Page 140 of These Divided Shores
Hands lifted more in caution than surrender, Ben eased off the platform and turned.
He had never seen Jakes so undone. His wide, dark eyes were entirely bloodshot, their color making the tears in them blend with the blotched redness of his face. He panted, each breath grating, and he seemed to be using physical effort to hold his eyes on Ben—and not look at Teo, just back on the platform, with a gun to his head.
Jakes cocked his pistol and refocused it on Ben’s chest. “Isaw you reveal it to Elazar. Give the vial to me.”
“Jakes—”
“We both know you aren’t going to take it. He’ll get it, and he already took the one—he’s unstoppable now!”
A wave of fire shot from Ben’s left. Jakes cried out and stumbled back, and it took all of Ben’s fortitude to reach through the flames, grab Gunnar’s arm, and yank him aside.
“Where’s Vex?” Ben asked.
Gunnar blinked, his eyes darting back to Jakes. “Let me kill him. Let me—”
“Where’s my cousin?”
Gunnar nodded over his shoulder.
Ben whipped to the front of the platform, the area cut off by the fighting crowd. More defensors and raiders alike poured through the front gate, Elazar’s numbers adding in with Rosalia’s, Nate’s, Nayeli’s—this area would be a graveyard in minutes.
In front of the platform, the area before the pyre, Vex stood, looking up at Tom and Teo. Back in the fray, Ben spotted Kari and Lu, fighting to get to Vex.
“Get to Teo,” Ben told Gunnar.
“Ben!” Jakes screamed. It ripped each sound to pieces.
Ben spun around to see Jakes aiming the pistol again, his arm shaking, tears pouring down his cheeks. Gunnar lunged, and Jakes faltered back, pinning the gun on him instead.
“Don’t make me do this, Ben,” Jakes pleaded. “If everyonehad magic, if everyone had power, we wouldn’t need to fight. My family wanted the world free. They wanted an end to these senseless struggles. They wanted—”
“What doyouwant?” Ben heard himself ask. The pistol aimed at Gunnar tapped an unknown well of calm, and Ben willed it to pour out of him.
An echoing trumpet cut across the yard. The fighting paused, but paused like someone ducking to avoid a stray bullet—it instantly picked up again, frenzied and bloody.
Through the gate, arms lifted, Elazar marched into the battle.
Ben heaved. His father didn’t fight. His father let others die for him. This wasn’t his—
Elazar walked up to a group of enemies and swung his lifted hands into them. Bodies flew through the air, tossed like barrels onto a ship. Elazar, his face glistening with righteous purpose, carved through the horde. Arms flew, his body twisted, strength and speed and—
Croxy. Pious God above. Lu had putCroxy, the rage-inducing plant, into her permanent magic tonic. And that was what had chosen to stick in Elazar—the plant that would give him not only formidable strength but unstoppable will and force.
Jakes saw it, too. “Ben—give it to me!” He shook the gun. “Don’t make me kill the Mecht—give me the vial!”
Kari took the brunt of the assault, batting aside swords and yanking Lu out of the path of bullets.
Vex was before the platform. Caved forward, hacking and covered in soot, butalive, and Lu shot through an opening between a defensor and raider engaged in combat. The Incris in her body sent her flying, and in a breath, she flung herself at Vex.
He turned, caught her, air leaving him in a cry of alarm and grief.
“Lu—” Vex was pushing her away. “Lu—Teo.”
She spun, shoving Vex behind her.
Teo’s eyes were pinched shut, his whole face wrinkled in terror. Tom held the gun to his neck, his expression drawn and mangled anddistraught.
He had brought Teo here, amidst the guns and the people dying on swords and the friends slaughtering each other, just as he had forced him into the sanctuary slaughter. As though a child had any place here—
