Smoke Rising: Book III

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Chapter Fifty-Eight

"Where is Ross?" The question comes out before I can stop it, but I already know the answer. And it breaks my heart.

"You mean the scum that entrusted to protect your precious beloved?" The Chancellor snickers, grinning at me with his vicious, soulless smile. One that resembles the man's I love. "Lets just say he had a painful death."

Eli points the gun at his body. "Kill him Emery." I see his finger slip to the trigger, and I twist on my heel, throwing the knife at his gun. I'm off by a few inches, the blade flying right through his arm. And then I kick my heel up and knock the gun from his hand with my foot. He dips to grab it, but I grab his arm, yanking him up. "No, Eli," I shake my head, feeling calmer than I probably should.

"I told you—"

"I don't care," I snap. "You are not dying today." I gesture my head towards his body, and he understands.

Since there's a binding potion laced with the light potion preventing us from using the shadows, he can't go into Shadow form or summon his ghosts, but he can slip back into his body. He walks over, and lays down against his body, falling into himself. He begins to sit up, the guard keeping the gun aimed at his head as he moves.

I turn to the Chancellor, looking up at him on his elevated throne. He thinks he's a king just because he wiped mine out. But the plan is unchanged. Eli will be walking out of the room an orphan, and it will be the best thing for him and the rest of the world.

"What do you want Greg?" I use his first name on purpose, refusing to let him believe I see him man worthy of a rulers title.

His smile fades at the sound of his name.

"I want your magic."

His request takes me off guard.

"I've heard you've been making new casters, and that you can give and take away power freely."

Ever since the necklaces magic was absorbed into Ella, I have t been able to make or unmake Casters. But I still know a certain spell from my fathers book. One that he used on me, and I him.

I flip the last blade in my hand, feeling very tempted to swing it at him. But I'm not a perfect shot, and that gun is awfully close to Eli's head.

I see my mother. I hear her voice. She whispers, "kill him. Kill him for me. He deserves to die, no matter the cost."

But I can't lose Eli. I can't let him die for a maybe.

"I have to have magic in order to give it." I swallow hard, trying to think my way out of this. If I can lure him away, Eli might be able to disarm the guard and get free. But while Greg is protected by these fortified walls, I'm backed into a corner.

"I'm figured as much. That why I can turnoff this little spell. All I have to do is give the word. But if you so much as twitch a finger the wrong way, he will die."

"You'd kill your own son for power?" It's a question I already know the answer to, but I ask anyways, if just to stall.

"I'd kill anyone for power. You know that by now."

I shake my head. "How do I know you won't just kill us when I give it to you?"

"Eli will still have his black clouds. He can whisk you away and you two can live happily ever after. I'll grant you your freedom. I won't go after your sister. You will be free, so long as you hand every last drop of magic to me. After, I will heal the burning land caused by from the bombs your kind forced me to drop, and then I'll rule the world."

This was what he always wanted. He didn't just want the human land, he wanted all of it. Eli gave him the power to burn the slate, and I have the power to wipe it clean and make it new.

At least, that's what he thinks.

"You'll let Eli and I go free, and you won't ever come after us?"

"Emery, just kill him!" Eli shouts, and the guard punches him in the face. He spits blood on the ground, coughing.

"Yes, as long as you can keep him on a leash."

I swallow hard, stepping forward. "Okay." Every bone in my body is screaming at me not to trust him. But I drop the knife anyways. It clatters to the ground, and I step closer and closer putting my hands up in the air. "Mihi virtutem traderet," I say, loud and clear. "That is your part of the spell."

The Chancellor gazes at me darkly. Then he raises his hand towards two women in the corner hidden behind a sheet. They come into view as I grow closer.

"Mihi virtutem traderet," I repeat.

The two women turn to each other and join hands, chanting something I don't hear. But I feel it. The binding spell shrinks like an elastic band, a wave of clear-blue light pulling from the walls and shrinking smaller and smaller. I watch as the elastic band of a binding shield morphs into a bubble, and surrounds Eli and the guard pointing the gun.

"Mihi virtutem traderet," The Chancellor says. "Mihi virtutem traderet!" He chants, almost yelling it.

I can't help but clench my teeth. "Deditionem I," I say. "Deditionem I," I repeat, and I can feel the magic bubbling to the surface, the shadows carrying the flames. "I surrender!" I scream the words, throwing my hands towards him, and all my power drains out of my fingertips and into him.

I look at Eli over my shoulder, my heart about to explode from the rushing energy. "I'm sorry," I whisper to him, hoping he can see my lips.

The shadows draining into him grow violent, filling him with power and energy and death. The black smoke rises from his mouth, pours out of his eyes, and the shadows rip him apart as the world around me begins to spin. And I haven't used the energy expelling spell in months, but it's the only thing I can think of that might work. "Rejecios!"

The shadows explode, the flames burst into sparks and lightning pours out of him.

Every drop of energy and life floods from me, and I collapse.