Page 111 of The Knights of Gaia

“Crown prince of the vampires, and by all accounts, the most spoiled, arrogant, unpleasant man in all the Many Realms,” Ms. Featherdale sighed. “If the food isn’t exactly to his specifications, he will walk out of the Summit. And take a large part of the Court with him!” She grabbed a leather binder off the table. “Go talk some sense into the caterer.” She shoved the binder into my hands. “Instill fear into his heart if that’s what it takes.”

“Uh…ok.”

“I’ll go with them,” Bronte told Ms. Featherdale, joining us. “I havelotsof experience getting event vendors to behave.”

Ms. Featherdale expelled a sigh of relief. “Go.” She retrieved the binder from me and handed it to Bronte.

I was trying really hard not to feel offended by that.

“Get this fixed,” she told Bronte.

“Don’t worry. I will.” Bronte’s blue eyes twinkled with confidence. “Let’s get going, girls.”

“Oh, and stop by the florist to check on the flower arrangements for the Summit!” Ms. Featherdale called out as we left the ballroom.

As soon as we stepped outside, we saw them. Watchers. They were everywhere.

“What are they doing?” I wondered, watching the scary soldiers patrol the streets in their scary black body armor.

“Looking for Rebels,” Kylie whispered. “The General thinks the Rebels were behind the attack at the Tournament yesterday.”

Of course he did. The General really hated the Rebels. But he loved blaming them for things.

“I heard it on the news,” Kylie continued. “They interviewed the General this morning. He had a whole speech prepared, warning the public about the ‘dangerous Rebels endangering the city’.” Kylie nibbled on her lip. “I don’t know. The Rebels saved all those innocent people from the bandits at the mall on Thursday. So why would they turn around the next day and decide to attack innocent people?” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Leaving the Knights to become Rebels doesn’t make any sense,” Bronte said. “They’re criminals, Ky. They’re unpredictable and unstable.”

“I guess you watched the General’s interview on TV too. He said something just like that.”

Bronte replied, “Ok, so maybe the General isn’t the nicest guy on the planet?—”

Kylie snorted.

“But he’s right about this,” said Bronte. “Even Eris agrees. Remember what she said? ‘Being a Knight comes with a lot of rules that we must follow. We can’t do everything we want to. And we shouldn’t either. The Rebels don’t subscribe to that philosophy. And that makes them dangerous.’ Eris isn’t wrong about that. And neither is the General.”

I frowned. “What else did the General say in the interview?”

“That his Watchers will continue to patrol the streets until they’ve apprehended every last Rebel,” Kylie told me. “He’s determined to catch them all before the meeting of the Court. You heard Ms. Featherdale. Gaia needs everything to go perfectly at the meeting, and the General thinks that means no Rebels.”

Raised voices echoed down the street, rushing toward us like a torrent of floodwater after a dam had broken. The iron gates of the Black Obelisk burst open, and a fresh wave of Watchers poured into the Emporium. Dozens of them. Filling the streets. The stampede was as loud as a drum in my ears. The crowd split and fled in terror.

I should have fled too. But it was too late now. I was already being pulled in.

CHAPTER2

AN INVISIBLE ENCOUNTER

Someone caught my hand, freeing me from the river of Watchers, pulling me behind a nearby building. But when the hands released me, when I turned around, no one was there.

“It’s me,” a familiar voice spoke out of nothingness.

It belonged to the invisible stranger.

I squinted into the empty space in front of me, trying to use my eyes to confirm where my ears had placed him. But the next time he spoke, he was behind me. He sure moved fast. And quietly.

“Are you all right?”

My nod was shaky. In fact, my whole body was shaky. I’d very nearly drowned inside the crowd. I hadn’t even tried to escape. Fear had frozen me. I really had to get a better grip on that.

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