Almost At The Top- Book Four in the United Series

Chapter Eighteen

Max's POV:

I whip around at the cold, familiar voice. I see the last person I want to see standing in front of me, his friend right next to him.

"Octavian. What do you want?" I ask through gritted teeth. Octavian and Curtis smirk and Octavian shrugs his shoulders.

"To bring you back to Beloved Leader, of course," he replies, then he and Curtis unsheathe their Imperial gold swords. John and I get ready to fight them, but we don't have our legacies to help us now.

Then Octavian does something that absolutely shocks me. He picks up a large tree branch a few feet away from him with telekinesis and hurls it at my knees. I jump up and dodge it and stare at Octavian with a burning hate in my eyes.

"Oh yeah, I got that one a few days ago, as well," Octavian tells me, then lifts his hand up and yanks me and John's daggers out of our hands. They land yards away from us and Octavian smirks wider.

"Okay. Two Garde it is. How about you two come with us now, huh?" Octavian sneers at us, then walks to us until John and I are cornered into a big tree behind us. Curtis laughs at us and I glare at him until Octavian steps in front of me.

"Let's go now, Jackson. Curtis, take care of Johnny over here. I'm sure Beloved Leader would love for us to bring back an extra Garde," Octavian orders, still smirking wickedly at me.

Curtis steps in front of John and Octavian grabs my arm. I try to yank my arm away from him, but I don't need to. He's hit by a huge hammer on his legs and falls to the ground, groaning in pain. Curtis is hit in the head by the back of the hammer and I see Leo in front at John and I.

I breathe a sigh of relief and am about to hug him when Octavian lifts his hand and Leo's blasted feet away from us.

"Leo!" I exclaim and am about to run towards him when Curtis jumps to his feet and pulls me back by my arms. John pushes Curtis away from me.

"Touch her again, I dare you," John threatens. Curtis smirks and raises his hand towards John, who makes a choked noise and gets lifted a foot off the ground with telekinesis.

"Leave him alone!" I yell at Curtis and am about to tackle him to the ground until I hear Octavian call to me in a taunting voice.

"Hey, Jackson! Which one are you going to save?"

I whip around and see what terrifies me the most- Octavian is choking Leo and is holding him off the ground with telekinesis, too. I quickly react by elbowing Curtis in the face behind me and leaping for my dagger on the ground a few feet away from me. I grab it and throw it at Octavian. It stabs his leg and Octavian yells in pain and falls to his knees, dropping Leo. I turn around and see John sitting on his knees, gasping for breath with his hands around his throat.

I lean next to him and put my hands on his cheeks. He looks up at me and smiles warmly.

"Are you alright, John?" I ask him worriedly. He gives me a small smile and leans in to kiss me. I automatically lean in and kiss him and we kiss for a few seconds, his hands on my waist and my hands on his cheeks. He fills me with warmth, burning my insides for this moment to last forever.

We pull away and John smiles at me warmly. He opens his mouth to speak until I gasp, remembering Leo lying on the ground. I turn around and Leo's gasping for breath on his knees. I jump up and rush over to him.

"Leo, are you okay?" I ask him. He looks deeply into my eyes and slightly tilts his head to the right as if he's going to lean in and kiss me.

Gods I hope he does.

Wait, what?

"I'm fine. Let's go," Leo replies. I nod my head and jump to my feet. I feel a rough hand on my shoulder and I know it isn't John. On instinct, I whip around, grab the arm that's on my shoulder and force them down to their knees, resting my dagger on their throat.

"God, chill, Max!" They shout and I look down into the wild eyes of Nine.

I sigh in relief and let him back up. He jumps to his feet and grins at me.

"How about next time you make sure you know who you're attacking before you hold a dagger to their throat, huh?" Nine teases me and I chuckle.

"Sorry,"!I apologize. "It's a battle and I'm a Garde. I'm paranoid." Nine chuckles and we both rush back to John, who's on his feet again.

"Well. This is quite a party." We all look back at Octavian, who's on his feet again with Curtis. Nine raises his pipe staff but Octavian lifts his hand and yanks it out of his grip as well as Leo's hammer and throws it yards away from us. I quickly hide my dagger in the back of the waistband of my jeans.

"Look, we can let the rest of you go. We just want Jackson," Octavian says.

"Why?" Nine asks through gritted teeth, one of his hands on my shoulders and trying to hide me behind him.

"That's something you don't have to know, Nine. Just hand her over and the rest of you are free to go," Octavian promises, a smirk still on his face, and Nine scoffs.

"In your dreams you stupid Roman," Nine spits at Octavian. Octavian still smirks and shakes his head at Nine.

"You're a stubborn one. Well, I guess two extra Garde and an extra demigod will please Beloved Leader beyond his dreams," Octavian sneers.

"If you lay your filthy hands on them you'll wish you never met any of us," I warn Octavian threateningly. Octavian raises one of his eyebrows at me.

"Alright. Looks like I'm only taking you, then. The lighter the load, the quicker we'll get to the skimmer. Let's go, Curtis," Octavian says before blasting Leo and Nine away from me while Curtis throws John what seems like miles away with telekinesis.

Octavian leaps to me as I try to escape to Leo and Nine but he grabs my arms, holding them behind my back. I struggle against him, but he's too strong and I don't have any legacies.

"Curtis, check her for weapons," Octavian orders. Curtis quickly pats me down and his hand lands on my dagger hidden in the waistband of my jeans. He chuckles as he pulls it out and uses the dagger blade to lift my chin up to look directly at him.

"You're a sneaky one, aren't you, Jackson?" Curtis taunts me, twisting my dagger in his hand. I kick his stomach then smash Octavian's foot with mine. They both back away from me and I glare at them as I see Leo knocked out on the ground as Nine tries his best to keep all the Mogs away from him.

I'm getting revenge on these two.

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