ItCP23

## Chapter 23

**Chapter 23** of **Into the Crooked Place** follows **Saxony** again.

## **Full Version**

EVERYTHING WAS TOO FAST.

One moment the sky rumbled and the next Karam was diving from the path of a lightning bolt.

It missed her by no space at all and when she threw herself out of the way, her head hit the floor so hard that Saxony felt it in her bones.

Karam was bleeding.

Karam was not conscious.

And Saxony was on fire.

She let it rise up inside her. Magic blazing deep in her chest, burning until it felt like a thousand blisters on her staves. On her heart.

It branched off and buried deep within her, ancient and powerful, until Saxony’s veins became tree roots and she felt the steady pulse of earth and fire and destruction.

The magic grew in her hands.

She set her sights on Arjun and readied to send it his way.

“No!” Asees yelled, surging forward.

She slammed into Saxony, hard, and they both fell to the floor in a twist of limbs and desperation.

“Get off me, you moron,” Saxony said.

“Do not hurt him,” Asees pleaded. “He cannot control himself.”

Saxony struggled against her, kicking to get free.

Across the room Karam had, by some miracle, gotten up and was running toward Arjun with a knife in her left hand, her right hanging uselessly by her side. Arjun pulled his sword from the strap and grinned. They grappled, weapons and fists, and while Karam was quite clearly trying to hold herself back, Arjun was out for blood.

At any minute he could summon another bolt of lightning, using his Spiritcrafter powers to command nature in a thousand ways.

Saxony brought her elbow up and jerked it into Asees’s nose.

She fell on the floor.

Asees may have been a Liege, but that meant she relied on her magic a little too much, and if there was one thing Karam had taught Saxony, then it was how to survive in a fight without magic.

It was how to throw one heck of a punch.

“Saxony!” yelled Karam, and she spun, taking in the sight.

Karam had wrestled Arjun to the floor and a burst of lightning struck the place by her feet, missing her by barely an inch.

Karam punched him.

“Help me get him to the column!” she said.

Saxony grabbed one of the nearby curtains and pulled the tie loose. It would do for a rope.

She ran to Karam, grabbing one of Arjun’s arms, trying to use her own energy to subdue him. She could feel him fighting against it. His magic battling hers for control, wrestling against her protection shields.

Fire versus spirit.

They shoved Arjun against the column and used the curtain rope to hold him down.

His eyes grew darker and more muddled.

Saxony hoped she hadn’t looked that awful when the Loj had struck her.

“Asees,” Arjun breathed. The darkness in his eyes shifted. Blinked. “Where is she?”

He swallowed, then turned back to Karam.

“Filthy … traitor,” he panted.

But Saxony could see the black in his eyes dulling.

“You are a dirty—”

Karam punched him again.

Saxony was a little sad that she’d beaten her to it.

Arjun shuffled, squinted, cleared his throat. “What are you …?”

He trailed off and then his eyes rolled, black disappearing to white.

He blinked and when his stare returned, he looked as though he couldn’t quite work out what had happened or was happening or would happen.

“What is this?” he asked, pulling at the ropes.

“Did you just literally knock sense into him?” Saxony asked.

Karam shrugged. “He barely touched the magic,” she said. “Perhaps it is wearing off already?”

“Out of my way,” Asees said.

She pushed Saxony to the side and knelt hurriedly over Arjun, stroking his bleeding forehead and squinting to see what other injuries he may have had.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Did they hurt you?”

“Did *we* hurt *him*?” Saxony was aghast.

“Asees.” Arjun’s eyes sparked. Back to brown, a less murderous and more contrite stare. “Are you okay?”

“She is not the one you tried to kill,” Karam said.

She slumped back onto the floor beside Arjun, exhaling in relief. The blood on her neck was thick.

“Speaking of getting killed,” Saxony said to her. “Can you stop getting attacked? I’m going to drain myself trying to heal you all the time. This is strike three.”

Karam laughed and the sound was more of a comfort to Saxony than anything in the realms.

“Can you untie me now?” Arjun asked.

“No,” Karam said. She patted him on the knee, like a consolation. “You threw a lightning bolt and knocked me out.”

“You punched me,” Arjun said. “A lot.”

“But not hard enough to knock you out.”

Arjun rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue. He rested his head against the column and breathed in a deep, calming sigh.

“Can we all make a deal to stop drinking, touching, or even looking at that elixir?” Saxony asked. “Because we have enough people trying to kill us without us trying to kill each other, too.”

“You should never have brought it here,” Asees said.

Saxony’s mouth very nearly dropped open.

“You *asked* me to!” she snapped defensively.

But Asees wouldn’t meet her gaze. She was still looking at Arjun with such guilt and sorrow, such true and unyielding fear. It was a sight Saxony had never seen in her sister, the destined Liege of her own Kin, and one she had never seen in her grandma, the temporary replacement they had chosen.

It was one she did not think a Liege was supposed to have in the face of danger and death. They were meant to be stronger and more steadfast than that.

“We must help them fight it,” Arjun said. He swallowed with a wince, like he thought there might still be some magic left in his words, and wanted desperately for it to be gone. “This would destroy us all. We cannot stand by and watch.”

Asees nodded. “I know,” she said. “That is why we will not watch. That is why we will hide.”

She looked to Karam. To Saxony.

“Take that evil and go fight your war,” she said. “Never bring it to my people again.”