Chapter 185: 185-Surrender!
Maisa’s knees weakened and for one terrible moment, the strength drained from her body.
Her surroundings seemed to darken, and the guards’ voices faded beneath the pounding of her heart.
She was going to lose everything. Again. She had lost her family. Lost her humanity. Lost her ability to feel the people bound to her by fate and now, before she had even begun to understand what had happened, she was about to lose her freedom.
’No, this can’t happen,’ the thought came faintly. ’No, I can’t let this happen,’ she repeated.
She could not go to the Dark Forest. Not when she still had questions to answer, a mysterious benefactor to confront, and a bond she desperately wanted to restore or when the people she loved had no idea how much danger she was in.
Maisa stopped struggling. The sudden stillness made the guards glance at her.
"Finally decided to cooperate?" one asked.
Maisa lowered her head and for a second, she looked defeated. Before she whispered, "I’m sorry."
The guard frowned. "What did you say?"
Maisa raised her face. "I said I’m sorry," she repeated and the ground exploded.
A violent burst of earth surged beneath the guards’ feet. Stone cracked, sending fragments flying across the corridor. The two vampires were thrown backward, their bodies slamming against the walls.
"Aaargh!"
Shouts erupted from every direction. Regina stopped dead in her tracks. "What...?"
Maisa tore herself free. She hadn’t planned to do that, she hadn’t even known she could but something inside her had answered the desperation in her heart, and the moment it did, the air around her began to tremble.
A gust of wind tore through the corridor. Papers flew from Regina’s hands. The guards struggled to regain their footing as the current strengthened, whipping around Maisa like an invisible storm.
A nearby torch flared and then every flame along the corridor burst into brilliant crimson.
In no time, fire, wind, earth had answered her call. Maisa stared at her own hands, she could feel the magic and they felt more powerful than ever before.
The magic was not as a distant presence or a faint spark but as something alive beneath her skin. It rushed through her veins with terrifying force, answering her fear, her anger, her desperation.
The fire bent toward her, the wind circled her body and the stone beneath her feet trembled. Then moisture gathered in the air, condensing into droplets that spun around her wrists before freezing into sharp, glittering shards of ice. Every element was embracing her.
The corridor fell silent and even Regina seemed to forget how to speak. A redblood vampire was supposed to possess the lowest standing among the major bloodlines.
Most redbloods had no magic. While pure blood’s had little magical ability that was limited to one element, and those who did rarely possessed anything powerful enough to challenge the higher bloodlines.
Yet Maisa was standing in the middle of the corridor, surrounded by manifestations of elemental magic that should have been impossible for someone of her rank and she wasn’t merely controlling one element. She was commanding them all.
"Impossible," Regina whispered. "This can’t be."
A guard slowly pushed himself upright, staring at Maisa as if she had become something unrecognizable. "She can’t do that."
Maisa looked at him, tears gathering in her eyes. "I don’t want to hurt anyone," she spoke, the wind around her grew stronger. "But I’m not going to let you take me away."
"Subdue her!" Regina shouted.
Her voice broke the stunned silence. The guards rushed forward.
Maisa thrust out her hands. A wall of earth erupted from the floor, separating her from the first wave of attackers. One guard leaped over it, only to be struck by a blast of wind that sent him crashing into a pillar. Another raised a defensive shield, but a stream of water struck the ground beneath his feet, turning the stone slick and sending him sprawling.
Fire swept across the corridor. It did not touch the guards directly, but the heat forced them back as flames curled between them and Maisa.
"Stop her!" Regina ordered again. "Do not let her leave the building!"
Maisa ran. She had no idea how much her mates were hurting now that she was siphoning their elements or how long she could maintain control over it. Every instinct screamed at her to keep moving, to get away before the guards overwhelmed her.
She knew only one thing, she had to reach the whiteblood tower to find Varitreya and the others. They might not understand what was happening to her, and they might not believe her explanation, but she had no one else to turn to.
They were her only hope.
The academy erupted into chaos. Students poured from classrooms as the first explosions echoed through the corridors. Professors hurried toward the disturbance, their expressions hardening when they saw the destruction.
"What’s going on?"
"Someone has breached the security corridor!"
"Who is that?"
Maisa raced past them. Her hair whipped around her face, and her breath came in ragged bursts. She could hear the guards shouting behind her, their footsteps pounding against the floor as more security personnel joined the pursuit.
"Miss Loven! Stop immediately!"
She didn’t stop. A professor stepped into her path, raising one hand to summon a binding spell.
Maisa reacted on instinct, the ground rose between them and the professor stumbled backward, his spell dissolving before it could reach her. His eyes widened as he recognized the unmistakable signatures of multiple elements surrounding the redblood.
"Five elements?" he exclaimed.
Maisa didn’t look back. She darted around the next corner, nearly colliding with a group of students. They scattered as a gust of wind swept through the hallway, sending their books tumbling across the floor.
"Aaargh!"
Someone screamed, another student raised a protective barrier and Maisa forced her magic to the side, shattering the barrier with a concentrated burst of water and wind. The student staggered but remained standing.
"Move!" Maisa cried.
They stared at her and she could see the fear in their faces. The fear she had seen in the guards, the fear that had begun to follow her everywhere since she exposed that she can use magic. She hated it.
She hated that they looked at her as though she were a monster when she was only trying to survive but she couldn’t stop to explain.
Behind her, Regina’s voice rang through the corridor. "Seal the exits! She must not reach the whiteblood tower!"
Maisa’s stomach tightened. They knew where she was going. Of course they did. The whiteblood tower was one of the most important buildings in the academy. If a dangerous prisoner was trying to reach it, the guards would naturally assume she intended to take someone hostage or seek protection from the royal family.
But Maisa wasn’t thinking about politics or consequences. She was thinking about Varitreya’s face.
The way the princess had looked at her when she asked why her petal had gone numb and the careful way she had held Maisa’s hand, as though she feared the girl might shatter.
The warmth Maisa could no longer feel but still remembered so vividly that it hurt. ’Please, Vari.’
She poured more magic into her legs. The wind caught her body and propelled her forward.
She flew down the next staircase, landing hard enough to crack the stone beneath her shoes. Water spiraled around her ankles, cushioning the impact. She barely noticed.
A squad of guards blocked the exit ahead. "Stand down!" their leader shouted.
Maisa shook her head. "Please. I don’t want to fight you."
"Then surrender!"
"I can’t!"