His Red Queen

Chapter Thirty-seven

After a night spent tossing and turning in the back of a transport, my body is achy and in need of exercise. Evangeline and Elane are out of my sight and strange as it is, I don't like it. Though I wouldn't call them friendly faces, they are familiar and having them here is a bit of a solace. Well, it would be if I hadn't been sectioned off in a completely different transport, guarded by no less that twenty Scarlet Guard operatives at a time.

The sun peaks through the window. I wonder if Maven is looking at the sky now as I am. If he knows that I lied when I said I'd come back to him. Before I left him to his guards and ran out into the fray of battle.

For all he knows, I could be dead. Perhaps it would be better for him to believe that than for him to search for me.

I groan as I stretch. Farley had given me some training clothes, stretchy black pants and a loose crimson tunic. I flex my hands, letting sparks dance along my fingertips. I am supposed to work on training with the electricons today.

Before I went off to my own transport last night, Tyton had asked me to train with him and the other electricons. Electricons—the name he and his companions had decided to give us who have lightning in our blood.

I wave at the Scarlet Guard members when I exit the transport and one or two of them smile. Some are still wary of me, as they must have been about Cal when he was with them.

Tyton is waiting for me, two companions with him. A pretty girl with bright blue hair, and a man with bright green hair. They both seem to be around my age. The girl smiles and strides to me.

"Nice to meet you." She grabs my hand and shakes it, her grip firm. "I'm Ella and this is Rafe." She elbows him in the side.

Rafe offers a thin smile. "Hello."

"So, you guys are like me, huh?" I ask as I tie my hair back.

"Yeah," Rafe says.

Tyton steps in front of him. "I believe we all have a lot of catching up to do before we can even begin to execute the plan." Again, each word is deliberate, slow but not strangely so. He leads us all through the woods, into a clearing far enough away from the transports that any mishaps with our abilities.

I let the electricity hum through me, coating my bones, warming my body. My mind, a constant mess of fear and adrenaline and desire, clears and all that is real to me is the purple lightning circling my wrists, going up my arms.

Ella laughs like a fiend as she spreads her arms wide, sending massive bolts of blue lightning out into the sky, illuminating the horizon. Oh, yes, I like her.

Rafe sends green lightning out, matching hers perfectly in shape and size as if they are in a sort of sync. It's beautiful and terrifying. I love it.

My lightning goes next, dancing with theirs as the sky brightens so much it hurts my eyes. But I do not avert my eyes. Or stop. Months, years, of lighting leaves my body, deadly yet calm. It is an extension of my self, an outlet, my salvation and my destruction.

I show them what my lightning can do without causing harm. When it starts raining, I replicate the purple shield that the Silvers used for arena fights and Queenstrial. The rain plunks down against the electric shield, singing almost immediately.

Tyton never shows us his ability and when we are on our way back to the transports parked deep in the woods, I finally ask him why.

He shakes his head slowly. "It's too dangerous."

"It can't be any worse than mine."

Ella turns around to face me, her eyes full of warning. Rafe is ahead of her, still walking until he reaches one of the transports and goes inside quickly. The door is silent as it shuts. I worry if I have offended him in any way. Or scared him.

Tyton stops in his tracks and I with him. "It's too dangerous, Mare. I cannot use my lightning for fun or entertainment. It's deadly no matter how I use it."

I feel myself flush, embarrassed for crossing a line, mentioning something he obviously hates talking about. He doesn't scare me, though; I have been living in a court of monsters. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize." He claps a hand on my shoulder, then quickly pulls away as if struck. He walks away, following after Rafe and Ella, before I have time to react.

Later that day, Farley needs me to help her check the cargo. After two hours of counting supplies and rations, we finally break to have dinner. I find Evangeline then, sitting alone on the hood of a transport. She's frowning down at her food, an idle finger over it.

She doesn't look up at me. "What."

"Are you all right?"

She nods. "I am fine." She looks up at me warily and raises a silver eyebrow. "How about you?"

I refrain from laughing. Evangeline Samos, asking how I am. It's absurd. But I say, "Yeah." I don't ask where Elane is. Nor do I ask if she's been in touch with Ptolemus.

She pats the spot next to her. "You going to sit, or are you going to stand there, annoying me?"

I climb up next to her, surprisingly not terrified. "Did you hear about Cal?" I ask.

She shifts. "What?"

I sigh, "He's in the Lakelands." I rub my throbbing temples. The electricity from the transport feels like more than usual. "We need him for Farley's plan. The siege."

Evangeline curses. "You're right. Colonel Farley hasn't said anything about that. Do you think she took that into consideration?"

"I have no idea. But whatever they've decided to do with him there is not going to help us in any way." No plan is full-proof. I should know that by now. "He's got to be imprisoned, they're probably waiting for us to try to rescue him." And if we try to rescue him, Maven will figure it out seeing that he technically gave Cal to them as a hostage.

"Unless—" Evangeline stops short, gasping. I open my mouth to speak but she puts a pale hand up, silencing me. "This is insane."

I laugh at her. "You're idea is insane? Now way." She smacks me on the arm but not maliciously.

Evangeline's dark eyes are wide. "We need Cal to marry the Lakelands Princess."