NOVEL NEXT Chapter 70: To Be Free
"Rae." Kess froze in the plaza, Rowan beside her. Every ounce of her being willed her to move forward, even outside in the cooling breeze of the Drystorm. The city was doomed, its people lined up for the slaughter so that the Council could continue to use Fulminancy. And worse still, Oliver had killed Draven. Oliver. She took a halting step forward, but hesitated. Something was off.
Rae threw back her hood. The mask was gone, replaced by ashy blond hair that tumbled down her shoulders in curls from a tie at the back of her head, and strange turquoise eyes that sparkled against the unnatural flashing of the Drystorm overhead.
"Reina!" Kess said, but the woman frowned.
"Rae, actually," she said, waving her hand at Kess dismissively. "I'm afraid I'm not up for much of a chat this evening, actually." She cocked her head at Rowan, assessing. "It's a shame you brought him. My business was with you alone." Her eyes snapped to their bags, loaded with books. "Though I'd certainly love to get my hands on whatever you two found down there."
She let out a heavy sigh and spread her feet slightly, a subtle gesture that Kess immediately picked up on from her years in the ring. Kess tossed her bag to the side and brought out her staff, sending Fulminancy crackling through it. Rae, Reina—whoever she was—cocked her head, examining the staff.
"Neat trick. Where did you learn that?"
Kess didn't reply, her eyes elsewhere. Bodies littered the plaza—men wearing Forgebrand colors and Witchblade uniforms alike. Mercifully, she couldn't find Eamon among the dead. Her staff lowered slightly as she stood there, confused.
"Ah," Reina—Rae said. "I see you've noticed my handiwork."
"You murdered them," Kess breathed. She'd brought those men here to give them a new purpose after taking Forgebrand from them—not to get them killed. Guilt twisted her insides, raw and unyielding.
"Not quite," Rae said, folding her arms delicately. "They sold you out to me, and then my employer, in turn. I wanted a fair fight, so I eliminated the opposition before they could kill you themselves. As it was, they managed to start those fires before I got to them. You can thank me now."
"Reina," Rowan said beside Kess. "We don't have to fight. We can trade money, information—"
Rae barked out a laugh, her posture relaxed while Kess gripped her staff with white knuckles. "An admirable attempt, but you can't pay me in the currency I seek."
"Which is?" Kess asked. The acrid smell of her Fulminancy mixed with the Drystorm overhead singed her nose as the wind whipped it about. Rae smiled, narrowing her eyes.
"Freedom," she said. She paced, Fulminancy crackling about her body as she moved. "I kill the Seat, I can keep the powers."
Kess felt her hands go cold around the staff despite the warmth of the evening.
"You knew who I was," Kess breathed. "Your bet with Furion, your talk about the Seats—you knew."
"Of course I knew," Rae said, looking bored. "Why bother killing someone if you don't get to know them first? And the missing Seventh Seat—how could I pass up an opportunity to get to know the woman behind the powers?" She sighed dramatically. "I must admit, you've been a little too intriguing for my own good—and a good opponent at Stormclap, to boot. My employer is absolutely furious I've taken as long as I have."
"The missing Seventh Seat—the Seat of Mariel," Rae continued, pacing. Rowan inhaled slightly next to Kess, and she felt his eyes on her, but she stared at the ground, avoiding his gaze. "A force of nature by herself—the most powerful Fulminancer in the city, but she never wanted those powers, did you, Kess?" Kess said nothing as ice crept into her heart. She had been running from this story for so long, to hear it again broke something inside of her. She wasn't this woman. She couldn't be.
"Everything handed to her, and yet when she was required to step into that role—to protect the very people who handed her that power, she threw it all away. She blew up half the palace and murdered two other Seats, then ran off like a coward to live a life hidden away among the very people the Seat of Mariel is sworn to protect."
She stopped in front of Kess, her light eyes cold, and cocked her head as a bolt of lightning snapped overhead. "Did I miss anything?" she asked. She twisted her mouth in thought, then her eyes lit up as if she'd remembered something. "Ah, yes. There was that part where your adopted father was killed for associating with you, though he was smart enough to know a coward when he saw one. He never said anything to you about Forgebrand, did he, Kess?"
Something snapped inside Kess, and she lurched forward, staff crackling, but Rowan's arm held her in place, something strange in his eyes. Kess noticed that his touch had none of that dampening feeling that was usually in place with his latent powers—he knew they would have to fight their way out of this.
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"What do you mean, you get to keep the powers?" Rowan asked, arm keeping Kess in place, but eyes on Rae. Rae stuffed her hands into her pockets, squinting at Rowan.
"I'd assumed that you of all people would know," she said. "I was born into these, but I'm nothing. I'm no one. Someone with as much raw power as I have would be sucked dry to fuel a new Seat, or to bolster a nobleman's child who displayed no power when they came of age." She turned back to Kess.
"For the longest time, I thought Mariel's Seat was empty because you had shown no powers. After that parlor blew in Dawnring, I made a deal with the Council—I would track you down and kill you, they would let me keep the powers, and they'd find another person to fill the Seat. Someone a little more understanding of their cause."
"You," Rowan breathed. "You're the Fulminancer that survived that parlor."
Something flickered in Rae's gaze—guilt? Shock? She pressed her lips together and met Rowan's eyes, inclining her chin. "I am."
"Did you murder the people inside it too?" Rowan asked, voice tight.
"I touched no one, Northmont," Rae hissed. She jabbed a finger downhill. "They tried to make me think it was my Fulminancy that did it. That I was the murderer." She shook her head, letting a shaking hand fall to her side. "But I know better. After I'm done with you two, I'm going to hunt down each one of those councilmen and make them answer for what they've done."
"You could have killed me before," Kess said, her grip growing damp on the staff. "Why didn't you?"
Rae cocked her head again, watching her boots. Some of the fury was gone from her voice. "Because I felt the fight was unfair. When I realized you had powers but no idea how to control them, it made me hesitate." She looked up at the sky, where lightning crackled overhead. "Say what you will about my decisions, but I'm always fair," she said, letting Fulminancy crackle around her hands. "When I'm done with you two, it'll be an even trade. Your lives for my freedom. Then I wash my hands of all of this."
"This isn't freedom, Rae," Kess said, voice thick from the dust they'd left behind in the Archives. "They're using you. They get you to do their dirty work for you so they never have to soil their own hands. They never have to draw blood, never have to fight."
"And that's different from you how, exactly?" Rae asked, cocking her head to study Kess. "The people you've murdered—the Witchblades I've seen you cut down, the Seats that night—did you feel the life leave their bodies?"
Kess ignored the bile that crept up in her throat. She'd learned to fight to force herself to confront that bloody past, and yet she'd defaulted to Fulminancy again the moment she'd grasped even a hint of control. She swallowed and tried to continue.
"They're using you, Rae. You're still just a prisoner."
"You're no different," Rae said, voice quiet. "You're a prisoner to your own fear, a prisoner to that boy." She jerked her head towards Rowan. "A prisoner to that brother you keep trying to rescue, and a prisoner to the whole Downhill. Everyone wants something from Mariel. The people we rescued in that wagon were more free than you are. Death is the closest thing I can give you to freedom."
"Caring about people isn't a prison, Rae," Kess said, surprising even herself. "You don't have to bow to them to save yourself."
Rae laughed slightly, eyes downcast. "I have no one else left to save—least of all myself," she said. Kess felt her muscles go taut as Fulminancy surged into them, ready for Rae's charge.
But Rae didn't charge at Kess—she charged at Rowan. Kess tried to throw up a shield as a dagger appeared in Rae's hands, but nothing happened. That shield failed her now, as it had failed her in every training session she'd ever had.
Rowan swore and tried to dodge to the side, but it was too late. Rae's Fulminantic dagger landed firmly in his shoulder with a sickening sound. Rae twisted it, face grim but satisfied, and fired off a burst of Fulminancy that sent Rowan's body flying through the air like a rag doll. He hit the stones of the Archives and landed with a crack, body eerily still.
"We can't save them," Rae said quietly. "It's best for you to learn it now. We're different, Kess. Cut from a new mold. Everyone we bring into our lives only suffers because we're there."
Wind whipped through Kess's hair and several bolts of the Drystorm arced overhead, illuminating Rowan's still body with an otherworldly light. For a second that seemed like an eternity, all Kess could do was stand there, staring at Rowan, her staff limp in her hands.
She'd failed him. She hadn't learned fast enough, or well enough, to protect him. She'd thrown away the very power that would have given her a chance to keep the people she loved safe, and where did it leave her? As a girl without the ability to protect anything she gave a damn about.
Her fingers tightened around the staff as Rae came flying at her, but something had changed within Kess. A sick, sinking feeling that tore into her gut and through her toes. Something crept into her veins as she dodged and blocked, her movements faster and more fluid. Dimly, she noted a contingent of Witchblades as they arrived in the plaza from all sides.
Rowan was dead. She would be dead soon. There was no sense in hiding what she was anymore.
Everything was gone.
Wind swirled into the plaza, strong and thick, and the lightning overhead pulsed in a steady rhythm as Kess's staff met Rae's conjured swords, each blow throwing the women into stark relief against the burning, ramshackle buildings of the Downhill and the gilded buildings of the Uphill.
Kess dove into a well of power that she wasn't sure she'd ever tapped, and the world responded in turn. Fulminant soldiers fired bolts of lightning—aided by bits of metal—as she pressed Rae back towards the stairs with her staff. Rae missed a block and snarled as Kess planted the staff across her face, knocking her several steps down.
As the Fulminant bolts snapped towards Kess, she jumped, staff in hand, and took a deep breath. She had tried and failed to protect those she loved by being herself, but this power was part of her too, and she would use it.
Even if it was too late.