“Stay back!”Scarlet shouted.
She held out her arms like a barricade, trying to keep the frightened amsirah away from us.Ruby continued bashing at my chains as sweat dripped from her forehead and blood stained the tips of her battered fingers.
Small sparks shot from the metal as the rock fell against them, but the chains didn’t so much as dent.Holding the rock high over her head, Ruby brought it down as hard as she could against the manacle.
The chain remained perfectly formed, but the rock splintered apart before falling from Ruby’s bloodied fingers.She slapped her palm against the ground.
“Are you okay?”I demanded.
“We have to find something else,” she said.
We also had to stand up before the crowd trampled us.Scarlet couldn’t hold them back forever.
“Get up,” I said.
I ignored the grinding bones in my arm as I grasped her chains and jerked them up with me.My gaze searched the crowd as I sought some sign of Ryker, but the amsirah had swallowed him.
Guards streamed through the mass as they pushed toward where I’d last seen Ryker.The archers all had their bows raised and aimed at a section of the crowd; he had to be there, and they were going to kill him.
My heart raced, and everything in me screamed to help him.Unfortunately, I couldn’t do much while shackled at the wrists and ankles.
Determined to break free, I twisted my wrists to try pulling them out of the metal encasing them and nearly screamed.It wasn’t a scream of agony, even though my broken bones grated together and I was fairly certain they dug into my muscle, but one of frustration as my skin peeled away at my wrists, but my hands and powers remained trapped.
Ruby grasped my wrists.“Stop it.You’re hurting yourself.”
“They’re going to kill him!”
My words drove a dagger straight into my heart as my breath sucked in.I couldn’t lose him too, not when I possessed the ability to save him… if I could get out of these chains!
But that was proving impossible.
CHAPTERFIVE
Ellery
“Stay here,”Scarlet commanded.
Before her mother or I could ask what she intended, she shuffled forward with more speed than I would have considered possible with her chained ankles.She pushed and shoved through the crowd; her clear voice carried over the growing melee.
“We can help him,” she told them.“Help me to help him!”
As if she carried a flesh-eating disease, some of the women shied away from her.Others crept cautiously closer.They thrust back their shoulders and lifted their chins as they asked how to help.
“We need keys,” Scarlet said.“We have to get one of the guards.”
I couldn’t let her do that alone, but when I started after her, Ruby seized my good arm to halt me.“No.You have to stay safe until we can free you.”
Scarlet and some of the other women were closing in on a guard.The man didn’t realize they were cutting him off yet, but he would soon.
“We have to help her,” I said.
Anguish crossed Ruby’s face as she gazed at her daughter.I felt her desperation to go after Scarlet, pull her back, and lock her safely away.
Instead, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and turned to me again.“Do you see what they’ve done to us?Do you see what they can do?Until we’re free of their tyranny, she’ll never be safe; we have to fight.You and Ryker are the ones who can help us destroy them.Stay here, Ellery.Stay with me.She’ll come back.”
I couldn’t tell if she was trying to convince herself of this or me, but her fingers bit into my arm as her brown eyes held mine while she tried to bend me to her will.Standing by and doing nothing was difficult enough for me.I couldn’t imagine what it was like for Ruby not to go after the daughter she loved so fiercely.
We both had amsirah we loved dearly out there and in jeopardy.If she asked it of me, I could do this for her.I owed it to her after everything she’d done for me.
