This Is My Kingdom Come by Megan Rees (red white and royal blue hardcover txt) 📕

“Incorrect. Same poles repel, while opposite poles attract. Ash has always had a soft spot for Luna from what I’ve observed and heard. Behind his eyes hides the warmth that we all feel naturally – he won’t express it too much in front of others. On the other hand, Luna’s sensitive and does try to be sympathetic, but if others disrespect her then she won’t bother to waste her breath. She didn’t like me too much because I pried into one of her most sensitive memories.” Adele explained.

“Luna reminds me a little of a friend of mine back home, actually,” Oscar replied, remembering a photograph he had in his jacket pocket. Fumbling around in one of the inside pockets, he picked out a small grey book with a swan on the front and opened it, showing a photograph to Adele. “This was taken at Christmas last year.”

The blonde teenager left Leon’s side and stood beside Oscar, her good eye scanning the picture. It showed a laughing group of people in a huddle, grinning for the camera and celebrating the festive time. Oscar was standing in the centre with a boy named Sean on one side and Evelyn on the other. The Prince pointed to his curly haired best friend, who had a little garland of holly balanced on her head on top of her ginger hair. “That’s Evelyn, my closest friend and also not as well off as most people are in the High Kingdom. Her personality’s a bit similar to Luna’s, but Evelyn is very down-to-earth and never really miserable. She’s got this bubbly personality which I don’t always understand because she’s been through so much and she’s not too wealthy.”

“She’s very pretty. Would she be your Queen if you were in line for the throne?” Adele inquired, smiling a little.

Oscar felt a little hot. “She is pretty, but we’re just friends,” he insisted briskly, pointing to a broad shouldered boy with short blonde hair and very pale brown eyes. “See him? That’s Edward, one of the stablehands at the palace. He really likes her a lot and I think he’s planning on proposing to her soon.”

Before Adele could respond, Luna came outside with Ash and Atlas following behind. Atlas made his way forward and handed the werewolves a small bag. “There’s a shotgun and two knives in there. They belong to Will, so take care.”

Imogen just nodded curtly, opening the bag and handing Teddy the two knives while keeping the small gun. Oscar personally thought it was a little harsh to give the werewolves a gun so soon after Celeste was shot, but he guessed they didn’t really have a choice. After all, it was better to have one weapon than none at all.

“Let’s go.” Luna said gravely.

“Fear me you lords and lady preachers,

I descend upon your earth from the skies.

I command your very souls you unbelievers.

Bring before me what is mine,

The Seven Seas of Rhye.”

Ash glared back at Leon. “Will you please turn that off?” he scowled.

“Can’t hate on Queen,” Leon told him cheerfully. “Maybe Lady Gaga is more your taste?”

“Normals are weird.” Ash concluded.

“They are, but remember I’m not even partly Normal. I’m Pureblood and Winged, remember?” Leon teased. “I only live in the Normal world, which doesn’t count as Nighthollow. You live under Normal rules in London and I say you listen to this wonderful music.”

The dark haired Pureblood didn’t look amused. “Isn’t there another way you can entertain yourself?”

Leon grinned. “Certainly.” he replied, taking the object which he’d called an ‘IPod’ from his pocket and swiped his finger across the screen a few times before placing it back in his pocket.

“Pressure pushing down on me,

Pressing down on you, no man ask for.

Under pressure that burns a building down,

Splits a family in two,

Puts people on streets.”

“I’m really about to kill you.” Ash warned him fiercely.

“This isn’t bad, actually,” Luna commented, smiling a little. “Is this entertainment in the Normal world?”

“Queen were and still are the greatest musicians ever,” Leon explained. “Their lead singer died a couple of years ago, so they don’t produce any more music, but it still lives on.”

Ash just shrugged and carried onwards, following Imogen and Teddy as they navigated the group down long alleyways and around corners, staying as far away from the busy roads as they possibly could. It was coming up to six in the evening, but cars still congested the tarmac paths.

Imogen suddenly halted, lifting one hand to stop the rest of the group. “Turn the music off. There are two Silhouette guards up ahead.”

“How do you know?” Atlas inquired, fascinated.

“The black cloaks and masks give it away easily,” Imogen replied, pointing to the two shadowy figures pacing back and fourth. “They won’t be easy to surprise, admittedly. Anyone got any bright ideas?”

“There’s always a back way round in these situations,” Atlas suggested. “They’re only patrolling the front of that skyscraper thing-”

“Skyscraper?” Luna echoed in puzzlement.

“The building that the guards are front of is called a skyscraper. They’re really tall buildings that overlook the city,” Teddy piped up. “The Silhouettes are likely to be on the top floor. We could blow up the whole thing seeing as they own it all and then jump off the roof because we wouldn’t have time to go down via stairs.”

Luna’s afraid of heights, Ash remembered, glancing at the blonde girl’s nervous face. How are we supposed to get everyone out alive?

“That’s a foolish idea. We’ll just be jumping to our deaths.” Adele pointed out a little dryly.

Oscar shook his head. “Not if one person can create something to land on. My mother’s power was the ability to recreate close objects, so she could have made a pillow clone or something.” he explained.

Leon looked hopeful. “Ash can control gravity on people and-”

“I’m unwilling to allow you to put your lives in my hands. Someone died because I wasn’t strong enough and I don’t want anyone else hurt,” Ash cut off sharply. “As Oscar said, we’ll need something to land on so we don’t get injured.”

Oscar raised his eyebrows in surprise, his brown eyes confused. Ash glared at him fiercely, but then realised. No one’s agreed with him yet: I guess he didn’t expect me to back him up. Regardless of how much I hate the guy, he has a point.

“You’re a Pureblood, aren’t you Oscar?” Imogen chipped in, narrowing her dark brown eyes. “Do you actually have anything useful?”

“I can produce bolts of lighting. Nothing useful in this situation.” Oscar responded, shrugging.

“Oh screw it.” Imogen sighed, lifting the gun and pulling the trigger, successfully shooting one of the guards in the head. The other tried to run, but Imogen was a quick shot and managed to get them in the back. Atlas gave her a sideways glance. “Why didn’t you just do that in the first place? We wasted valuable time arguing over what to do and you cowered at the back knowing well enough that you could have shot those guards! We might have been in the building by now if you’d done that sooner!”

“I didn’t want to create a fuss in case any other Silhouette members heard the shots, but you lot were so useless with your powers that I decided to take matters into my own hands,” Imogen responded airily. “Now, come on!”

~

“So, Teddy will come with me to try and find anything we can use to blow the building up. Luna, Adele and Oscar will go to find Cody and free any other people who have come here against their free will. Ash, Imogen and Leon need to take out any guards that will block our passage to the rooftop so we can get out as quickly as possible. Keep in contact using the earpieces that Teddy brought.”

Luna handed the earpiece to Adele. “I can trust you to keep this safe, right?” she asked.

“Of course,” the blonde girl promised, placing the device into her right ear. “Lead the way.”

Beckoning Oscar over with some reluctance, Luna created a small flame in the palm of her left hand and held it up, ignoring the burning sensation as she carried it along so she could actually see her way down the dimly lit corridors. The skyscraper was mostly coated with shadows as if the entire place had no lighting at all – the others would find it hard wondering around in the unwelcoming darkness.

Turning a corner, Luna let out a gasp as the fire burnt her pale white skin, making Oscar turn his head with a quick flick. His eyes were a soft coppery colour in the flickering flames. “Okay?” he questioned in a low voice.

“Okay,” Luna murmured. “It’s just my powers playing up. I’m not sure why it’s burning me so much – I usually have no issues.”

“Hush!” Adele hissed, putting her hand over her ear where the earpiece was. “Okay, got it. We’ll keep an eye out for them.”

Keep an eye out for who? Luna felt panic rise inside her.

Adele had clearly spotted the wavy haired teenager’s worried glance, so she just placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, her long yet bony fingers squeezing it firmly. “The offence group thought they saw two young children running around the corridors. Ash has confirmed that neither of them had Cody’s figure or hair colour according to Leon, so don’t worry-”

She suddenly fell silent when a male voice buzzed in the earpiece and let her hand fall to her side. The pale girl bit her lip anxiously, stiffening as she listened on and thus filling Luna with much anxiety. “Shoot. Thanks for the tip-off, Atlas. We’ll hurry up.”

“What’s happened?” Oscar queried.

“A guard spotted Atlas and Teddy with explosives, so they’ve put the place on full lockdown. His wishes are that we free any prisoners and get them to the rooftop so we can escape as quickly as possible as we don’t have much time,” Adele explained. “Keep going down the corridor in case we find anything.”

As they carried on, warning sirens began blaring around the place, deafening the group of Purebloods. Oscar pointed to a set of metal double doors just up ahead. “I saw a young girl in there! I think that’s where the prisoners are being kept!” he yelled over the dreadful din.

Nodding, Luna followed the Prince swiftly down towards the doors and thrust them open with her shoulder, almost falling flat on her face on the white tiled floor. The sirens were muffled in here a little, which was a nice change.

Noticing that there was light, she put out the flame in her hand and scanned the room, resting her gaze finally on a small figure curled up in white bed sheets. She stopped beside the bed and gave the child a gentle shake. “Cody?”

Her brother’s pale face poked up, lighting up when he saw his sister. “Luna! What are you doing here?”

“I should ask you the same thing!” Luna exclaimed,