Unsung

Chapter Eighty-Five

It was as if all the blood had drained from my body as the sandy haired boy I'd called a friend stepped forward and into the spotlight. As my hand began to shake, I let my phone drop to my side and stared down at my friends below.

Austin was the traitor? How was it possible that he'd been working against us the whole time? It didn't make any sense. He'd been just as intent on revealing the truth behind the allegations against Cain as we had. So why was he working with the very person who'd made them up? Had he been lying to us from the beginning? From before I even got to the hero school?

I turned away and began to dry heave, swallowing back bile as it rose up my throat.

How could this be happening?

Down below, the others were reeling as well. Shocked looks littered their faces and most of them had been stunned into silence. All except for McKayla, who had immediately lunged at Austin and was now screaming a stream of expletives at him.

Austin looked on nervously as the foxes struggled to keep a firm grip on McKayla. An angry McKayla was a danger to anyone that got in her way. And without her having to say it, Austin was currently her main target.

"Austin, my boy!" the senator exclaimed proudly. "You are the man of the hour! Take a bow."

But Austin didn't move. After a moment of staring at his former friends, he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

With a sigh, the senator walked over to Austin and clapped him on the shoulder congenially. "We need to work on your victory speech, kid," he said, before turning to walk away again. "In the meantime, tell me, is what the prince of darkness saying true? Are there others out there?"

Austin paused but didn't look in my direction. After a moment he shook his head.

"No," he answered. "This is it."

His lie surprised me almost as much as finding out he'd betrayed us in the first place. But I didn't have much time to process why he'd done it, as the senator was already walking back to Ris. As he reached him, he threw a punch so fast that I almost didn't see it happen. But I heard it. The smacking sound his fist made as it connected with Ris' jaw echoed through the room. His head flew to the side from the force of the blow and for a moment he didn't move. After a few seconds, Ris turned back toward the senator and spit a mouthful of blood at his feet.

"Austin?" the senator said, his eye still trained on Ris as he talked. "Does this so-called failsafe alert to the cops exist?"

Austin swallowed hard as he glanced between Ris and the senator.

"I...I don't know," he stammered, his voice shaking. "He didn't say anything about it to us, but he could be telling the truth."

"He told me about it," McKayla blurted out, holding her head high. She fixed her gaze on Austin and added scathingly, "We knew there was someone we couldn't trust, so we kept it to ourselves. Looks like we were right to."

Senator Bradley studied Ris and then walked over to McKayla and did the same to her. After an elongated silence, he leaned toward McKayla until they were so close that she could feel his breath on her face.

"You're a good liar," he said quietly. "But not that good."

Then he hit her so hard, she went limp in the foxes arms.

The guys struggled to go to McKayla's rescue, but it was no use. They couldn't break free. As the senator walked away from them, he crossed to where Austin was standing in stunned silence. The older man rubbed his knuckles, which were spattered with the blood of my friends, before accepting a white rag from the pocket of one of the foxes.

"Well, that was...entertaining," Senator Bradley said, sounding bored. "So glad I stopped by."

This seemed to knock Austin from his momentary catatonia and he took a few steps after Bradley, reaching out and placing a hand on the man's arm.

"Why did you come?" Austin asked, sounding confused. "You said you wouldn't."

"No, I believe I said this meeting would be a waste of my time," the senator replied. "And it has been."

"But I told you they didn't know who you were," Austin hissed. He looked around at the bodies lying on the blue mat not ten feet away from them. "None of this had to happen. They're not a threat to you."

"But they are an annoyance," he answered before pointing at the boy. "An annoyance you promised to take care of, I remind you."

"You said nobody would get hurt," Austin said. He looked over at his former friends uneasily, before taking a step toward them. "He promised no one would get hurt."

Ris snorted in response. "Are you really that dense?" he asked, sarcastically. "Politicians always lie. It's practically a prerequisite. I bet you believed him when he said he was one of the good guys too, huh?"

Austin's face darkened into a scowl. "I thought he was the lesser of two evils."

"I always knew you had it out for Cain," McKayla accused, dazed from the earlier assault. "I just couldn't figure out why. What did he do that made you hate him so much?"

Austin searched their faces one by one before responding.

"He killed my brother."

McKayla's mouth abruptly shut and for a moment I thought she was too staggered to speak. But after a brief silence, she swallowed, and said quietly and evenly, "That's not true."

Austin began to argue, but Garrick cut in.

"Phoenix was your brother," he breathed.

It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room and suddenly I was having trouble breathing.

Austin looked down at the ground, and something like understanding crossed Garrick's face as he tried to make a move toward his friend.

"Dude, I'm so sorry," he said solemnly and Austin's shoulders slumped even further. Then, in a voice much gentler than before, he continued. "But your brother's death wasn't Cain's fault."

Austin's head snapped back up.

"Then whose fault was it?" Senator Bradley cut in before Austin could. The man's gaze was solely fixed on Austin. "Cain was the reason your brother ran into the street that day. And for what? To try and help that hopeless bum? Like his life was worth more than your brother's. If it weren't for Cain and what he teaches here, your brother would still be alive. If it weren't for Cain, none of your friends would be in this predicament. If it weren't for him, you would still have a family. You would still be happy. Cain is the reason for everything bad that's happened in your life."

Even from so far away, I could tell that each statement hit him like a fresh cut to the gut. It suddenly became clear to me how he'd been pulled into all of this in the first place. Ever since his brother's death, he'd been looking for meaning behind the loss. Something or someone to blame for what had happened. And along came the senator who seemed to give him both. And with the promise of bringing justice to the person responsible, came closure.

Only, there would be no closure for Austin. At least not this way. Nothing was going to bring his brother back and living in hatred and anger certainly wouldn't heal his grief.

There was only one way that was going to happen.

"Austin, don't listen to him!" I yelled out before I could stop myself. The words echoed across the room and all heads instantly turned my way. As Senator Bradley struggled to place me in the darkness, McKayla and Ris groaned. I'd just handed the senator the last chip my friends had to play.

Finally locking eyes with me, Bradley broke out into a huge grin like he'd already won.

"Ahhh, there you are, my little bird," the senatorsaid gleefully.