The Rebel League

Chapter 23- The truth

"I promise you, it wasn't entirely my doing." Anthony claimed.

His daughter rolled her eyes. "Is anything these days?"

"Snap." I whispered to myself.

Anthony looked down at Estella with sad eyes, like she was a long lost puppy that had grown into a furry, dirty, unrecognisable beast. Metaphorically, of course.

"You've grown up... faster than I expected." Anthony said. "I can't help blaming myself."

Estella shook her head. "Who else is to blame? I ran away because it wasn't safe here. My mentor died in my arms!"

Anthony winced, as if the remark brought up a painful reminder. He now looked quite irritated.

"Dammit Estella!" He yelled. I took a few steps back. "Can't you just trust your own father?"

"HOW!?" Estella screamed. "How can I trust you when you keep everything a secret?" She took a deep breath and spoke quieter. "Maybe if you just tell me what happened to them..."

Anthony's eyes darkened, turning the storms behind them into cyclones. "The King..."

Before another word could be spilled, the door behind Anthony made a beeping noise. The same noise it had made when I unlocked it earlier.

"Someone's here." Anthony said, more to himself than Estella and I.

The big door slowly opened to reveal a burly-looking boy with short blonde hair, big shoulders and a chain mail armoured suit. He carried a shotgun across his back and a sheathed sword at his waist.

But even if he was completely unarmed, I still would've panicked.

"Anthony Stone." The guy said, his voice the same as when I heard it at the camp. "We've come to take your life and eradicate everything you've built."

"Wills..." I whispered, then cleared my throat and spoke louder. "MadMex, it's been a while."

Wills turned towards me, his expression disinterested. "Acrobolt. Raven. I'm going to say this only once." He took his shotgun out of its holster and clicked it. "Stay. Out. Of my way."

I flipped both of my guns out from my belt and aimed them at his brown vest. "Or what?"

Estella drew a quill from her belt and stepped in front of her father, who analysed his daughter and the intruder with... admiration? That scared me.

Wills scoffed. "You really think you can beat me now? I've got an army way better than before waiting outside for me to give the order to blow this place to smithereens. I'm going to take this man's life and then get the hell out of here, and you are going to stay out of my way or die as well."

"What do you have against him?" Estella asked, her voice calm despite the odds of a loaded shotgun against a barbed feather. "He hasn't exactly been a nuisance to you before."

"Oh!" Wills threw his free hand up in exasperation. "Look at little miss know-it-all. Got it all figure out, haven't you?" He shook his head and snarled. "You know nothing. Your father is the reason that all of  this started in the first place. Your father is the reason that The Crime Lords ever existed."