. . . I press my hands against Dione as if to shove her and bolts of white lightning blast through her. Dione’s eyes widen and her grip loosens and she falls at my feet, smoke rising around the hole in her stomach. I expect flesh to regrow and piece her back together, but she’s still.
It was self-defense. I killed her in self-defense like the Spell Walkers have. I’m more in shock over how quickly it happened than I am having had the power to protect myself in the first place. Dione has done a lot of harm, so I’m not going to twist myself up over this, especially when I can slay the monster who underestimated me.
I step over Dione’s body, and Luna backs into a corner.
She thought I was harmless. The acolyte I saw before with the crate returns, and I hurl a bolt directly through his heart. He crumples with his mouth open.
I’m a first-timer calling my power with more ease than Emil ever has; this is what I’ve been saying all along. He may have been reborn, but my blood comes from a long line of power that’s beginning again with me. Luna tries escaping, and I strike her down with bolts of lightning.
“I was wrong,” Luna whispers while pressing down on her bloody arm.
“About what?”
“You’re extraordinary.”
I nod. “Unfortunately, Luna, life has got to be lost to preserve it.”
I stand over her and cage her in lightning until she’s dead.
I’ve done what no one else could do. I killed the one Blood Caster who Eva feared confronting on the battlefield, and I executed the queenpin before she could become unstoppable. I can’t wait to bust out of here and get back to Nova to celebrate with my family and Prudencia. I’ll ask the crew what we can do about getting me some proper Spell Walker gear and then we’ll take down the next threat.
The room spins and everything reverses in rapid flashes—what little color there was returns to Luna’s face as lightning retreats back inside my hands, she’s running backward, the acolyte’s corpse rises and exits, I’m pressed against the wall again and Dione’s hand is back around my throat.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” I say in choked breaths.
“Never,” Luna says. “Especially not at the hands of some fool who cannot tell an illusion apart from reality.”
“Illusion?”
Luna eyes one of the vials. “These are potions of mine that failed to convert humans into celestials and were revealed to have hallucinatory side effects. I couldn’t keep risking the health of my acolytes, so we’ve been selling them on the streets and filming the drinkers in the event one proves to exhibit actual powers so we can study the subjects. We’ve been marketing it as Brew—Ness’s idea, but surely he told you this given that he’s on your side, correct?”
I’m powerless and speechless. Of course I was drinking Brew like those clowns in the park. It was so lifelike, but the reality of Ness being a traitor is just as crushing. My brother thinks Ness is trying to turn over some new leaf and make an honest guy out of himself.
Dione drags me through the hall with ease, even though I’m resisting and dragging my feet. She throws me into a room where I skid across the concrete, scratching my arms and face, and rolling into Stanton’s feet. June continues reading through a dusty book, not glancing up at me once. Luna is the last one in and locks the door behind her, as if I stand any chance at getting that close to escape with three Blood Casters here.
“Your fantasy of what makes someone a hero is your downfall,” Luna says. “Not a long fall, of course, since you’ve never known great heights. To save and rebuild the world demands a soul that will do what is necessary. You don’t possess the nature or the heart that I do. But that’s okay. Everyone has their role.”
Stanton lifts me by the back of the neck and forces me into a chair against the wall.
My camera that I dropped at the cemetery for the wand is here and facing me.
“You crave the spotlight so badly,” Luna says. “Go ahead and give us a smile.”
Thirty
The Brightest Fire
EMIL
I’ll never forgive myself for putting the world before my family. Turns out Eva can’t heal hearts, but Wesley was quick to grab Ma’s nitroglycerin, and we’ve got her stabilized down the hall while the rest of us are working away in the boardroom.