“A busy train station will be worse. Besides, I don't want to have to wait for them to make the first move. Let's go.” I gently shoved Jericho's shoulder and he was out the door. Grabbing Sebastian's hand, I pulled him along, following Jericho from the cab.
“So, how do you want to do this?” I demanded, taking a few more steps forward so I was only a few feet from my enemy.
“Um, I, um, well, you should come with me.” My fearlessness caught the nameless Titan off guard flustering him. I started to enjoy myself.
“No, that's not what I meant. I mean, do you, like, want to fight here? Or go somewhere a little more private?” I half smiled, hoping everything stayed this easy.
More Titans walked around the corner, filling in the background and every possibly escape route. Maybe twelve Titans, and what felt like more than that, surrounded the three of us just waiting for things to go badly.
They were going to go badly, I felt like I should just make that announcement.
“How about we go somewhere a little more private?” The first Titan grinned, his sinister lips curled back revealing perfectly straight, white teeth.
“Ok, wait, before we do this.... thing....” I started, wanting to debate every option. “If I go peacefully with you, where will you take us? Like, exact location, where are we going?” I narrowed my eyes at him, thinking through the easiest way to get inside the London palace.
“To the king of course,” the Titan snorted.
“No, you're not listening,” I accused, and he stood up straighter, offended by my complaint. “Exactly where would that be? Like, um.... which palace?” I danced around the exact verbiage I was tempted to use. I wanted to find out more information than I gave away.
“Well, I suppose, the Paris palace, until the king decides to move you to Romania.” The Titan thought it out, his fingers twitching impatiently.
“Ah,” I sighed, “well, that won't do.”
“Won't it?” The Titan laughed with the same accent Talbott shared, thick with amusement.
“No, it won't,” I said boldly, readying my body and igniting the magic dauntlessly in my blood.
The Titans moved as one body to enclose our space, to trap me inside of their unified army. My magic was pulsed violently through my blood, electricity palpable underneath my skin. The energy was boiling, and popping and my fingers trembled underneath the strength of power.
All of my senses came into painfully sharp focus, and my blood burst with magic both mine and stolen. I struggled to get used to the energy force I must now work with, the separate magics combining powerfully together in the melting pot that was my blood. Inside both of my hands, I held white orbs of magic waiting to be released. The amount of power I was held back overwhelmed me and I knew that if I didn't release the energy soon I would cause much more destruction than anything I could have planned.
“This was a terrible idea on your part,” I mumbled sympathetically to the lead Titan who chose that exact moment to move forward and try to grab me.
With a feral scream and my blood seconds away from its breaking point, I reached one hand out toward the approaching Titan, released my magic and sent a lightning bolt of bottled fury.
He instantly fell to the ground, popping and sizzling underneath the weight and destructive power of my disposable magic. I rolled my head around in a circle, the joints in my neck cracking, readying for the next victim.
The Titan on the ground recovered slowly, his magic obviously not as strong as mine. But I left it in tact for now. Another Titan moved tentatively from the crowd and I called on the same power, sending another bolt of magic through the crowd of Titans, disrupting restaurant tables and carelessly tearing the awning overhang, that shaded the now scattering cafe customers.
Despite the haphazard movements of my electricity, it met its mark and that Titan, too, fell to the ground, writhing in agony. The still standing Titans shifted uneasily back and forth on their toes, trying to decide what to do next.
“Who's next?” I asked calmly. “Come on, seriously,” I finished quietly, demanding a challenger.
“Eden, we need to go,” Jericho whispered in my ear, reminding me of our mission and the gathering crowd of onlookers.
The humans near enough to feel involved in our altercation stared up at the sky, trying to make sense of what they would inevitably find to be unexplainable. The crowd around us gathered quickly and I understood it was impossible to continue this way. I glanced back at Sebastian, who stood, shoulders slumped, looking bored and unimpressed.
I was tempted to give him back his magic, just so I could take it again.
“All right, gentleman, I really need to get going, so here's what we're going to do,” I spoke softly enough that I wouldn't draw human attention, but with enough confidence that the Titans surrounding us gave me their undivided attention. “I'm going to walk through this crowd and you are going to let me. You are not going to follow me and you are not going to try to continue this conversation. If you do, you will force me to take something from you that you would prefer to hang onto. But, please don't mistake me, I will take it from you with out hesitation. It's better if you just let us go, k?” I finished sweetly, pulling on a few of the magics that were closest to me. It was almost too easy, almost too simple to prove my point. The Titans that felt their magic start to diminish acted out, panicked and afraid.
I stopped pulling, leaving them sighing breaths of relief and clutching at their throats. I motioned to Jericho and Sebastian and then walked through the crowd, moving forward and never looking back. I didn't want to make any more enemies; and the truth was I knew that if I wanted to take over this kingdom I would have to eventually gain the Titans trust. But right now was not the time. Right now, I had a prince to assassinate.
Chapter Sixteen
“Who's going to stay with the prisoner during the mission?” Titus asked, as soon as Jericho and I walked through the door of a London flat, our new safe-house, owned by someone in the Resistance I had never heard of before.
“You all are,” I announced, catching them completely off guard. “I'm doing this alone.”
“Excuse me?” Jericho stopped short, turning on his heel to face me.
“I'm doing this alone,” I repeated confidently, staring Jericho in the eyes, until I couldn't stand the intensity of his hazel-eyed, silent accusations.
“No, you're not,” he countered.
I walked passed him, finding the kitchen and the refrigerator. The last three hours were intense. Although we made it to the Chunnel safely and were under the impression that we were not followed, we couldn't be positive. The three of us had spent the entire two and a half hour ride in silent pensiveness and now that we were on the other side of the English Channel, fears and jitters heightened.
Paris had felt very much like enemy territory. The City of Lights was the home of the Cartiers, the Grand Duke and Duchess of Canesburry, the king's sister, the next heir to the throne should the Crowned Prince meet an untimely death. And Sebastian get his stolen magic back. Paris was there home, and definitely enemy territory.
But London?
London was the lair of the best. And I didn't just want to infiltrate that den of iniquity, I intended to cut the beast's head off and hold it up high for the entire kingdom to witness. Or at least figuratively, that's what I wanted to do.
I searched the small refrigerator for something to drink and when I realized there was nothing but water, I gave in and grabbed two, ice cold bottles. I tossed one to Sebastian, giving into my guilty conscience for just a moment.
“This is not up for discussion,” I declared, gasping for breath and wiping the corners of my mouth with my sleeve, after taking the lid off the bottle and drinking its entire contents in seconds. “I've thought about it. The mission is risky enough, but besides that, I'm the only one that can shut off the magic. I'm the only one they won't feel coming.”
“We can figure that out, that's just a detail,” Jericho argued, not at all convinced by my reasoning.
“It's just a detail, but a big detail, and after what happened in Paris, security will be heightened. It's just too much of a hassle. I'll just go in really quick, finish the job, and be out in no time,” I reasoned, lightly. I had already made up my mind; Jericho was not going to dissuade me.
“No, absolutely not, it's out of the question,” Jericho, turned around, running his hands through his hair and sighing exasperatedly.
“You can argue with me, but we all know that it's the only way into the palace. The Titans are going to sense any out of place magic. Sebastian, tell them I'm right.” I turned towards Sebastian who found the closest chair to the door and slumped down into it, his head in his hands, staring at the floor. I wasn't even sure if he was still awake.
“Come on, E, nothing he says will make any difference,” Titus laughed. “But, Jericho, she has a point. If I or you or even Gabriel tries to get in there, they will feel it. They will know something's wrong. But she just might be able to get all the way inside without setting off any alarms. If she can get all the way in without blowing something up. Can you, Eden? Can you suppress it that long without exploding something the minute your magic turns back on?” Titus turned to me when Jericho ignored him.
“Yes, of course I can,” I panicked inwardly though, deciding I'd better practice before I followed through with my plan. Amory's magic was so strong, so consuming that I wasn't sure if I had the willpower to suppress it. Or like Titus said, make it all the way inside without blowing something up. “I'll practice though, just to be sure.”
“Good idea,” Titus agreed. “Hey, remember when you used to break stuff all the time? Before you knew about being an Immortal and all that?”
“Uh, yeah, I remember,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes at the memory, and then cringing because I suddenly hated the idea that people were watching me during those trying times.
“That was the best surveillance,” Titus joked, his blue eyes twinkling with the mischief.
“For you maybe,” I couldn't help but laugh too.
“Jericho, I think Eden is right,” Gabriel offered his opinion for the first time. “Two of us could be close, just in case anything were to go wrong, but with only one person on the palace grounds, it will be easier for her to move around undetected. If she can really suppress her magic, like she claims, than it is our only option if we want to get all the way to the prince,” he finished thoughtfully.
“She is right,” Sebastian lifted his head, eying me seriously. “The grounds are a full five acres before you even reach the palace, there is no way you could all make it all that way undetected. You're only option is Eden.”
“Of course, it is.” Jericho turned around slowly to face me again and I saw the concern in his eyes, his face wrinkled with worry, my heart sunk. “Our only option is always Eden.”
“I'll be Ok, I promise,” I walked over to Jericho, unable to bear the distance. “And I'll be fast, I'll be in and out before you can miss me.”
“If only that were true,” Jericho sighed.
“This is the way we're doing it, Jericho; I need you on board. I need your support.” I reached out for his hand, and he gave it to me easily.