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What did she learn about the magic here?
All of the most powerful magic had to do with distance. When she was restrained, it was because the force kept her in place, and if she moved away she was punished. Same with when Akoro broke her ribs—there was a connection to his wrist.
Proximity was important to the magic here. So maybe the wild magic had a proximity issue as well? When she'd seen the white fire in this land, Akoro had promised it wouldn't come any closer, as if it would try….
And Omegas could not be near society.
Tshel had said: “Does magic follow you around?”
Her stomach jittered. Omegas attracted the dangerous magic. That was why they were kept separate. Stomach trembling, she sat down hard on the bed. That had to be it. Everyone was scared of the Omegas and thought they were dangerous because the wild magic had a proximity connection to Omegas. Having her in the city made the city dangerous for everyone else, because the wild magic was trying to get to her. It was the same in the desert, the dust she saw swirling underneath the clouds, that had to have been the wild magic out there.
Naya braced her elbows on her knees, processing the concept of what her mind pieced together.
If the wild magic was destroying the land, then taking his people somewhere that didn’t happen was Akoro’s plan. He somehow thought that the Known Lands caused the wild magic, so he considered it to be their burden. But right now, the magic she needed was in the white fire.
Naya rubbed her palms on her thighs. The last time that she tried to tackle the white fire, it had been drawn to Lili, but she didn’t know why. What happened to the Omegas here when the white fire attacked them? They must have found a way to survive. Everyone was under the impression they were gone, not dead.
Regardless, Naya had to return to her empire, no matter what. Akoro wanted to put her in a little box until he was ready to play with her again, but he seemed to have forgotten why he chose her to kidnap in the first place.
Naya was back, and she wasn’t going to give up that easily.
When she’d started engaging the magic last time, it had occurred to her that the magical language, the Ancient Tongue, could provide better structure to control it. It had rules and was easy to repeat, whereas casting using her awareness was less orderly. If she tried again now, she’d use the Ancient Tongue and see if she could draw in through the damaged ruins that Akoro mentioned when they visited the attacked building.
The first thing she needed to do was figure out where they went last time when he took her to the attacked building. The white fire had managed to get into the city, and she needed it to come into the city again. Guards stood outside her door, but since she’d been marked by Akoro’s scent, they’d been much more relaxed about where she went.
She left her room and started walking. There was a frantic energy around the palace that reflected her mood and she allowed herself to blend in. When she got to the main entrance, the guards stopped her from leaving. She turned and headed to the back courtyard, but they stopped her from exiting the building there too.
"I just want to go to the stables,” she said.
They blocked her but didn’t answer.
Lurching forward, she disabled three of them and slipped past two to run out into the courtyard. She needed to know which direction the damaged building had been in.
When she got to the stables, and looked for the direction they’d gone in to get to the attacked building. West. Good. She relaxed. At least she’d have a direction to focus on when she summoned the white fire. If she thought Akoro’s nnirae would be easy to ride, she might have ridden him to head out there, but it wasn't worth the risk. Before she could decide whether or not go now, his guards caught up with her and took her back to her room.
Of course, Akoro was furious when he found out she attacked his guards. He descended onto her room with the force of a thousand burning suns. "Where exactly were you going?"
"I wasn't trying to go anywhere," Naya said. "I just wanted to visit your nnirea..”
Akoro's expression turned sour. "You don't seem to realize that I can usually tell when you're lying. This one is obvious."
"I don’t always lie," Naya snapped.
“You are a fucking liar,” he said tightly. “When were you planning to tell me that you remember your Haze?”
Naya glared at him. “I don’t want to remember it.”
His face contorted. “You don’t want to remember our most blissful time together?”
“I told you no! You didn’t stop.”
He stepped forward, looming over her, his voice beautiful gravel. “Why would I stop? You’re the sweetest thing I’ve ever had, tmot zia. And I was already in my rut by then.”
“And would you have stopped if you weren’t?”
“No!” He roared the word. “You’re my true mate! You belong to me.”
“And yet you’ve never once called me by my name,” Naya said, firming her trembly core. “I am not a mate to you, I am a means to an end who also happens to smell nice.”
