Treason: Book Two of the Grimoire Saga (a Young Adult Fantasy series) (13 page)

“I’ll kill you!” Gavin yelled. He charged again. Vines pushed from his pores, growing over his skin and shining with a glossy sheen. Carden attacked, but Gavin’s new armor deflected most of the blows.

Kara eyed the battle, lost in their fight despite the melee around her. Though he could probably end Gavin in a matter of minutes, Carden never directly attacked. He swung instead with the flat edge of his sword so as not to cut the Blood. If Carden was here to kill everyone, why not get it over with?

A hefty blow to Gavin’s jaw from the flat side of Carden’s sword sent the young Blood flying onto his back. He skidded for several feet before his head finally hit the wall with a
crack.
The gash pulsed with green blood, but the skin stitched itself together as Gavin writhed in pain. Carden set his sword against the Blood’s throat and stepped on his right arm. Something snapped
.
Gavin cursed and yelled.

Carden pointed his sword at Kara. “You’re next.”

The color drained from her face. She leaned back against the wall and summoned the Grimoire. As it settled into her palm, she ripped it open and grasped at straws as she tried to think of something to ask it. There had to be something in it that could help.

Carden grunted and circled Gavin as the Hillsidian tried to stand. “That book won’t help you, Vagabond, but I might let you live since you’ve learned a bit more about it than the first time we met.”

A dark figure darted past Kara and landed a kick on Carden’s chest. The Stelian flew backward and slid across the ground several feet away.

The figure stood and turned to her, and Kara sighed with relief as she recognized Braeden. He recovered from his attack and lifted Gavin, hurrying the now-unconscious king into Kara’s hands. He set Gavin on top of her lap and caught her gaze for a second. 

She groaned under Gavin’s weight. “Braeden, don’t set him on me. I can’t move—”

“I don’t want you to. Gavin will be fine in just a minute. Don’t let anything near him or all of Hillside will die,” Braeden said.

“But—”

“Please, Kara.” Braeden paused and cradled her cheek in his hand, brushing his thumb tenderly along her skin. He tensed his jaw and turned to face Carden.

A clamor of metal and screams beside Kara caught her attention, and she twisted her body from beneath Gavin’s limp form to see General Gurien usher Aurora into a nearby tower.

“You must run, Aurora!” Gurien’s hand wrapped tightly around her upper arm as he dragged her away from the melee.

“I will not run when my people are in danger!”

“You will because your father commands it!”

“Hang him. I will help!”

“Aurora,” the general begged.

“No!”

He pulled her in close even as she glared at him. “In this, I believe your father is right. If you could fight, if you could help, I would let you honor your people. But this is a deadly battle that few will survive”—he cupped her neck with his hand—“and our Heir must be safe!”

Aurora’s eyebrows pinched, and tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. She nodded.

Gurien sighed with relief and gestured to a group of Kirelms who stood at the ready nearby. “This old tower will take you to the roof. Go! I will hold off the Stelians as best I can, but you must hurry!”

The guards surrounded her, and they ran through the hallway to where scattered moonlight drenched an empty tower. Kara could see the posts of what had once been stairs winding to the roof, but now it was nothing but an empty tower. Windows dotted the wall between the tower and the hall where Kara sat, pinned against the wall, and she was forced to watch the ensuing escape through flashes in the empty frames.

As Aurora entered the tower, the doors opposite the stairwell opened and a horde of smoking Stelians funneled through. One lunged and stabbed a Kirelm guard clean through the chest. The Kirelm soldier paled, and as soon as he dropped to the floor, bits of dust cracked away from his face. Kara gasped and tried to lift the unconscious Gavin from her lap to go help. Though he groaned as she heard the snap of his arm mending itself, he wouldn’t budge.

She glanced back to Aurora, trying to compose the techniques she had learned at Losse into something useful, but the screaming clouded her focus. Panic flooded her limbs. She didn’t even know what technique would be useful from such a distance.

Aurora grabbed the fallen guard’s sword, spread her wings, and jumped into the air. As she flew, the Stelians nearby changed form and became Kirelms themselves. They stretched their dark wings, reaching for her with their arms. As one came too close, she swung her sword wildly. The sword sliced his arm clean off. He screamed and fell to the ground, but more soldiers took his place and swarmed after her.

In another flash of movement through the windows Kara could see, a soldier grabbed Aurora’s arm and yanked her to him. Another soldier tied a rope around her wings as she tried to escape. A third gagged her. The first soldier wrapped a blindfold around the princess’s eyes and took her in his arms even as she struggled to get free. The soldiers then flew higher, still climbing toward the roof.

Kara tried again to push Gavin off her—the royals were disappearing. And not only did Carden not want them dead, but he was kidnapping them. Aurora likely wouldn’t have escaped even if she’d made it to the top of the tower.

Gavin groaned as Kara punched him in the shoulder. He leaned his head into Kara’s lap and opened his eyes, just staring at the ceiling.

“Gavin, we have to get out of here!” Kara said. She shook him, trying to make him come to.

He caught her gaze and narrowed his eyes, finally seeming to wake up. But instead of nodding, or debating, or saying anything for that matter, he pushed himself off her without a word. He stood and scanned the crowd.

Before Kara could say anything, a familiar voice yelled in agony. She turned out of instinct toward the sound, only to catch Braeden duck a swing from Carden as he backed toward a stairway. The stairs wound up the wall, carved as they were into its side without a railing for all to see. If Carden forced Braeden up there, he would be trapped.

She pushed herself to her feet, but Gavin grabbed her wrist and pulled her close.

“Gavin, what—?”

“This is what I need you for, Kara. Help me kill Carden and I will give you absolutely anything.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“You’re the Vagabond. Come up with something!”

Carden smacked Braeden in the face with the flat of his sword and knocked him onto his back. He skidded into the bottom of the stairs and cursed loud enough that Kara could hear it from a hundred or so feet away.

Gavin grabbed her elbow. “I can show you how to use your power. Let me control you.”

“Like hell!”

“I know how to manage a battle, Kara. If you take my bloodline and become my subject, I can direct you in the fight. We can end Carden right here, right now. All you have to do is put this on.” He pulled from his pocket the tiara she had rejected so many times.

She pushed him away. “I knew it! I knew that was still cursed!”

“That’s not important! Right now, you can either wear it or watch Carden kill my brother. He’s no match for a Blood!”

Kara glanced back to Braeden. He parried, but the color drained from his face even as she watched him. It was like seeing him realize he would lose. Carden had let him keep his Hillsidian form, though Kara couldn’t figure out why. Braeden always moved a second or two behind his father’s attacks, barely blocking each blow at the last possible minute.

Carden was toying with Braeden.

Kara didn’t have many options, but she couldn’t take Gavin’s offer. If they didn’t kill Carden, she would be Gavin’s slave for as long as he wanted. And if they did kill Carden, Braeden would become Blood and everyone would find out the truth anyway. He wouldn’t be able to hide as a Hillsidian when his body adjusted to the new power that came with being king.

She summoned the pearl blue sword Braeden had taught her to use from the light and energy in the air.

“Sorry, Gavin. We aren’t going to do this your way.”

“You’re mistaken.”

Gavin grabbed her wrist and twisted, sending her to her knees. Pain shot into her elbow. The sword shattered and dissolved into the air. Gavin knelt in her peripheral vision and reached for her head. Something in his hand glittered like a diamond in the hall’s candlelight.

Not happening.

She shifted her weight and used her own momentum to swipe out his knee. He fell, and his grip loosened. Kara rolled out of his reach and bolted into the melee, dodging the twisting bodies as she ran toward Braeden.

If this was the end, she and Braeden would go out together.

Braeden dodged a blow from Carden’s sword. He still couldn’t fully understand why his father let him fight at all, but he had a guess. His father probably wanted to distract him and would likely wait until his soldiers finished whatever they’d come to do. Carden would no doubt then fully break the Gala guests left alive with the grand finale—making Braeden change form to add the insult of betrayal to the injury of losing the battle.

Though Braeden knew what would come, he couldn’t figure out how to stop it.

A stairwell loomed behind him. If Carden forced him up those steps, Braeden would lose all tactical advantage and be put on display at the same time. He’d tried everything he could think of, but he always ended up near the stairs. Carden owned this battle.

The Blood threw a bolt of dark smoke into Braeden’s chest. The blow knocked him off his feet and kicked the breath out of him. He slid into the bottom stair.

“That human girl is your weakness, Braeden. You could have escaped,” Carden said with a sneer.

Braeden’s heart raced as he stole a quick look to where he’d left Kara, but only an empty wall with a green bloodstain remained.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m strong enough to face you,” he said.

Carden grinned. “You are by no means strong enough to win this.”

The Blood lunged, aiming the Stelian Sartori at his son’s shoulder. Braeden parried, and the two struggled up the stairs. Braeden cursed under his breath. He’d just lost.

With a laugh, Carden erupted into black flame as he donned his daru. His skin darkened further as the flames danced across his arms, and his bones cracked as he grew another two feet. His clothes stretched with him, bending to accommodate his new size.

Braeden buckled under the strength his father pulled from him and dropped his sword. His knees shook. His muscles tightened against the strain of another person using his energy. Several moments passed before he could pull himself back to his feet, though he didn’t know why Carden would even allow such a thing. Arrogance, most likely. When he stood, most of the Stelians around Carden were on their knees.

“Acknowledge what you are, Braeden, or I will kill you here and now!”

“I won’t,” he said, barely loud enough to hear.

Carden swung the flat end of the sword toward Braeden’s jaw. He ducked the blow, leaning backward as he reached for his own sword.

Braeden spun with everything he had left, but his father easily stepped out of range. Carden swung again, pushing Braeden up the stairs step by step until those in the Gala hall below came into view. Mostly partygoers covered the dance floor, rips and stains dotting their lavish dresses or suits. Those without weapons stared at him, eyes wide as he fought for his life. Only a few Stelians remained, and those darted into a nearby tunnel. Carden’s massive army had already disappeared—and fast. Carden must have been planning this for as long as Gavin had been trying to secure the hall for the Gala.

Carden’s influence tugged on Braeden’s gut. It wasn’t a command—it was a test. The desire to change into his Stelian form burned through him. Justifications spun in his mind about how he would be stronger and better able to fight, but he knew better.

“Stop!” Braeden yelled.

He swung at Carden’s face and brushed the king’s cheek. Black blood dripped from the wound even as it healed.

Carden paused, his glare enough to make Braeden forget what his next move had been. He tensed his jaw as he scrambled to look for an opening, but a burning command tore through him.

Change.

This wasn’t Carden’s influence. It was a direct order—a mandate that no yakona had ever disobeyed.

Braeden fell to his knees and leaned into the stairwell wall as he fought the urge to turn. For a moment, he did. His body twisted to obey, but he kept it under control. His mind pushed against the order, strong enough to preserve the Hillsidian body that had given him a home for the last twelve years.

But as soon as the thrill of hope made his heart flutter, his skin began to change color. He cursed as the hope dissolved into panic.

His veins boiled as his skin darkened to a charcoal gray that matched his father’s. Even as he watched, it grew darker. Black flames erupted from the pores along his arms and chest. Fury and guilt crushed against his chest and shredded his resilience. In an instant, his lifetime of lying came to light.

The shame within him reasoned that if he could kill his father, he might find some redemption, if only from himself. It was his only thought, his only reason to exist in that second. He let his daru take over—it was too late to hide the truth now. He might as well embrace it.

He swung.

The two Stelians attacked and ducked until Carden twisted Braeden’s sword from his hands and threw it into the throngs below. Braeden had only a moment to catch his father’s sneer before the Blood kicked him in his gut. The blow knocked him off the twenty-foot-high ledge.

As Braeden fell, his father disappeared above him with a
crack.
Smoke billowed in the space where Carden once stood.

Braeden hit the stones below, and the ground broke beneath him. The stones in the floor bent from the force and knocked the air from his lungs. His body disconnected and wouldn’t obey. Pops and snaps echoed within him as he healed, but he couldn’t move.

His father stepped into view above him.