Runaways Book 3: The Ivorian Princess

The Real Enemy

I felt light-headed. This wasn't happening. I put my life out on the line for Akir, I couldn't believe he would do something like this. Stephan was barely living, this wasn't even living. "L-Luna, um, it's time to go. Stephan, I...I promise to help, really I-I do...um, come on Luna." I basically threw myself down the ladder and out the door. I didn't know where I was going, all I knew is I had to find Akir, I walked down, down, down, towards the dungeons. I just needed a quiet place. I must have lost Luna a while back, because when I turned around she wasn't there. I was in the dungeons now. I slid down to the floor, and buried my face in the palms of my hands.
I then fingered the lace on my dress. I couldn't believe that Rex's funeral was only this morning, it felt so far away. I turned my head down the dark tunnel. I could barely see a few guards standing down the way. I wondered if they didn't have a safe place to go home to at night, I wondered if they even had any money to pay for food. I wondered if all of the servants were treated like Stephan. All of a sudden, a light shown ahead. A light coming form a crack in the wall. I turned back to the guards to make sure they weren't watching, but they were gone. So I started towards the light. I pried my fingers through the crack and pulled, a small slab of stone broke off, and I was standing at the doorway of a small chamber, with Akir's back to me.
I had found him! But I didn't know what to do. There he was just standing there, or was he? I slowly crawled into the room, I hid behind a stack of chests, and watched from a far. He seemed to be reaching to a box, he pulled out a small jar. In the jar I could see a fine cream-colored powder. He reached into the sleeve of his gilded robe and pulled out a silver chalice, with a simple wave of his hand, water filled the chalice. He twisted the lid off of the jar, and took a pinch of its contents, and let it fall into the water. I didn't know what he was doing, wasn't he supposed to be sick? He circled the chalice around in front of him, then he took a sip.
When he did take a sip, his face grew fuller, it seemed to glow, he looked younger. Not sick at all anymore. He put down the chalice then snapped his head around to face my direction. I ducked behind the chests, quieting my breath. "BROOKE!" The chests flew away. And I was left staring into the eyes of a man I did not know. "Ch-Chief." I whimpered. "Get comfortable." He said with a smirk, he waved his hand, and ropes twisted around me like snakes. And I was left there on the floor, staring up at him. "Who are you, Akir? How could you leave a boy like Stephan the way he is? Tell me. Tell me everything." Akir paced. "The only reason I will tell you is because after I do, I will no longer need you, you will be of no use to me. I am in fact the true enemy. Not the Werewolves, me." I opened my mouth to speak, but it was bound shut by ropes.
"Tut, tut, we mustn't speak unless we are spoken to. Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Before the Werewolves, there was me, I was a regular lad, not even an Ivorian in fact, but then the Ivorians came. I devoted my life to hunting you creatures. I ground up your bones and made this powder, and was given the magic you have. I created this Dynasty, for all Ivorians to be a part of, and every time I needed new power I would poison an Ivorian, and when the body was buried I would take the bones. It was all perfect. Then the Werewolves came, I knew they were a threat to what I had begun, and I just had to get rid of them, because they were in fact, marvelous creatures. So I staged an act, and made you miserable creatures believe they were the bad guys. When all they wanted was to be great again, so when they had to fight back, of course they looked like bad guys. As for the servants, I never cared about them, especially that kitchen boy Ste–." He snapped his head around.
"We are not alone..." I prayed that it was someone coming to rescue me, someone that could help, I was terrified. Then the walls began to shake, and the floor began to rumble. And the ceiling lowered, and crashing through the wall came Jayze. Through the dust and the screams, I couldn't tell what happened, all I know is Akir got away and Jayze was bending over me, unwinding the ropes. "Oh I don't care that it's you, I'm just happy someone saved me from that awful excuse for a man, and I'm sorry, all along it was all him and really I just–." And then he kissed me, right then and there, where the castle was crumbling down around us, and everything was destroyed, there we stood, in the middle of the rubble, holding each other, not wanting to let go.