Chapter 27
27
The palace had been evacuated. All the lights had been doused, throwing the halls into shadow. Distantly, I heard the sound of armor and shields, barked orders, and calls for action.
The chains were heavy in my arms, but I carried them with my head held high.
Walking barefoot down the stairs, I witnessed the chaos unfolding around me. Guards and soldiers rushed around, hauling wooden barricades and sacks of sand. When people saw me coming, their gazes locked on to me, dread and trepidation in the whites of their eyes. I heard the beats of their hearts, rapid as rabbits’. I could smell the fear. The air tasted of their sweat. The halls quieted when my people saw me, like a hush spread across the palace, as if everyone was holding their breath.
“Your Majesty, it’s not safe for you here!” one guard shouted. She was tall and blocked my path easily with her arms stretched wide, but I held out my hand.
“I am not hiding in a tower.”
That seemed to be enough for the guard, who stepped aside, bowing slightly. “Clear the way for the queen!” she called.
The guards did as she said, stepping to the sides of the hall and bowing when I walked past them. All eyes were on me. The palace had turned into a fortress, barricaded and barred, supplies stacked meticulously for an invasion.
We would be at war any minute.
The line of people delivering coconuts to the palace had vanished, most of them leaving their carts or wagons behind in the evacuation. I followed the trail into the throne room, where I was met with the sight of mountains of halved coconuts, stacked all around the room.
Alone, Lucas stood, a hatchet in hand, sweat dripping from his brow. He’d left his jacket on the floor, working away in only his undershirt and slacks. He looked exhausted, and when he noticed me standing there, he straightened up.
“MJ,” he said, panting. “I—” He looked around at all the coconuts, none of them having any trace of a pearl. “I tried, and I…” He fell silent, but I knew he was going to say he failed.
Even more unbroken coconuts surrounded him. It really had been a grand effort. It warmed my heart that he’d tried. His actions alone spoke more than any words.
A calm resolve settled over me. It was a long shot finding a mythical coconut pearl, but somewhere deep inside me, I knew that it was futile. Yara hadn’t found a cure, and neither would I. I had gotten all of us into this mess, and it was time I faced it.
I held out my hand for Lucas, and he dropped the hatchet and took it, lifting my hand and pressing his lips to my knuckles. Tears pricked at my eyes, but I smiled at him.
By now, most of the remaining guards had seen what was going on, and some stopped to watch.
We had an audience.
Amador nudged me in the back. “You should say something.”
Nix nodded encouragingly.
Lucas squeezed my hand and escorted me out of the throne room.
Jade Mountain must have set fires on their march toward us, because the air was thick with smoke. It softened all noise and color in the garden, turning it into a muted gray. A far cry from the life it once had.
As I walked across the lawn, more soldiers gathered around. No one spoke. It was like they were waiting for me to break the silence.
I needed to get up higher. I went to a wall tower and climbed, emerging on a parapet that surrounded the palace. Below me was a sea of soldiers, their faces turned up to me under gleaming helmets, waiting.
“I…” I started, trying to find the right words. If I had known I would be making a speech, I would have been better prepared. “I am an aswang.”
A ripple of tension spread through the air.
I continued. “Prince Qian of Jade Mountain is right. Your queen is a monster, and I don’t have much time left. In a few hours, I won’t be your queen anymore. But I will not use that as an excuse to hide. I stand with you now. It is my duty to protect my people until my last breath.”
“We stand with you, Queen Mahalina!” A shout burst up from somewhere near the back, and a flurry of others followed, cheering me on.
I glanced at Lucas, who nodded once, encouraging me to continue.
“An army has come to our door,” I said. “If we do not open it, they will try to break it. They claim they want to liberate you. They claim that you are captives. They claim that you are beholden to a demon.”
Roars of protest swept through the lawn, and my heartbeat quickened in my chest.
“They will not stop once I am dead. And I will not surrender. This is my home. This is our home. I will stay with all of you. Even if they burn Biringan to the ground, I will not abandon you.”
A young soldier at the front called out, “We will fight for our aswang queen!”
Aswang queen had a certain ring to it, and other soldiers repeated it until it became a full-on chant.
Voices rose up, and soldiers thrust their fists into the air, crying it over and over again.
No sooner had the chanting started than a voice cried out from the watchtower above. “Incoming!”
There was a tremendous boom, and then the chanting stopped, as it felt like the whole world shook.
A fireball streaked like a comet and hit the side of the palace, sending debris flying. Lucas yanked me back just before a piece of rock fell exactly where I had been standing. He wrapped me in his arms and turned his face to the darkening sky. “They’re bombing us,” Lucas gasped.
Another series of booms shook the palace, each one so loud, I was amazed the palace was still standing. Overhead, a gigantic shadow flew by, and I distinctly saw it had a rider.
Lucas immediately leapt into action. “Captain Aquino,” he screamed over the parapet, to the same guard who had tried to stop me in the hall. Her own fire blazed in her eyes. “You know what to do.”
Captain Aquino nodded once, then bowed to me and started shouting orders.
Everyone burst into action. Jade Mountain was here.
Lucas took my hand again and pulled me back as encanto soldiers summoned their magic, light gathering in their palms.
“I’m not leaving them!” I said, pulling against Lucas’s grip.
“I know, but we can’t stay out of cover. We have to get to a stronghold. You’re no good to anyone if you’re out in the open.”
Lucas rushed down the battlements, but there was a whoosh above us. A winged horse covered in glistening green scales streaked overhead, quick as lightning.
“Longma!” Nix called, pointing to it.
The longma’s dragon wings tucked up into its body, and it dove toward us. A masked rider on its back stood on the stirrups, raised a fireball swirling in his palm, and threw it down.
The fire exploded in front of us, drenching the battlement in a wall of fire. Lucas skidded to a halt, and I crashed into him. He held out his arm to shield me. The fire burned so hot and large, the small hairs on my face felt as if they had been singed off.
The wind buffeted around us when the longma and its rider zipped across the sky. An entire cavalry of them circled above, raining down fire while my soldiers below summoned barriers, shielding most of the attacks.
“This way!” Lucas called, turning us around and running back the way we came.
Amador, now in the lead, tripped and fell on her long skirt, and Nix rushed to help her. Amador swore as another bomb exploded close to her, and when she was on her feet, she reached down and tore off the lower part of her dress, leaving it behind. We all took off toward the outer bailey.
A longma landed on the bailey’s roof, and its soldier aimed a fireball right at us. Lucas yanked me inside, and the fire whooshed against the stone parapet. Lucas slammed the door behind us, and we were plunged into darkness. Occasionally, bright flashes broke through the arrow slits in the bailey, but everything was pitch-black. At least, it was to them.
“We can’t stay here,” Lucas said as he blindly felt around for the wall.
“We’re trapped!” Amador cried.
Nix froze at the top of the stairs, her hand on the wall. “It’s too dark!”
“I can see,” I said. I wasn’t entirely human anymore.
“What?”
“I’ll get us down.” I grabbed her hand. “Everyone, hold on.”
Lucas and Amador grabbed on to me just before I leapt off the edge, carrying everyone to the ground floor. Amador let out a shriek as we dropped, and the air rushed around us. We landed, a little harder than I’d intended, but at least we were on the ground and away from the worst of the bombings.
Lucas burst out the door and into the gardens. Fires lit up the sky like it was midday, and smoke filled the air, choking the life out of me.
Lucas led the way, pushing through soldiers rushing toward us, calling orders, and moving troops around for the best defensive positions.
I turned around just in time to see a longma and its rider soaring overhead, but a bolt of fire from the ground shot up and hit the rider in the side. He toppled off the saddle and plummeted to the ground, and the longma flapped its wings, fleeing into the sky.
“Get back to the throne room!” Lucas called, grabbing my hand. “Keep moving!”
“They’ve breached the gate!” a voice cried out from the wall. Fighting broke out, a clash of metal and shouting. Jade Mountain had broken through. I couldn’t tell which side was which, who was fighting for whom. It was chaos.
Lucas sped to the front door of the palace, but it was already barricaded. There was no getting back inside.
Another bomb exploded overhead, and we ducked instinctively. My ears rang, and the air itself felt like it was splitting in two.
“We’re stuck here!” Amador shouted.
“I know a way!” Nix said, and dashed along the wall.
She rounded the corner and pressed her hands against the stones like she was playing Whac-A-Mole.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Just as I spoke, Nix’s hand pressed down on one of the stones, and it sank into the wall, melting the stone away to reveal a hidden door. “Secret passages! I found them all over, remember? Came in handy sneaking around, kissing Amador.”
“Later, darling,” Amador said, breathless.
The moment we stepped through and Nix closed the secret passage again, it was as if the door had never existed. It was perfectly flush with the wall, hidden unless you knew what to look for. I could still hear sounds of the battle—bombs, shouting, and fighting—but the farther we got into the palace, the quieter it got. We reached the end of the tunnel only to emerge behind a tapestry in the grand hall.
Soldiers rushed by, barricading the door. The palace trembled with the sounds of more explosions. Jade Mountain was coming for me, and they would destroy Biringan City to do it.
“They’re going to burn this whole place to the ground,” I said, barely managing to hear my own words because my ears were still ringing so loudly. Growing louder.
Pain shot through my stomach, hot and all-consuming, and I cried out.
“MJ?” Lucas was at my side in a moment, his hands warm and strong on my arms. “What’s wrong?”
The pain worked its way through me, boiling my insides. I was shaking; it hurt so much.
“It’s…happening,” I said. I shrank away from him, turning my head so he couldn’t see. But he held on to me and refused to let go.
When Lucas met my eyes, his softened. “MJ…”
The pain subsided, easing away like the tide, and in its place came hunger. It filled in the pit that hollowed out my stomach, making the saliva gather on the back of my tongue. You will hurt him, that horrible, craggy voice said, echoing in my mind. You will hurt him…
“We have to get her somewhere safe,” Nix said.
“Where else can we go? Jade Mountain is almost inside,” Amador said. “How long will the barricades last?”
“Not long,” answered Lucas.
Their voices were quiet compared to the ringing in my skull, resonating like a bell. Another voice broke through. You will hurt them all…You want to… The manananggal laughed, and that laugh was mine. I shook my head, reeling.
“You all need to get away from me,” I told them.
Lucas, Nix, and Amador turned to me, their expressions equally shocked and appalled.
“We’re not leaving you!” Nix said.
There came another thunderous boom, and more fire crashed down on the palace.
I insisted, “Even with the iron, I could still hurt you. I don’t have much time left. The full moon is rising.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Lucas said. His eyes widened, and he threw himself on top of me just before the air exploded.
There came a crash behind us as the front-gate barricades blasted open. Soldiers flew back like rag dolls, and Jade Mountain’s soldiers emerged through the smoke.
“Move!” Lucas screamed.
My hunger was excruciating, but I let Lucas drag me down the hall.
“There she is! Monster!” The shouts of the Jade Mountain soldiers followed me.
The ringing in my ears faded, replaced by my rushing pulse. I hadn’t realized I’d stopped running until Lucas was tugging on my arms, yelling my name for me to keep going. But his voice sounded so distant. I saw his eyes, his fear, my name on his lips, but it was like I was watching something through a television screen. Like I was so far inside myself, I was a spectator in my own body.
I broke his hold on me and turned.
The soldiers raised their arms, their elemental magic burning in their fists, ready to strike. They must have seen the look in my eyes, because some of them paled with fear.
Let them fear me.
The iron cuffs on my wrists sizzled and steamed against my skin, but I didn’t care. I walked toward the army.
“MJ!” Lucas screamed, but I ignored him.
Rage burned through me. This was me, the true me, on full display. A horrible, terrible, unlovable creature.
It was over before it started. I rushed them, tearing my claws into flesh, biting necks. No fire could hurt me. No ice. Nothing at all could stop me. I didn’t feel a thing except for the way their skin broke so easily against my fangs and how delicious their blood tasted. Their screams were music to me. When the last scream faded, everything came back to me. I had control of my body again. But for how much longer, I didn’t know.
Blood dripped from my claws, down my throat, off my chains. Smoke curled up my arms from where the iron touched my skin, but it didn’t bother me. Everything I saw was red.
My friends stared at me, seeing me for what I truly was. And I hated it.
Pain ripped through my stomach, like my own claws had dug themselves into it and were threatening to rip me in two. Pretty soon, I really would.
“Lucas…” I said. But the pain was so intense, I couldn’t move. I dropped to my knees, and Lucas rushed to me in an instant.
“Come on!” He picked me up, lifting me under my back and under my knees, carrying me down the hall as he ran toward the throne room. I curled against him, my nose full of the smell of blood, and held on, though I wished he would leave me.
Everything hurt, not just my body. The pain was deeper than that. I was losing myself in it.
More shouting erupted behind us. More soldiers had come in. Nix and Amador hurried behind Lucas, terror stiffening their faces to look like masks.
Amador screamed and lurched forward, clutching her shoulder, when a fireball hit her. Her dress burned, but she didn’t stop running. Nix was the first to the throne room, throwing the door open for us and slamming it shut once we were inside.
The mountains of coconuts towered around us. Lucas set me down on the floor in front of my throne. His shirt was covered in blood, none of it his. It was all from what I’d done.
The sounds of the battle were duller, but it would only be a matter of time before Jade Mountain soldiers broke through.
“MJ,” Lucas gasped. He brushed my hair back from my face, but I didn’t want him to see. My fangs scraped against my lips. My mouth was peeling wider, splitting at the corners. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
“Go,” I said, my voice a horrible rasp.
“I’m not leaving you.”
He held my hand in his, ignoring my claws.
Amador was on the floor, too, curled into herself, holding her burned shoulder. “Nix,” Amador gasped. “I…I’m hurt.”
Nix rushed to her side and worked her magic. “Don’t move,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’ll make it better.”
A battering ram shook the throne room door, making it tremble with each tremendous boom.
“We’re trapped,” Amador said. “There’s no way out.”
All of us knew she was right. The throne room was the most secure area in the palace. There was only one way in and out.
Amador looked at Nix for a long moment, her eyes round and shocked. Nix’s hands hovered over her shoulder, healing the burn with intense focus, but the tears in her eyes betrayed her.
“I really wish I could have told you how much I love you,” Amador said.
Nix’s smile was small. “You just did,” she said. And without any hesitation, she kissed Amador fully on the lips. The moment was short-lived and bittersweet. When Nix pulled back, she wiped Amador’s tears away. It was almost like a kiss goodbye.
Despair settled over us like a dark cloud.
The floor shook with each boom of the battering ram.
But Amador yelled in frustration and stood up, hands clenched at her sides. The skin on her shoulder was shiny and red.
“It’s not fair! I only start to figure out who I am, and then I die?” She let out a wild laugh of frustration. “I can’t believe this! I won’t! I want to kiss Nix, and I want to love who I choose, and I want my life to be mine!” She stamped her foot and howled to the ceiling.
When she did, electricity arced between her fingers.
Her power—it had come back. Nix must have felt the energy, too, because she leaned back, surprised. Amador stared at her own hands, and her blue eyes lit up with the power crackling in her palms.
Amador raised her arms. Her dress was torn, her hair was wild, and her face was set with determination. Blue electricity whizzed around her body, making her hair stand on end. She looked feral, and dangerous, and beautiful. She reminded me of lightning itself.
A wide, wild smile appeared on her lips, and I realized it was because she finally felt free.
“I’ll slow them down,” she said. The air in the throne room felt full and smelled like petrichor. “Take cover!”
Dark clouds swirled on the ceiling. Thunder rolled and wind kicked up as Amador summoned a storm. Rain fell, drenching us in a matter of seconds.
“We have to get back!” Lucas shouted. He pulled me away, dragging me toward my throne and shielding me with his body.
The throne room doors burst open.
Lightning crackled and shot out of Amador’s outstretched arms. The hair on my body stood on end a split second before a deafening crack and a blinding white light streaked through the air.
Jade Mountain soldiers rushed in.
Nix moved for cover, but she yelped when large hands wrapped around her and snatched her off her feet.
General Heng. He was here.
He was taking her.
“No!” she screamed, her voice lost to the wind. Heng clamped her mouth shut with gloved hands. She thrashed and fought, her eyes wild, as more of Qian’s men held her wrists so she couldn’t summon her power.
I couldn’t get to her. My legs weren’t working.
Through the storm, emerging from around a mountain of coconuts, coming for me, was Qian. He was dressed for battle: dragon scale armor, red cloak, knife in hand. He seemed to barely acknowledge the storm raging around us. His eyes were locked on mine.
“Leave the monster to me,” he said.