It seemed like all I had learned about being a leader in Atlantis completely escaped me as I stood in front of the army of 100 witches and wizards that stood in front of me. Even with Gerrard right next to me, I had no idea what to do or say. So I stood there, staring blankly at the crowd in front of me, my throat constricted, my ears drumming, my heart racing.
"Just say something," Gerrard urged.
"I have no idea what to say," I hissed back.
"Say anything. You're good at bull-shitting," Gerrard said.
"I'm sorry, I've never led an army to go kill my friends!" I whispered back.
"They're waiting for you to say something," Gerrard said.
"I realize that, Captain Obvious," I replied sarcastically.
"Just tell them what the plan is," Gerrard said.
"I don't have a plan," I said.
"Repeat Elijah's orders to you to them," he suggested.
"I don't want to give those orders," I argued.
"You have to," Gerrard said flatly. I glared at him and he looked back at me pointedly.
He was right, of course. Because of the blood oath, I couldn't defy Elijah's orders. But I wanted to twist his words so that technically the army I was given was following Elijah's commands, but in a way that I could minimize damage to the Order's army.
I took a deep breath, feeling color flood my cheeks as I gazed at the crowd waiting impatiently in front of me. I could tell that many were unhappy with their choice of leader. I was, after all, fairly young. Many of these people were loyal to the dark side even before Elijah was in charge. Several of them were prisoners from the last war that had been given unlawful trials under Elijah and then released to be free. There were people in this crowd that were far more powerful than me and that had an arsenal of magical knowledge that I was only beginning to understand. But Elijah wanted me to lead them and if I had a third of the army, that meant that I had a third of a chance to reduce damage to the people that I cared about. And that included Trey.
"Hello everyone," I began awkwardly. Next to me, Gerrard covered his face, shaking his head at my lame opening statement. "So I'm Caley...Lucia. As you all probably know..." I trailed.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake..." Gerrard mumbled from next to me. I sent him a glare and he shot me a look. I pursed my lips and tried again.
"So I'm just going to cut to the chase because we have to get going in like an hour. Elijah put me in charge of all of you and if you have a problem with that, well that sucks because we're all sworn under oath to Elijah and we have to follow his orders," I started, the anger I felt towards Elijah rekindling inside of me.
"Our job is to stop the part of the Order led by Trey Vulcan. He's controlling roughly a hundred wizards and witches, so about the same number as in this division here. Your job is to stop as many as you can. By this, I mean that you can battle and injure the enemy, but only as a last resort can you kill them. If your own life is threatened--as in, you've depleted your energy sources or the person you are battling is going to use a killing curse on you--then you can kill the person. But this is only as a last resort. Elijah doesn't want unnecessary magical blood spilled. If you can get out of danger without killing a person, then choose that route. Transport away if you have the energy to. But only if you can't, you can kill," I said.
Technically, I was relaying the orders that Elijah had told me to give. The only difference was was that I emphasized different points. If I commanded my army to only resort to killing under dire circumstances, at least I could be assured that I was minimizing the number of casualties on my end. I had no idea how Isaac and Gianna were commanding their armies, but I had a feeling that they weren't going to be as kind as me.
"Does anyone have anjy objections?" I asked, scanning the crowd for someone who disagreed with me. When no one said anything, I let out a sigh of relief. "Ok. Now that that's over with, here are the details of how we're mobilizing ourselves," I said. And then for the next thirty minutes, I proceeded to explain the plan in detail to my division of the army. When I was done, Gerrard and I made our way back to the drawing room to be with the others until it was time to leave.
"Nervous?" Gerrard asked me as he noted the way I couldn't sit still.
"I feel like I'm going to vomit," I said, wringing my hands together.
"It'll be okay. When everyone else is fighting, what are you going to do?" he asked.
"Elijah said that I have to kill Trey," I said. "But I can't do that," I added flatly.
"What's your plan for breaking the curse?" Gerrard asked.
"I can't tell you. It won't work if I do. All I can say is that it has to be spontaneous," I said.
"Caley, Elijah's only orders to me were that I have to try my hardest to keep you safe," he told me. I smiled weakly at him.
"You've already tried your hardest to keep me safe, Gerrard, so you've already fulfilled your orders. There isn't anything you can do for me now," I said solemnly.
He looked at me with a serious expression on his face.
"We're both going to come out of this alive, ok?" he said sternly.
I looked back at him, fighting the urge to cry. The truth was, I didn't know if I would come out of this alive. Because I was sure that I couldn't kill Trey, which meant that the poison in my blood would activate and be the death of me if my theory on how to break the blood oath curse backfired. It was difficult for me to come to terms with, but when Gerrard and I were coming back from Atlantis, I had a lot of time to struggle with my emotions. But I eventually accepted it.
If it meant saving all of my friends and family and loved ones, then I would gladly give up my life.
As I looked at Gerrard--the person who had been with me this whole time, the one who never let me get hurt, the one who always had my back and pulled me from the edge whenever I was getting ready to jump--I knew that I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to him. And the same feeling went for the others. If any of them got hurt in the process of saving me, I would never be able to live with that guilt. I wanted them to live out their lives like they were supposed to. If being the One meant sacrificing myself for the happiness of others, then I was willing to do that. It would be selfish of me to want to live while others suffered. So I had forced myself to accept the inevitable. I was going to die, but my family and friends would live on.
I leaned forward and put my arms around Gerrard, closing my eyes as he wrapped his strong arms around me, enveloping me in a protective embrace that would do me no good in less than an hour.
"Thank you for being the best friend that I could have ever asked for," I whispered to him, feeling a few tears escape from my eyes.
"This friendship isn't over yet," Gerrard replied. I pulled away from him, wiping the stray tears off my face with the back of my hand. I gave him a sad, watery smile.
"Of course not," I lied.
His forehead creased in worry as he noticed the change in my demeanor. I looked away, unable to handle the emotions raging inside of me, and searched for a distraction. My eyes fell on Isobel and Dom, who were talking idly before they were given the cue to leave for the fight. I stood and went over to them, leaving Gerrard sitting by himself, his thoughts surely on me and the inevitability of what was to come.
When I stood to go over to the other couch, Elijah came into the room, his blue eyes flashing maliciously, a wicked smile on his face.
"It's time," he said.
~~~~~~~~~~~
*~*Trey's POV*~*
"She should be back by now," Michael said, pacing back and forth.
We were sitting in the office of the Dean. All preparations for the war had been completed. In the morning, we would attack the Trinity Government.
Outside, it was eerily quiet. The afternoon was turning to evening as the sun began its descent in the sky, taking away the light and leaving darkness behind. The sky was a strange orange and red color. It reminded me of fire and gave a very ominous feeling.
The campus of Trinity University of Magic was dead; everyone had gone home for the summer. The only people residing on the campus now were the people in the Order that were willing and able to fight. That included me, Abbey, and Lance. The three of us were sitting in the dean's office, going over last minute plans.
"Maybe it's better that she's not?" Abbey suggested.
"Yeah, at least this way she's not in any danger," Lance offered.
I watched my future father-in-law pace back and forth in front of the large windows of his office. His hair had grayed significantly over the course of the semester and signs of his aging were now evident on his face. He seemed like he had seen too much grief in his lifetime. I was just glad that when this was all over, he would have a chance at happiness, to see his only daughter be married happily.
"They're right. At least this way, Caley isn't in any danger. She'll be away from the fighting and the war. Hopefully by the time she gets here, all of this will be over. Take comfort in knowing that she's safe," I said.
"She should have called if her flight was delayed," Michael said.
"When has Caley ever been the one to call?" Abbey asked. "I have to practically beg her to send me a text every once in a while. She's really bad at communication."
I gave Abbey a look.
"What?! She is!" she exclaimed.
"She calls me pretty regularly," I said.
"Because you're her fiancee," Lance said.
"Did she tell you she would be late?" Michael asked me. I pulled my phone out to check my messages. Besides a text from Oralie, there was nothing. I shook my head, putting my phone back in my pocket.
"Maybe she hasn't had a chance to get to a phone," I said.
"I don't like being uncertain. I just don't want her to walk in on something dangerous," Michael said.
"I'm sure she's fine. Stop worrying. We have a war to fight," Abbey said. Michael frowned, still looking uneasy, but he stopped pacing.
"Let's go over the plan one more time," Lance suggested, also noting the dean's expression.
"Christopher isn't here," Michael said.
"I think he knows what's going on," I said. Michael pursed his lips and then sat down at his desk.
"Ok. So we'll mobilize our armies at dawn. My army and Christopher's will go first to attack the government center. Trey, you and your army will stay here in case anyone shows up. The goal is to capture and make unconscious anyone from the enemy. We are not to kill anyone; that will be left to the trials after the war is over. If anyone sees my brother, you are to tell me. I will take him down myself," Michael said. "Is everyone clear on that?" he asked. The three of us nodded. Michael continued with other details, but I tuned him out.
I had heard the plan dozens of times so far, so I was only half-listening. Truth be told, I was still thinking about Caley. It was strange that she hadn't informed any of us that she wasn't getting in this evening. Her flight was supposed to have landed an hour ago. When we checked the flight details, it said that it was on time and had landed. But Caley hadn't reached out to us to come pick her up. It could be possible that she had just Transported back and was waiting to surprise us at her father's apartment or at my house, but the only way to be certain of that was to go check those places. But we didn't have time for that.
Just as I was about to suggest this idea, we heard a loud boom come from the outside, almost sounding like a clap of thunder.
"What the hell was that?!" Abbey exclaimed as we all scrambed to our feet to look outside the window.
In the distance, we could see a large mushroom cloud of smoke rising up from the direction of the dormitory buildings. I felt my insides go cold and from the corner of my eye, I saw Michael pale.
"They're here," he said, his voice so low it was difficult to hear. "It's a surprise attack."
_____________________________________________________
A/N: Short, I know. But I wanted the actual fighting to be a chapter of its own. This chapter was kind of filler, so I apologize if it was unsatisfying.
Quick note. While I did say that I would try to update more often in these next couple weeks, that doesn't mean you can demand me to update faster. This is why I dislike updating when I'm not ready to commit to writing a lot at once. So many of you keep asking me to post another chapter. I just wrote an 8 page chapter. And I told you that I have a research assignment to work on that's due in two weeks. So I'm BUSY. Please stop demanding that I update faster. I will update when I can and you need to be cool with that.
In any case, I want to get the actual war chapter out of the way before the drama of the curse starts. Hopefully I can do that before break ends. But if I can't, please stop badgering me. Thanks.
Until next time...
XOXO