Page 62 of Conflicted Fate
“We did this,” I said to Kiel, looking up at him as the true import of what they were saying hit me. Arcadia, the second most populous city in the empire, wasgone. “Us. We caused this.”
“They did it,” Kiel snarled, but his heart wasn’t in it.
“Yes, but it was our actions that put all those innocents in harm’s way,” I said, staggering to my feet as I pictured the screaming, the heat of the flames, the dead and dying as the fire ate away at them. Suddenly, the burns I’d suffered as I’d escaped up the exit shaft were nothing. I recalled the guard who’d fallen into the streams of liquid metal in the Grand Forge. His screams had been terrible.
They would have been nothing next to the citizens of Arcadia. The cries of thousands as they burned alive. Children crying for their mothers. Lovers holding each other as the flames consumed them, sharing one last passionate embrace. Never truly knowing what they’d done to deserve such a fate.
I staggered to my feet and hurried from the clearing before bending over a rock and emptying my stomach of its contents. Again and again, I heaved. Until there was nothing left, though my body kept trying. It wouldn’t make it go away. Nothing ever would.
Eventually, I just lay there, doing nothing until I could be confident moving wouldn’t bring on another fit. Glancing over my shoulder at the others to ensure they were still there, my eyes landed on Kiel. He hadn’t moved. Staring straight ahead, fists clenching and unclenching, his face could be made of granite for all it moved.
“What is it?” I asked, moving to his side. He was furious, that much was obvious, but there was somethingelsein his expression. Something I couldn’t decipher.
“I hate myself for this more than you could ever imagine,” he said. “But, Jada … this is it.”
“What do you mean?” He wasn’t making any sense.
“Word of this will spread like wildfire.” Kiel grimaced, unhappy with his choice of words. “And when it does, when the anger, the shock, everything we’re feeling, when it reaches the general populace? They won’t take it lying down. They will want todosomething about it.”
I couldn’t disagree with his notion. But …
“Does it really matter?” I asked, feeling a wave of despair crash over me as I finally spoke the words out loud. “Lycaonus has the sword now, Kiel. He can’t be stopped. Even if the entire population rose against him, it wouldn’t matter. You don’t understand how muchpowerhe wields now. For the brief amount of time I held a sword with one shard in it, I was invincible. Unstoppable. If that blade hadn’t shattered, who knows what I could have done. That wasoneshard, Kiel, he hassixin a blade forged specifically to hold that kind of power. He could probably kill hundreds of us with a single thought!”
“Maybe,” Kiel said through gritted teeth. “Maybe not.”
I just stared at him, waiting for him to explain.
“Fate speaks to you.”
“When I had a piece of her inside me, yes,” I said.
“And in the exhaust shaft. She appeared to you again. You said so.”
“That was one time,” I countered. “And she didn’t look good. Either way, it’s not like I can just close my eyes and have a chat with her.”
“Well, you’re going to need to reach out to her,” Kiel said. “We’re going to need her help for this. She can’t hide in her temple. Not anymore, not unless she’s ready to admit defeat and stop trying.”
I’d never gotten that impression from Fate, but still …
“I can try,” I said cautiously. “I don’t know if it’ll work. Why? Do you have a plan?”
“I do,” he said. “It’s not great. It won’t be easy. But I’m not sure we have a better option.”
“What is it?” I pushed.
“Clive. Andi. On your feet!” Kiel ordered sharply, his words slicing through the fog hanging over them. Before they knew what they were doing, they were on their feet. “You two have to get moving.”
“To do what?” Clive asked.
“Put the word out,” Kiel growled. “Every network. Every cell. Every town, village, and city. Spread it far and wide. Tell everyone what happened in Arcadia. It’s time we stopped hiding in the shadows.”
Andi cocked her head. “What do we say after that?”
“Tell them it’s time,” Kiel snarled, turning to look north. “We’re marching on Nycitum, and we’re going to bring this whole thing crashing down. One way or another.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“It’s not going to be enough, is it?”
