Chapter 39
THIRTY-NINE
athena
“How the hell is this happening right now?!” I yelled between pants, half falling and half sprinting down the hill that led to the thriving city below. “Do you think it’s another mystic? Or is the Ministry fucking with us?!”
We ran as fast as we could, but the sound of buildings collapsing behind us grew louder and louder.
The buildings fell too fast.
And my feet fucking hurt.
“I’d say either one is a pretty good guess!” Elijah yelled back. “Fuck!”
I ignored him as we ran.
And ran.
And ran.
Other cadets or the damn Ministry—either way, it was working.
The sleeping town below us got closer and closer as we raced to beat that falling stone.
“Can you use your shadows?” I screamed, jumping over a massive hole in the stone street.
Elijah matched my stride. “To stop the buildings from falling? They’re shadows, not extra arms!”
A small boulder rolled past us down the hill.
They were moving faster. Getting closer.
Elijah’s magic couldn’t stop them…
But mine could.
It had stopped the fire earlier, hadn’t it?
I was still so drained. I didn’t have it in me to gather the strength to send my magic hurtling backward. But Elijah…
“Use mine!” I yelled. “You can stop them!”
“You sure?” he asked. “You want me to use your magic?”
A bigger boulder soared over our heads. We were almost to the bottom of the hill, and these buildings wouldn’t be vacant. They’d be full of earthlies. Full of innocents.
“Just do it already!” I screamed.
Without missing a beat, he pulled from my magic. And when he found his target, he sent it, along with his, straight backward.
Elijah was the most focused, precise mystic I’d ever seen. His will became my will, and for one fluttering second, I reveled in it. In us. In what our power could be when combined.
The buildings quit falling.
The stone quit crumbling.
But a massive cloud of dust and debris had already formed around us and spread in each direction for at least half a mile. At the bottom of the hill, Elijah wrapped an arm around my waist and ripped me sideways into an alleyway.
He caged me against the wall with both arms as we caught our breath.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
“This is it,” he said, peering around the corner.
“What?” I asked. “This is what?”
He huffed a few more breaths.
“The beginning of the end.”
My whole soul sank. “God, Elijah! Why do you have to say things like that?!”
He peered around the corner one more time, then zeroed in on me. “There are obviously mystics behind us. Whether I killed the one wielding the earth or not, there’s a good chance there are others. So we can assume we’re being chased.”
“Perfect. Fun.”
“The city is still so quiet,” he murmured. “If we start now and move quickly, we can be at the end in a couple hours. Maybe even before dawn.”
“Great. Love that plan.”
“Athena?” he asked between breaths.
“Yes?”
“This isn’t real, okay?” His eyes darted between mine. “These are the war games. It’s all a test.”
“I know.” I peered around him, ready to get moving. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because the next time we run into a person—mystic or not—we’re going to kill them.”
His voice was darker. His expression, too.
The change stole what little air I had in my lungs.
I pushed past him and started down the now dust-covered street without looking back.
We were exposed out here, but we didn’t have much of a choice.
Our only other option was creeping down back roads and alleyways, and that would add hours to our journey.
We hadn’t slept. Hadn’t eaten. Hell, we’d barely even formed a plan.
We did not need to add extra time to this test.
And that’s all it was. I replayed Elijah’s words in my mind as we started a slow, quiet jog down the cobblestone street of the earthly city.
It’s all a test.
It’s not real.
“This looks pretty real to me!”
After an hour of jogging, which I never in my entire life wanted to do again, we crept over a street balcony and peered onto a large, very occupied plaza below us.
The city was supposed to be sleeping.
It was well past midnight, but I guess for these earthlies, that meant drinking and partying in the center of the city rather than resting.
Music blared around us, loud enough that we didn’t have to whisper.
We crouched behind two potted plants on a beautiful, historic-looking terrace overview of the party.
Elijah kept us hidden in the shadows, but the scene in front of us flared to life with small fires, twinkling lights, and hundreds of lanterns.
“Of course it looks real,” he retorted. “It wouldn’t be a very good test if it didn’t.”
“They want us to kill them?” I took in the crowd.
They were so…unassuming. If other mystics had beaten us here, there were no signs.
Not a single person looked afraid or shocked or even concerned.
The earthlies below us danced and drank and smiled so much that it actually made me sick to watch.
“This doesn’t feel right. They look extra innocent.
Do you think they look more innocent than usual? Kinder, too?”
“You’re spiraling,” he said. “They look like regular earthlies, and that’s part of the test. They’re questioning our loyalty. You have to remember that.”
“Okay,” I said, sighing. “You’re right. What’s our plan here? We’d have to retreat half a dozen blocks if we want to move around the back.”
“That’s too risky,” he said. “We still don’t know who is following us, or if we are, in fact, being followed.”
“Fine. We blend in with them, then. They’re clearly not suspecting an attack. We’ll join the party, slip through the crowd, and keep going down the center road.”
Jaw clenched, he peered into the crowd.
He was ready to kill people. I could see it in his eyes.
But I was still holding on to those reservations.
Whether it was fake or not, it felt so wrong.
“Okay,” Elijah said after a while. “Let’s go. Follow my lead.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me up, then led me toward the stairs that would take us down to the plaza.
Only, we didn’t make it to those stairs. We didn’t make it to the plaza. That would have been too freaking easy for us.
“There’s our talented little four,” a familiar voice chirped. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Florence stood at the top of that stone staircase, flanked by Riot and Willow in an irritatingly confident stance—and damn, I’d never been less happy to see anyone in my entire life.
“And you brought your eye candy. Good. I was starting to get a little bored with mine.”