Mine to Fear (Mine #3)(67)

My power is weak. So, so weak. And though Cynthia is stronger than me, she can't be doing much better after this fight. “We have to go.”

Cynthia nods.

“Run,” I say.

We all turn and run.





Chapter Fifty-Four





My legs ache with the movement. Around us, people are falling to the ground, but there's no stopping to help them if we want to make it out of this alive. Jack's suddenly at my side, arm around me, pushing me forward.

“Faster,” he yells.

We meet Lukas up ahead in the forest, and he springs the trap as soon as we cross. Us, the last ones left standing that hadn't already made it out.

The trap was a backup plan. Something we should have never had to use. And yet, here it is, whistling up in bright colors. It should make anyone who tries to cross it fall asleep and do the same thing to any spells crossing it's path, making them heavy and slow until the spell wears off, long enough for us to get away.

We keep running, eager to be away from this place. My body is bruised and broken from the fight but not nearly as bad as my heart. How could we have failed so miserably? At least we're safe for now. Those of us still alive, that is. I glance back to make certain the trap is doing its job.

It's not.

“The Grand Chancellor has broken through it,” I yell, panic overwhelming me.

The best we can do now is keep running.

Cynthia zaps a few spells behind us as we go, a track-erasing spell, a wall spell. Lukas adds a few of his own. I want to add something, but I'm so drained, I don't think anything would help at all. At least they can offer something to slow the Grand Chancellor down. They must slow him down enough, because he doesn't appear in sight.

We run and run and run. We keep going until my lungs are on fire and my legs burn. When we can't run anymore, we change to a hurried walk, followed by more running. We put several miles of forest between us and the house.

“Are we far enough yet?” I gasp out.

“I don't…” Serena gasps out as well, “think we'll ever be far enough.”

My heart burns with how true that statement is.





***





After more running than I have ever done in my life, we make it to a far off clearing and don't see any signs of being followed, so we head home. Or to what used to be home. I'm thinking with this new fall of our rebellion, that's going to have to change.

“Is everyone here? Who's missing?” I say.

There are many from the six hundred that are missing. More than I want to think on. Nelly among them. I can only hope she's somewhere else and not dead or captured.

Other than Chadwick and the treacherous Theodore, our group of leaders seems to be coming together. Except, “Where's Tawny?”

“I haven't seen her,” Jack says.

“Neither have I,” Cynthia replies.

Sick dread weighs down my heart as I remember seeing her on the field too close to the actions. I fall to a sitting position, ending on the ground. I have lost one of the heirs to the throne. She's probably dead.

My heart aches as I begin to cry. It's all too much. I wanted this war to save lives, to save an entire people. Instead, I've lost more than everyone had to begin with. I have utterly failed not just myself, and the crown, but all of Chardonia.

Someone puts a hand on my shoulder. I glance up to find Jack, his own eyes filled with tears. We have lost everything.





Chapter Fifty-Five





After some time, I pull myself together. I have to do what I can for the people left. After all, we have a traitor who is probably, even now, telling them where we are.

“I think we should have everyone we can moved to Envado.” I say to those left. But I know what that decision means. Know who we're leaving behind. My words are clogged with tears. “I don't want to, but I think it would be for the best.”

Serena is crying now, even harder than I am. “We can't leave Zade. We can't do it.”

My own tears come harder, the ache in my chest a giant hole of agony. “We have to.”

Cynthia and Bethany gather us both in a hug, tears on both their cheeks as well.

“We'll try again,” I say. “We won't just leave him there. We'll try again and again until we get him out.”

“We will,” Serena says, though it almost sounds more like a question.

“We will. Somehow, we'll make it so you two can have that wedding you've been waiting for.”

Her tears slow as she brushes them away, and she nods.

“Now, to the cave so we can start evacuating people to Envado,” Cynthia says.

“To Envado,” I say. To my home that's no longer home but all I have left.





Chapter Fifty-Six





It's dark and lonely just outside the cavern. I can't bring myself to go in, though. To face my failure. To know lives were lost because I pushed us to go. Loneliness seems a small repayment for that but not nearly enough of one to make up for Chadwick.

My chest gives a painful squeeze. How can he really be gone?

“What are you doing out here all alone?” Jack asks.