Then, as quickly as it had come, the yellow gas began to fade away, as though it were being sucked out, back across the field. Alex watched it go, dread flowing through his veins. If the mist was leaving, Julius would be on his way.
As it cleared, Alex got a better view of the battlefield. Around him, people were beginning to return to normal. Aamir and Jari stopped fighting, looking at one another in pure shock. Jari had a ball of magic raised to strike, and Aamir was holding up his fists, ready to jab at Jari’s face. Ellabell and Helena separated too, eyeing each other suspiciously, glancing down at their palms as if their hands belonged to strangers.
Bodies littered the grass. Some were moving, their groans rumbling across the ground toward where Alex stood. Others were still, never to move again. Those who had delivered the final blows covered their mouths in horror, seeing what they had done, yet not knowing how or why it had happened. Alex took in the devastation, feeling as if someone had taken a knife to his heart. Of all the cruel, cold things Julius had done, this was one of the worst—turning neighbor against neighbor, student against student.
Still, they were not defeated.
On the front line, there was a rallying cry, urging the fighters to take on the remaining soldiers. Seeing there were still uniformed enemies among them, the survivors sprang into action, chasing after those who belonged to Julius’s militia—those who had brought this terrible fog with them. Seeing the mob swarming toward them, the army scattered, turning tail and running from the sight of the battlefield. The Starcross warriors gave chase, several Kelpie riders catching up with a few of the enemy soldiers, cutting them off in their tracks. As the soldiers crossed the river, however, the Starcross folk skidded to a halt, a whole line of eyes watching the retreating soldiers.
Soon after, a roar of victory rose from the crowd, but the triumphant sound brought only sorrow to Alex’s heart. They believed they had won the fight.
Sadly, he knew they hadn’t.
Chapter 19
“Stop!” Alex bellowed, his voice booming across the field. Victory died on the lips of the Starcross warriors as they turned to see Alex approaching, his friends following close behind. Virgil had reappeared too, limping at the back of the smaller group. “Everyone needs to stop cheering!” Alex shouted, drawing looks of displeasure from the crowd.
“And who are you to tell us to quiet down?” someone yelled.
“I know it looks like we’ve won, but we haven’t!” Alex explained, his voice carrying across the warriors. “Julius planned all of this. The fog, the fighting, the retreat. He is doing it to lure you all into a false sense of security! We need to get back on our guard, and be ready for him when he strikes!”
A murmur rippled through the assembled force. They glanced toward the spot where the soldiers had run, but the uniformed army was no longer visible.
“How do you know that? Are you working for him?” a second voice called, the tone accusatory.
Alex shook his head. “I just know the man we’re dealing with. He isn’t done with us, I promise you!”
It was all too straightforward not to be a setup. Yes, the fights had been tough, and several people had lost their lives, but it was much too easy. Julius had something else up his sleeve, Alex was certain of it. Now, it was a waiting game. If they could be ready when he struck, they might stand a better chance of survival.
Ceres rode up to where Alex stood. “You think we should evacuate?” she asked, looking around nervously.
Alex shrugged. “I think we could try. Julius is—”
Ceres cut him off with a wave of her hand. An eerie stillness was settling across the battlefield and all who stood upon it. Her people watched her, waiting for her to speak, but she was silent, listening intently to something only she could hear.
“Too late,” she whispered, her head snapping up. “Everybody, run for the trees! Get into the forest! Hide yourselves!” she screamed. There was no time to do things calmly, the group of gathered warriors looking at each other in a panic. As her words sank in, they began to run in all directions, chaos ensuing as the people of Starcross fought to escape an enemy they couldn’t yet see.
“What is it?” Alex asked, trying to figure out what it was Ceres knew that he didn’t.
He understood, mere moments later, as the clouds began to roll in at an alarming, unnatural speed. They gathered, swelling and frothing over one another, fluffy white giving way to deep, bruised storm clouds that loomed above the realm. A great boom of thunder shook the earth below, and lightning tore across the dark sky in terrifying forks of rampant electricity, lashing nearby trees that burst into flames.
Those who had run for the trees backed away, seeking an alternative exit, only for another bolt of lightning to hurtle in the direction they were running, cutting them off. Julius was dividing and conquering, without even getting his hands dirty.
Storm, who had been circling the battleground with her keen eyes, weaved between the forks of lightning with ease, darting this way and that to avoid them, but as one came too close to her wing, singeing the very tips of her feathers, she spiraled out of the way, retreating into the nearby forest with a squawk. Alex wanted to follow her, to ensure she was okay, but the storm brewing overhead prevented him, not to mention the warning grip of Aamir’s hand on his arm.
“She will be fine,” the older boy promised. “She will be safer in there, hidden away, than she will be out here,” he added. Alex nodded reluctantly; he could see the sense in it, but he couldn’t bear to think of the Thunderbird alone and in pain, left in solitude to lick her wounds. Glancing at the spot where she’d vanished, he made a promise to come back for her as soon as he could.
Meanwhile, thunder growled deafeningly overhead, the roar intensifying as the heavens parted. A great glowing light shone down, so bright Alex had to cover his eyes with his arm. Once it had dimmed, he dared to look back toward the sky. A large band of elite soldiers floated to the ground the way Venus had done when they’d snatched her from Spellshadow. Julius was leading them this time, confirming Alex’s suspicions that he’d simply been biding his time, waiting for the majority of the fight to be over before he made his triumphant final blow. Here were the remnants, waiting to be scooped up and destroyed for his amusement.
The King’s squadron was dressed in sleek black military garb, with glistening plates covering their chests and arms, and helmets over their heads. They exuded power like electricity.
As thunderbolts shot down any attempt to flee, the Starcross fighters gathered in the center of the battlefield, turning to face the elite squad walking calmly toward them, their hands raised, rippling magic already flowing around their fingers. The energy bristling from them was like nothing Alex had ever experienced; it was tangible, emanating from their very beings. There was no way they could fight this kind of soldier—they were too few, too weak, too helpless.
One of the elite sent a thin ribbon of magic through the air toward one of the Starcross warriors who stood at the front of the gathered force. It seemed innocuous enough, but when the warrior tried to conjure a spell to protect himself, it sailed straight through and snaked beneath the warrior’s skin, embedding itself deep inside. Those standing beside him stared in horror, not knowing what was going to happen next.
If they had known, they would have run.
The poor victim unleashed a blood-curdling scream, his eyes bulging outward, before he exploded into a million bloody pieces, his body splattering onto the nearby onlookers in a fountain of scarlet. The thin ribbon that had done the damage retreated to its owner, carrying a coil of pulsing red light behind it.
It reminded Alex of what he’d seen at Kingstone, giving him the feeling that this was a similarly quick, nasty way of removing essence. He shuddered, watching as the elite soldier fed both ribbon and essence into one of the black bottles fastened around his chest on a bandolier. Alex wondered if Julius was expecting to fill all those bottles by the time the fight was over.
Spu
rred on by the sight of the exploding man, the Starcross warriors charged toward the elite band of soldiers, ignoring Ceres’s cries for them to flee. She charged after them on her Kelpie, trying to draw them away from battle, but they simply kept running, ignoring her futile pleas for them to stop and turn around. Alex agreed with her—these soldiers were simply too powerful.
Alex tried to conjure shield after shield of anti-magic to protect the others, but his defenses disintegrated at the touch of the golden ribbons. All he could do was watch in despair as explosions of scarlet went up from the crowd, bodies bursting like crimson water balloons. All a soldier had to do was flick their wrist, and another innocent life would be snuffed out. They barely broke a sweat, though the Starcross inhabitants were conjuring with all their might, their features straining under the exertion of using whatever they could muster, some of them feeding their own essence into the spells in the hope that it would make a difference.
It didn’t.
“Ceres!” Alex yelled. The one-eyed royal rode toward him, tears streaming down her face, her skin speckled with red.
“This is all your fault!” she screamed at him, her eyes hard.
Alex had no time for self-pity or guilt, only action. “We need to surrender,” he said. “You need to go to them and surrender before anyone else loses their life. Your people are fierce—they won’t give up unless you tell them to.”
“I’ve tried. They won’t listen to me!” she cried, gesturing at the chaos.
“You have to get them to stop, or everyone will die!” Alex shouted desperately, taking hold of the bridle of her steed. The Kelpie reared back, snorting in Alex’s face, but still he held on.
“You think I don’t know that?” she raged, pulling back on the reins, the savage Kelpie tearing its face out of Alex’s hands. It seemed the beast was infused with its rider’s fury, its enormous hooves kicking out toward Alex. “You brought him here, Alex. I want you to look over there, at that battlefield, and I want you to remember every second of what you see,” she howled, every word dripping venom, before she turned her steed around and headed for the fray.
The words struck Alex like a punch to the gut. She was right. She had always been right. He didn’t want to face the truth of his mistakes, surrounded by a bloodbath he was helpless to prevent, but her words hit home, and they hit hard.
He didn’t have long to wallow in his despair, however. Julius had broken away from his group of elite soldiers and was sauntering toward where Alex and his friends stood, far behind the battle that was raging. Their eyes met, and the king flashed a terrifying smile.
From all sides, Starcross warriors, seeing an opportunity, tried to lunge for Julius, but the king simply knocked them away, like they were little more than flies. A few times, just to mix things up, the smug royal sent out a stream of glittering energy, which was followed swiftly by the sounds of necks snapping, bones cracking, and lungs imploding.
Alex felt it was like watching a freight train coming straight toward him, and he knew he didn’t have enough time to get out of the way. Certain death stood only a short distance away, gaining ground. Alex’s heart began to pound in his chest; there was no escape from the side of the bargain he had agreed to with Julius. With a smirk that smug, Alex was under no illusions about what the king knew—the fiasco at Kingstone Keep didn’t appear to be much of a secret at all; he could see the knowledge of it written all over the Julius’s face. The satisfaction of a victor, about to claim his prize.
He glanced at the friends who stood to either side of him, their faces turned toward the king, their hands raised to defend themselves until the bitter end, if that was what it took. Though fear glittered in their eyes, they would not be cowed—they were the most courageous people Alex had ever met, yet he knew this was a battle they could not win, and he wasn’t ready to see his friends fall.
A moment later, however, Alex felt himself plucked out of the air. Storm flapped her wings above him, clutching his shoulders in her large talons. Where she had emerged from, he didn’t know, but he was pleased to see her. A corner of her wing was singed, but she looked no worse for wear. Although he was thrilled by her arrival, he looked down in a panic, not wanting to leave his friends to the fate Julius had in store for them.
“Storm! Put me down!” he insisted, but she wasn’t listening.
He looked back down in time to see the cavalry arrive. Ceres and Demeter led the charge, circling around the back of Alex’s friends. However, it didn’t appear they wanted to fight Julius at all. Instead, they held out their hands, hauling Alex’s friends up onto the backs of the Kelpies before turning the beasts around and heading for the forest a fair distance behind them. The only rider with no passenger was Demeter, who looked up at where Storm was flying.
Just then, Alex felt the Thunderbird jolt forward. A pained chirp trilled from her beak as a flash of something tore past her, the edge of it catching her wing. They sagged a little in the sky, but she recovered quickly, struggling to pull him higher.
Alex turned, his eyes locking with Julius’s. The king was in the middle of forging a vicious-looking spear, the tip barbed with three glittering, magical blades. With a twisted grin, Julius hurled it with all the force he could muster, leaving Alex helpless to watch as it hurtled toward Storm.
This time, the spear didn’t miss its mark.
The spear tore through Storm’s body, and she let out a squawk of agony that made Alex’s heart break. With her beak agape and her eyes glittering, she struggled to flap her wings, refusing to let Alex fall. A mournful coo echoed in her breast, but still she strove, wanting to get Alex out of there.
Alex didn’t even see the third spear until it ripped through her, the momentum sending it straight out of her chest. She crumpled with a defeated chirrup, going into a tailspin, no longer able to hold up her own body weight, though she wrapped her wings around Alex in her final moments, in an attempt to protect him from the impact of hitting the ground.
“Storm! Storm, no!” he roared, trying to grip onto her.
They plummeted to the ground, her body breaking his fall as they hit. With tears running down his cheeks, he scrambled for her face, stroking the downy feathers tenderly, willing her to wake up. Her intelligent black eyes had lost their sparkle, staring vacantly up at the sky.
“Storm, get up!” he implored, stroking her desperately. But she was never going to wake up—Julius’s spear had hit its target.
He turned toward the approaching king, pure hatred making his eyes burn, the way they had before, when Jari’s life had been on the line at the Stillwater arena. Julius paused for a split second on the battlefield, seeing the silver shade of Alex’s eyes. Alex hoped with all his heart that it reminded the king of Leander’s eyes, that last day, when the Great Evil had been released. He wanted to instill fear into Julius for what he had done.
Before he could stride toward Julius, however, he felt a strong arm under his shoulder, lifting him up. Knowing it couldn’t be Storm, he looked back to see that Demeter was hauling him onto the back of the Kelpie he rode.
“Let me go!” Alex insisted, but Demeter clung on, forcing Alex to either clamber the rest of the way onto the Kelpie’s back or drag Demeter down to the ground with him. Not wanting another death on his conscience, Alex reluctantly clambered onto the back of the Kelpie.
Demeter dug in his heels, charging like the wind toward the forest closest to the encampment, evidently hoping to lose Julius and his cronies in there. There were six other Kelpies far ahead, bearing Alex’s friends, and Virgil, on their backs, but Demeter was catching up.
“Hold on tight!” the auburn-haired teacher warned as the Kelpie sprinted along at an alarming pace.
Turning back, Alex felt his chest grip like a vise. Julius had reached the crumpled form of Storm, her wings splayed out wide, her head turned to the side, her black eyes dead, her beautiful feathers losing their sheen. The king kicked her, hard, in the side, and Alex lost it—he screamed at the wind, wanti
ng to jump down off the Kelpie that very instant and punch the smug, disgusting smile from Julius’s face.
“Save it for another day, Alex,” Demeter warned. “Store it all up, and use it when you need it most.”
Alex wrenched his gaze away, though it tore him up inside to do so. They were almost at the tree-line; Alex could see the shady trunks and dense canopy hurtling toward him. They were going to make it.
Something shot out of the sky, smacking Alex in the side and lifting him off the steed. He lost his grip on Demeter, the blow to his side too powerful, knocking him sideways, and his body tumbled to the ground with a painful thud. He rolled over and over, his body twisting under the momentum of the fall. As hooves thundered past him, stamping perilously close to his head, he tried to tuck himself into a ball, closing his eyes until the danger had passed.
Another blow hit him square in the back, rendering him immobile, though this one felt different. It felt sharp, then cold, the iciness trickling through his body with a feeling like brain freeze, making everything seize up and ache in the most peculiar way. Reaching up to see what had struck him, he felt the feathers of a dart in his spine. Where Spellbreakers were concerned, it seemed Julius had come prepared, knowing his magic wouldn’t be as effective on someone like Alex.
As his eyelids became heavy, the dart working the rest of its magic, Alex managed to lift his head, looking up to see if his friends had made it to the trees. Their bodies littered the ground ahead, Ellabell having fallen mere inches from the edge of the forest. All of them were writhing in agony, fighting against whatever cruel spell Julius had used to knock them from the backs of the Kelpies.