Chapter 30
Callum
I was hoping this wouldn’t come to a fight for obvious reasons, and my list did not include the fact that Lady M seems fully equipped to kick my ass as thoroughly as Dom usually does.
As Dom used to. The reminder of her absence, not just in this battle but for the rest of my life, doesn’t help me concentrate on the fight before me.
I spin out of the way of one of Lady M’s strikes, only to be hit from behind and knocked to my knees. I look up just in time to see Cate knocking a woman unconscious.
“Behind you!” I call out, watching her turn just in time to block a strike.
All around me, Gifted are fighting Gifted. Powers burst across the room. Lightning bursts fling from one woman’s fingers; another lifts Meri off her feet with just a wave of her hand.
This is exactly what we have been afraid of for more than two hundred years. The Gifted banding together and creating an unstoppable army.
No, my mind argues. That isn’t what’s happening here. Because there are Gifted fighting on both sides. Cate and her sisters want to do this the right way, work with the Uprising to regain their rights. It’s this Lady M who has created this toxic group.
I sense her at my back, springing to my knees to deliver a blow to Lady M’s stomach that should knock the wind out of her.
Lady M grunts but doesn’t fall, a wicked smile tugging on her lips. “You are not going to win this, Your Highness.”
I watch through the corner of my eye, keeping tabs on the women around me. Cate and the others are holding their own, all of them still standing, still fighting. The unconscious bodies of several other Gifted litter the ground, but Lady M doesn’t seem to care much about her fallen soldiers.
“I will die before I let you win, Lady M.” I move to strike her, feinting, spinning to her other side as I rip a dagger from the sheath at my waist. I bring it down, slashing.
She moves just in time, the knife grazing her arm, leaving a bloody gash in its wake. “Are you going to kill me, Your Highness? How will your Bonded feel if you are responsible for killing her mother?”
I dodge her next advance, but just barely. “I think she will thank me for it.”
Lady M whistles, the sound sharp and harsh. Two Gifted move immediately to her side, their eyes locked on me.
I raise my knife, not sure where the attack is going to come from, or if a knife is even going to do me any good.
A pain unlike anything I have ever experienced before rips through me, knocking me to my knees. A strangled cry escapes my throat, my eyes watering as I fight to stand.
“Callum!” Cate is at my side in an instant, her arms looping through mine as she tries to help me stand.
“Leave me,” I choke out. “They will turn their Gifts on you, Cate. Leave me, get out of here.”
She helps me stand, then spins on her heel and rushes at the Gifted abusing me with her power. The move is graceless but effective; Cate and the woman fall to the floor and the pain leaves as quickly as it came.
As soon as I’ve regained my breath, I lose it again, as Lady M’s other minion chokes the air from my lungs without laying a single hand on me.
I know in this moment this is the woman responsible for killing my sister, that it was her Gift that stole Dom’s last breath from her lungs. Rage coats my vision and all logical thought flees my brain.
It’s enough to stir me to fight back. I close the distance between us in two large steps, my hand gripping her throat, tightening enough that her eyes widen and bulge. “How do you like it?” I growl at her.
She claws at my hand, useless without her own powers.
Air fully fills my chest, and I squeeze harder.
The woman’s lips are starting to turn purple when a hand lands on my shoulder.
“Let her go, Cal.” Cate’s voice is the only sound that could penetrate my haze of anger. “This isn’t you. Let her go.”
I come back to myself, and the feeling of the woman’s flesh under my hand suddenly feels wrong.
I drop my hand from her neck, and she collapses on the floor. She doesn’t get up, but her chest still moves up and down.
Cate’s hand finds my cheek. “You’re all right.”
It’s not a question, but I nod anyway.
Meri cries out and Cate’s face blanches as she turns to take in the rest of the room. She runs to her friend’s side, heedless of the combat still raging. Lady M has retreated to the far corner, as if she can avoid the bloodshed she caused.
I take Meri’s place, fighting off yet another unknown Gifted, trying to pull the fighting away from where Cate crouches over Meri, whose hand is pressed to her thigh and covered in blood.
“Rosa!” Cate calls. I shouldn’t be paying attention to her, should be focusing my full attention on the woman whose strikes keep on coming, connecting with my ribs and my knee and the side of my head. But I keep one eye on Cate at all times, unable to fully break away from her.
Rosa hoists Meri to her feet and pulls her from the room, escaping the fighting, but leaving us even more outnumbered.
Cate looks down at her hands, the blood covering them stark against her pale skin, and it takes everything in me not to rush to her side.
The fight rages on. Cate, Tes, Helen, and I are the only ones left. Several of Lady M’s Gifted have been knocked out, maybe even killed, but there are enough of them to keep me occupied, my eyes constantly flitting between my current opponent and Cate.
Lady M takes advantage of my distraction, moving back to the center of the fighting when she sees that her side has the upper hand.
A swift blow to the back of Tes’s head and she collapses.
Lady M continues, shoving Helen hard into the arms of one of her soldiers, who quickly knocks her to the ground with a single punch to the face.
She’s upon me before I have the chance to ready myself for her attack, the other Gifted at my back requiring my full attention.
“I think that’s enough for today.”
Her dagger swipes across my stomach and a second later, I’m folded in half and falling to the floor.
“Callum!” Cate cries, her anguish echoing around the room.
She rushes for me, but Lady M steps in her path. Gritting my teeth, I force myself to my feet. The pain is blinding and unbearable, but not nearly as unbearable as watching Cate single-handedly grapple with Lady M.
Lady M, who has handed me my ass despite my training. Cate doesn’t have a chance against her, and I can’t watch her fall, not after everything.
Cate launches herself at Lady M, with strength and determination but not a lot of skill. It doesn’t take long for Lady M to knock the dagger from Cate’s hand, sending it skittering along the cold stone floor.
I will my feet to move, shuffling closer to the fight.
Lady M strikes Cate across the face and I growl.
Cate gets one good swipe in, knocking Lady M back a few steps, her dagger clattering to the floor.
But Cate also dropped her weapon. Her eyes search the floor for it but are quickly pulled back to Lady M as she recovers and moves to slash at Cate with her second knife.
“Cate!” I find the right moment to call for her, when the distraction won’t cost her her life.
Her eyes immediately lock on mine, and I toss her a dagger, the red jewel embedded in the hilt smeared with a streak of blood the same color.
I hope she can use it to fend off Lady M until I can make my way across the room.
My stomach rips open further with every step I take, and the few feet separating us feel like miles.
I know deep within my bones that I won’t make it to her on time, that Lady M is too strong and too quick for Cate to make it out of this unscathed.
The thought only pushes me forward, my stomach ripping in agony with every move.
Cate catches the dagger, using it to block the next strike aimed at her.
The next part seems to happen in slow motion.
Lady M punches Cate in the stomach, causing Cate to stagger back, gasping for breath. Her back hits the wall, the only thing keeping her upright.
I lunge toward them, but I stumble, falling to my knees. My hands are slippery with blood, as is the floor, and I can’t force myself back to my feet. She is so close, yet the distance between us is insurmountable.
Lady M raises her hand, the one holding the knife, its tip aimed right for Cate’s heart. I don’t know how a mother can take the life of her own child, but I know that she won’t hesitate to steal Cate from me.
I call out a useless warning, my gut burning fury and fear.
Cate blocks the strikes with her forearm, grimacing as the knife slices through her flesh. A trail of red blooms on her skin.
Lady M moves to try again, the knife rearing back with such force I’m surprised it doesn’t fly right out of her hand, finding a home in the heart I’ve come to cherish so deeply.
But someone blocks her. Even as a guttural cry rips through me, a shadow moves in so quickly it takes a minute to realize Harold has finally made it.
He grabs his wife’s wrists with a strength I didn’t know he had.
Lady M drops her knife, but she brings her knee up, striking Harold right in the groin.
He drops his hold on her, staggering back.
Whatever energy he entered the fight with seems to have already been depleted.
Cate lunges, aiming for Lady M once again, her dagger finally back in hand.
Lady M waits until the last minute to dodge the blow, but the force of Cate’s strike is too much to pull back.
She stumbles forward under the weight of it and her knife makes contact.
Cate’s dagger finds its home, inside Harold’s chest.
Her eyes widen in disbelief, in horror, her hands covering her mouth, though it’s not enough to dampen her scream.
I push myself further, but she’s still so far away.
Harold falls, the knife still protruding from his heart. Cate watches, frozen and unmoving for a minute before she kneels by his side, takes his hand in hers. She leans over him and his hand drifts up to cup her cheek.