead, chaos rises as the weight of the news settles into the stagnant air of our unchanged reality.
Revolution has come and for the first time in my life, there’s a chance for something new in all the broken-down Ashgrave lives.
But not for us.
Not for me.
I’m trapped in a concrete box, protecting an Elite princess who is rapidly making me forget I’m supposed to be the Boss.
What could possibly go wrong?
Everything.
The answer is everything.
8. AURORA
