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Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty-One

Lyndsey rode on and on until she could feel Belle starting to struggle. The horse was still young and despite Lyndsey's efforts, she was tiring. They arrived in a small clearing beside a stream and Lyndsey dismounted. She let Belle drink and unhooked her bag. She scooped up a little water in her hands and sipped it before splashing it on her face. She dug into her bag to see what Vera had given her. There was a small loaf of bread and a few slices of ham and a chunk of cheese. Lyndsey took small bites of each of these before wrapping them carefully and stowing them away once more. Vera had told her to look deeper in the bag when she got far enough away. At the bottom of the bag was a map. Lyndsey recognised it at once. It looked just like the one she had found in her mother's journal. Though she hadn't known then, she now understood what she was looking at. It was showing her all the places she might find help. The locations of families who stood up to the Potestas. One of the regions, a fair distance to the north of where Lyndsey thought she now was, had been circled.

After studying the map carefully, memorising where she had to go, Lyndsey folded it away, tucking it deep in the bottom of her bag. She was just standing up when something smacked her hard in the middle of the back. She went head over heels, landing on her back in the water. She immediately sprung up onto her feet, twisting in the air to face whoever it was that had come for her. She was unsurprised to see Celeste standing at the other side of the clearing.

Lyndsey took a few steps towards Celeste. She knew she could hold her own against her cousin. Before she had the chance to say anything, a small cough made her look around. Lyndsey was stunned to find herself encircled. She had been so focussed on Celeste that she had failed to hear them. Charles was directly behind her and there were others too. The obsequious Sebastian had appeared to Celeste's right, his cousin Corinna was to her left and the dark-haired twins, Alice and Marcus has taken up spots on either side of Lyndsey. She was completely surrounded.

With a tiny gesture of Celeste's hand, something small and shaped somewhat like an acorn flew through the air in Lyndsey's direction. Before she could react, it exploded sending a cloud of metallic dust directly into her face. Lyndsey cried out as she felt her eyes starting to burn. The dust got into her throat too making her cough and splutter. It must have been lead dust, Lyndsey realised as she felt herself becoming weak and dizzy.

Seeing her weakened, Alice and Marcus, with a speed at odds with their solidarity, each grabbed one of Lyndsey's arms. She struggled and kicked to get free. She tried to push them away with her mind, but as she did so a high-pitched sound shrieked into her ears. Her eyes darted around, searching for the source of the noise, only to find Corinna sneering at her. As Lyndsey continued to fight Corinna's attack only increased in intensity and accuracy. Weakened as she was, it felt like the sound was a red-hot needle being forced into each of her temples. Something warm started to run down the side of Lyndsey's neck and she screamed with pain. Her ears had started to bleed.

"Enough." Celeste's voice was lazy, almost bored sounding, as she called off Corrina's attack. The younger girl stepped back, looking at Celeste who had now taken a step forward with Sebastian by her side. She had him wrapped around her finger, Lyndsey could see. The expression on his face was the same as Celeste's and he looked at her almost adoringly. He would do anything she told him to do, and without question. Alice and Marcus too retreated leaving Lyndsey to collapse to her knees in the dust.

"What do you want from me?" Lyndsey asked, a little breathless as she tried to regain her composure, rubbing at her still streaming eyes.

"I want you gone. You are going to ruin everything." Celeste said, almost hissing with fury. The anger had been slowly building in her since the moment she had left the house, Charles following closely behind her. Celeste had gathered her group and they had followed the power traces that Lyndsey had left behind her as she had been riding. "Have you any idea the life I could have lived if your family hadn't always been getting in the way?" Celeste's hands were clasped in front of her and Lyndsey could feel power building between her palms. She was drawing all the power in the area to her and the other children were also directing their power towards her. Lyndsey had read about this and had trained it a little with Vera and Michael, but never on this scale. The ground beneath their feet began to tremble. Celeste raised both arms and roots shot out of the ground at break neck speed. Lyndsey tried to absorb the power herself to slow them down. She took as much as she could, but they were still coming at her.