“Element of surprise or not. I don’t know how to kill him, Tegan.”
“Ah, but I do,” I said, pulling off my backpack and Ethan’s sword. “I have everything you need right here.”
It took only a minute or so to explain to her what I needed her to do. We both rose to our feet, and I took her into my arms, hugging her tightly. This might be a tentative arrangement, but I allowed myself a small measure of hope.
The second we broke the hug she disappeared and I cursed. Theodore must have shown her how to magically transport herself, while I was left here in the middle of nowhere.
Shoving my hand in my pocket, I retrieved my phone only to find the screen had been cracked in several places from our earlier scuffle.
Great.
I stared out at the long stretch of empty field ahead of me and knew I had a long walk back to Ethan’s. Fingers crossed I didn’t pass out before I got there.
19.
Finn
Stunned, the silence went on for forever as we watched Rita do away with Theodore’s remains.
The silence was broken, however, when Cristescu asked incredulously, “Is that my sword?”
I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Then Gabriel and Alvie joined in. Soon enough, we were all cracking up. Our relief at having escaped a full-scale apocalypse by the skin of our teeth came out in uncontrollable laughter.
Once the flames died down and there was nothing left of Theodore but a pile of ash, Rita looked to Cristescu and answered, “The sword is probably yours, yes. Tegan gave it to me.”
“Hold on a second. Tegan was in on this?” I questioned. That crafty little mare.
Rita nodded and sat down on the edge of the stage. “We fought. I was going to kill her, but I realised I couldn’t do it. That’s when we made a deal. She said she’d help me find the old me, but first I had to kill Theodore because he was the one pulling me into the dark.”
I walked over and tentatively sat down beside her, throwing my arm around her shoulders. She tensed for a moment but soon relaxed into it. “I don’t think you need any help. I think the old you was there all along, you just didn’t know it.”
Her nod was almost imperceptible. A minute or two later, Alvie approached and sat down on the other side of Rita.
“Reet,” he choked out, and she turned her head to him.
I wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she pulled away from me and wrapped her arms around Alvie’s small frame, squeezing him tight. They both started crying. The others joined us to sit on the edge of the stage, a sea of bodies before us.
“There are going to be many changes in this city,” Cristescu said, a solemn but determined sound to his voice.
Nobody replied, but we all knew it was true.
***
It was certainly a surreal feeling to look down and see thousands of people lying prone on the ground, a charade of death. When we were kids, my sister’s favourite fairytale was Sleeping Beauty. Right now, I was looking at thousands of sleeping beauties. I hoped that, just like the princess, they were all going to wake up soon.
It was a few minutes before sunrise. I’d brought Alora with me up onto the roof of a department store on Campion Row, so we could watch and wait for everyone to come back to life.
Apparently, I’d been right about Emilia’s heart giving out because of the magic from Roman’s spell. Now that she was dead, her barrier around the city had also been lifted.
Ira wore a strange expression when he heard what had happened to her. It was more like sadness than the relief I’d expected. I guessed that, despite what she’d done to him, he’d started to feel sorry for the lonely old woman she’d become in the end.
Tegan also seemed a little taken aback by the news of Emilia’s death. Her eyes grew watery and she left the room when we told her. Later on, Rita put together one of her special healing salves for my hand, which Theodore had burned with his magic. Now it was already good as new.
I looked down at Roman as he walked through the bodies, a delicate silver light streaming out of his hand and touching off each person in turn. This was to ensure that they forgot everything that had happened in Tribane over the last few weeks. The memory cleanse would pass from person to person, until at last there would be no human left in the city who remembered the horrors of recent weeks. Well, except for me and Alvie. Roman had given us both an antidote to the memory cleanse so that we could remember.
I’d use the memories to fuel me to help bring about peace. I never wanted anything like this to take hold of Tribane ever again.