Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Beaufort
I arrive at the empty platform, finding it dense with the same swirling mist that surrounds the academy.
It hangs in the air, spilling over the edge of the platform like a waterfall and blanketing the spindly grass and earth out here.
It’s silent. The mist muffles any sound so that all I can hear is my panted breath and my beating heart.
My palms are damp. I wipe them on the seat of my pants, straighten my spine, try to regain my nerve, rehearsing once more what I have to say to my mother. The seconds tick by, followed by minutes, and I begin to wonder if she’s actually going to come.
Then the sky seems to darken. The air whips violently around my face, forcing me to squint and raise my hands as my hair is blown backward. And then, as quickly as it came, the wind drops. When I lower my hands, my mother is standing before me.
It’s eerily similar to the day I arrived at the academy, when she stood out here on the platform and addressed all the students. For a moment, I wonder if my mind is playing tricks on me, or if this is one of my visions, showing me the past instead of the future.
But this morning there are no students waiting nervously, shuffling on their feet and nibbling their fingernails.
Today she’s not dressed in her regal gown but her silver suit of armor instead, molded to fit her tall, lithe body.
And there are no elite guards flanking the Empress either. It’s just her, and it’s just me.
“Your Royal Highness,” I say, dipping my head a little. Old habits die hard, and, besides, it’s better if I’m polite and respectful.
“Lincoln, we received your message, and we are here as requested,” she says, retaining her formal way of speaking, even though it’s just the two of us, even though no one else is here, even though I am her son.
I stare into her silvery eyes. No crown balances on her head today, her hair twisted tightly away from her face.
She looks older than usual, more lines around her mouth, her eyes, between her brows.
She even looks a little tired, though not remorseful.
Considering she’s tried to kill me, her son, it’s just a little disappointing.
A sword is strapped around her waist and hangs down her thigh. It isn’t the Thunderstrike sword, that weapon was taken from us when we were arrested in the prairie lands. I wonder where it is now.
“What do you wish to discuss?” she asks.
“There’s no need for a battle—” I begin.
My words are interrupted by her angry voice. “Battle? What battle?”
“You’ve come to arrest us, I assume. And as we are not going to surrender to you, it seems inevitable there will be a battle, Mother.”
She flinches slightly at the word, as if she hates being reminded that as well as Empress of this realm, she is also my mother.
“No, Lincoln. There won’t be. If you’re foolish enough not to hand yourselves in, then we will enter the academy by force and arrest you by force.”
“We will resist,” I tell her.
“Have you seen the army we have brought with us?” she says dismissively. “We don’t know what type of resistance you intend to display, but it will crumble swiftly and ineffectively, and then you will be in our custody.”
“And why have you come to arrest me, Mother? Why do you want me dead?”
“Oh, Lincoln,” she says with a sigh, as if I am the most tiring person in the realm. “There are numerous reasons for the warrant of your arrest. You have shown your treacherous intent time and time again. We can only assume you have designs on our throne.”
“What treacherous intent?” I spit.
“You have been deceptive,” she snaps, taking a step forward, anger flashing in her eyes.
“You knew the girl was a lumomancer and did not inform us. You knew she had a dragon, of all things, and kept that secret as well. You devised a ridiculous spectacle at the last trial, humiliating your Empress and your deputy headmistress. Your thrall – this girl – attacked the Crown Prince, your brother, in front of our allies and our friends. You demand to be sent to the demon wastelands. And it is my understanding that you killed another of our allies.”
“What?” I say. “Who?”
“Edwin. The headmaster of this academy. Not the first you have killed, nor the only one. Sterling as well. And then there is the most unforgivable of your crimes: destroying the magical barrier that keeps our realm safe from the demons, allowing them into our realm to feed on our people.
“This is a long list indeed. Your crimes are unprecedented and unforgivable, and we will not tolerate such treachery in our realm. You will not live. Nor will that girl, or any of your bond brothers. Your crimes are too great.”
“Too great for a trial?” I scoff.
“You’re too dangerous for a trial,” she counters, narrowing her eyes.
“This is all bullshit,” I mutter, and her eyes flash.
I’ve never used language like that in her presence before.
I’ve always been the perfect son for her – until now.
“All lies. Bardin told me everything. You’ve been having talented students at the academy murdered – students from the Quarters outside Onyx – in cold blood, just to keep your power. ”
“What utter nonsense,” she says. “Have you lost your mind, Lincoln?”
“No. I see the truth as clearly as I see your face now, Mother. And I know that our people were responsible for the demons. That our actions led to their creation.”
“What actions?”
“The annihilation of the light wielders. And you’ve been ensuring they can’t return.”
If I thought she would confess, I was wrong. She stares at me with hard eyes and says nothing.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way,” I press on, clinging to the smallest hope that we can find some kind of resolution. “Let Briony live. Let the Light return to the realm. And let her destroy the demons once and for all.”
“And that’s all?” she asks. “That’s all you demand?”
“And the system has to change too,” I add. “No more Quarters. No more academy. No more trials. No more deaths.”
“And what will we get from this wonderful bargain?” she asks coolly.
“Your son will live,” I say. She continues to stare at me. “And the world will be fairer. The people safer.”
“You truly believe that?” she says, scoffing at me.
“My na?ve child. You don’t understand how the world works, or how people work.
They need a strong leader to guide and protect them.
They need a common enemy to distract them from their mundane lives and their miserable problems. Take those things away, and you might as well light the spark that burns the whole realm to ashes. ”
“I don’t believe that’s true,” I say. “I think fate chose Briony and me and the others to change things. Fate wants something different.”
“And what if fate wants chaos?” she asks.
I shake my head. Fate couldn’t bring me something as beautiful, brave, and damn right imperfect as Briony Storm with the intention of leading us to a conclusion so cruel.
Fate couldn’t show me the world could be different, that I could be loved, that I could love in return with an intensity that burns through me – even now, out here on this cold platform – if her intentions were evil.
I have to believe fate’s intentions are good. Pure. Better. That’s what we’re fighting for.
“I don’t want to fight you, Mother. I want this all to end now.”
“But it can’t be that way,” she says. “We took this throne from our father with the promise to maintain the realm, to keep our power and our stronghold. We will not relinquish that, Lincoln. We will not let the Light shine and destroy everything we have worked so hard to build.”
“Then this may be the last time we meet.”
Should I feel sad about that? Should my heart ache? Because all I feel is numb. A numbness that creeps into my fingertips and crawls up my arms toward my heart. It’s hard to care for a woman who has never cared for me, though she should have.
“She’s my fated mate,” I tell her. “I could never give her up. I never will.”
“You’ve always been sentimental, just like your father,” she says. “Unfortunately, it’s a weakness. A weakness that will lead to your demise. We are sorry for it, but it is inevitable.”
And with those last cold words still hanging in the mist, she waves her hand and disappears.
I stare at the empty space she’s just vacated, the mist seeping in to reclaim it.
I tip my head back and look up at the gray sky, inhaling the cold air, exhaling it slowly through my teeth.
I think of that image I saw in my mind – that glimmer of what I hope is the future – and I cling to it now as I displace back to the academy.
Back to my fated mate, my bond brothers, my allies, all ready for the battle that will now come.