Rich Kids Don't Die | Featured

Chapter Twenty Seven

   WHEN THEY'D STUMBLED BACK onto the carpeted hallways and into Alex's hotel room, Maddie knew they'd just barely escaped.

Having fled multiple disastrous scenes in her life, she was no stranger to the eerie feeling of having narrowly escaped a death sentence. (Literally, and figuratively). Even so, this particular occurrence had left her in somewhat of a puzzle. She could not for the life of her figure out how they'd gotten away.

The seven of them had begun their mission in the later hours of the evening and had finished in the early hours of the morning. Each of their limbs began to feel heavy, their hearts thudding wildly in glass cages made of aching bones. Even so, a bittersweet song of relief played on their lips.

"Say your prayers, everybody," Alex yawned, a smirk tugging at his lips. "You'd better be grateful I got us out of there before we all ended up like Tantalus."

"Or Sisyphus," Violet muttered quietly.

Katya clicked her tongue. "There there, young bastard. I'm the eldest, and we could have gotten out of there without your help."

Alex smiled. "Maybe. But could you have gotten out of there and have surveillance cameras strategically placed in the headquarters?"

Asher snorted. "There's nothing strategic about apparating a camera on practically every wall, buddy-"

"Let's see it then," Annika interrupted. "Where's the footage?"

"Right there," Alex said, pointing towards a desk before a vivid flash of blue light escaped his fingertips.

From an ebbing glow of magic appeared his computer, a sleek silver sheen amongst mahogany wood. He looked up at Maddie and grinned boyishly. Standing near the kitchen counter, she smiled back.

Asher cleared his throat obnoxiously, signaling for Alex to continue. Suddenly very self-aware, Alex reached for his computer as the others gathered around him.

A loud click. In an instant, they were all staring hard at his glossy screen, attempting to make sense of the hazed, annoyingly obscure doings of the Golden Sniper.

Multiple windows of surveillance had now appeared on his computer. Each window belonged to a different camera, situated on a different wall and observing a different set of magicians. Despite this, each and every magician wore the same painted expression of mingled terror and fear.

It was beautiful chaos - clusters of shouts from the corridors, an everlasting number of suspicions and accusing glances. It was an establishment built on a foundation of already established fear, and finally, it was crumbling.

The Golden Sniper was tearing apart from its seams. What of their weapons, of their soldiers? What of their shields, their enchantments and guards? How had anyone managed to flee, let alone raid the armory? Who, by Olympus, was responsible?

Alex knew the answer to all of these questions.

There was nothing left of their equipment, their soldiers were scarce, their enchantments were weak to begin with. The bounds raised around the building were easily destroyed using Zia's native flower, combined magic, and Sakai.

All in all, the Golden Sniper had vastly underestimated their competition. (Not too difficult to grasp, Alex thought).

Leah and Violet beamed at each other, relieved that their efforts hadn't gone to shit. Both of them had struggled on that particular mission.

"Shouldn't we let Sonia know?" Katya suggested, a ghost of a smile hovering over her lips.

Annika sniggered. Her almond-shaped eyes twinkled brightly, squinted further in amusement. "Okay, show off. We get it, you wanna do the talking."