“Yes, very much so. As the new acting captain of the guard, I order you to obey and keep silent. Should you fail, you lose your role,” Vlad countered with icy authority. Dorian’s anger ebbed, and his shoulders sagged. The role obviously meant something to him, enough that he wasn’t just running off to tattle to the board.
“Allistair. ” The guard nodded and turned, leaving us standing at the gate in strained silence.
“Who are your companions?” Vlad asked when Allistair disappeared across the courtyard.
“Dragons,” Deacon said from behind me. He spoke for Axel, Karina, and Leander, who had remained silent through this interaction. “We stand behind him and our queen that is now in need thanks to this leader you so blindly protect.” He directed the last barb at Dorian, who looked downright murderous now.
“You may want to watch that one,” Leander noted. “He looks like a loose cannon. I wouldn’t trust him to have my back, that’s for sure.” The sarcastic dragon gave the pissed off guard a shit-eating grin. It wasn’t going to help our case, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. They couldn’t imprison him for sarcasm. Then again, I never thought they’d throw me in a cell to rot either.
“Shouldn’t you fear me?” I finally asked Dorian. He scoffed and gave me a look that said I was crazy. “Did you not think the Arch Mage was the most powerful witch you’d ever encountered?”
He sputtered, flustered now. “Of course I did. He was!”
“Yet here I stand before you, the supposed killer of this man you held in such high regard, and you don’t even flinch. In fact, you approach with disrespect and attitude.”
“I don’t fear you, especially without your little group,” he defended, yet I could hear the confusion and frustration in his tone. Not only was my mere presence insulting, but now I’d questioned his intelligence.
“Don’t goad the help,” Vlad drawled.
“This is going to be reported to the board,” Dorian said with righteous indignation. Clearly, he had drunk theKool-Aid.
“Ah, but there’s no need,” Arius said. The board member who’d condemned us to our deaths was alone but no less cocky than the last time I saw him. “We intercepted a guard going into the crypt of the Arch Mage. I should have known it was your doing.”
“Odd that you’d keep anyone from paying respects to the former Arch Mage. Have something to hide?” I asked bluntly.
His eyes sparked with fury. “Arrest him.” The stench of dark magic and anger flooded the air, and the dragons behind me shifted into their dragon forms at the challenge. Their towering bodies pushed against my back, their size making every other person in the area take more than a few steps away.
Mere minutes was all it took for both students and faculty to flood the area, gawking at the dragons they didn’t know existed.
“Care to explain to the people that the Arch Mage’s death was a farce? No real body lies in that tomb! Any illusionist worth their salt could see it,” I called out so everyone could hear. I’d been left with no choice but to publicly challenge the board. We’d come here with the best of intentions, wanting a simple conversation with the professor we sought, but they were forcing my hand and my voice.
“Preposterous!” Arius yelled. As he raged, his face turned a purplish red that didn’t look healthy at all. “Arrest him!”
One of the dragons, I couldn’t tell who was who in this form, stepped forward until I was positioned between their front legs. Not a single guard moved to carry out his order.
“It’s not. Has anyone actually seen the body?” I called out to the crowd.
“Why should we believe you?” someone yelled back, but I couldn’t blame the unfamiliar witch for not believing us. We’d bought into the board and the Arch Mage’s lies for countless years.
“Did you ever wonder why they sentenced so many to death? There are no real trials in this place, only executions. This board accused us of murdering the Arch Mage, who we were sworn to protect, yet had no evidence to support it. In fact, the Arch Mage has been seen since! It’s all lies.”
“They killed my mate for using dark magic, but I smell it now! And in all his years of magic, not once would he dare to use it himself! I knew it was a lie, a set up,” a hysterical witch called out. Someone next to her pulled her into their arms as she broke into a sob. The people just needed evidence, to see it for themselves, and now that we’d planted the seed of doubt, the crowd was full of suspicious gazes. Arius began to lose his composure, spouting out a hysterical round of accusations.
“I’d like to see the crypt!” someone called out. The words were followed by an overwhelming roar of agreement.
The crowd was now watching, eyes rapt with attention, as a group broke off from the crowd and stormed toward the crypt.
“Where is Allistair?” Vlad demanded of Arius. The board member looked ready to flee. From the distrusting looks everyone was giving him, these were his last moments as a board member.
“In jail where traitors belong,” Arius growled. He was turning feral, and from the stink of magic, he was losing his grip on whatever control he had.
“If you attack, we’ll have no choice but to retaliate,” Vlad said as he gestured for the other guards to follow. This had gone from a small confrontation to a full-on rebellion, and I couldn’t say I was sorry about the way things were turning out. It was about fucking time someone stood up to the assholes who were picking people off one by one as the whim struck them.
Loud chatter drew everyone’s attention; the few guards and faculty who’d slipped away were storming back to us. Their faces were furious, and I knew this was about to go from bad to worse.
“There was an illusion in place as they suggested,” one of the guards called out. “It was a strong one, but we were able to see the truth beneath it. There is no body. This man is innocent of his supposed crimes.”
“Thank you,” I said, my chest tightening at the news. But the effect wasn’t nearly as gratifying as it would have been months ago. I needed to save my mate, and that was my primary concern. “But I came here regarding other matters this time. I’m looking for Professor Lucius Drole. The Arch Mage nearly killed my mate, and I fear he’s the only one who can help me.”