The Reaper's Curse #1 - Complete

Path of War

"You bastard," Sam spits, her voice as sharp as a blade. She turns black eyes on Warren, and Alicia fears what she wants to do to the man, the only thing stopping her is the gun still pointed at Galya's head. "You were going to do this no matter what answers I gave you."

Warren lifts a shoulder, grinning around the cigar in his lips, eyeing Galya as she stares at him. Alicia can only imagine the look she's giving him. "I have my own people to rule, as you royals so aptly put it, Princess."

"You've doomed us all."

Alicia moves when she sees Warren raise his gun, her body lurching towards the wall like she can do anything. He pulls the trigger.

Oliver has a rifle aimed at the man's heart in the next moment as the echo of the shot cracks through the night. But the bullet shoots for the stars, not any of them.

Alicia hesitates, her hands gripping the edge of the wall as she looks at Galya, seeing the gun pressed to her head again and she wonders what cards there are left to play.

"Alicia," Oliver says, "you need to—" The explosion tears through the quiet, Alicia crying out and dropping to the platform. Oliver spins around, and both of them can only widen their gazes as they witness flames clawing at the sky, more explosions rocking the earth as the black powder supply they took from the Keep is set ablaze, ripping through the buildings around it.

Alicia can't breathe, can't think, can't move, can only lay there with her hands over her head as part of the Commons goes up in a wild blaze.

Alicia thought she could play the role of exile and not have to sacrifice. She thought that the duke was the only one who could take her life apart. She was lying to herself. She sees that more clearly now than ever.

Getting to her feet, Alicia watches Oliver begin climbing down the ladder, already barking orders.

"Oliver," she calls, and he looks up at her, the determination in his gaze gives Alicia a sudden spark of confidence. "Good luck."

"Luck isn't real," he replies, flashing his teeth at her in an almost feral smile before dropping to the ground.

Alicia spins around, assessing her situation and the whereabouts of their attackers, but Warren is already gone, Galya with him. Alicia hears Sam yelling, so distracted by Galya's disappearance that she doesn't see Grayson raising a gun towards her.

As chaos blurs around her and fire rages in the corner of her gaze, Alicia is too slow to react as he shoots. The bullet takes Samantha down to the wood, her cry making Alicia act. Swiping up one of the rifles left on the platform for the guards, she aims at Grayson just as he twists around, noticing her sight trained on him. Alicia grits her teeth, willing her years of practice to pay off as she squeezes the trigger. Grayson shouts as the revolver in his hand is torn from his grip, his eyes widening as he looks up at Alicia, but she's already descending the ladder, tossing the strap of the rifle over her shoulder to sprint to where Sam struggles to the ground, gripping her arm.

"Where's Galya?" she's yelling as Alicia reaches her, already tearing a long strip of her shirt away to wrap it around the girl's arm, Sam looking up at her with wide eyes.

"I'm sure Oliver is already on it. But right now we need to get that fire under control before it destroys the wall." Alicia lifts her gaze from her bloody task, looking towards the black smoke. "If it hasn't already."

"Shit," Sam hisses, pulling herself from Alicia's hands to grab the repeater that was dropped from the ledge. "Like we didn't have enough fucking problems." Sam cocks the lever-action weapon, her gaze hardening as Alicia watches. "I'm going to put a bullet in Warren's damn head." She shoves past Alicia, on a path of war that Alicia can't possibly follow.