The reporters and civilians moved away from me at top speed, leaving me alone on the ground floor just past a security checkpoint. A set of stairs led up to the next floor ahead of me, and elevators flanked either side of the lobby. There were two guards on the steps, five guards at the security checkpoint, and one guard near each bank of elevators. All of them had their weapons trained on me.
“Adjudicator Hark.” I said the only important name that might be the least bit friendly to me and raised my hands over my head. Getting punched full of bullet holes seemed like a bad idea. An idea occurred to me. “I need to talk to Adjudicator Hark.”
Even if they didn’t speak English, I hoped that name would get their attention. Clem’s mom was the ruling authority who’d sentenced Grayson Bishop. She wasn’t overseeing his trial here, that fell to the five sacred sages, but she would definitely be on hand.
The guards on the stairs ahead of me glanced at one another. One of them tilted his head to the side and said something into the boxy microphone attached to his shoulder. His eyes and gun stayed focused on me as he spoke. A few moments later, his radio crackled a response that I didn’t understand. I hoped that meant someone I could talk to was on their way.
All of those guns aimed at my chest made it hard to concentrate. My Eclipse nature did not approve of the many, many threats surrounding us. It wanted me to lash out and end them, immediately. After all the craziness in my cottage, it was very, very difficult to bring the dark urge to heel.
A tall man in the white and red robes of the Resplendent Suns clan appeared at the head of the stairs. He held his fusion blade, a slender scimitar of golden flame, in his right hand. His serpents twined around him in spirals of blazing light, ready to strike or defend at a thought. He passed between the guards and stopped at the bottom of the staircase. The weight of his attention pressed against my aura, an insistent force that demanded my attention.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” he barked at me, surprised that my veil rebuffed his attempts to read me.
“I need to speak to Adjudicator Hark,” I said. My supernatural sight showed me the man’s core was only slightly more powerful than mine. That would’ve put him at the Disciple rank, one level above me. He would probably beat me in a fair fight. I wouldn’t let it come to that. “There’s an attack coming on this building.”
The weight of the Empyreal’s attention bore down on me, oozing through my aura to wrap around my core. He tried again, and failed, to penetrate my veil.
My Eclipse nature didn’t like being poked and prodded. The familiar pressure built behind my eyes. I was seconds from losing control and lashing out.
“Get on the ground,” the man growled as my eyes shifted to black. He shouted something in Japanese, and the guards around me tensed. “If you move, they’ll kill you.”
“You don’t understand,” I said. “There are Eclipse Warriors coming here, right now. I’m the only one who can stop them.”
“On the ground!” The Empyreal advanced on me, his blade raised and ready to strike. The guards on the stairs adjusted their positions to keep their firing lanes wide open.
I had no way to know how much time remained before the Lost attacked. It could be minutes. Or hours. Or seconds. The only way I could be sure I’d be ready to fight them was if I was in the hearing room. Easier said than done.
Deciding that survival was better than instant death, I followed the man’s orders. I lowered myself to my knees, then lay prone, facedown, hands stretched out above my head, palms flat on the stone floor.
“These men will restrain you now,” the man said. “If you resist, I will kill you.”
“I understand,” I said. “Just listen. Warn the sages in the Bishop case. An attack—”
“The most powerful members of Empyreal society are in that room,” my captor said. “You’re what, an adept? There’s nothing that you can do that they can’t do better. If a threat appears, they will dispatch it.”
A strange chill washed over my skin. A low, throbbing hum intruded on my thoughts. I’d felt this before, at the cottage.
“They don’t know what they’re dealing with,” I said. “The Eclipse Warriors are too strong. Without me, they’re all dead.”
“I fought in the Utter War,” the man said. “But you’re no Eclipse Warrior.”
Two guards grabbed my arms and dragged them behind me. One of them fastened a handcuff around my right wrist. The cold metal’s grip infuriated my Eclipse nature. Dark memories of a past I’d never experienced flashed like lightning through my mind. A cold, clear rage sliced through me like a knife. First, they’d manacle me.
Then they’d drag me to the pit.
And burn me.
The humming intensified, and pulses of cold wind ruffled my robes. My ears popped as the air pressure changed. The guards jumped back from me, and the Resplendent Sun shouted something I didn’t understand.
“Whatever you’re doing, stop it!” The heat of his fusion blade warmed the back of my neck.
“I’m not doing this,” I said. “It’s them! You have to let me up. I have to stop them.”
The Sun said nothing, and in that moment I knew he’d decided to kill me.
My aura was still packed with aspects I’d stolen from the School. If I didn’t use them, my life was over. It was now or never.
My Eclipse nature tried to break free of my control, but I held it in check even as I used its unique power. These guards didn’t deserve to die. I only needed to get past them.
My serpents whipped out of my core and wound tightly around the Sun’s burning fusion blade. There was a moment of searing
