Competition •{Complete}•

Chapter Twenty

"I thought I killed you," I spit.

"Yeah, you did, but you don't have much knowledge about Casters. Especially Great Casters."

"How are you alive?" Kaleb comes and sits next to me. I wipe my eyes.

"A ritual. A Great Caster can be resurrected once. You have to have permission from the other Greats, and then you just perform a simple ritual."

"Grandmother."

"What a lucky guess."

"It wasn't a guess. It's obvious she thinks you're the better twin."

"I didn't mean for you to hate me." He puts his hand on my arm as he talks.

"Don't touch me." Kaleb moves his hand.

"Can't we get along?"

"You just want the throne." Kaleb's mouth forms an evil grin.

"That would partially correct."

"I'm already holding my competition. Sucks to be you."

"I don't just want the throne, Allison. I want a family. I want father and mother to love me, care about me. Maybe at first I wanted the throne and to kill the ones who've betrayed me, but grandmother knocked some sense into me. I just want a family. A mom and a dad. And a twin sister. And I want all of them to care about me and love me."

"I'm already getting the throne, Kaleb. You can have what you want if you talk to them. They will never give you the throne. Father won't."

"I need you to talk to them for me." Kaleb places his hand back on my arm. This time, I don't ask him to move it. "Tomorrow at noon, I'm going to come to the palace, weaponless- well except my own powers, but I won't use them. Please talk to them before then. You can tell them you met with me. Tell them I would love to be part of the family-"

"I don't think they want you to be part of the family."

"Then use your powers to persuade them." I pause before I tell him the news he never heard.

"I. I lost my powers..."

"How?" Kaleb shouts. "How?" he repeats quieter.

"The Greats were trying to take mine and mom's powers away. We went into the Tunnels to ask them about it. The Greats were trying to take away our powers because I killed you and she let me. I bargained with them. Mom has her powers and I don't. I don't have any."

"Allison-"

"Alli." I smile and Kaleb smiles back.

"Alli, it was my idea to take both of your powers away. I was alive."

"So just now, you were acting? You knew! You fucking knew! You are a bastard!" I shout.

"Alli-"

"Save it. I can kill you again. You can only be saved once, right? Well, have fun watching your back. I am not talking to mom and dad for you. And don't you dare follow me back to the palace. If you do, the guards will kill you. They will," I say and stand up.

"Alli-"

"Just leave me alone, traitor! You don't deserve having mom and dad as your parents. Leave. Please leave. Go back to the Tunnels or Grandmother's or wherever you were staying."

Through my teary eyes, I watched him disappear. I blink my tears back as I walk back to the palace. By the time I get to the hedge, my feeling for crying has paused. I climb over the hedge and land on my feet.

I head back inside the palace, feeling sick again. I rush to one of the hall bathrooms and throw up again. My head begins pounding again by the the time I reach my room. My little of makeup is smeared a bit, but not very noticeable. Thank god my maids aren't here. I really just want to keep that little incident to myself. I cleaned up and changed. Then I slept until the sun rose the next morning.