The Fallen City by JR Konkol

Author:JR Konkol [Konkol, JR]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Published: 2024-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

26

Eirini

Eirini shivered as she watched the freezing rain pelt the streets below, but she wasn’t cold. She was worried about her brother. That’s why she was shivering. Something was wrong. She expected him to change, but she didn’t think it would be like this. It was like he was a different person. Even his mannerisms were completely different.

“Shek,” breathed Quick. “Look at all them Bumbles. We never should have fought them. We didn’t need to. We could have run away, no problem.”

“Nah,” said Saro, his tone confident. “Never again. We’re done running.”

The Bumbles were mostly arranged in squads of six, but she noticed one team with ten. There were four squads gathered out front, with another four spread out around the building. Most of them arrived over the past hour. Eirini hoped there weren’t more on the way. As much as she wanted to punish the Bumbles for her father, she never expected there to be so many.

The Coterie was observing from a room on the fourth floor of their building. They knocked much of the outside wall out, turning the entire room into a balcony of sorts. Mend was the only member of the Coterie who was missing, though she was due back soon.

“You think they gonna do something, or just stand around down there?” asked Quick.

“Hard to say,” said Saro. “In the past, the Bumbles gathered their swarm a few blocks off. When they stung, they came in hard and fast. This feels different to me, but we’ll know soon enough. Mend is on her way back up.”

Eirini didn’t know how Saro was keeping track of her. Mend studied enchanting magic, but Eirini only knew about basic enchanting spells. Her brother probably knew more. He studied at the shekking Academy, after all. They probably taught him about that kind of stuff in the mornings, while they all enjoyed tea and tiny shekking cakes. He claimed the Academy wasn’t like that, but she didn’t care. She found her version of it funny. It wasn’t like she ever planned to take classes there, so it didn’t matter if she was wrong about it.

The door burst open, and Mend padded into the room. She looked winded. “I read a couple of minds… one from each group,” she panted after taking a moment to catch her breath. “They don’t have orders to engage. They’re just stopping anyone from coming and going while waiting for new orders.”

“You know what? Shek ‘em.” Saro leaned his head out over the street, snorted, and spat a thick glob of phlegm down at the assembled Bumbles. “Last night, we took to the streets and went to war. Sure, they killed some of ours, but we killed some of theirs… the way it’s meant to be.”

“Yes,” breathed Dimitri, grinning. He looked like he was soaking in every word Saro uttered. Eirini didn’t know what to think. This wasn’t the boy she grew up with. This wasn’t her brother.

Saro shook his head. “But look at them down there. They’re pretending they’re strong.

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