Mantle of the Gods

He was going to fight.

My mind was spinning with possibilities, ways for this to have a ‘good’ ending. I wasn’t seeing any.

Edward’s veins were bulging as he pulled the stake back and swung.

Ether moved forward and blocked it with her arm. “Get him!”

I tackled him, taking him to the ground. Ether was right behind me and sat down on his right arm.

“Get off me before I really hurt you!” Edward strained to buck me off.

“You’re not going to hurt anyone.” I shifted so that my knees were pinning down his shoulders. “Calm down.”

Justia was beside us with Aelin right behind her.

“What do we do?” I looked at the Healer.

“LET ME GO!” Edward was able to lift me a little.

“Get the stake.” Justia pointed at the weapon.

Aelin picked up the stake and backed away from him. "What are we going to do?”

“GET-!”

I wrapped both hands around his throat and squeezed. I knew it wasn’t a good answer, but it would buy us some time.

“Are you killing him!?!” Aelin dropped the stake

Edward started to struggle, so Justia dropped down to hold his left arm. He was so wound up that the three of us were having trouble keeping him down.

His struggles became weaker and after a few seconds, he went limp.

“Did you kill him?” Tears started to roll down Aelin’s face.

“He’s just unconscious.” I stood up. "But he’s going to be pissed when he wakes up.”

“What are we going to do?” Justia still hadn’t gotten up.

I looked at Ether. "What do we do?”

“You’re the leader.” She eyed me. "Shouldn’t you decide?”

“Part of being a good leader is recognizing talent and utilizing it. You’re smart, how do we get through this?”

“We could kill him.” Ether suggested.

“We can’t kill him.” Aelin looked at me, then at Justia. "You’re not going to let them kill him, are you?”

“We’re not going to kill him.” I took a step towards Aelin, but she flinched. I stopped and looked at Justia. "Can you reassure her that we’re not going to kill him?”

Justia got up and guided Aelin away from us.

I turned to the white-haired woman who was still sitting on the unconscious man.

“How do we diffuse this without killing him?”

“We can restrain him.” Ether shook her head. "But that’s three days without proper ropes." She bobbed her head. "He’d probably be able to break them anyway.”

“Great, what else?”

“Exile.” She motioned around her. "We throw him out. The only problem with that is he will come into camp and raid whatever food we collect while we’re out farming.”

I ran both of my hands over my hair and groaned. That’s what I’d been afraid of. Basically, we just ignore him and he harasses us for the rest of the time we’re here.

“Find some vines and we’ll tie him up.” I shrugged. "If he breaks them, then we’re in plan B.”

Ether nodded and headed out to the woods to find some vines.

I walked over to where Justia and Aelin were standing.

“Is he going to be okay?” Aelin closed her eyes as if she was bracing for bad news.

“Ether is going to try to tie him up. We can’t have him causing any more trouble like that.” I was glad that at least this time, she didn’t flinch away from me.

“See?” Justia gave Aelin a big side hug. "I told you they weren’t going to kill him.”

The blonde woman opened her eyes. "What if he gets free?”

“Then we avoid him.” I shrugged. "It’s not a perfect plan, but we’re not going to try to fight him. If something bad happens to him it will be because he attacks us, not because we hunted him.”

Aelin nodded, then looked up at the sky. "We’ve got a lot of farming to do.” She gripped the dagger in her hands tighter. "And we’re losing light.”

“She’s right.” I nodded to Justia. "Let’s get drinks and then head back.” I paused. "Bring my jumpsuit, we’ll stop a little earlier and pick fruit for dinner.

Aelin nodded. "I can do that.” She looked over at our team member. "I hope he’s okay.”

I nodded. "So do I.”