It was strange how that one word caused every person to go still. Then again, the Warden always had plenty of power and had never been shy to use it.
Sure enough, walking out from the main building, was the Warden. She held a radio, and when she spoke, it rang out over the same speakers Kit had used to address the shades of Larkwood. “This is over.”
“This is far from over,” Kit answered, seeming impossibly larger, as if her appearance had set him off. So much for his normally unflappable exterior.
“It is,” the Warden assured him. “Your little rebellion has gone further than I thought possible. You should be proud of doing what no one else has managed, but it ends here.”
A roar echoed through the night, and a glance at Brax, his teeth bared, said he didn’t agree with her.
She only smiled as though not worried about him at all. “Do you really think I would leave Larkwood with so few defenses? That I wouldn’t expect shades to try this someday and have already put things in place to prevent it?”
“Well, even if you did, it didn’t work,” I answered. “You might plan well, but you underestimate others too often. You never thought we would actually work together.”
She shrugged. “You’re right that I hadn’t expected the camaraderie you all have shown. It’s proven to me that Larkwood will need to work harder to ensure no such bonds occur after we clean up this mess. Still, you are wrong if you think I didn’t set up a plan.”
She lifted her hand like a signal, and a ringing rushed through the space. The sound was high-pitched, the sort a person wasn’t sure they actually heard or not. She then nodded at a North Tower guard beside her.
The man lifted his weapon, aimed it at one of the shades, and pulled the trigger. I jerked backward when it worked, when the bullet left the gun and sailed across the short distance, slamming into the shade’s shoulder.
However, the Warden had made her point.
Whatever she’d just done had taken away Bowen’s powers and our advantage.
“What did you do?” Bowen’s voice came out unexpectedly angry. Then again, having a person’s powers stripped away tended to piss someone off.
She pulled her shoulders back and stared out at as though she’d already won. “If you think I haven’t been working on how to counter every last skill of yours, you are arrogant fools. I’ve known the defensive skills of brownies, and while others felt they weren’t a true risk, I knew better.”
“You think a few bullets will stop us?” Kit asked.
“A few bullets? No. I’m quite sure we have more than enough to put you all down.”
I didn’t bother to hide the anger swirling inside me. I’d been helpless for so long, a prisoner to my own fears, to my own needs, to Larkwood and to the Warden. I was done with that. If she wanted to shoot me, she could go right ahead. I took a step forward before speaking. “So what? Even if you kill us all, you haven’t won. Larkwood is over with.”
“Is it?” The smile on her lips sent chills down my spine. She was so confident, so sure she’d won. She crooked her fingers, and my heart stopped when a guard dragged a small body forward. He tossed the struggling girl to the ground in front of the Warden.
Soshi.She scrambled up and rushed to Bowen, her face showing small cuts and darkening skin.
“You thought we wouldn’t find one girl? You thought you could get these files out and start some big public outcry? You thought you could sway public opinion when that has been my weapon for years?” She shook her head as if embarrassed by our hubris. “You’ve failed on every front. Without the barriers to protect you, my men will mow you all down. All those files, those secrets you thought would save you? They will never see the light of day. Your precious savior, Hera, is dead. Killed by my soldiers in the North Tower. This is over.”
Her words struck me like a physical blow. Hera was dead?
I wouldn’t put it past the Warden to lie, but something in the way she spoke, the smile on her lips—she told the truth.
I’d known that was possible, had thought I’d prepared myself for it, but as it turned out, there was no good way to prepare for losing someone so important to me.
“Here is what will happen,” the Warden said. “My men will open fire in thirty seconds. Any shade who chooses to lie down will be spared. Make no mistake, there will be consequences, but you will live. Those who want to die in some pointless stand can remain on your feet and see how well you fare against bullets.”
The shades looked around, as if searching for an answer from one another.
Would they fight? Give up? Go back to the darkness and emptiness that Larkwood was?
Not me.
I stepped forward, staring down the Warden. I’d cowered for too much of my life, hid what I was, feared it. I was done with that.
Hera had taught me to accept myself fully, and I wouldn’t spit on her memory by throwing her lessons away now.
I’d do her proud, even if she was gone.