Royals of Villain Academy 8: Vicious Arts Page 10

  I understood her hesitation in bringing up that topic, but it was a reasonable concern given my current state. I took a deep breath and focused on the quiver of magical power that lingered in my chest.

  There wasn’t a whole lot of it. My capacity for containing fearful energy had expanded since I’d first woken up in the infirmary, but only to the extent that when before I couldn’t sustain any kind of illusion for more than an instant, now I could have created a small one that would last perhaps ten seconds before I exhausted my stores. Not exactly an immense improvement.

  But all I needed to do to set off the spell that should ensure my escape was utter a single word with enough magic to set off the much greater magic my lover and my friends had poured into this piece of glass. Not a problem.

  “I’ve got everything I need,” I said. “And if I get into trouble anyway, I’m counting on the bunch of you to do your scion thing and get me the hell out.”

  I winked at her, but my gut had tightened at the same time. The four of them had been able to stand off against a single baron at a time in the past. This would be four against four. We were definitely going to need all the advantages, surprise and otherwise, that we could get.

  “I still say we should have brought more company,” Malcolm muttered from the seat in front of me.

  “Then we’d have risked the barons refusing to come out at all, since we’d have looked like a much greater threat,” Declan reminded him in his mild tone. “They’ll be startled by the news, and more focused on Baron Killbrook than on us. They might not even try to stop us from leaving.”

  Ha. But my fake father almost certainly would. Or at least, he’d want to strike me down and into as many tiny pieces as he could manage.

  The drone of the engine faded as Connar eased on the gas. Just ahead, the gloomy stone structure where the barons did their business loomed over the fields. My heart started thumping twice as fast.

  I was doing this. No second-guessing, no hesitations. That was more likely to get me killed than anything else.

  “It feels like forever since I’ve been out here,” Connar said. I didn’t think I had either since we’d all gotten busy with our studies at the university. The times when we’d roamed around the fields entertaining ourselves while our parents held their meetings might as well have been another lifetime ago.

  The intel we’d gotten from Rory’s cousin was correct. The barons’ cars formed a line at the far end of the parking lot. Connar took a U-turn in the lot and parked right at the foot of the road for a speedy getaway, as planned.

  Rory was already typing on her phone, telling her mother that we had something important to tell the barons and promising we came peacefully. We didn’t expect them to believe that second part, but it was better than starting off on the offensive. After a few back-and-forths, she glanced at me. “They’re coming down.”

  “That’s my cue.” I couldn’t help delaying for one moment, though, to draw her into a kiss. If this did go wrong, I’d like the taste and warmth of her lips to be one of the last sensations I’d gotten to experience.

  Rory kissed me back with her fingers gripping my shirt as if she wasn’t totally ready to let me go either. “We’re right here,” she said when I drew back. “Just get to the car as fast as you can when you’re done, and we’ll handle the rest.”

  I nodded, my throat too constricted in that moment to allow speech, and ducked out of the car. The others swiveled around to watch as I headed across the lot to the thin path that led to the fortress’s entrance.

  I stopped partway along that path, knowing I’d have to get fairly close to the barons but not wanting to overdo things. Making this statement was going to be hard enough without having them in arm’s reach.

  The barons emerged a moment later, a couple of their loyal blacksuits with them as if they needed even more backup to face one maimed mage. Declan’s awful aunt was there too, her nose in the air as if she thought colluding with this bunch made her special or her claim on the barony legitimate. I ignored her and my false father, focusing on Barons Nightwood and Bloodstone in the middle of the pack.

  “You have some message to deliver?” Rory’s mother said imperiously.

  “I do.” I resisted the urge to clasp my hand around the dragon charm as if that would help the spell on it work better. I’d be more likely to break my fingers that way. The damp breeze ruffled my hair, and I flicked it back from my eyes. “I thought you’d want to know about a major crime that’s been committed against you.”

  At the edge of my vision, Baron Killbrook shifted his weight, but he had to still be hoping I was too concerned about my own safety to mention this particular crime. I needed to time this right if I was going to get it and the proof out before he realized.

  “That would certainly be of interest if it’s true,” Baron Nightwood said in a bored tone that suggested he doubted it was. “What crime is that?”

  “I think it’s easiest if I show you. Does one of you have a knife of some sort?”

  Nightwood’s eyebrows arched. “A knife? What kind of fools do you take us for?”

  I gave him a pointed look. “The kind who could surely defend themselves against a nineteen-year-old mage who’s lost most of his magical capability if I was planning on stabbing you, which I’m not.”

  “I don’t know—” Baron Killbrook started, but Bloodstone interrupted him with a snap of her fingers.

  “Let’s just get on with this.”

  Declan’s aunt produced a pen knife from her purse, small enough that I couldn’t have done much damage with it even if I’d been aiming to carve up the people in front of me. “Good enough?” she asked.

  “Perfect. I’m not even asking to get close to you.”

  Nightwood let out an exasperated sigh as Ambrosia tossed it to me, but his eyes were fixed on me as avidly as everyone else’s when I snatched the weapon out of the air. I flicked the blade open, my pulse thundering right inside my skull now.

  Just spit it out and get it over with.

  With one quick movement, I swiped the knife across the heel of my hand, deep enough that blood immediately welled up to coat the blade. I tossed it back toward them and pointed to the man who’d set himself up as my father.

  “Baron Killbrook has lied to everyone for my entire life. I’m not his son, just a kid he arranged his wife to have when he couldn’t manage it himself. Test my blood, and you’ll see it.”

  Killbrook was jerking forward before I’d even finished speaking, his face blanched with fury. “Why you—”

  I didn’t wait to find out how he’d attack me or how the other barons would react to my announcement. “Dragon,” I snapped out with a jolt of magic trained at the pendant resting against my sternum.

  The trigger word set off the spell the scions had embedded there. The energy I’d sent into the glass figure exploded a hundredfold in both directions. It flung me backward to land on my ass in the middle of the parking lot—and shoved the barons, including Killbrook, in the opposite direction toward the Fortress.

  My tailbone jarred against the pavement, and pain shot up my spine. My palms scraped the ground, the hand I’d cut throbbing. I blanked all that out and focused all my attention into hurling myself to my feet and racing the last short distance to the waiting car.

  Rory had flung the door open. “Jude!” Baron Killbrook’s voice rang out, harsh with rage, as I leapt inside. Then Connar slammed his foot on the gas, and we were rocketing away from the barons and the horrible secret I’d just laid bare.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Rory

  Maggie’s voice rose up from my phone’s speakers with a faint crackle of static. “There’s definitely a lot more tension in the pentacle right now, but they seem to have decided to deflect and deny for the time being. I don’t think they want the wild card of Baron Killbrook’s brother interfering with their plans, especially when he’s already expressed that he doesn’t agree with what they’re doing to the Naries.”


  Jude sat back with a huff where the five of us were poised around my phone on the scion lounge coffee table. His hands clasped together over the bandage that was wrapped around the wound he’d sliced into himself yesterday. “That figures. I threw the proof in their faces, but obviously nothing means more to them than their campaign for world domination.”

  His tone was dry, but the comment wasn’t much of an exaggeration. The Nary news had been full of more reports of key politicians in the White House pushing forward the divisive policies already announced and even revealing new ones. More protests were breaking out in the wake of that news and the violence that had been dealt out at the earlier rallies. Just an hour ago, I’d watched images of cops beating down civilians who’d been holding nothing more than Bristol board signs.

  If the barons had wanted to sow chaos and destruction in the Nary world, they were doing it awfully effectively.

  “They can’t keep it secret,” I said to Maggie. “We passed on word to Hector Killbrook so he’d have that information as a point of leverage.”

  “Oh, people are talking about it.” My cousin sighed. “But the barons are redirecting them to other subjects or implying that Baron Killbrook didn’t even know, so he didn’t actually commit any crime. I don’t for a second think they believe that themselves—they’re being much too hostile with him when they’re in relative private—but it serves their purposes for now.”

  Malcolm made a face. “And when it serves their purposes to get rid of him, they can announce that they found new evidence proving he did know all along.”

  “Don’t the barons care at all about how many people are telling them they’re not happy with the new direction they’re taking?” I asked. Both my mother and Baron Nightwood had insisted they were doing this for the good of the community—how much of the community needed to tell them they didn’t see any good in it before they’d listen?

  “They’re not happy about the calls that keep coming in… but I think most of those are from people they don’t see as particularly important anyway. They’ve got a lot of allies among the established fearmancer families, some of whom are celebrating the news about the Naries. It hasn’t been pleasant to watch.”

  My stomach knotted. “No, I guess not. Are you sure you’re still safe there? No one suspects that you’ve been helping us on the side?”

  “Not as far as I can tell. The way your mother talks to me, it’s obvious she assumes I was on Lillian’s side when it came to screwing you over. I’ve kept quiet about a lot in the time I’ve been here. You don’t need to worry about me.”

  Maybe not, but if any of the barons caught on to her duplicity, I hated to think what would happen to her. “Just be careful,” I said.

  After I’d ended the call, I looked around at the guys. None of their expressions showed any more hope than I felt.

  “Well,” I said. “We’ve played an awful lot of our cards, and it’s shaken things up, but not enough to stop them. What’s left?”

  “My ‘uncle’ did tell me that a few members of major families have contacted him since word got out, telling him they’d support his bid against Baron Killbrook,” Jude said. “Apparently they’ve had enough dealings with my parents to know it’s more likely that my fake father created this scheme than that my mother went behind his back. It sounds like they’re still nervous about speaking up publicly, though.”

  Declan’s mouth pulled tight. “We knew phone calls might not be enough. Maybe we need to stage a protest of our own. Get together all the supporters who are willing and confront the barons—refuse to leave until they listen.”

  Malcolm nodded. “A lot of their supporters are off screwing with the Nary politicians. With us involved in the confrontation too, it should be a comparable stand-off. And if we can get those prominent families involved with the promise of plenty of backup, that will strengthen our point.”

  Connar’s hands had clenched on his lap. “And if they still refuse to listen to all of us—then what?”

  I hugged myself. “I don’t want it to come to this—but if we have enough power on our side, we might be able to force the issue. Restrain them with magic until they agree to call back the agents they’ve sent to meddle with the Naries?”

  “They’d be awfully pissed off about that,” Jude said. “And they could go back on their word the second we left. We can’t hold them hostage forever. Well.” He touched his chest. “I can’t hold anyone anywhere at all.”

  “We’ve proven we can overpower them, though,” Declan said, his eyes going distant with thought. “It would be a big gamble—we’d risk far more retaliation than we’ve faced for anything we’ve done so far, going on the offensive at that extreme. But the situation might not come to that, and if it does, it might be the best gamble we can make.”

  The thought of throwing spells at the barons—at my mother—out of more than self-defense sent a twinge of queasiness through me, but what choice did we really have? How could we consider ourselves the future leaders of the fearmancers if we weren’t willing to take a risk like that when so much was at stake?

  “We should have the Guard start reaching out to their contacts,” I said. “Find out when people would be able to gather and how many seem willing to as long as we’ve got good numbers. Make sure they know we scions will be there, and the potential new Killbrook baron too. Once we have a solid sense of what we’re working with, I’ll touch base with Maggie and figure out when the barons will be in a place we can easily confront them.”

  “The Fortress has too many permanent protections,” Malcolm said. “We’d never get in there in the first place if we showed up with a crowd. But they’ve been meeting other places too.”

  Jude sprang up. “Since I can’t pitch in much with the actual confrontation, I’ll get on with wrangling the Guard. I’ll remind them all that I looked death in the face yesterday with just the four of you, so really, taking a stand with a bigger crowd is barely anything.” He winked at us with what seemed like genuine good humor despite the tension I could still see in his stance and headed out.

  Malcolm rolled his eyes at Jude’s back, but he was smiling at the same time. “I’ll start talking people up and pitching the idea too. It might need a little more finesse than he can typically offer.”

  I could touch base with Cressida and Victory the next time I saw them. Maybe Victory’s family would be willing to stand with us too. She’d said her father would let the barons know of his disapproval, although whether he’d actually done that in the end, I wasn’t sure. The Blighthavens had generally enjoyed good favor with their rulers, which they had to be hesitant to lose even if they disagreed with them this once.

  Declan and Connar got up as I did. Connar drew in a breath as if to speak and then stopped, rubbing his hand across his mouth. I paused, taking in the shadow that had crossed his face.

  “Are you all right?” I asked. “Do you think this is a bad idea after all?”

  The Stormhurst scion gave me a pained smile. “I’m not sure what I think should really matter all that much.”

  “What are you talking about?” Declan said. “You’re as close to full baron as I am now—closer if we consider my aunt’s claim. You’ve got just as much say as the rest of us. If you’re concerned about something, I definitely want to hear it.”

  Connar exhaled slowly. He looked away from us for a moment before he continued. “It’s just, as Holden continues recovering and I’m spending more time with him… I’m starting to think I should hand over my position as scion to him. He hasn’t wanted to intrude on our dynamic that much, but if I made it official—”

  I blinked at him in confusion. “Why would you hand it over? You’re the one who’s been training for it and working with us all this time. Not that you should shut him out, but you’ve got at least as much right to take on the barony as he does.”

  “Do I?” His head dipped. “I think my history proves I’m unfit to rule. I was weaker than him when our parents were testing us—I
wasn’t strong enough to stand up to Malcolm when he was attacking Rory at first, even though I thought it was wrong—I couldn’t defend myself when my mother cast that spell on me. My brother’s the kind of guy who could be trapped in a few rooms with barely any human contact for years, and he still managed to keep his mind sharp by reading and learning all kinds of things… He’ll catch up fast.”

  “Hey.” Declan grasped Connar’s arm. “None of those things makes you unfit. In the first instance you were only fourteen, and you don’t know that Holden would have handled the latter two incidents any better than you did. You did stand up for Rory—you’ve helped protect all of us more times than I can count.”

  “What does it even matter?” I found myself saying. “Even if he’d make a good baron too—why can’t you two stand at the table together? Isn’t the insistence on only letting one heir from each family have a say part of what makes fearmancer politics so brutal in the first place?”

  Declan and Connar both stared at me. Then Declan chuckled. “You know… you’re right. I’ve been so stuck in the standard assumptions that I never really thought of it that way. Not that I have any intention of sharing with my aunt—”

  I snorted. “She’s proven herself unfit.”

  “But in general, adjusting that policy would make a lot of things easier.” His expression turned even more pensive than before.

  Connar shifted his weight on his feet. “I’m still not sure I’d really be all that useful in the pentacle if Holden could simply take it himself.”

  I studied his face. “Is that what you really want? If you don’t like the idea of being baron just in itself…”

  “I don’t know. I never had much chance to think about whether I wanted it before. All I know for sure is I want to do what’s best for all of you. We were sitting there talking a few minutes ago, and I had no idea what to offer to the strategy or anything else.”