THE MAN NAMED AXEL KNOX

CHOOSE WHAT YOU BECOME

The truck hung suspended ten feet above the ground. Axel's body slammed against the dashboard. Mariette grabbed the steering wheel to keep herself from falling out of the truck.

“Let us go!” she screamed.

Harrison tilted his head. “I will, let you go, but the boy has to go with me.”

He snapped his fingers. The truck dropped as the metal crunched against the road. Airbags deployed. Axel's vision went white for a second. When he opened his eyes, the windshield was cracked and Mariette was slumped over the steering wheel, unconscious.

“Mom?” He shook her. No response. Just shallow breathing.

The passenger’s door was ripped open from the outside. Harrison reached in and grabbed Axel by the collar, pulling him out like a ragdoll.

“Let's take a walk, son.”

He dragged Axel to the side of the road and dropped him on the grass. Axel tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't work. The crash had done something to his spine. Pain shot up his back.

“You broke me,” Axel whispered.

“I barely touched you.” Harrison crouched down.

“What have you done to her? She's barely breathing we need to take her to the hospital!” His voice broke in a million ways filled with sadness.

“Listen to me carefully. The founding families want to see you tomorrow. They think you're just a street kid who survived the elixir. They don't know you're a Windsor. If they find out, they will kill you. Not because they hate you because they're afraid of you.”

“Are you even listening to me?!”

“Of course I am. Mariette is fine she has survived worse. Users of Aevum don't die so easily.”

Axel looked at him, his gaze shifted to Mariette and then back at Harrison. “You claim that they're afraid of me then why are you bringing me?”

“Because I have a plan.” Harrison's eyes glowed brighter. “The four families think they control the magic. They think they own the elixir. But the elixir came from the Windsors. Your mother's family created it. And only Windsor blood can truly master it.”

He stood up and looked at the stars.

“Tomorrow, you will stand before them. You will show them your true power and when they try to control you, you will burn them all.”

Axel laughed a painful, broken sound. “You want me to be your weapon.”

“I want you to be free. The families have ruled Bonneville for a century and they decide who lives and who dies. Who matters and who doesn't. You've lived your whole life as a nobody. Don't you want to be the one who decides for once?”

Axel thought about his childhood, the foster homes, the cold meals, the nights he slept out in the cold, the teachers who didn't know his name. The people who looked through him like he was made of glass.

“Yes,” he said quietly. “I want that.”

Harrison smiled. “Good. Then stand up.”

He snapped his fingers again. The pain in Axel's back vanished, his legs worked properly. He stood up slowly, staring at his father.

“What is going to happen to my mother?”

Harrison glanced at the crashed truck. Mariette was still unconscious inside. “She'll wake up in an hour. She'll be fine and she'll come for you. She always does.”

“You're not going to kill her?”

“No.” Harrison's smile faded. “I made that mistake once. Trying to erase the Windsors completely but I've learned that some fires need to burn. She's more useful alive.”

He put a hand on Axel's shoulder. “Tomorrow, you prove yourself to the families and then we burn them together. Father and son.”

Axel looked back at the truck one last time. His mother's blonde hair spilled across the seat. He wanted to go back to her. But something held him back and it wasn't the magic this time, it was his own choice.

“Let's go,” he said.

They walked away leaving behind them Mariette, the truck's engine ticked as it cooled.

In the driver's seat, Mariette's fingers twitched.

Her eyes snapped open glowing red, not blue. She sat up straight, looked at the empty road, and whispered in a voice that was not her own: “The boy is not yours, Harrison. He never was.”