I closed my eyes, sickness washing over me, and I willed myself to be brave, to dig deep and find the courage to face this. Suddenly, my knees buckled, unwilling to stand in the face of the coming tragedy. Kiran reached through Lucan’s force field and held on to me, stabilizing me and offering the comfort we both knew wouldn’t suffice.
“It’s good to see you again, old friend,” Justice greeted Lucan. Lucan’s face contorted into pure hatred, and he turned on Justice, murder lust marking his angry eyes.
Lucan raised the sword over his head, and swiftly, effortlessly sliced it through the air into my father’s chest. A tortured scream left my mouth, but I didn’t recognize it as my own for moments after. My father crumpled forward, his forest green magic pouring into the air around him as his life’s blood along with his soul, floated upward from his chest.
Delia bent down to him, cupping his face in her hands. Tears fell from her black eyes in streams of love. She caressed his face gently, soothingly, sending him in undying love to the afterworld.
“I will be with you soon, my love,” she whispered through choking sobs.
“I love you,” Justice gasped through a throat full of curdled blood.
“And I love you,” Delia promised back, leaning forward to kiss him on the lips.
Lucan kicked at Justice’s now lifeless body before she could reach him and then reached down to yank Delia up by the wrist. Her long, black hair whipped around her face from the violent motion. When her hair settled, and her eyes met Lucan’s, they were no longer tear-stained, no longer full of grief; she was determined, even hopeful.
“And is there no love left for me?” he sneered.
“You lost my love, Luca, a long time ago,” Delia answered, tilting her chin in defiance. I held back a smile at the similarities between us that I was very proud to possess.
“Ah yes, I haven’t forgotten,” Lucan’s eyes turned soft for a moment, as the love that he felt for my mother became pure again. But as quickly as it came, it disappeared and a lifetime of longing and devotion turned to malice and hate. “I lost your love, so you betrayed me. You chose a secondary love, a lesser love and ran.”
“Hardly,” Delia whispered with all the conviction she possessed. “Not a lesser love, but a greater love. A love that until now has made this life I live worth it.”
“And why now? Why was it now you decided to intervene?” Lucan demanded. He seemed to forget the rest of the kingdom around him. Delia was the only thing in his line of sight, and he seemed wholly consumed with her.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Avalon take his place on the base of a fountain. He stood above the rest of the crowd and watched Lucan with intensity. I could feel it then, as our bloods pumped in unison. We would not be waiting until Monday to attack; we would not spare another moment to even wait for the rest of our numbers. Our mother and father had decided on their sacrifice and there was nothing we could do to stop this from happening, but when Lucan found his revenge, immediately after, we would find ours.
“For many reasons, Dear,” Delia said in a soothing voice. “We are tired of running, tired of traveling. It is time for us to be together in a world where your kind of evil does not exist.” Lucan growled at her, but she continued, “And I could not let my daughter or my son feel responsible for the lives you planned to take today. They are good and strong, and they will rule this kingdom after they destroy you. They will restore our immortality; they will bring peace and life again. You may take my life today, I will grant you this, but soon, very soon they will take yours and my sacrifice will be for the greater good of my people.” Delia turned to face the crowd, beseeching them to see reason, “Immortals, look; my children are your future,” She raised her hand toward Avalon and the crowd turned to face him. “Eden’s twin brother will help her usher in a new life, and restore your life. Lucan is not the rightful king of this realm, it was my bloodline elected so many millennia ago. And now we suffer in vain because we keep a false leader on the throne where my son and daughter belong! Do not hesitate to believe me, because when my life has been taken from me, they will be the ones to lead you into peace. They will be the ones to end the tyranny and death!” And as she finished speaking, her words turned into a scream as Lucan plunged the sword into her heart.
Transfixed on my mother, I had forgotten about Lucan and his desire for vengeance. But now, as he helped her fall to the ground, and a single tear slipped from his cold blue eyes, I realized she had been allowed to speak while he gathered the will to end her. There was love in his veins still, but a twisted love that turned him evil and insane. Her magic floated from her in a pure, perfect white, until there was no life left to bleed.
The blue magic left my body, anxious to get to her, but Lucan’s force field of magic stayed in place until every ounce of life drained from my mother. The smoke pounded against the king’s magic, desperate and violent, but he hardly noticed my attempts. I was too weak to save my mother, to reverse her sacrifice and change my parent’s fate. And then when she became a lifeless body in his arms, the energy field dropped. It was too late now though. There was nothing I could do.
I turned into Kiran, released from Lucan’s hold while the evil king held my mother’s dead body close to him. I shivered uncontrollably in his arms, letting his love for me hold me together. If I needed any more proof that Kiran was not his father, I remembered how willingly Kiran let me go to Jericho, with only the faint hope that I would come back to him. Lucan’s loss had turned him into a monster, and my mother’s life taken in an act of deranged love.
“Citizens,” Kiran’s self-assured voice called above the horror-stricken silence that settled over the crowd. “You have seen the monster my father is, you have witnessed firsthand his psychotic behavior. You know now, without a doubt who truly belongs as the ruler of our people. Will you still cower under his oppressive thumb? Still bend at his every tyrannical whim? Or will you stand with us and fight for a new way of life? Will you fight for your freedom?”
The crowd stayed silent, confused by Kiran’s words. And then Avalon stood up taller, commanding the crowd to look at him without uttering a word. When he finally chose to speak, Lucan had stood up again, casting his dark shadow across my parent’s dead bodies. The sun was at its lowest point over the mountain tops before night would settle on the Citadel. Lucan did not look at Avalon at first; he moved his eyes to his son with a murderous expression that sent chills through my body. He managed to murder my grandfather, my father and my mother. I would not let him touch the man that I planned to share eternity with.
“Stand with us, Immortals. Help us take what is rightfully ours!” Avalon’s voice called in fateful command. He looked across the square, not at me, but at Kiran and the boys shared a nod that sent confirmation through the crowd that they stood together.
“Guards, bring me that boy,” Lucan shouted. A wave of magic rolled out from him, violently crossing the crowd and destroying the fountain while Avalon jumped out of the way.
Suddenly everything set into motion. The Guards swarmed the plaza from every direction, in search of my brother who seemed to disappear. At the same time, the captured Resistance returned from the shadows and engaged the pursuing Guard into battle, along with Seraphina, Sebastian, Amelia, the Cartiers and to my surprise Analisa. I gasped when Jedrec and his team turned against the other Titans they stood with, their job of protecting me not yet finished.
Immortals seemed to either scatter from the fight or turn and help fight off the Guards. Lucan crossed the stage in pursuit of Kiran who pulled me from the platform, into the chaos of the crowd.
“We need to find your brother, so we can fight my father together,” Kiran shouted above the deafening noise of battle.
I nodded, but knew what I had to do. We couldn’t fight all of these Guards and win, our numbers were too small. And the three of us certainly stood no chance against Lucan. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Talbott and Lilly, fighting Titans and struggling to survive.
“Do you trust me?” I yelled, pulling Kiran in the direction of his bodyguard.
“No!” Kiran yelled back, afraid of what I was planning.
“Kiran, do you trust me?” I stopped him before we reached Talbott and turned to face him. Our eyes met and I held his gaze with the promise of a love that would continue after this night.
“Yes,” He relented in a tormented voice. I leaned up to kiss him on the lips and even in the middle of civil war, the world stopped spinning when we touched.
“Then stay with Lilly, keep her safe. I’ll meet you back here, just…. Promise to wait for me!” I demanded, making it clear that I wanted him to survive until I came back.
“I’ll wait for you,” he vowed, refusing to let go of my hand.
“And find my brother!” I shouted, wiggling from his grasp and grabbing Talbott on my way toward the castle.
“I need your help!” I explained quickly, “Kiran will protect her.”
Talbott looked back at my best friend with the longing and desperation that resonated in my own blood. I knew that leaving her was as difficult for him as it was for me to leave Kiran, but if I didn’t do what needed to be done, none of it would matter anyway.
With one more shared gaze, he tore his eyes from Lilly and forced himself to face our destination. We ran with purpose toward the outside entrance of the prisons and he looked down at me with a fear I had never seen from Talbott before.
“I have to try,” I explained vaguely, realizing he recognized my mission.
“And if it doesn’t work?” Talbott demanded.
“Then we’re all dead anyway,” I shrugged.
That seemed to be an adequate answer for him, so he ripped the dungeon door from the hinges with incredible strength, and then chivalrously let me go through first.
We ran down a dark stairwell that led into the bowels of the castle. Our feet flew quickly from step to step, sometimes jumping down entire sections at a time. The oppressive magic of the dungeons weighed heavier the deeper we went, and even though Talbott’s magic would still work, I could feel the pressure of the mysterious power still affecting him.
The deeper we ran, the more oppressive the magic became, but my own electricity still seemed to be in my control. I was pleased with this, knowing I would need everything I possessed to face the task ahead of me.
At the base of the stairs, one more door stood in our way and Talbott opened this one just as roughly. We slowed our pace as we entered the prisons, not sure what to expect. If there were Titans left down here, hopefully they wouldn’t be warned about the mayhem happening in the plaza above, but our presence would still cause some eyebrows to rise.
Once I stepped fully into the prisons, I was immediately hit with flashbacks of India. The magic that usually restrained an Immortals magic turned on me realizing it couldn’t restrict mine. It attacked me violently, even this far from the cave where I knew the source lived. I clutched at my throat, the magic choking me, gripping at my throat in an effort to extinguish my different magic.