Page 63 of Kingdom of Tomorrow (Book of Arden #1)

A thousand regrets, sorrows, and joys glimmered in his eyes. He cupped my cheeks as a tear streamed down one of his. “I wish there’d been another way.”

I knew he had no plans to kill me, just as I knew what he needed me to do. “I hate that it came to this,” I rasped to him. He might hate me for what I did next, but that was okay. He would live without regret.

“Me too. But it’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.” Slowly he bent his head and kissed me, pressing his lips to mine and tangling his fingers in my hair.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and kissed him back, telling him everything I hadn’t yet said as I stealthily worked at the clasp of his necklace. The last resort. When we parted, I tightened my fist around the little star. The sharp edges sliced into my palm, blood welling.

Resolve glazed his eyes as they searched mine. “Aim true,” he commanded, and I nodded.

“Kill her or move,” Tagin demanded.

Cyrus extracted himself from my hold, faced his father, and braced, as if preparing to launch forward. “I choose Soal. Goodbye, Dad.”

I didn’t let myself think. I acted immediately, throwing the star as I’d learned in class.

Time stood still as the metal whooshed through the air. The tiny blades expanded and sliced into Tagin’s eye. His brain. He bellowed as crimson poured down his face and fell.

Cyrus rushed forward, kicking the weapon from his father’s grip and crouching at the wheezing man’s side. “There’s a piece of the Rock inside the star. You can be saved, but you must not fight its effects. It won’t work if you do. Please. Don’t fight it.”

I flinched at his pain and desperation, but I wasn’t sorry I’d acted.

Tagin Dolion thrashed. White foam oozed from the corners of his mouth. He clutched at Cyrus, panic glittering in his eyes, and gasped his last breath.

Head bent, Cyrus sagged into the sand, and my heart shattered for him. I forced myself into action, hoping against hope someone had survived. But no, everyone was dead, not a single victim still breathing.

Those shattered pieces of my heart broke into smaller pieces. I examined the field as a whole. So many lives lost. And for what? Someone’s quest for power. Mom, thankfully, had slept through it all.

I focused on Cyrus, who hadn’t budged. Hmm.

Dark mist was rising from his father’s body, a body seeming to form.

Then it opened eyes of the brightest red.

Heart in my throat, I rushed over and yanked Cyrus from the entity.

It stared at us with the same hatred I’d seen in Tagin before it whisked off, vanishing.

“What was that?” I gasped out.

“One of Astan’s minions. Or as you know it, the Madness.”

Okay, so, I had a lot more to learn about the world around me.

Cyrus stood and tugged me close, burying his face in the hollow of my neck. I clung to him. “Thank you for doing what I couldn’t.”

“I wish . . .”

“I know.”

We stood in the sunlight, reality settling in. The immediate threat had been eliminated, but others remained. Cured had a way to control the worst of the maddened now, and the amount of damage they could do was incalculable.

John was still locked up or worse, on a table or buried in a mine being used as a pritis factory.

Mykal, Roman, and others I admired were currently puppets on strings, doing whatever Cured commanded. They aided our enemy, they just didn’t know it.

“What will happen now?” I asked.

“There are seven high princes. We’ll be tested and a new king chosen among us. What remains of my team will probably be split in half and doled out to the other instructors.”

A bright red sports car screeched to a halt, and we braced for another fight. But Ember and Domino flew out. They were smeared with blood and littered with wounds, but still they’d come to help us.

Being able to trust and count on other people was new and wonderful and terrifying.

Cyrus described what happened and kissed my temple. “No one knows what we are. The witnesses are dead.”

“All the witnesses here, yes. But I powdered a guard to sleep at the Lux,” I admitted. “Not to mention the guards Cyrus sedated at my mom’s apartment and the people in the commons.”

“Most have already forgotten what they saw. There are ways.” Ember pinched the bridge of her nose. “Enemy troops aren’t far behind us, so we can’t stay. Tell them your father broke, because he did. Go on with life as usual and await your next assignment.”

“What about my mother?” I chewed on my bottom lip. She couldn’t enter the Rock without embracing Soal, but she couldn’t return to her home and job either.

“We’ll put her in a shelter with others we protect,” Ember vowed. “When she’s ready, we’ll bring her inside the library.”

“Thank you.” I couldn’t ask for anything more.

“Arden?”

Mom! She’d awoken. She lumbered from the car and stumbled toward us. Confusion and fear pulled her skin taut.

I rushed over to prevent her from seeing the worst of the carnage, then ushered her near Ember’s vehicle. “I need you to go with my friends, okay? They’ll take good care of you. You can trust them.”

“Baby, baby.” She faced me and gripped my shoulders. “Are you sick?”

“I’m fine,” I assured her, giving her hand a reassuring pat. “For my sake, forget everything Cured has ever told you about the Madness. It’s all lies. Join Soal—like me.”

“There’s no time for this,” Ember called, striding over to herd my mother to the vehicle.

Mom resisted for only a moment, floundering, her mouth opening and closing. In the end, she allowed the pair of Soalians to drive her away. My chest clenched. In the distance, I spotted military trucks barreling our way.

Cyrus pulled me into his arms once again.

“Does a part of you resent me?” I asked. It was a risk I’d been willing to take.

“You’re alive and well, kitten. I’m grateful.” He pressed his brow to mine. “Have you discovered what’s growing in your pot yet?”

“No!” I gripped the lapels of his jacket. “Tell me.”

He smiled a mysterious smile. “Give it time.”

“You fiend.” But I returned the smile and rested my head on his shoulder. We stood together as the “rescue” squad arrived. We were examined and questioned, then loaded into a van and driven back to Cyrus’s apartment.

I sat as close to him as possible and signed into his hand, Together.

Together, he signed back.

We would do everything in our power to destroy Cured at the root, and salt the earth. There was no going back for me now. I’d chosen my path, and I would see this through to the end.

No matter what.