Page 95 of The Princess of Portals

Jeremy Rubin, the storage facility site manager. Senator Gaines. They were nothing but puppets. They were working for Melanie Meyer.

“What does she want with me?” I asked the commando.

“She wants to sell you to the Order of Kings. You are the prize they want most of all. You are the Polymage they lost, the key to figuring out how to turn people into Polymages.”

“Why now? And why here? The Castle is swarming with Knights tonight. Why risk it?”

“She’s desperate. Fenris’s scheme unraveled, leaving her vulnerable. The Court has Fenris. They are questioning him about his misdeeds, even as we speak. It’s only a matter of time before they find out about her involvement. She needs to make her escape before it all comes back to her. She thinks that if she brings you to the Order, they will give her sanctuary.”

So this was about saving her own skin. And she didn’t care who she had to sacrifice in order to do it. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. She had sold teenagers to Fenris.

I was seeing everything in a whole new light now.

Melanie Meyer had made a deal with Fenris. She’d told him where to find the Apprentices. She’d given him their files, which had told him everything the Government knew about them. When I’d escaped Fenris’s fortress, Melanie Meyer had sent Senator Gaines to silence me because I knew where Fenris was and what he’d done. She’d realized that if the Court got their hands on Fenris, it was all over for her. He would tell them what she’d done.

And that’s exactly what had happened. Now the Order of Kings thought she was incompetent. They had the power to help her flee Gaia, but they wouldn’t. Not if she didn’t prove herself. Bringing me to them was how she planned to prove her worth.

That wasn’t happening. This scheme ended now.

I looked at the vines, commanding them. “Bring them.”

I started walking. The vines followed, dragging the commandos along with them.

“You’re going to help me expose the traitor in our Government.”

CHAPTER 4

THE COURT VOTES

My first instinct had been the right one. You couldn’t trust people who wore suits. It was as simple as that.

Melanie Meyer had fooled me. I wouldn’t be fooled again. I was tired of getting burned. I was done trusting anyone who came to me with kind words or a sob story. I had to do better. I had to be better.

I entered the ballroom. The vines trailed me, dragging along the commandos. All the chatter came to a resounding halt. Everyone stopped what they were doing—whatever they were doing—and stared at me. My gaze locked with Melanie Meyer’s, and I smiled. The Governor backed up slowly, trying to make a quiet, strategic exit.

Vines burst through the opening in the wall Erador had made earlier. They snapped around Melanie Meyer’s arms and legs, dragging her before me.

“How dare you—” A vine slid over her mouth, silencing her.

“How dare I? No, how dare you. How dare you betray the people you swore to protect. How dare you betray me and Evie and Kylie and Asher.”

It all crashed together—anger and tears and dread and loss. My fists were clenched; my face was wet and hot.

“How dare you betray all of us.”

Kylie came up behind me, setting her hand on my shoulder. “What are you talking about, Savannah?”

“She’s the Government traitor, Kylie. Jeremy Rubin worked for her. Senator Gaines worked for her. She is working with the Order of Kings. She’s the reason you spent days in Fenris’s dungeon. She’s the reason Asher is still missing.”

Kylie went red and pale and green, all at once. Yeah, that about summed up how I felt too.

I looked across the sea of shocked faces: the faces of Knights and Rebels and Apprentices. Then I turned to the talkative commando. “Tell them.”

So he did. He told them about the deal Melanie Meyer had made with Fenris: supplies and wealth in exchange for Gaia’s Apprentices. He told them of Fenris’s Polymages and how I’d rescued them. He told them how Melanie Meyer had sent Senator Gaines to silence me, and when that didn’t work, she’d sent the commandos here today to kidnap me so she could sell me to the Order of Kings in exchange for a ride out of here. The commando knew things about Melanie Meyer that surprised even me.

“Wait, so she was part of the first expedition that the old Earth governments sent through the Spirit Tree?” I asked him.

“Yes, she was a member of the expedition party that caused the Cause.”