Smoke Rising: Book III

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

She steps off the boat and onto the dock, and in this moment I can see her as the Queen her father wanted her to be. She spent a small portion of our last hours on the ship explaining what he wanted, about how much he had changed, she even opened up about his last words to her, though that ended the conversation very quickly.

But I see his vision.

She's powerful, strong-minded, kind in all the right ways, and she has no problem taking what she wants. In fact, she's the most determined person I've ever met. She was determined not to use magic, and she avoided it like a plague. She was determined to rescue her sister, and she played that game perfectly. She was even determined to succeed in the Caster Bowl, and she would have, had I not screwed up. She wanted her magic back, so she took it. She wanted the power to take out the Chancellor, so she ventured into the dangerous jungle and into a deadly temple to find it, and take it.

She gets what she really wants because she's willing to do whatever it takes to get it. But she has also lost so many people because of it. Not because she'll take things, but because she can.

My father knows the threat she poses. The threat all the royal Casters posed. That's why he took them out. He and Emery are alike in that way, and that way only. But she wants power to save people, he wants it to keep them under the crushing weight of his iron fist.

If only the Shadow Casters had been strong enough in the beginning to have ruled and protected this continent. Everything would be different. Humans wouldn't hate Casters so much. Casters wouldn't have been hunted, killed, or imprisoned. There wouldn't be as much famine and injustice across the land. The people here—Caster and human alike—would have begun to learn how to live peacefully, together, and though it may not have been perfect, it would have been better than the Guard bullying the people into submission.

They were so afraid of what the Casters might have done when they first stepped from the Shadows, that they willingly handed their freedom over to a dictator that promised to protect them. Now, the very type of Caster they once feared wants to free them all. A part-Caster, part-human, all royal; because that's what she is, divine—in every way that matters. Heart, soul, strength, power. She is what this world needs. But I can't help but wish she had a different world, one where she wouldn't have ever been caused so much pain.

"It's so freaking cold," Bug steps in between us, her teeth chattering. I can't help but laugh, seeing the short human girl tremble in the largest coat.

"You look like a marshmallow," Blue steps up beside her, laughing.

"I feel more like an ice cube. Maybe a frozen marshmallow?" Bug replies, and they step forward walking towards the warehouses in the distance.

The bay is humming with activity. One good thing about knowing a captain is that we can sneak in and out of the harbor quietly. She goes on her monthly fishing trips, and we're just new crew. But as soon as I step onto the gravel road I see the poster of our faces, stapled on wooden boards every few hundred feet. Emery gives me a look, and I pull up the hood on my jacket.

She gives me another look. "He's going to find out we're here soon enough."

I inch closer to her and pull up her hood for her. "Let's not let him find out before we free the half-bloods. Okay?"

"Fine," she stands tall. "But I'm not hiding after that. When I'm revealed, I'm revealed for good. No more hiding."

She's hidden enough in her lifetime. I understand the desire not to do so any longer. The moment I exposed myself as a Shadow Caster, it was like a two ton mask was lifted from my face. But we still need to stay out of two-ton shackles.