The Magi

I let him pull me back from the parade route. The expression on his face was enough to tell me something huge had happened. He’d only been gone ten minutes while fetching the cake. How could something so momentous have happened in such a short space of time?

“What is it?” I asked. I was aware that time was running out to rescue the others. We still had no definitive plan, but once Luca found out that Seraphia and the others had been freed from his basement, he would put extra security on the cells.

Cynder took a deep breath. “The woman who asked me to come upstairs, she didn’t ask me to fetch the cake. She wanted me to get something from Luca’s study. Apparently, he’d forgotten the rings. He’d left them in the drawer of his desk. The blonde woman couldn’t find them, so she asked me to help. Eventually, we found them in a locked drawer. I had to smash it open to get them out.

“When she’d gone, I had the opportunity to have a quick look at what else was in there. I found some personal letters from your father.”

“My father? Why?”

“I didn’t read them all. There were so many, going back years. It seems that your father knew Luca from a long time ago.”

“Of course he knew him. The King and Queen of Thalia visited us years ago. Luca came with them. It’s quite common for royalty to visit other kingdoms.”

“It seems that they struck up quite a friendship. I didn’t read all the letters. There were so many, but I got the gist of them by scanning through a few.”

“So what did they say?” I asked impatiently.

Cynder hopped from one foot to the other and puffed out his cheeks. I waited patiently for him to spit it out.

Luca was behind all of this. It wasn’t Xavier like we thought. Luca planted the evidence that Xavier had set everything up, but Xavier was nothing more than a pawn in Luca’s grand plans. That’s why both your father and Xavier died at your first wedding.”

“No!” I replied in shock. They died because of the riots. They were both trampled to death.

“And who do you think organized the riots? All this time, we thought your father and Xavier were the bad guys. They were, but it was Luca that orchestrated it all. He’s been planning this for years. It was Luca that found Xavier, Luca that persuaded your father to hold a ball to find you a husband, and Luca that arranged for your sister to be murdered.”

I couldn’t breathe. The noise from all the people began to ring in my ears.

“Why?” I whispered, through labored breaths. “Why would he want Grace dead?”

“Your father told him something about Grace that he didn’t like.”

What was there not to like about Grace? She was so much better than I, more beautiful, more graceful, more regal. She bettered me in so many ways. “What did he tell him?”

“Grace contracted a disease when you were all little. It wasn’t bad enough to kill her, but it rendered her infertile. Grace couldn’t have children.”

I closed my eyes. “That can’t be true. I read her diary. She’d told my father that she wouldn’t marry Xavier, just the day before she was killed.”

“And your father told Luca,” Cynder explained. “It was he that suggested that your father poison her. He was the one to supply the poison.”

“But why would Luca want Grace, or for that matter, me, to marry Xavier if he wanted to become the king himself?”

Cynder sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “The whole ball was a set up. I found a list of names. Almost everyone there was someone that Luca had requested your father invite. Most were his guards pretending to be other people. He’d orchestrated it so you’d pick four people of his choosing. What he wasn’t expecting was your mother to invite a few other people at the last minute. That’s how Leo got invited. You already know we managed to get Daniel in there too. It made it harder to get you to pick Xavier, so Luca put pressure on your father.”

I frowned. All around me people were shouting and cheering. The noise was giving me a headache. “It still doesn’t explain why Luca wanted me to pick Xavier instead of him. Why would he plan it that way?”

“As far as I can tell, Xavier was manipulated as much as your father was. Luca planned it all along that you would marry Xavier. He also planned it that Xavier would die at your wedding. I think he wanted all the heat away from him. If you were looking closely at Xavier, you’d never think to look into Luca’s past. He was free to build his army under your nose while pretending to be working against your father and Xavier. When they were both dead, he could carry on in the role until the moment he needed to get rid of you and Elise too. I’ve got no doubt in my mind that both Elise and now baby Grace will be on the list of those people to be executed in a couple of days.”

Even though I knew it was true, hearing it made it all the more real. “We need to get to the hospital before we go to the cells.”

“No, we don’t. I contacted Jason on the talk stone earlier. He told me that Elise is back at the police headquarters.”

I nodded. It would take me a long time to come to terms with the scale of Luca’s deceit, but I didn’t have time to be upset about it now. I had to save my sister and time was running out. The carriage carrying Drusilla to the cathedral had just gone past.

“Guys!” I yelled, shouting in the general direction of the others. I’d already lost them in the throng of people as I couldn’t remember what they all looked like. Ten people ran over. I studied each of them quickly, so as to remember their faces.

“Seraphia,” I said to the middle-aged woman. “Please, can you give everyone a badge or something so I know who they all are. It’s going to be too easy to lose each other otherwise.”

She waved her wand discretely and immediately, we all had a small violet broach pinned to our clothes.

“Will that do?” she asked.

I nodded. “Let’s go. If Drusilla has already gone past, that means she’ll arrive at the cathedral in about twenty minutes. I need to be there when the wedding starts.”

We took off through the backstreets. Today, thanks to the royal wedding, there were no guards on duty anywhere except the parade route and the cathedral itself. Getting to the police headquarters was a piece of cake. I only hoped getting in and out of it would be just as easy.

Copper met us in the reception area. Unlike the last time I’d been there, it was now empty except for Copper and a policewoman I’d not seen before on the reception desk.

“Come with me,” he said once I’d whispered who we all were to him. “Danielle, it’s ok, they are with me.”

The policewoman nodded and went back to a magazine she was reading.

“Luca left me in charge of the cells, but he doesn’t trust me. There are cameras down there. If he knows it’s me that let everyone out, I’ll lose my job. Scratch that; I’ll lose my life. I’ll be coming with you afterwards. There’s nothing left for me here.”

I took his hand and looked him straight in the eye.

“After today, you won’t have to worry about Luca, but I do want you to come with me anyway. You have an important job to do.”

“What is it you need me for?”

“In less than an hour, I want you to arrest Luca.”

Copper blew out his cheeks. “I hope you know what you are doing, Charm. Because I’m telling you now, there are over a hundred of Luca’s men in that Cathedral. He’s put everyone on it. You might be able to magic your way in, but there is no way you’ll get out of there alive.”

“Let me worry about that!”

We followed Copper down to the cells. Each one was crammed with people. Many of them I recognized as being Magi. A lot I didn’t know at all.

“Who are all these people?” I whispered, wondering how we were going to separate our friends from everyone else. As far as I could see, everyone was mixed up, and there were at least ten people in each cell. “Are any of them dangerous?”

Copper shook his head. “We’ve got a hundred and thirty-seven people down here, and the only crime any of them have committed is either being a Magi or friends of Magi. Luca wasn’t bothered about catching actual criminals, so thieves and murderers have been getting away with their crimes while innocent people have been brought down here and sentenced to death. Every last one of them is due to be hanged in a couple of days.”

I looked at the people. Each cell was supposed to house one person. There weren’t even enough places for them all to sit, so a lot of them were standing. I scoured the cells until I came upon the one I was looking for. I ran over. Inside were Elise, Leo, and mother. I hurriedly looked around, but there was no sign of the baby.

“Where’s Grace?” I shouted at Copper.

He went to his desk and picked up something from behind it. It was a bassinette. Inside was the gorgeous sleeping form of my niece.

I didn’t like the idea of her ever being in a cell,” said Elise, running over to me and speaking through the bars. “Jason said he’d happily keep her by his desk. He lets me out to feed her and cuddle her whenever I want.”

“I’d have done more, but if I let her out too much, Luca would have been all over me.”

I nodded grimly. While it was nice that Copper was doing everything he could, just having a baby down in the basement of a police station was enough to make my blood boil.

“Let them out please Inspector. Let them all out.”

Copper nodded his head.

“Before you do, I want a word with all of them.” I walked to one end of the cells and shouted to get everyone’s attention. I had to keep it brief, but I told them everything they needed to know. Ten minutes later, I had another hundred and thirty-seven on my side. I only hoped it would be enough.

Just before Copper pressed the button to open the cells, I picked up my niece before running over to speak to Leo.

“I don’t want Grace caught up in this. It’s way too dangerous. Can you take Mother, Elise, and Grace back to the palace? The cellar is still intact. Cynder and I have been living there. You shouldn’t have any problems if you are quick. Take the back streets. There are no guards there. They are all at the cathedral.”

I nodded at Copper who opened their cell first. I kissed Grace on the head before passing her back to Elise. She fluttered her tiny eyelashes a little then decided to go straight back to sleep. I only hoped I’d see her tiny face again, but if I didn’t, I had it burned into my memory.

“Goodbye, little one,” I whispered.

Elise put her arms around me. “I know you’ll be fine. If anyone can bring Luca down, it’s you.” She kissed my cheek. I could see the tears in her eyes.

“Be safe,” I said.

She gave me a smile. Two minutes later, she was gone.

I waited for another five minutes to pass. If everything went wrong and we were somehow caught, I wanted to know that she had gotten away. I knew Leo would be able to keep them all from harm, and it was this thought that calmed me down. Once Copper opened those cell doors, there was no turning back. I’d be putting a plan into motion that would either get us all freedom or end up with some, if not all, of us dead.