Page 47

Malia

I hate being here.

Memories and unnecessary emotions try to resurface against my will, clogging my throat and making my damn hands shake.

I clench them into fists and focus on fixing a passive scowl on my face, feeling like an idiot.

We pass the great hall, where most students are eating happily.

Only a few notice us in the hallways, and their expressions quickly turn quizzical.

No surprise there, not once in my time here did I see a guard in the school. This must be very confusing. They have no idea that people out there want to kill them in five days. But the Dark Fraction won’t succeed.

Even if I have to kill each and every one of them with my bare hands, I won’t let these kids get hurt.

Not now and not in a few years when they join the guard.

That resolve only strengthens when I peak into the crammed hall. This war needs to end.

We enter a restricted part of the building, and the quiet allows my mind to drift off.

I lose myself to my thoughts, not paying enough attention to realize Keahi eventually stops walking ahead of me.

I trot right into his back. Face-first. Like a moron.

"Sorry," I mumble.

I stare at the dark wooden door with fine carvings in it.

We’re in front of the room the meeting is being held in. My mind zeroes in on that, expelling any stray thoughts of the past.

Keahi opens the door after one last look my way, appearing wary but luckily keeping his mouth shut for once.

There is a large round table in the middle with adults sitting around it, all of which turn toward us as we enter.

The conversation they had quickly dies down, but I’m unbothered by the rising tension or their jaundiced looks my way as I scan the crowd.

"Ah, yes.

We were just talking about you.

We’re a chair short but I am sure you don’t mind standing," Flint tells me, his tone indicating that he wouldn’t care if I did mind.

"I’ll stand," Keahi protests before I can stand up for myself, his voice laced with annoyance.

I don’t pay either of the men any attention since someone else catches my eye at that very moment.

A man is sitting on the right side of the table, a man I’ve seen before.

A Shadow Handler.

He meets my eyes, and I feel like a bucket of ice is dumped over my head. Without hesitation, I jump forward and drag him off his chair.

His eyes widen when he’s pushed up against the closest wall with one of Keahi’s daggers to his throat.

Urgent yelling erupts around me, and hands dart in my direction to pull me off, I presume.

Still, I ignore them, keeping my focus on the mole I’m currently holding at knifepoint.

"Malia, what are you doing?" I distinguish Keahi’s distressed voice in the mix.

"Taking care of a fucking leech, that’s what.

He’s one of them," I yell over the turmoil without taking my eyes off the man against the wall.

All at once, the room goes deadly silent.

"She is lying!" the man cries out desperately, clinging to his cover.

"She came here to kill us all." Some other adults start murmuring skeptically.

"If I wanted you dead, you would be lying at my feet already," I tell the morons, only to hear their outraged gasps in response.

Okay, maybe not the type of thing that’ll make our collaboration easier.

"Is that a threat?" I roll my eyes at Flint’s words.

"Malia, just let go of the man," Keahi pleads desperately.

"He is one of them, Keahi.

I’ve seen him talk to my parents at camp, I’m sure of it." Please believe me, I add mentally.

Hell, I know these people have already made up their minds about me, and I’m not making it easier for myself by attacking someone at their table the first chance I get. Still, I’m hoping for Keahi’s support, at least.

I’m pressing my dagger harder against his skin, trying to mask my shaking hands at the prospect of more blood spilled by me if he makes a wrong move, but I’m suddenly pushed away by an invisible force.

I yelp as my back hits the edge of the table, the air swooshing from my lungs before I’m forcefully pushed to my knees.

"Move and the girl is dead." The man I had pinned against the wall a moment ago says.

One of his hands is on my shoulder, keeping me in place while the other one is pressed to my ear.

An air handler. The other adults look frozen in place, including Keahi.

"We don’t care what happens to her," Flint finally says before raising his hands, ready to attack the traitor.

Gee thanks.

I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t appreciate the mess there would be if I got my brain blown out, literary, but okey.

"How could you?" a pale man to our right – probably the traitor’s partner – whispers shakily, nearly choking on his tears.

The traitor ignores him and responds to Flint’s statement.

"Are you sure you’re speaking in the name of everyone present when you say that?" he snarls, clearly referring to Keahi.

"Kill her for all I care.

I’m sure her parents would be thrilled to hear that," he says daringly.

I’m tempted to believe his words until I notice his hand. His index finger is pressed against his middle one. He’s lying. I’m almost willing to bet he revealed that to me on purpose. As always, the reminder of our past evokes an unwelcome mix of emotions.

"It’s over, Neil.

You are only making this worse for yourself," Flint says, but the man, Neil, doesn’t loosen his grip on me.

If anything, his fingers dig into my shoulder more tightly, triggering most unpleasant flashbacks of my encounter with Seraphin. I make him drop unconscious with no actual effort, and he collapses to the ground.

"What happened?" The pale man quickly goes to Neil’s side, looking frail and panicky as he takes in his partner’s lifeless form.

I roll my eyes once more and get to my feet, moving a hand over the shoulder he’d touched to brush away dust that isn’t there if only to wipe away the feeling of another man’s unwanted hands on me.

"He’ll be fine.

If you get him away from me before I change my mind, that is," I announce.

That’s enough to make most adults stare at me wide-eyed while two carry the traitor away. I take place where he previously sat before speaking calmly.

"Where were we?" Keahi is the first to follow my lead and sit down while the others still look dumbfounded.

I catch his eyes to see him smiling at me, so I quickly avert my gaze, raising an inquisitory brow at Flint instead.

"Right," he shakes his head before sitting down as well.

Once everyone is back in their seats, the meeting goes on.

"If the information you gave us is correct, the attack on the academy is to occur in five days.

We’d like to assign a certain number of guards to deal with the distraction while the rest are either here or somewhere nearby.

For that, we need to know how many of them will come."

"A little less than one thousand people live at the camp.

Including kids and the elderly.

I’d say around six hundred go on missions. Some of them will be busy with the distraction, and they wouldn’t leave the camp completely defenseless," I say. Flint nods along, looking deep in thought when another man speaks up.

"We outnumber them.

Probably at least two to one," he says confidently.

Triumphant murmurs break out around the room, but I quickly put a stop to it.

"That might be true, but they are better fighters, there’s no denying that.

They learn more efficient – if morally questionable – ways to attack or kill from a young age, so we need to outsmart them.

I’d propose moving the kids away from here and attacking their camp when their best fighters are gone, but chances are high that scouts are watching the academy already.” Especially after my disappearance, the Dark Fraction will be even more cautious. My parents must have made sure of it, although I refrain from mentioning it to these guards.

“Either way, there’s no safer hiding place for the students than here.

Maybe we could try another approach, attack them on their way here in the woods and use the element of surprise to our favor, but it’s risky." My mind is racing with different possibilities.

"If time is our problem, I could lead some of you to their camp.

We could destroy parts of it from the distance to keep them busy and leave before it comes to an actual fight." There is a beat of silence before a woman I’ve been trying not to look at speaks up. Adira.

"We can’t attack their camp.

There are children there, like you said." They won’t stay children for long.

I hate the way I think but at some point, those children will follow in their parents’ footsteps. "They know the forest better than we do so expecting them to not notice us is wishful thinking," she adds. I refrain from rolling my eyes with an effort, no matter that she wouldn’t know it if I didn’t since she can’t seem to look my way. For now, I’ll remain silent and wait for a better plan to magically fall into our hands.

"We can win a fight against them," a person to my left suggests.

"Are you ready to kill them?" I challenge.

"Because knocking all of them out won’t work." It’s a good thing that Arcane usually only uses fatal blows as an absolute last resort, but it won’t work in a battle like this.

I doubt there is even enough space to keep all the prisoners. In a normal cell, any handler would break out in the blink of an eye.

"Refusing to kill people is what differentiates us from them.

If we go there, how can we claim we are the good guys?" a woman opposite me questions.

I blow out a breath, my patience waning.

"Do you want all these students to die? That’s what will happen if you continue to turn my ideas down without considering them.

There is no ideal solution here.

Besides, where would you keep all the prisoners?" I add a little more calmly, looking into the stricken faces around me.

"You can teach us.

You said they are better fighters, but you are one of them, you can teach us." Oh boy.

I’m aware that this person didn’t mean to offend me, but their words make my blood boil. One of them. I’m about to snap when Keahi redirects the conversation away from me.

"We don’t have time.

Those people have been training all their lives and we have five days.

Malia is right, we need to outsmart them and find a way to use our strengths. We are more in numbers, so how about we split up? One part attacks in the woods as a surprise. If some of them stay to fight while the others attack the academy, they might be less focused." I meet his eyes, and he gives me a small nod as if to reassure me I got this. I nod back, ignoring the twisting knot in my stomach.

"What if they won’t split up? They could destroy our fighters in the woods before moving on to the academy.

They’d know we are there to fight," an anxious-looking man says.

Not that he’s wrong.

"What if we stay out of their reach? We could place archers on the roof of the academy and kill them once we get a clear shot," another woman proposes, looking sickly at the prospect of going through with a fatal blow.

"That’s not a bad idea.

They’d be busy blocking the arrows from above, meanwhile, guards could attack from the ground.

It might throw them off a little. We can hide in the trees and wait until they’ve advanced enough. Then, archers will open fire. The Shadow Handlers will focus on that and the guards in the trees can start taking them out for as long as it takes the Dark Fraction to catch on. The higher-ranking fighters know how to shield, but at least we’ll be harder to attack if we stay out of sight.," I say thoughtfully.

A hesitant silence ensues, just barely broken by a few half-hearted concerns.

In the end, everyone in this room knows we’re running out of time and every second we spend in here contemplating different plans is a second we could use to train.

This is as good as it gets, and Flint finally announces that it’s settled.

"Now, about that incident from before.

How much did Neil know and since when?" I ask finally.

"He wasn’t on the mission at the ball, and today was the first time we talked about the attack with him.

The Dark Fraction shouldn’t know we know."

"Were you on the mission?" I ask the traitor’s partner.

He weakly shakes his head.

That’s a relief.

"Does anyone outside this room know?" I go on.

"Only Kaz, but I haven’t heard from him in a while.

He should have been here," Flint explains, frowning as if only just growing aware of the absence of the coach.

As I mentally prepare myself to break the news, an unexpected lump grows in my throat. Before I can bring myself to speak, Keahi interrupts the silence.

"Kaz is dead." That’s all he says, not betraying a single thought or emotion.

A pained sound escapes Adira’s lips, dragging my gaze from my old nemesis to look at her, but she quickly muffles any other noises behind the palm of her hand.

I was never able to figure out their relationship, but I’m guessing she must’ve noticed his absence by now, either way. She probably already knew something was wrong.

"Not necessarily," I say slowly, dragging my mind out of the gutter.

Keahi’s head snaps toward me, and I force myself to meet his eyes and speak in an even voice.

"He was still alive when I left. I assumed they killed him instantly, but there is a chance they are using or did use him for information first."

"He wouldn’t tell them anything," Adira protests.

"He would have.

If we’re lucky, they didn’t ask about our next missions, though," I say, not bothering to sugarcoat the truth to make this any easier for them.

I saw the quick flicker of hope in Keahi’s eyes when I mentioned Kaz might be alive, and I can’t have that. I need his head in the game, not off somewhere planning another rescue mission.

"What else would they ask about if not that?" someone asks.

Me.

All the eyes are on me, and I’m starting to feel dizzy. My parents could have tortured Kaz for my location or similar things. It’s all I can do to hope he told them. Never mind that, I hope they didn’t recognize his worth and killed him on the spot. If not, maybe he was stronger than I ever was and killed himself before they could do worse to him. I push my thoughts aside and focus.

"It is not important now.

There is no way for us to find out if they know.

We’ll just have to hope for the best. In the meantime, Keahi and I should try to teach you a clean way to take them out quickly." My voice is cold, and I ignore the blanching faces of the people around me.

"I suppose you should," Flint agrees reluctantly.

The meeting ends with that, and a bunch of Arcanians follow Keahi and me to an empty training room.

One inside the building for the guards, not the academy, although it looks mostly the same. Same dark colors and cave-ish vibes, same lack of windows.

The people of the same element get into groups and Keahi and I each work with two elements, figuring things out as we go while acting like we’ve done this a million times.

Once the adults start training with each other, needless to say without the purpose to kill, Keahi finds me.

"Thank you.

With your help, we might stand a chance," he says quietly.

I keep my eyes on the training adults and give him a curt nod. The knot in my stomach twists again at his vicinity, like it has done from the moment we stepped into the adjoined building, and when I see him reach for me in my peripheral vision, I quickly walk away.

Coming up with the next best thing to avoid a serious conversation, I head for one of the training mats.

When he doesn’t follow, I look at him over my shoulder with a grin I don’t feel.

"What are you waiting for?" I challenge him.

He doesn’t seem to understand until I get into my fighting position.

My old fighting position. His face lights up, and he swiftly walks toward me, getting into position a few feet away.