I blink my eyes open, coughing on the dust that is somehow in my mouth and all around me, stinging my eyes. When the dust settles a little, I open my eyes to see a piece of wall in front of me, broken into pieces, and one of the larger pieces has an arm underneath it. I shake my head as I pull myself up, seeing the red flashing lights and hearing the blaring sound of an alarm in the distance. The room I’m in is destroyed, and I can’t see anything but dust, rock, broken walls and glass. I glance down, seeing the broken collar by my hand and my other hand goes to my slightly burnt neck, pulling away when it stings as I touch it. I think back to my Asteria holding my hands, and then the pain and what I think was screams. What happened? I look back at the arm, hoping it’s Asteria, and move to crawl across the floor to it. I pull the heavy bit of wall off the arm, and I’m relieved to see Asteria on the ground, covered in pieces of wall, but she is just waking up.
“Asteria?” I mutter her name, sliding an arm beneath her back and pulling her so she sits up.
“You remind me of your father,” she says, her voice croaky. “Just as magical.”
“You must have hit your head. We need to escape here, and you can tell me all about him. You can tell me everything, Asteria,” I tell her, and she nods with a smile. I shakily stand myself up and hold a hand out for her. I manage to get her to stand up, but she nearly falls as she tries to put weight on her right leg, and I look down at all the blood pouring from it through her white trousers. “Put your arm around me.” Asteria does as I ask, and we slowly make our way through the open door and into a long corridor. The flashing red light doesn’t do much to show us where we need to go, but it does show me dozens of other doors down here.
“Call me mum. Just once,” Asteria whispers to me.
“When we get out of here, I will. We need to find some stairs or something,” I mutter, shifting Asteria’s weight a little and deciding to head in the direction of the siren noise. We hobble down the corridor, and I glance to my right, seeing all the doors again and knowing I need to open these before we escape, or the guys’ mission would be for nothing.
“What did you do to me in there?” I ask Asteria as we carry on walking slowly. “What happened?”
“You inherited your powers,” she tells me.
“And then what caused the explosion or whatever happened to that room?” I ask. I seriously hope Graves and those hunters are dead under all the gravel and broken walls.
“You did. You are far more powerful than I was when I got my powers, but then with who your father is, that is no surprise,” she muses, and I go to ask her who my father is when I see the flashing stairs sign. I hurry us towards it and pull the door open, stopping to stare at the emergency release button on the wall. I glance back down at the doors and wonder if it will open them. Only one way to find out. I lift the plastic covering and slam my hand onto the red button, and a blasting alarm sounds. The doors each start popping open one by one.
“We have to go,” I remind myself and Asteria, knowing I’ve done my best to help them, and I need to get us out of here. The others can come back for the prisoners. I’m sure they are on their way to rescue us. I hope Nath has gotten out somehow, and I know I will go back for him if the others don’t rescue him first. I help Asteria up the stairs, pausing every few steps with her to get our breaths back. I freeze when I hear steps below us, and three guys, carrying small children in their arms, run past us like we aren’t even here. When I look down the staircase, there are more men, children and women slowly climbing the stairs behind us, all wearing those horrible white clothes. I have to pray Nath is with them. I slide my arm further around my mother’s waist with more determination, and we carry on up the stairs, knowing we need to leave this place.
“Did you have a good childhood? Were you happy?” Asteria asks me, her voice breathless.
“Yes,” I reply, trying not to break down emotionally right now. I can do that when I am somewhere safe and have some time to process this. Not right now.
“That’s all I wanted. All we wanted for you. The throne is nothing without happiness,” she says. “Everyone forgot that in Frayan.”
“What throne?” I ask her as we keep walking.
“Yours. You are the heir to the Autumn court, Adelaide,” she tells me as we get to the top of the stairs and make our way to the doorway right in front of us.
“That’s crazy. I’m no princess, and you really must have hit your head,” I tell her firmly.
“Being the heir to the throne is only half of who you are. The other half is far more powerful, and if you don’t control it, embrace it, you will destroy everything like the prophecy said,” she warns me, coughing on her words. I think back to the book and the mention of a prophecy in that book mum left me.
“Are you saying there is a prophecy about me?” I ask Asteria, and she nods.
“Yes, and I did everything to save you from it. I fear it has already started now,” she says as we make our way across the reception room.
“What did you do?” I ask her, confused, and she goes to answer when three loud gunshots bang in the room and Asteria screams out in pain, falling out of my arm to the floor. I fall with her, not even looking for who shot her, as I turn her over onto her back.
“Adelaide. I never thought I’d get to see you one more time before death. This is a blessing, my sweet child…a blessing…” she whispers, her eyes fading, and then she starts to disappear. Her body slowly turns into red dust in my hands until there is nothing left but a pile of red dust that floats across the floor.
“Mum…” I crackle out, staring at the red dust in pure shock.
“She deserved to die. That bitch almost killed me. Now, Adelaide, be a smart girl and come here,” Graves beckons, sounding not far behind me. Anger fills my mind, and my hands start to crackle with blue lightning.
“Adelaide, what are you doing?!” Mr. Graves’s panicked voice shouts from behind me, but I see nothing but blue light as the lightning crackles all over my skin, and I stand up.