Cecilia liked visiting both her brother’s grave and the tree at which he had been murdered. It was strangely comforting. Whenever she was at either, it felt as though he was watching her. Reassuring her.

  On this particular day, she was going into the forest with Natasha to visit the tree. The two of them were what most would call best friends. One could’ve guessed as much, seeing as they were the only two girls in their group of friends.

  It hadn’t even been two months since Jeremy had been murdered. It felt like it had been years. Cecilia felt like an entirely different person.

  For as long as she lived, Cecilia would not forgive Maltor for what he had done to their brother. She didn’t give a damn how powerful Jeremy had been, there were plenty more people that Maltor should’ve been more worried about.

  He had been too cowardly to even do it himself. He had sent some of his ugly goons to kill Jeremy because he couldn’t stomach it. That was an act of cowardice. Cecilia could not and would not forgive it.

  That was Cecilia’s main motivation for carrying on the fight. Yes, she cared about saving the world. Yes, some part of her wanted to be remembered as one of the heroes that did so. But those reasons were absolutely nothing compared to the burning desire for revenge that encased her heart.

  She wondered what her mom would think. Surely, she was aware of what was happening. If she was somehow in the dark that there was a literal war raging in the Mutant world, she would at least know that her eldest son was dead.

  It had been so long since Cecilia had seen her. At Apercaput, students stayed there year-round, except for the summer holiday, unless they had no home to return to. That meant that it had been an entire year since Cecilia had seen her mom.

  She would have been told that Cecilia was staying at RoCity, right? But she hadn’t come over to stay. Maybe she just wanted to stay down in Cornwall. But that wasn’t at all like her. She would’ve wanted to be with her children. But she hadn’t so much as messaged.

  The thought sickened Cecilia, so she refocused her mind on a much more pleasant topic: her dead brother.

  As she and Natasha walked into the clearing, it was almost as though all of the other trees simply didn’t exist. Cecilia could only see the tree at which Jeremy had been killed.

  Cecilia considered herself rather lucky that she had not seen the body. Albert had looked absolutely horrible when he had come back from finding it. And she had heard him describe it to Maltor. She didn’t know whether or not he had simply exaggerated its gore to get into Maltor’s head, but it sounded like everything Albert described had been real. If Cecilia had seen even half of the features Albert had described, she probably would’ve been sick, fainted, or both.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Cecilia could see that something seemed to have changed in even Natasha at the sight of the tree. This wasn’t Cecilia’s first time visiting the tree, but she could still remember the feeling that had filled her from head to toe when she had seen it for the first time after Jeremy’s death. In fact, it was strikingly similar to the feeling that encased her at that moment. She imagined that Natasha must have been feeling something similar, even if Jeremy hadn’t been her brother.

  It was a rather strange phenomenon. After all, it was just a tree. How was it that grief was so powerful that it could give something as simple and as ordinary as a tree such a dark appearance?

  Neither of the girls said a word for a moment. After all, what could one say? It was clear to Cecilia that Natasha wanted to offer her words of comfort, but there was simply nothing that she could say that could comfort her at that moment.

  Tears welled in Cecilia’s eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Natasha said after what felt like aeons.

  ‘You’ve got nothing to be sorry for,’ Cecilia murmured. ‘It’s nobody’s fault but Maltor’s.’

  ‘Yeah, but it must be hard for you,’ Natasha tried. ‘I can’t even imagine how you’re feeling if even I’m a bit upset over seeing it.’

  ‘Jeremy wouldn’t want me to be upset,’ Cecilia growled, wiping her eyes. ‘He’d just want me to kill our sorry excuse for a brother.’

  Natasha put her arm around Cecilia’s shoulders. ‘He’ll be killed. Once we get Albert back, it’ll just be a matter of time.’

  There were so many thoughts in Cecilia’s head that it began to throb. Her boyfriend was missing, and maybe even dead, her brother was dead, the other brother was a genocidal maniac, her mother’s whereabouts were unknown, and she still had to get up every day and fight. Oh, what she wouldn’t give to be just a normal girl.

  Cecilia began to walk towards the tree, her heart aching. She wanted to see her brother. Just for one final time. She wanted to hear his voice.

  ‘Cecilia!’ Natasha roared from behind her.

  Before Cecilia could even turn around, Natasha’s hand grabbed Cecilia’s right shoulder and yanked her backwards so quickly that she tumbled to the ground.

  Through her daze, Cecilia saw a dark figure blitz down from above and drive a jet-black sword into the ground. Right where she had been standing a moment before.

  The figure, a young blond boy, straightened, pulled his sword from the ground, and looked down at Cecilia.

  ‘Sorry, I thought you were Natasha,’ Maltor murmured slyly. ‘That could’ve been bad. I should be more careful.’

  A silver sword materialised in Natasha’s right hand.

  ‘Excuse me for a moment, sister,’ Maltor said, not taking his eyes off Cecilia. ‘I have to get rid of this one first.’

  Maltor dived towards Natasha so quickly that even Cecilia flinched. He slashed downward, slicing Natasha’s arm. A look of intense pain washed over her face, but she drove her sword forward nonetheless. And she missed. The silver blade glistened in the summer sun but merely carved through the air three inches to the right of Maltor’s midsection.

  Cecilia hurriedly got to her feet, slapping her bracelets as she did so. Her bronze sickles materialised in her hands.

  ‘Fancy weapons,’ Maltor remarked. ‘The work of Asbel, I take it?’

  ‘What do you want?’ Cecilia snarled, fighting the urge to wipe tears from her eyes.

  In her peripheral vision, she could see blood faintly trickling down Natasha’s right arm. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it was a cut.

  ‘What do I want?’ Maltor teased. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’

  The silence was enough of an answer for him.

  ‘I want you, Cecilia. Simple as.’

  ‘If that’s your way of trying to convince me to join your side, you’re a moron, Maltor,’ Cecilia retorted, her voice dripping with vice.

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  ‘You’re a Confussée, Cecilia, not a Santrrer,’ Maltor snarled, a wicked gleam in his eyes. ‘My side is the only side for you.’

  ‘Don’t act as though our blood means anything to you,’ Cecilia fired back immediately. ‘If it did, you wouldn’t have had our brother killed.’

  Maltor grunted. ‘If you won’t join me, I’ll just have to force you.’

  He dived towards Natasha, swords raised.

  Neither Natasha nor Cecilia were exactly the most physically able people on Earth. But they still outnumbered him.

  Cecilia sliced her left sickle outward, and she felt it connect with soft flesh. As sickening as it felt, she had to ignore it. She was a fighter.

  She heard the sound of blades colliding and knew that, somehow, Natasha had blocked Maltor’s attack.

  Maltor leapt backwards, and Natasha slapped her watch and brought her shield into play. Cecilia could see blood dripping from Maltor’s left side. She had cut him.

  ‘What can everybody else do for you, Cecilia?’ Maltor shouted. ‘I’m the only one left that still cares for you!’

  ‘Don’t give me that shit!’ Cecilia roared, diving towards her brother and swinging her sickles as hard as she could.

  He effortlessly blocked her attacks and then jumped back further out of range.

  ‘These so-called ‘friends’ and ‘boyfriend’ of yours have already put your life in danger numerous times, Cecilia,’ Maltor said tauntingly. ‘And when was the last time you heard from our mother? Nobody cares for you but me, Cecilia. Join me and be safe.’

  ‘Don’t mention Mom to me,’ Cecilia growled. ‘You’ve got nothing to do with my family.’

  Maltor raised a half-offended, half-bemused eyebrow.

  ‘Well then, your mother is in a much better place now, Cecilia,’ he said finally, a sickening grin appearing on his face. ‘I ensured her safety and has her moved to a safe-’

  Ignoring the sickeningly heavy feeling that had taken over her body, Cecilia dived towards her brother once more. She swung her right hand around, and her sickle carved through the air graciously, heading directly towards the side of Maltor’s neck.

  A mere fraction of a second before the blade made contact with his skin, Maltor unfolded his angelically white wings from his back and leapt to the right and into the air. Cecilia’s blade struck the tree that he had been standing in front of and embedded itself in the bark.

  ‘Oh?’ Maltor called down cockily from above. ‘Defiling your brother’s final resting place, are you?’

  Cecilia’s body grew cold as she realised that he was right. Maltor had tricked her into striking Jeremy’s tree.

  ‘Let’s just finish it off, shall we?’

  The tree, along with numerous others around it, exploded. The spectacle was accompanied by a deafening bang, and the chunks of wood that now littered the air were all surrounded by a sickeningly familiar black aura.

  Cecilia felt paralysed. She shakily turned her head to stare up at Maltor, and she found that he was hovering above their heads surrounded by his infamous dark energy.

  If looks could kill, Maltor would have vaporised. Cecilia stared at her brother with such an incredible amount of malice that she was surprised her eyes didn’t burn.

  He had just destroyed Jeremy’s tree. Her comfort zone. And he had done so without even hesitating. He was, in every sense of the word, a monster.

  In that moment, Cecilia forgot that Maltor wanted genocide. She forgot that he had made the conflict international by allying with France. She forgot that he had betrayed Albert and her friends during the previous war. She forgot every single bad thing he had done apart from one. The only thing that her mind could focus on in that moment was the fact that he had destroyed Jeremy’s tree.

  With a great roar from Maltor, the chunks of wood and bark flew towards Cecilia and Natasha at alarming speeds.

  Cecilia gritted her teeth and immediately began to hack and slash at the branches flying her way. It took more force than she had originally expected, but that may have been because they were coated in supernatural energy.

  She glanced back at Natasha, who seemed to be having more trouble than her. It was clear that Maltor was concentrating his attacks on Natasha. Maybe he really did want her dead.

  ‘Join me and we can stop this fight, Cecilia!’ Maltor shouted down as to be heard over the collisions of blades and wood.

  ‘As if!’ Cecilia roared back.

  She began to run towards Natasha, who was using both her shield and sword to defend herself. As she ran, Cecilia was forced to occasionally turn and bat away or slice through a chunk of wood.

  ‘Natasha! Shield!’

  Cecilia wasn’t exactly sure how Natasha knew what she meant, but she was glad she did.

  Natasha held her shield flat against her head and Cecilia leapt up, placing one foot firmly on the face of the shield. Without hesitation, Natasha pushed up as Cecilia jumped. Cecilia was sent flying up towards where Maltor was hovering. As she got in range, she swung her sickles up as quickly as she could with a grunt, and she missed by mere millimetres.

  As Cecilia landed graciously back on the forest floor, the branches and chunks of wood and bark also fell back to the floor, with no more black energy surrounding them.

  ‘You two have got some fight, I’ll give you that,’ Maltor commented. His sarky tone and cocky smirk made Cecilia’s blood boil.

  He gently eased himself onto the ground where he had been standing moments prior, but he did not fold his wings in.

  ‘Cecilia,’ he said in a false soothing voice, planting one of his swords in the ground and offering his hand out, ‘listen to me, please. Join me and Natasha can live. If you don’t join me now, then she dies. And if that still isn’t enough to convince you, then the entirety of RoCity will pay for your actions.’

  ‘If you think mere threats are enough to convince me to join your side, then you can rot in Tartarus,’ Cecilia snarled back.

  ‘Oh? Even after she just helped you in that fight? You’re prepared to sacrifice her so you can stay with the people that offer you the least protection?’

  ‘War isn’t about keeping yourself protected. It’s about fighting for what you think is right.’

  Maltor scoffed. ‘Then kiss your friend goodbye.’

  He darted towards Natasha with speed that should not have been possible. But he was stopped by Natasha’s words. Or, to be more specific, her word.

  ‘Stop.’

  Her voice felt like silk. A strange feeling washed over Cecilia, and it felt as though her brain had shut off.

  Maltor halted on the spot, and his entire body seemed to stop responding. He stared at Natasha blankly. It looked like he didn’t know where he was.

  Natasha took her chance. Gods, did she take her chance.

  She ploughed her sword directly into Maltor’s stomach. Immediately, Maltor regained his sense of self. He straightened and glowered at Natasha as his blood poured down the body of her blade.

  Cecilia sprinted towards them and slashed down as she got there, cutting Maltor’s face and left eye.

  The ground began to tremble slightly and Cecilia saw the pieces of tree from earlier begin to hover once more. They shot up into the air and began to dive towards the group, particularly Natasha.

  Cecilia knew that she had to finish Maltor before the pieces of wood killed both her and Natasha. She hoped Albert wouldn’t mind.

  She swung her other sickle around towards Maltor’s neck. She knew he was fast, but, in her mind at least, there was no way that he could escape that attack.

  And yet he did.

  He slid off of Natasha’s blade with a sickening noise and leapt up into the air.

  Ignoring the beating that she was receiving from bits of wood, Cecilia roared and jumped up after him. She swiped through the air once more and caught his foot. She didn’t even make contact with skin; she merely carved through the sole of his shoe. But a message was sent.

  Maltor snarled, ‘Your people will pay for what you’ve done,’ before the air around him seemed to warp inward and he disappeared.

  Suppressing her burning rage, Cecilia ran towards Natasha the moment she had landed.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she shrieked, kneeling next to where Natasha was crouched and grabbing her shoulders.

  There was some blood trickling from her scalp and arm, but it was immediately clear that the damage was not fatal.

  ‘You…’ Natasha murmured with a strained voice. ‘You and Maltor…how did he know where you were?’

  Cecilia’s heart stopped for a moment. There was no way, right? It had to have been a coincidence. Perhaps Maltor had just been waiting at the tree for days, knowing that she would come to visit it eventually. Or maybe he had been visiting it and just didn’t like the fact that his peace had been disturbed.

  ‘Maybe…we can use Harvey to find Albert…’ Natasha breathed.

  ‘Maybe…’ Cecilia murmured, standing up and offering her hand down to Natasha.

  Maltor’s words were bothering her slightly. What did he mean when he said that RoCity would pay? What was he planning?

  She desperately tried to tell herself that whatever Maltor was going to do was not her fault. But she simply couldn’t believe her words. If Maltor had simply been trying to get into her head, then mission accomplished.

  Her head was pounding. What had she done to deserve any of this?

  Cecilia turned to look at the spot where Jeremy’s tree had been mere minutes ago. Now it was just a pile of destroyed logs.

  She swore to herself under her breath that Maltor would pay. His crimes would not go unforgiven. He would answer to either the Gods or he would answer to her and for his sake she hoped that he was lucky enough to be taken to Olympus.

  Then, closing her eyes, she murmured an apology to Jeremy. Smirking, she even referred to him as ‘Jerry’, just as she had done years ago. She hoped he could hear her.

  It felt as though a giant hand had wrapped her heart in a tight grip. She felt almost as though she couldn’t breathe. There were so many unfinished thoughts in her head, and they had still yet to find Albert.

  She wanted rest. She wanted sleep. She wanted comfort. All things that she had to deny herself for the greater good. She would keep pushing forward until Maltor had paid his price.