Chapter 23 #5
I take in a shaky breath. ‘I saw you. I saw you … picking it up. After I left. Nine years ago. Stella showed me the footage.’
‘Did she, now?’ His warm breath tickles my temple and warmth suffuses my entire body, right to my bones. ‘You really are a crafty little stalker.’
‘Who’s the stalker?’ I breathe as he kisses a trail of fire down my neck. ‘You kept my scrunchie for years.’
This is beyond my wildest dreams concocted in the loneliness of my room at The Citadel. Mace had been thinking about me the entire time. Missing me. Yearning for me. Just as much as I missed him and yearned for him.
I shift in his lap. He lays his huge hand possessively on my thigh, and I watch his sprawled, callused fingers making their way upwards.
‘This is a mistake, Ellie. My heart couldn’t bear it again.’
Warmth pools low in my belly. I blink through the haze, trying to make sense of his words. ‘What do you mean?’
‘When they took you away from me,’ he says, ‘it tore me apart. My heart won’t survive that happening again. Not now. Not after … we gave in to this.’
I stand up straighter, desperately trying to put some distance between us, but that howling need to stick close to him is still there. ‘What are you saying? Don’t be a fool.’
‘Ellie…’ He frowns in concentration. ‘What if…’ He pauses.
I have an inkling about what he’s going to say. After what we saw today in that underground chamber, we know for a fact that the team doesn’t have to wait years and hope they get a seat on Central Command.
They can challenge Command for a place at the table. Now.
But that would be insane.
‘Can you block those sensors for a bit?’ Mace asks.
I bring my hands to the ground, doing as he requested.
Then Mace says, confirming my worst fears, ‘We will challenge Central Command. Allen is analysing the information block we downloaded today, looking for loopholes and the correct protocols. But we need to hone our powers. We’re just finishing our Apprenticeship.
The Commanders have years of training on us. ’
He bites his lip and I want to tell him to stop, that this is madness, that there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to survive such a thing. But then, is this any way to live? Keeping our heads down, accepting this hand we’ve been dealt?
Fight.
‘We’re looking for information on royalty, most of all,’ Mace says.
‘Showing up with the Regalia will do wonders for swaying the public opinion in our favour. Allen is trying to find out if any of our additional skills might be compatible with those powers that Stella described. In the end, Franka did train with the Warriors. But some training protocols have obviously been hidden.’
My mind flits to Xandra. At the ball, the members of my team created ropes to anchor themselves, and stop being thrown around by the forcefield.
I realise now that it had been Xandra’s power, all along, the red shimmer of it.
Her magic, shaped like a rope, hadn’t hurt them, like her short sword would have.
So she must have had a different source for it, the way that I have different sources for my dome power and for the magic that I throw.
Could her power be shaped into the nets that we’ve seen Franka use?
We’ll only know when the training protocols we uncovered are completely decoded.
The training protocols that Central Command hid years ago.
‘But until then, Ellie, it might be months. Or years.’
Even if I know this, my heart breaks in two to hear Mace say it. Another separation is inevitable. It’s one of the cardinal rules of The Citadel – Stu made sure of that.
‘I want you to know…’ Mace says slowly. ‘I want you to know that no matter how long it takes for us to challenge Central Command, I’ll be waiting for you.’
A knot builds in my throat.
He takes a deep breath and reaches out for me again, drawing small circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.
‘I can’t ask the same of you, Ellie. I can’t ask anything.
The future is too full of uncertainty. But I just wanted you to know that.
What we have is so good and … and… I so want to be free to be with you, Ellie. ’
I can barely speak. ‘You don’t have to ask me anything, Mace. I’ll wait for you. For however long it takes. I waited for you for nine years. I’ll wait twice as long as that, if it means that I get to be with you in the end, that you’ll be mine.’
He exhales. ‘I’m already yours, Ellie. I’ve always been yours.’
‘As I’ve always been yours. But, Mace…’
His fingers tighten around mine, as if he’s bracing for what I’m about to say. ‘But what?’
‘Don’t shut me out from what you and your team intend to do. I want to fight for this, Mace. For a future where we could be together. I want to fight for us, too.’
Mace swallows visibly and I’m not sure what he’s about to say, because my ART pings. The display lights up and I sweep my eyes over the message. ‘Oh, shit.’
Mace picks up his own ART, the motion alarms blaring. A series of teal dots are in sight. He gets up quickly. ‘Ellie, get into mission gear right now. Team Gold, wake up! The Pikenians are here. We’ll soon be under attack.’