“He fought just as hard as you. Each punch was worse. It was almost like with Ever, when she absorbs your power through touch. But he just gave it back. And with nothing to counter?—”
“Who is he?” I ask again, looking at Cetus now.
“We don’t know. He wasn’t alone. He had two companions with him. They were the ones who kept hold of Ever. She tried to warn us, Ten. She wasn’t with them.”
“Of course she wasn’t. She’s been taken.” It might have come out closer to a shout.
“We don’t know that.”
“We’ve been over this. How did she get out of the cell? How did she get out of The Court? She didn’t want to be there.”
“You didn’t hear what I heard,” Crimson adds.
“What?” We all look at her, and her eyes flash to mine. A hundred memories between us, but all I see is the vengeance that grew between us when I told her there would only be friendship, now.
She turns away from me as she says, “She called him her brother.”
What?
“And he’s the one who murdered Micah,” Kyra announces from behind us.
six
. . .
Ever
The cabin loses all of what little charm it had as I pace the few feet of space afforded to me.
Sleep is easily won with the gentle rocking of the boat, but fitful. Escaping the memory of falling off the cliff is hard, and I wake with a start more than once, believing I’m about to crash into the rocks and drown in a gruesome end.
All thanks to Fenix.
He hasn’t come back to visit. Neither has Selina.
The saving grace of my confinement is knowing that my power has returned. My pendant is warm and offers a comfort that is in total opposition to how I felt about it when the Maker hung it around my neck for the first time.
When pacing back and forth grows too tiresome, I sit and force peace into my raging mind by pretending that Kyra is right next to me, calming me. Willing me to get a grip and harness the power I have.
My breath slows, my heart rate follows, and I let my mind travel to the depths of the well in my chest to immerse myself inall the power and magic I can pull from, and the more I focus, the more I can feel it answer.
It’s distant, a ghost of what it might be, but it’s there. A whisper that soothes and relieves. A pulse in my blood. Everything in me latches onto that, as if I can clench my fist around it and use it to fight.
I just have no fucking clue how to throw a punch with it.
The snick of the door lock rings in the room, and as if conjured, Selina nods her head in a way for me to follow. “He wants to see you.”
“Great.”
She doesn’t answer me and leads me next door to his cabin.
The only difference in the setup this morning is that a new table has been set for breakfast, away from the one in the centre which holds all the information ready for my greedy eyes to race over.
The sun shines through the stained glass, splashing colours into the room, but beyond their beauty, I see nothing but ocean. Water and waves for as far as I can see, and it freezes any hope in my chest. Not only am I not in Kirrasia, but I have no idea where we’re heading. It must be either Sunatora or Nehandun because there’s nowhere else, right?
“Sit.”
I do.
