Chapter 31 Rune #4
“You forfeit,” I growled out.
His eyes blazed, flames flickering over his skin, his phoenix magic pushing against my basilisk power.
“Make me,” he rasped.
“Love you, Tibby. I’m sorry for this.” I winced, leaking paralytic venom through my fingertips.
He went slack.
His emblem faded, marking him out.
“House of Twilight wins the House Gauntlet this year!”
I sagged, sitting back on Tobias’s legs, giggles bubbling up helplessly as adrenaline tried to shake free.
Tibby wheezed, eyes squeezed shut. “Get off,” he groaned. “You’re heavy.”
I pushed to my feet, hauling my brother up even though I’d paralyzed him.
Patting his cheek, I seeped another venom that was the antidote.
He let out a strangled breath before looking at me accusingly. “Since when can you leak antidotes?”
I giggled. “Only that strand, and it’s technically a different venom that just neutralizes that one. Not really an antidote. You’ll probably get a headache soon.”
He cursed under his breath as he stood on his own.
Dimitri appeared at my side, barely breathing hard despite the fight he’d just had.
“Rune,” he said softly.
“Dimitri,” I echoed his name.
He reached out, thumb wiping away a streak of blood from my cheek. “You were lethal.”
“Did you see me almost fall?” I asked with a hysterical laugh bubbling out. “Because that was not my best moment.”
He nodded. “I saw you catch yourself. That’s the only part that matters.”
Hands grabbed at me from behind. Koa, Slater, and Zuko all touched me at once, swarming the bridge as the last of the obstacles faded. They each held me for a second, jostling, fussing, kissing my hair, cheeks, lips, and forehead.
It didn’t matter to them that their House lost. They only cared that I won.
Love overwhelmed my bonds, and I felt pride in Jesper’s and Drecken’s.
The House of Twilight emblem blazed overhead before fading out, and some professors materialized by the control panel.
Pops was grinning at us.
The House Gauntlet cup appeared in a swirl of magic near Jarvins.
“Congratulations, House of Twilight!” Jarvins broke his twig; he was so excited. “We won for the first time in a decade!”
The celebrations continued as we took the cup to the auditorium, where everyone waited for us.
Just as we walked in, a loud screeching sound echoed through the academy.
On the massive projector behind Dad, where everyone had been watching what happened in the simulator for the Gauntlet, the News Sector of Kalista’s logo flashed to life.
Dad frowned, glancing at the News Sector reporters in the crowd. “What is this about?”
The lead reporter shook her head in confusion. “We are broadcasting live from here. That shouldn’t happen.”
Static replaced the logo before a live feed popped up. It showed a news desk and a human reporter with slicked-back hair and a tight mouth. Behind him was a map of the Human Territory.
My stomach dropped.
Dad’s eyes narrowed.
Mom’s jaw clenched as Pops placed an arm around her.
The reporter’s voice cut through the air. “Breaking news! A rogue human faction, now formally calling themselves the Human Resistance Network, has issued a declaration of war against the Human Council.”
A wave of shocked murmurs swept through the auditorium, and Drecken teleported close with Jesper next to him.
“They accuse the Human Council of ‘selling out humanity’ to supernatural interests,” the reporter continued coldly. “In response, they claim to have developed a new bio-weapon derived from a basilisk’s DNA.”
My heart stopped.
A stylized graphic appeared behind him of a basilisk coiled around a double helix, fangs bared.
“They state,” the reporter went on, “that with this weapon, a single touch from a human with this enhancement will be enough to induce instant, irreversible cardiac arrest in any target, be it human or supernatural.”
My fingers went numb.
Beside me, Dimitri’s hand closed around mine.
The feed shifted to a grainy recording of some hidden lab with masked figures standing over another human on a medical table. The human on the table’s chest was cut open, and his sternum was being replaced with some device.
The device that pushes magical essence through a human body.
It shifted again.
Another human was being injected with something.
We’d destroyed the human facility, but they’d retreated into a new one.
The reporter’s voice overrode the footage. “The Human Resistance Network claims this weapon was made possible through the unwilling contributions of a highly compatible basilisk subject taken from the Supernatural Council’s training academy late last year.”
My vision tunneled.
“Though the subject was later retrieved by the Supernatural Council,” the man went on, “her DNA remains in their possession.”
My name wasn’t spoken, but it didn’t need to be. Everyone in this academy knew exactly who had been taken and who had come back.
A slow, icy dread coiled around my spine.
Slater’s grip found my other hand, fingers shaking.
Koa’s blue fire flared around us, protective and furious.
Zuko went still next to my back.
Jesper’s dragon instincts pushed him to kill any threat to me.
Drecken’s magic crackled like a storm around us.
I hadn’t felt Drecken or Jesper come close to me before now. Thank Fates they were here.
On the screen, the reporter’s expression tightened.
“They state that unless the Human Council steps down and cedes authority to them, they will deploy this weapon on their people. They claim to have already embedded their people near key supernatural-populated locations in order to force the Human Council’s hand. ”
I exhaled a shaky breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Oh, fuck.”
The House of Twilight winning the House Gauntlet cup didn’t seem as important anymore when psychotic humans held my power in their hands.
The taste of victory turned to ash on my tongue.