Chapter 42 #2
Skye huffed a laugh, then gestured toward the power board. “The power to the system is out. Can you kickstart it?”
“With lightning?” Aiden blinked several times.
Skye scowled at him. “Use your affinity and jump the system.”
Aiden cleared his throat, his eyes wide as he turned to the power board. He ran his hands over the switches for a few minutes while Skye watched him, her arms crossed.
She really had a way with him, didn’t she?
And me as well, if I were being honest. I was admiring the smooth curve of her hips when suddenly, there was an electrical buzzing sound. My gaze darted to Aiden, shadows spilling from the grass, ready to pull him away, but–
But then, a loud, powerful whoosh sounded, and the power board lit up. The dam behind me began to chug, and with a loud creak, it started to churn.
I stared, dumbfounded, only turning back when Skye squealed and hugged Aiden, smacking a kiss on his cheek.
I frowned.
I wanted a kiss on the cheek.
“You did it!” Skye kissed him again, this time on his lips, and he grinned, holding her as he looked to me.
“I did it!”
I couldn’t help but smile.
Rafe, Wyatt’s voice in my mind surprised me.
What is it?
This is a commune.
I blinked.
I know, I answered slowly, a little annoyed. Why was Wyatt always pulling me away from admiring Skye?
No, it’s one of the Crusader’s communes. This woman just called him a prophet, he said, sounding just as annoyed.
Holy fucking fuck, I cried, looking around quickly, taking in the camp with new eyes. I can see it everywhere now that you’ve mentioned it.
Where’s Skye? Wyatt asked.
Don’t make me laugh, she’s the safest person in this camp, I said dryly.
Well–
Aiden, we said at the same time, and I chuckled to myself.
Before I could say anything further, my attention was snagged by some raised voices.
“The dam– it’s working!”
“Thank the prophet!”
“Is he here?!”
People were taking notice of the dam, slowly emerging from their tents and calling out to get others’ attention.
I moved closer to Skye on instinct, and Aiden did the same.
These weren’t dangerous people, per se, but after speaking to Wyatt and realizing this was one of the Crusader’s camps, I couldn’t be too careful.
Someone here could recognize Skye from the description of the phantom.
“The Prince has saved us!” One woman cried, falling to her knees in front of me, Skye, and Aiden.
The three of us went rigid, and I could feel Skye’s urge to run.
I rubbed the back of my neck a bit sheepishly. I should’ve prepared them for how people acted around me. I couldn’t blame anyone other than myself, really, I’d played the part of petulant brat of a prince for so long.
“Thank you, thank you, my Prince!” The woman cried. “He’s saved us!”
Murmurs broke out among the medium-sized crowd, and Skye was beginning to sweat beside me. A shadow took her wrist just as she moved, and she froze, her chest rising and falling quicker. I stepped in front of her, blocking her and Aiden with my body while he soothed her behind me.
“There’s no need for that, ma’am,” I said gently. “Please get out of the dirt.”
The woman blinked at me, then stood, staring at me like I hung the moon.
Holy fuck. We needed to get out of here.
The three of us began to move through the crowd, and Aiden did a really good job of keeping people from touching Skye how they touched me, with a weird reverence I’d never experienced. Raaz would’ve cut any of their hands off if they’d touched my mother this way.
A voice raised from the soft murmurs of the crowd, and I sighed deeply. Skye went rigid behind me once again, and Aiden was practically plastered to her to keep her from taking off.
“Blasphemy!” A man cried. “This is treason! The Crusader would have helped us. We’ve let these false idols ruin everything!”
False idols? Hmm.
“Stop, Mark!” A woman hissed. She stood with a girl who was a little pale. My hands itched to call Wyatt over here to heal her, but she was standing on her own, so she must’ve been fine.
“No!” Mark shouted, drawing more of a crowd. “The tempest exacted her judgement. We were not meant to recover! Have any of you considered our wrongdoings? Have any of you really sat and considered how we could improve?”
Skye made eye contact with me. I can’t listen to this.
I nodded in acknowledgment. I could see her ready to crawl out of her skin, her PTSD around religious conversations palpable.
“The tempest shouldn’t have hurt children,” Another woman hissed. She clutched a stuffed dog to her chest, and Skye’s knees trembled when she saw her. “The children are innocent, they didn’t deserve to be washed away. My son didn’t deserve to die!”
Skye let out a shocked breath as the crowd grew a little louder.
I gently took her arm, pulling her closer to me while shadows wrapped around her waist, guiding her behind me. No one seemed dangerous, but that could change at any moment, and I wouldn’t risk her safety.
Or Aiden’s.
Aiden didn’t react as shadows pulled him back as well. The people began to jeer and argue amongst themselves, and I backed us into the shade of a nearby tree before shadow-walking us the fuck out of there.
I only took us several yards away from the dam, just far enough that we could walk away unseen. The crowd was loud behind us as we made our way down the hill, back to the main gathering of tents.
“Fuck, my skin is crawling.” Skye said, rubbing her arms feverishly. “I need a shower.”
“I’ll get you nice and clean, love.” I said, wiggling my eyebrows.
Aiden chuckled as Skye’s cheeks flamed, and then we all jumped as a man appeared out of the bushes.
It was the man from before.
Fuck my life. I could feel agitation rolling down my spine, my temper getting ready to snap, but then I saw the manic gleam in his eye. His brows were furrowed, his skin a little too sweaty for the cool weather.
“You,” he growled at Aiden. “I saw you at the dam. Your affinity for electricity would’ve served him well. He may punish me for this, but I’ll be rewarded for my loyalty in the next life.”
Before anyone could speak, the man lunged at Aiden, and the shadows reacted a split-second too late.
Time seemed to slow, the future playing out in front of me in excruciating detail.
The knife would go right through Aiden’s heart, killing him before a Healer could help.
Or, worse, he’d bleed out while Marion Exhausted trying to save him, if I could even get to her in time.
Skye could teleport faster, but she’d have to reveal herself–
But not a breath later, the man coughed, then choked as he crumpled to the ground. He twitched and gurgled, his eyes wide as he looked up at me. He writhed in the dirt for a second, and then I saw it.
His knife was no longer in his hand. It was now embedded in his throat, almost precisely on the artery that would’ve killed him instantly.
When I looked at Aiden, a chill ran through me. His arms were crossed over his chest, his expression hard as he watched the man squirm in the dirt below us. It appeared as if he hadn’t even reacted to a man lunging at him, and in the next moment, it made complete sense why.
Skye’s stared the man down with a savage expression, one I’d never seen on her before but definitely wanted to see again.
Without moving an inch, she’d turned the man’s knife back on him.
She was so fucking amazing.
“Now what?” Aiden asked when the gurgling stopped. He pulled Skye’s back to his front, and she ran her nails up and down her palms as she watched the man’s blood pool in the dirt.
I blew out a breath. “Let’s get Holmes.”
Marion didn’t believe for a second that I’d killed the man.
I was one of the only people on the continent who could effectively get away with cold-blooded murder, so it was no question that I would take the blame.
Marion’s blue eyes were wide as she checked him over. Her gaze darted from me to Aiden, and then to Skye. Her body language was clear. She wasn’t sure who’d killed him, but she didn’t believe it was me, and she didn’t believe I’d even touched the knife.
But, because she was a good Palace Healer, and I was her Prince, she kept her questioning gaze tilted downward.
“This was a fine strike, my Prince.” Marion struggled to stand, and Aiden cringed. “Only millimeters from hitting the artery full-on.”
“Thank you,” I said, holding Skye’s eye contact.
I was so beyond proud of her. Would it have been wrong to say I hoped there was another zealot waiting in the bushes so that I could watch Skye kill again?
Hmm. That thought seemed a little morbid, even for me.
Skye raised an eyebrow at me, as if she could see my dark thoughts, then dropped her expression as Marion looked to her again.
Marion suspected Skye, she just wasn’t sure what’d happened. Technically, Skye hadn’t used her affinity to kill the man…he was killed by the knife. So Marion wouldn’t pick up on an affinity signature like she had after the academy attack, because those men were killed by Skye directly.
Marion looked to me again, her jaw working slightly. She wanted to say something to me, but thought better of it. Instead, she held out the knife to me, then took a deep breath. “If that’s all…”
I nodded.
“Thank you, Marion.”