Rune grabbed burning crawlers by the backs of their necks and shuddered with joy when the cold fire licked at her hands, her wrists, her arms.
The guards who remained loyal to the witch ran, and Rune launched burning crawlers at them like lethal missiles, taking them down before they could escape the dungeons.
“Follow me,” she ordered the prisoners, and no one attempted to disobey her. They huddled together and crept through the rooms after her, their dread and fear weighing down her soul.
She was burning. Her body was engulfed in a cold blue flame, but she ignored it. She didn’t find it peculiar. It was right, and she wore it like she’d wear a pair of favorite old blue jeans.
She automatically tried to shoot out her claws, and hesitated briefly when her fingers remained only…fingers.
Even some of the friendly guards ran from her, shooting wide-eyed looks back over their shoulders as they went. She couldn’t have caught them and didn’t try.
As she ran, she screamed Z’s name and glanced into every cell she passed. He didn’t answer.
“Princess,” Ellen shouted. “You must hurry.”
Rune grabbed her. “I can’t leave without my friend. Damascus had him in the cages. I need to go there first.”
“Don’t force us to risk our lives for nothing.”
“Z isn’t nothing. The cages. Take me there or I’ll find them on my own.”
“Fuck.” Ellen and the others fought off enemy guards who’d decided to take them on, and then she motioned to Rune. “This way.”
Rune grabbed a long blade from a fallen guard, noticing the other prisoners doing the same when they could.
The prisoners were armed. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
She had to find Z. Her stomach rolled with urgency. And Fear.
The castle burned, and burned fast, as though the horror was tinder and the fear was gasoline.
The guards surrounding her picked up their pace when the enemy guards thinned out and the crawlers burned, leading her toward the cages.
“This is a worthless and useless detour,” Ellen said. “Fucking worthless.”
“I just want Z,” Rune whispered.
But Z wasn’t in the cages.
Rune clenched her fists. “Where are you?” Then louder, screaming, furious, “Where are you?”
“The witch has four castles,” Ellen said. “Maybe he’s in one of them. Or maybe he’s dead—I’m going with that.”
“No,” Rune disagreed, tempted to slice the guard’s head from her shoulders. “She wouldn’t kill someone so valuable. She’ll keep him to use against me. To trade. He’s alive, and I have to fucking find him.”
“You won’t find him here,” Ellen said. “Let us take you out of here.”
“Rune,” Cree whispered. “Please.”
So she relented.
The only thing left to do was exit the burning castle, kill as many enemies as she could, and find Damascus.
But when they finally exited through the huge doors to the outside…
Legislators were waiting.
“No,” Cree murmured.
“This is the fucking end,” Abby said, her voice hard, but resigned.
“Not for us,” Rune said. “But it’s the beginning of the end for the witch.”
Even without her monster, she hadn’t felt more like herself for…she couldn’t remember how long.
She spread her arms and strode toward the line of waiting legislators. “Let’s play, bitches!”
The prisoners moaned, and a couple of the guards broke free from the group and ran.
“At least they have no magic and no power,” Rune said. “Everyone with a blade, fight. If you can’t fight, run. The bastards will be too busy to chase you.”
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Ellen said, and turned to her collaborators. “Don’t be afraid. You’re part of history. You’re the reason our princess will free our people and our world. You were meant for this. Now let’s go kill the enemy.” She looked at Rune. “You. Run. Just run.”
The land outside the lower dim exit was stark and empty—a huge area of earth that had been, sometime in the long distant past, burned until it was a blackened ashy pit.
“She’s right,” Nikolai said. “We will fight the legislators. You must escape. You must.”
Yes, she must.
She realized her blue flame was gone.
She had no idea how to get it back or even if she could.
“Run,” Ellen roared, and she and the others ran to meet the enemy.
Rune did not want to run. She wanted to do what she’d always done and stand and fight. But she was without her monster, her borrowed flame, and her crew.
So she did what she had to do, and she ran.
She ran for Z, and she ran for destiny.
She ran to find Damascus before she had a chance to figure out how to stop