Rise of a Queen

Chapter 33

Erie clapped her hands excitedly, "This sounds like a wonderful plan."

    "This sounds like a stupid plan." Brandon grumbled.

    She turned a glare on him, "I love this plan."

    "I hate this plan." He retaliated.

    Erie rose a single eyebrow at him, "Careful, my friend. Some may say the same about you."

    Brandon ignored her jibe and pointed accusations at his cousin, "You may not care whether you live or not but some of us don't want to waste the second chance we were given, so count me out of this suicide mission you're planning."

    A dull ache was growing behind my eyelids and I had to press the heel of my palms against my temples to keep it from spreading as the discussion continued.

    "It is not a waste." Dustin told him. He braced his arm over the still healing bullet hole in stomach and his fingers formed a raised claw over where his flesh had been blasted away by gunpowder and metal, "In fact, I think I am finally taking full advantage of this so-called second chance."

    "You cannot honestly tell me you think this is a good idea. You are being irrational because your mad." Brandon shook his head in disappointment, "How many times have I told you? Anger makes you reckless, being reckless makes you stupid, and being stupid makes you dead."

    Dustin huffed in boredom, "Brandon it didn't work on me as kids, and it won't work on me now."

    Brandon's frown grew but more from his own discontent. Because he, like the rest of us, saw Dustin as much more than a kid in need of a lesson – even if Brandon doesn't want to admit it. Dustin has honed his anger that once made him so careless. He forged it in the fire of his hatred, crafted it from determination to protect, and it has become a weapon of which only he knows how to wield.

    His anger didn't make him reckless, his anger made him righteous.

    Could it be possible that his plan to blackmail the Council might actually work? There are certainly enough flaws to make anyone reconsider, but not Dustin. He held his ground as firm as a knight on guard. If he was at all fearful of his future, or anyone else's for that matter, he certainly wasn't showing it.

    Unlike the rest of us, who looked at him as though he had lost his mind, Dustin was absolute and confident.

    He was ready.

    "The Council brought me back, they set all of this in motion by taking what belonged to the grave." Dustin paused only to breathe deeply before he declared, "They should know better than to play with dead things."

    "Well if you aren't careful, you are going to end up right back in the grave they dragged you out of because the Council is not the kind of sleeping giant you want to wake. You're going to get yourself killed." Brandon's palms ran the length of his thighs, "Again."

    Dustin was surprisingly cheerful when he replied, "Only if I'm lucky."

    "Why do you do this to me?" Lumiere covered his face with his hands and spoke through his parted fingers, "Why do you insist on testing the limits of my sanity? For once in your life – for once in my life – can you please just take the safe route instead of rallying the Fates against you?"

    For a moment, I thought Dustin might actually consider Lumiere's plea. But I soon realized that the slight crease in Dustin's brow came not from thoughts of surrender, but from guilt. From the regret he felt for causing his friend so much distress, "You know I can't."