Out

We ran in the opposite direction as fast as we could.

“Where to now?” I asked, trying to keep up with Cynder after we emerged out onto a busy street full of shops.

Most had closed signs over the doors, but the few that were still open had lines of people out the door.

Cynder stopped, out of breath, and checked behind us. There was no one there. The guard hadn’t seen us.

“I guess The chief inspector’s safe zones are only safe for one day at a time.” He glanced around to make sure no one was looking and pulled out the talk stone. He wrote a quick message to Copper.

Need safe zone for tonight. Nearly caught by Luca’s guard.

Seconds later Copper replied.

No safe zones anymore. Luca’s put one of his men in charge. I’m no longer the chief.

It was a blow, not only for him and us, but also for our cause.

Having an ally in the chief of police was better than we could have hoped for, and now we didn’t.

“I can’t believe we lost him,” I cried.

Cynder took my hand and began to walk, peering in the shop windows as though he was shopping. “We haven’t lost him. He didn’t say he wasn’t working at the police station anymore. He only said that he wasn’t in charge. Unfortunately, it means that we are on our own for now.”

I took in a deep breath. Could things get any worse? I looked up and down the street at all the people. No one was looking twice at us. “Maybe we’ll be ok. No one recognizes us. We can book into a hotel.”

Cynder shook his head. “Luca will have every hotel on alert. He knows you are friends with Magi and he knows that the Magi can change their appearance. He’ll have his guards schooled on your mannerisms, the way you walk, your voice. I can’t change any of that. The second we book into any hotel in the city, he’ll have a swarm of guards descending on us.”

“What else can we do? Where are we supposed to...”

A thought occurred to me. It was brilliant. There was one place that Luca would never think to look for us

“What?” asked Cynder, catching my excitement.

“We can go back to the palace,” I said turning and heading in that direction.

He looked confused as he caught up with me. “What palace?”

“My palace,” I replied.

I quickened my pace, desperate to be back home for the first time in forever. Cynder almost had to run to keep up with me as I weaved between the throngs of people lining up to buy a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.

“Your palace burnt down, remember? You saw it yourself on the TV. There was barely any of it left.”

I stopped and turned to him, a grin on my face.

“Exactly. Which is why Luca won’t think to look there. Why would I go back to a palace that is no more than a pile of ashes?”

“He has a point!” replied Cynder.

I purposely didn’t let on what I was planning for fear I might be wrong, but as we got to the palace, I could see that I was right.

The gates at the back were boarded up, but at least, there was no one guarding them. I already knew there was nothing left to guard. With Cynder helping me, I managed to hoist myself up and vault over the gate. Cynder followed.

“There’s nothing left,” he said taking in the mess that used to be the royal palace.

“The palace is no longer standing,” I began, heading towards the little that was left. A couple of rooms on the ground floor remained although neither of them had a ceiling. The beautiful mosaic floors were now wet with rain and blackened by ash. “But underneath...”

“The basement!” exclaimed Cynder finally realizing what I came here for. “It was a bomb shelter!”

“Well remembered! It should still be intact.”

We had to burrow under bits of broken wall and pieces of palace that could have been anything originally but now were blackened beyond recognition. Eventually, we came to the steps leading downward and a door. The keypad to enter the code was still there. I typed in the code 2103, my elder sister’s birthday. Nothing happened.

“The code has been changed.”

“I’m not sure it has,” replied Cynder. “The keypad has no electricity running to it. Look.” I looked to where he was pointing. The little red light that usually appeared on the keypad was out.

“The basement has its own generator in case of emergencies. It should be working.” I tried the number again out of sheer stubbornness.

“Let me try.” Cynder brought out his wand and pointed it at the keypad. He mumbled something, and the keypad came to life. Seconds later, there was a click, and the door opened. Stepping over some debris, I headed through. Everything looked exactly as it was the last time I’d seen it. The shelves upon shelves of royal heirlooms were still there if a little dusty. I noticed many of them were missing, no doubt taken in Luca’s purge of the palace finery before he blew it up.

I squealed as I ran through the huge warehouse-like room. Not everything had been destroyed after all. I didn’t care about the expensive jewelry or works of art. What I cared about were the photographs that had been stored down here. Pictures of Grace. Pictures of Elise and I as children.

Even better were the beds, the small kitchen, and the food that we’d stored in the event of an emergency.

“We can stay down here for weeks!”

Cynder picked me up and twirled me around before pulling out his wand and pointing it at my face. I felt the familiar warming of my face.

“What do I look like now?” I asked, bringing my hand up to my face.

“You look like you again,” he replied and kissed me. My heart rate increased as he ran his hands through my hair. I pulled back and looked into his eyes.

“Can you turn yourself back too? I feel like I’m kissing a stranger.”

That wasn’t quite the truth. I’d know the touch of his lips no matter what he looked like, but I missed his brown eyes.

He waved his wand over his face and the Cynder I knew came back to me.

His features were etched on my brain, but seeing them again, his beautiful face gazing right back at me made my heart flutter.

He reached up, cupping my face. There was nothing anymore—no palace basement, no rows of shelves where my heirlooms used to be. There was just Cynder and I.

I felt his breath, hot against my cheek and the flutters turned into something more.

All the chances I’d had to do this with Luca, and I’d come up with excuses not to, this time I didn’t need an excuse. I was all in.

We stayed down in the palace basement for weeks. I hated to admit it, but I loved those weeks away from reality with only Cynder for company. It was almost as though I could forget the dire situation we were in. I told myself it was fine because we were accomplishing something down there. We were still writing articles for the Charm Chronicle, and once a week, we’d head out of the palace to meet Manny to film our short segments for the news. Without Copper to help us and with the increased guard in the city, it became more and more dangerous, and yet, we persisted fueled by the hundreds of purple leaflets pinned up all over the capital. Whoever was smuggling them into the city was doing a fantastic job. They were everywhere.

Things were changing in Silverwood, and there was nothing Luca could do about it. The Charm Chronicle was going strong, and now the mainstream newspapers were beginning to pick up on it. Oh, they still covered their front pages with Luca and Drusilla, but inside, questions were beginning to be asked. There were sightings of “Charm” all over the city (none of which were actually me), and polls as to whether I was actually alive or not kept up the people’s interest. Even more exciting, there were reports of the people beginning to protest against Luca.

I’d always hated protests. The anti-Magi had done enough of them in their time, and they usually ended up in violence. Now, however, the people were coming together for a better cause. They were fighting for their kingdom against their own soon-to-be king. It was a glorious thing to witness. I only wished I could go out and join them, but Cynder pointed out that I was the one rallying them together. They just didn’t know it. We’d carried on with our aliases of Jess and Mitch, and according to the papers, we were becoming stars in our own right. Speculation abounded as to who we really were. Most people thought we must be Thalians because how else would we be able to broadcast if not from outside Silverwood’s borders. I suspected Luca knew the truth though. Cynder had told me that the magic masks were easy to see through if you knew the person well and Luca knew me better than almost anyone. It gave me great satisfaction to believe that Luca was seeing me tearing him down on television, and there was nothing he could do about it.

All in all, everything was going to plan. The whole of Silverwood was littered with purple newsletters, our weekly TV segments were still going out, and Luca’s popularity was fading fast as people began to question his motives.

Nothing could bring me down, not even the note from Copper to tell me that “Jess” and “Mitch” now had a death sentence on their heads and Luca was offering a ten thousand dollar reward for our capture.

In fact, I couldn’t be happier. That was until I received a message from Seraphia.

Elise really sick. In hospital. Come immediately! She might not make it.