If I stayed here, I’d be locked away forever. If I had the power to stand against the Dark, maybe I could make a difference before the shit hit the fan. They wanted to take Camelot back and with Elijah’s help, we could figure out what they wanted before it became a problem. I was the only person alive who could walk into the Balan’s lair and stop another war from erupting.
Despite what I’d become and how my own people had treated me, I was still on the side of good and that had to count for something.
I stood with renewed hope and pressed my palms against the door. The catch was I had to do it without tipping too far into the Dark. And not get caught. And not hurt anyone—at least not too much.
After all those years at the Academy listening to lectures about ‘the balance’, and trying not to fall asleep with boredom, here I was relying on the fine line between good and evil more than ever. Oh man, I wished I’d taken more notes.
There was only one way to find out if this was going to work, so I took a deep and let go.
My mutation rushed outwards and I lashed at it with my Light. Silver tendrils wrapped around the red fingers of Darkness, fusing them together.
Sweat beaded across my forehead and I moaned softly, scraping my fingernails against the stone wall. Was this what accepting fate felt like? My mutation had been reaching out all this time, wanting to join with my Light, except I couldn’t keep calling it ‘my mutation’.
The two energies flowed together—it filled my limbs and mixed with my blood. I was being born again, my soul accepting what it had become…all so I could save Elijah’s life and stop the Dark.
I opened my eyes, my heart filled with renewed purpose, and I pushed aside the stone that was blocking the entrance to my prison.
As I stepped into the square, the guards drew their arondight blades, sparks skidding across stone. They were watching the opening behind me as I approached, unaware that I was already before them.
Knowing I couldn’t leave them conscious, I slipped between the two men and struck—they never stood a chance. With two quick blows, they slumped to the ground, their swords clattering against stone.
Leaving them where they lay, I walked through the lower city, my gaze darting around as if I was seeing life for the first time.
I wasn’t far from base camp. I could feel the ebb of Light from here, the concentration of Naturals creating a beacon. Strange, I hadn’t noticed it before.
Shrugging it off as a side effect of levelling up my power reserves, I made my way towards the camp where Elijah was.
The mood in the little khaki-coloured city was sombre as I walked unseen through the tents. Conversations ebbed and flowed, all of them talking about me and Wilder’s appearance at Camelot. Maisy was right—he’d gone up to the castle the day before and hadn’t returned.
I was concerned, but he was our leader—not to mention one half of the most powerful duo our kind had ever encountered. He’d be fine.
Two guards stood outside the infirmary, standing watch over their prisoner within. I approached them, willing myself into a pocket of space beyond their vision. Then I simply walked past them and into the infirmary.
Elijah lay in the bed where I’d left him days before. Standing over him, I noticed his colour was better and though his wounds were bound, the bandages didn’t show any signs of blood.
It also didn’t take a rocket scientist to see they’d doped him up to the eyeballs. I pulled back the bandages and found three red scars slashing across his chest from shoulder to ribs. Ramona had lived up to her promise and spectacularly, too.
Elijah began to stir, sensing my touch.
“Hey,” he rasped through the fog of sedation, “pretty Natural.”
“Thank the Light you’re not dead.”
“Your friends did a good job,” he murmured, his eyes drooping. “They also know how to incapacitate a guy like me really well. Give her a gold star.”
“Still a smart arse, I see.”
“Imagine my surprise when I woke up in Camelot,” he drawled. “You promised not to bring me here.”
“I did no such thing.” I wrapped my hands around his head and circled my thumbs over his temples.
“Mmm…” he murmured. “Am I at a day spa?”
I rolled my eyes and concentrated. A sedative Light manipulation was wrapped around his mind like a blanket that locked away his Darkness, but it wasn’t the only thing that kept him subdued. Someone had tethered him to the infirmary—most likely Wilder. It wouldn’t be pretty if Elijah left the boundary.
The Lady of the Lake gave the Naturals their power. She was the same celestial being who’d gifted Excalibur—otherwise known as Wilder Pendragon—and Arondight theirs. We were all made of the same energy, just in different quantities. That meant I could nullify my way through Elijah’s sedation and get us out of Camelot, just like I’d gotten us in.
I reached out, my power merging with the sedation. My fingers began to tingle as the Light dissolved around Elijah’s mind. Then, it was gone.
He jerked upright, wide-eyed and alert. “Madeline.”
I looked into his steely eyes and was glad to see him return to his old self.
“You’re breaking me out?” His lips tugged up at one side. He really was roguishly handsome.
“Stay with me and no one will stop us,” I told him.
He stilled, his gaze piercing mine. “You know, don’t you?”
“The truth about my mutation? Oh yeah, do I ever.” He slid his legs out of bed and I dumped his clothes next to him. I pulled his socks onto his feet as he fumbled with his T-shirt. “You knew all this time and couldn’t tell me?”
“I suspected,” he replied, his voice muffled by the fabric as he dragged his T-shirt over his body. “But I had no way of knowing for sure.”
“It doesn’t matter,”
