The Moon's Fangs | 1

ASTRAL ENERGY: LOW

TIME UNTIL BARRIER COLLAPSE: 5-7 YEARS

Those notifications hadn’t popped up in front of my face, but it had for everyone else.

People around me sobbed. Their cries tore through the abrupt stillness, and others raged. Those who raged cursed their blames on Shayd, The Full Spectrum, The Circle, and even their beloved Fates.

For some, this had been the last straw. Fury radiated from those individuals as they led a storm of alike minds towards the cave exit, where they intended to break free from here.

So many voices clashed–too many to track.

After a couple of disoriented blinks, a riot had formed at the mouth of the cave where guards struggled to keep the crowd at bay. Guards, who looked confused and equally terrified.

Then arms–Reks’ arms–were suddenly wrapped around me in a tight embrace. I was still slumped against a wall, heavy bag looped over my shoulder, scraped knees raw against the ground. But he found me, just as he promised.

“I’m sorry–damnit–I’m so sorry.” he squeezed me against him, chest trembling from his harsh, uneven breaths. “There was a kid. She nearly fell off. I had to help her.”

A huge boulder had embedded into the ground not far from where we held each other.

I sank into him, heart easing with each new passing second. “We’re okay.” my whispered response shook past my lips. "Is the kid okay?"

"Yes, safe." he said, pulling away far enough to examine me. Dust and grit peppered his cloak. No injuries. Good.

"Reks. Did you see? The barrier..."

A grim expression eclipsed his face. "This is the result of The Circle ignoring the energy problem. Now everyone can see the Shayd-damned timebomb. It was ignorant of the council to rely on an energy source they had no way of checking on or knowing how much depleted day by day. Self-destructive cowards."

He bit back the building anger seeping out from his tone. He surveyed the mob populating the mouth of the cave. Their fear-induced rage quickly twisted into violence in their need to escape Asylum.

The few guards continued to keep them at bay, but that wouldn't be the case if this kept up.

"We should see where this leads before heading back. Come on," he said, helping me to my feet. He took the heavy bag from my shoulder and flung it over his, next to the bag he carried.

The pain eased from my knees as Nox finished healing them as we made our way towards the outskirts of the amped-up crowd. Hoods in place, we maneuvered through them until finding a spot to witness the unfolding of events.

Up at the front, citizens were far more aggressive. They pushed and shoved and demanded answers from guards whose focus remained on keeping them from trampling through the exit and onto the surface.

The few guards holding them off used a device that connected an astral shield between their palms, buying them enough time before a gateway opened up smack-dab in the center of the cave's mouth, ushering in a new platoon of soldiers to rush in and deal with the situation at hand. These soldiers looked different than the average, adorned in black long coats trimmed in gold.

Behind them, an older man stepped through, flanked on either side by two young men sharing similar features: Nolan and Nikoe Rhosyn.

My attention instantly gravitated to Nolan. One of his eyes appeared slightly swollen, engulfed by a nasty bruise. The cheesy smile he wore so often, dead and gone.

With a quick confirmation from Nox, it was clear the older man they accompanied was their father, General Rhosyn. His surprisingly voluminous side-swept caramel hair was streaked with heavy grey in the front. The grey matched his groomed beard and joined sideburns. His skin looked pale in comparison to his sons', like one whose job keeps them indoors.

General Rhosyn caught the gate ring as the portal closed shut and snarled at the panicking and fury-filled riot in front of him.

"What a fucking joke." Reks roughly whispered under his breath as we watched the man slide the gate ring on his finger. Adorned on two other fingers were identical bands to the first, like a hoarder of gate rings.

The General snatched a gun from under his coat.

“Enough!” he boomed, firing a single shot off to the darkness of the pit. Amber light raced from the barrel. The sharp crash of rocks in the near distance forced screams out of everyone around us. People covered their heads and cowered, but it grabbed all of our attention in a fearful kind of way.

Reks’ hand found the top of my head and covered me from any potential rocks before we both looked up to see the disdain smeared on General Rhosyn’s face, and the look of shock from his own sons. Well, Nikoe looked shocked. Nolan stared at his father in disgust.

“Look at yourselves. You act like spoiled pets at the first rumble of thunder! You need to stand down and calm down.” he holstered his weapon back into his utility belt. “The situation has been dealt with and we are in no immediate danger. You have no reason, nor right to trample through this city and kill each other getting through this exit!”

I blanched.

“General Rhosyn, please look at our surroundings!” a woman from the crowd shouted back. “Our businesses and homes have been damaged. We were running for our lives! You can't expect us to stay put when Asylum nearly came down on our heads!”

“I heard one of the bridges collapsed!” someone else shouted, which resulted in others shouting about other damages and people injured during the fallout. Someone cried out something about a chunk of District Six collapsing onto Seven.

My heart dropped. Fear trickled through me at the thought of Shion. Was she and Baze okay? What about Etch? They were at the bottom. The effect of the shockwave must have been far worse on the lower levels.

“Silence!” General Rhosyn boomed with a sharp hand gesture. “We were all affected, and we will work on solutions for the damage, which cannot be done until I deal with this riot you have caused. The longer I deal with you, the longer those who need immediate help have to wait. Anyone who fights to leave, so help me Fates, will be thrown into Shayd-damned wasteland! Am I understood?” strands of his hair fell over his vein-bulging forehead as he slashed us with his threats.

The hand Reks had on my back tightened. I looked up and saw something demonic sharpening in his fixated stare.

Some cries could be heard trickling through the crowd as they quieted. But another civilian spoke up. “What about the astral barrier? It's going to collapse in five years! But here you are using precious energy when it needs to be preserved as much as possible! You high ranks use the energy so frequently, I bet we have less time!”

This comment riled the mass up again, their fear quickly reinstated.

General Rhosyn came back with a testy snarl. "As I said before, we are working on the solutions. We, The Circle have the citizens' safety held as the highest priority. I'll be sure to share your dripping gratitude with them once I return."

The man’s sense of entitlement made my stomach churn.

Reks must have had enough of the General’s attitude toward the public. He gestured for me to keep my head down and turned his back to conceal himself behind a larger local so he couldn’t be identified in the crowd as he spoke out.

"Is that supposed to be a threat, Rhosyn? Fucking pathetic." a sinister laugh snaked from his lips, tainting his sharpened accusations. "The Circle has no Shayd-damned solution. Never have! You and the rest of the council know the only one who can solve the energy problem is a Lucil. Fresh out of those now, aren't we? Ellison Lucil may have enclosed us inside, but you and that worthless Circle are the ones who kept us caged like animals. You've had over eight hundred damn years to get your shit together, and now look at you. You turned your war hero bloodline into cowards, Rhosyn!"

The demented smile curling at his lips sent a shiver down my spine. At times like this, when something crucial struck Reks' nerve, it reminded me of what he was capable of. I could see how badly he wanted to unleash his inner demon.

I prayed it wouldn't come to that. Not here.

As Reks finished his last sentence, he simultaneously released a tendril from his wrist to slither through to the opposite end of the crowd. Luk discreetly pushed and poked people, making strangers turn in confusion. It caused the sneering General and his finely dressed soldiers to think the speaker came from a place we were not, throwing them off our trail.

Not Nolan. Not entirely. He recognized Reks’ voice and inadvertently scanned the crowd for him. Nolan's body language masked it well, but his eyes gave away everything at that moment.

"I want whoever said that arrested." General Rhosyn shoved at one of his soldiers, who began to aggressively shove their way through the crowd, in the wrong direction.

Reks pulled Luk back without anyone taking notice.

“We’ve been damned either way!” a man screamed, voice cracking. “I'd rather risk it out in the wastelands instead of waiting here to be cornered and slaughtered!"

General Rhosyn started to bark back with a nasty remark, but Nolan suddenly cut him off. He stepped ahead of his father with a look of concern and resilience. And when he spoke, it wasn’t tainted with the same cruelty as his father’s.

“If you want someone to blame... blame the empress, who used the last of her strength to save you when she stood alone. Blame Ellison Lucil, who turned her back on revenge so you could stand here today. Oh... going quiet already? Is our eroded history too harsh for your ears?" Nolan paused, scanning the still crowd with a strange level of compassion despite the sudden harshness. “No. The only ones we have to blame are ourselves. We are to blame for sitting around like lazy logs when we knew damn well that barrier had an invisible time limit; one that has miraculously lasted us this long in the first place. Instead of preparing ourselves, gathering allies, or setting up new safe havens off-planet, what have we done over the past eight hundred years? Nothing beyond the bare minimum. Every single one of us is to blame.”

Nolan pointed at us, himself, then out through the mouth of the cave to show those on the surface were not excluded from his statement. “Yes. Some are to blame more than others." he shot his father a whithering look, then continued. "If we want to survive, to be ready when that barrier sees its last day, whether that’s in seven years... or only two to three, we need to start preparing now. Today. We train. We make outworlder friends. We start thinking with our heads instead of letting a little Circle scared of pretty rocks do all the thinking and all the actions for us. Yeah?” he asked, gesturing past us towards the wrecked marketplace. “Running around in a panic, stealing and hoarding food like I just saw some of you clowns doing does us no good. You are only hurting your own people. You’re putting us at a disadvantage. If we can't come together now, in a time like this, we'll never make it.”

“Don’t you think separating us like this puts us at a disadvantage as well? We’re tired of living like this.” someone uttered through somewhat controlled tears.

Nolan whispered something to one of the guards holding the force shield up, and a second later, it went down. Nolan stepped through and put a hand on the crying citizen’s shoulder, then went in for a hug instead. “I know. That’s why we are going to stand together and find a new way.” he pulled away to address everyone again. “There’s an event at the citadel tomorrow night. The entire Circle and many high-ranking officials will be present. I will not leave that party until they hear me out and listen to our concerns moving forward. I will be your advocate. By the next Onyx Moon, we will see major changes to how things are run. I swear this to you and to the Fates.”

Nolan was making his way through the crowd as he spoke, touching arms and leading soldiers through to help with the damage across the district. People were thanking him and asking for additional requests while General Rhosyn whispered in Nikoe’s ear, sending him quickly back out of the cave and out of sight with an unforeseen task.

The General eyed Nolan with an unloving gaze, realizing what everyone else had. Nolan held far more sway over the public than he ever could. The proof of it laid bare for us all to see.

"That sneaky punk's using his heartwarming speech to get closer to us." Reks divulged against my ear. "Time to leave."

We snuck away before Nolan could find us, making our way toward District Two through the dense crowd.

Though, after hearing Nolan speak, I couldn’t help but wonder if I should give him the chance to explain himself for what he did at Altered. Perhaps after Reks and I figured everything out with Sio at the gala, I could give Nolan a second chance.