‘Now what?’ he asked when he reached Xara’s body. Jack had to admit that it was the most bizarre thing he had done in a long while.
‘Lift me out of the water,’ she said, flickering worse now. His presence in the water was disturbing her concentration. The employees of the Realm were bound to notice her wane in concentration. Not to mention the disappearance of hundreds of projections once she was woken.
Jack lowered his arms into the water and slowly lifted Xara out, one arm behind her neck, the other in the crook of her knees.
‘Like this?’ he asked, turning back to Xara’s projection, only to discover that it had vanished. ‘Oh.’
He was alone.
Jack placed the real Xara on the edge of the pool and tried to wake her up as gently and with as little stress as possible.
‘Um … Xara? Wake up.’ He tapped her face a couple of times.
Jack could see her pupils darting around behind her closed eyelids. It was working.
‘Hey,’ he shook her a little. ‘Wake up.’
Xara’s eyes flickered momentarily, before she sat up with a huge gasp, as though she hadn’t had a proper breath in ages.
‘Are you okay?’ asked Jack, slightly alarmed.
‘Yes,’ Xara breathed, her robotic voice returning. ‘Will you hand me a robe?’
Jack looked around the circular room, finding a blood-red cloak hanging on a hook by the door. Jumping out of the pool, splashing her as he did so, he grabbed the cloak and handed it to a shivering Xara. Jack couldn’t help but notice that her white bathing suit was slightly see through. She was beautiful, in a strange way. Tiny and pale, with white hair; she was like an angel of sorts.
Jack looked away, slightly embarrassed as Xara pulled the cloak around herself.
‘They will have noticed my absence,’ she said, standing up and squeezing the water out of her long hair. ‘We must go quickly.’
Jack nodded and followed Xara out of the stasis chamber. They ran past Victor, who was sitting miserably in his chair, blood caked on his face. Xara left a trail of wet footprints along the corridor, her hair creating a damp patch on the back of her robe.
She could run, fast. Despite Jack’s longer legs, he had trouble keeping up with her.
‘What do we do now?’ asked Jack as they began sprinting down the steps. Employees of the Realm stared at the soaked, barefoot, Xara running through the building. Not many people took much notice of Jack. Perhaps they assumed he was trying to stop her.
‘We join the others,’ said Xara.
Jack grabbed Xara’s wrist and spun her to face him. ‘We can’t join the others just yet. The guard will notice us leaving.’
Xara’s red eyes studied Jack’s face. ‘You stay. I’ll go.’
At that moment, a thunderous explosion sounded outside, rattling the windows and shaking dust from the ceiling. Xara closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating hard, and Jack knew she was projecting herself outside the building.
‘They’re here,’ she said, her eyes snapping open. ‘The Fire-Mage has come as predicted.’
‘That … that explosion was her?’ asked Jack.
Xara nodded. 'She is trying to penetrate the shield created by Ethel Jenson,’ she said without a hint of panic, or emotion.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The Attack
AVALON REDDING
Hawthorne and I rose and fell with each beat of his wings. We were hundreds of meters in the air, staring down at the Realm Headquarters. I could hear the faint sound of sirens from the ground below. They knew we were coming.
I should have been more careful. It was a little girl that had spotted us in the forest, but what was I supposed to do? I could hardly threaten a child.
Regardless, the Realm was on full alert. Over one-hundred guards were lined in front of the doors. Idiots, I thought. Did they really expect me to walk through the front gates? It was clear they had no idea that I was floating a mile above them.
Fae was only a few meters away from me, with her quiver slung over her shoulder, and her bow in her hand. She gave me a nod to signal that she was ready. I knew, at this moment, that the others were on the ground, waiting for my signal.
It was time.
I created an enormous fireball in my hands, larger than my own body. It hovered for a few moments above us, like a second sun. I guided it with my hands until it hovered above the realm. It blazed ferociously, the strongest ball I’d created around Fae to date.
I held my breath as I let the fireball fall towards the earth. I watched it grow smaller and smaller each second before …
Crash!
The fireball exploded on something around the building. An electric blue, and semi-transparent, dome flickered into visibility for a split second.
‘They’ve got a shield!’ I called to Fae.
‘Break it!’ she bellowed back.
I did as she said, sending fireball after fireball plummeting towards the ground. Each one hit the dome with an almighty bang.