“You assisted the prince.”
“You mean accompanying his guard into the woods? Sure. Like you said, I can see Anima. He offered me some coin. You haven’t offered me anything, and you don’t need my skills.”
I heard more people slip into the room around us. I didn’t dare turn to look, but I expected it was the same shabby assassins who’d been helping him from the start.
I was now outpowered and outnumbered. My heart began to beat faster, which only made the pain worse. But I swallowed my fear, because showing it wouldn’t help me. Better to play unbothered; if it gave me a way to escape, all the better.
“There are so few like you, and even fewer like me.” He lifted his chin and pushed back his shoulders, obviously proud of the honor. “We understand that the world shouldn’t be ruled by Terrans, but by people like us. Those who can reach across the realms. Those of us with power.”
“With power?”
“Carethia has become weak. Somnolent. Carethia was built by war, but we aren’t aggressive enough in defending it. If we don’t use the tools available to us to protect ourselves from Eonin, Vhrania, Orlash, Illarnin, it will be only a matter of time before we’re destroyed.”
He’d named each of the four nations that surrounded Carethia. While the borders weren’t always peaceful—the gates existed mostly to keep bandits at bay—there hadn’t been a full-out war in years. Did this man have more knowledge than me, or was he inventing excuses?
“But if those who are gifted hold the reins of power,” he continued, “hold the crown—we bring the might of two realms to bear. We would be unstoppable.”
“What tools?”
“Anima and Aether. We must use them as they were meant to be used.”
“Anima aren’t tools to be used.” The possibility that he might try to control Luna like a damned marionette was infuriating.
“If they become tools, they were weak to begin with. That’s their failure. Not mine.”
His logic was more twisted than the alleys I’d chased him through. And his ambitions scared me as much as anything ever had.
“I don’t have useful power, and even if I did, I’m not interested. I don’t want war. I’m interested in getting drunk, paying off my bond, and getting the hell out of the stronghold.”
His gaze narrowed. “You don’t understand what our world could be.”
“Didn’t you show us all in the market? It would be violent, just like the world we already live in.”
His mouth was a thin line of disapproval. He’d expected me to be excited by what he was telling me, apparently because Aether was not just a connection between the realms but a connection between us. Or maybe he thought I’d be flattered at the possibility of being his servant.
“Good luck with your warfaring,” I said. “I’ll be leaving now.”
As I turned for the door, the assassins moved to block it. Not much of a surprise, but I still looked back at the practitioner. “I thought I was free to go?”
“Perhaps not yet,” he said. “I need to understand if you’re important.”
My laughter echoed through the room. “I am the least important person you’ll ever meet. A girl who sees ghosts, and nothing more.”
“If you can see Anima, maybe you can do more.”
I snorted. “I’m a bond servant, working for a woman to pay off someone else’s debt. If I had magic, I’d be powerful. I’d be rich.”
“Perhaps you do have magic. And perhaps you still can be rich.”
He lifted his hands, palms up and extended as if waiting for an offering.
The air began to stir, and the candles flickered in the breeze. A sparkling white-gold haze began to bloom like clouds within the candlelit circle, lights flickering within it like stars. A wisp of it curled toward me, brushed my skin, and my heart clenched hard enough to steal my breath. I wheezed, trying to suck in air, trying to fight back against the pain. I knew that I might not survive whatever came next, and this man, who believed everyone was disposable, wouldn’t bother trying to save me.
I had to try to live. I had to run.
I pivoted and ran for the door, dropping to roll beneath the grasping arms of two of the assassins who’d surrounded me. They hadn’t expected me to run, which was probably the only reason I made it that far. But the others caught on and managed to block my way.
I feinted right. That had one dodging the wrong way, but another didn’t move, and her dark eyes dared me to take another step forward.
