I look at the chains on my wrists and the pads beneath them in horror. “You don’t mean—you can’t—”
“Gods, alright, I’ve decided that I amoffendedby what you think of me. I didn’t say I take that sort of prisoner, just that she might think that I would. Believe it or not, I do just finefor myself without chaining anyone up. Not that it’s any of your business, or hers, for that matter.”
“Why didn’t you tell her that I’m here? She’s going to be furious when she finds out.”
“We’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t find out then, won’t we? I didn’t tell her because she’d insist I bring you to her, and then she’d torture you or kill you or whatever it is she wants to do to get her revenge against you, and then we won’t get to see what that power of yours can do. Speaking of which, did you give any thought to my offer? You look refreshed. No claiming that your magic is low—I’m certain that’s not the case.”
Having just woken up, I haven’t thought of what to tell Seth about the secret power he thinks I have. On the one hand, he could find out from Adria if they could trust each other long enough to share that kind of information, so maybe I should just tell him and get it over with.
But Adria also doesn’t know how it works or that it depends on my proximity to Ronan, and no matter how I feel about Seth, I don’t want her finding out. Seth might keep that a secret from her if I tell him out of spite or whatever other reason he has to move against her, but he also could tell her the first time he sees her. I really have no idea what he’ll do.
But if I don’t give himsomething, he’ll just take me to her anyway because I’ll be of no value to him. “I do have a power,” I tell him. “It’s my shadows—they take form.”
He comes and sits next to me on the cot, coming close enough that I could reach out and choke him with the chains if I wanted to like I did to Larus. He has no weapon on him—they’re all on his desk. Is this a test? “Take form how? What does it look like? Can you show me?”
I shake my head and look away so he can’t tell that I’m lying. “I don’t know how to control them. They burst from my chest like…I don’t know. Swirls of smoke? That’s the closest thing Ican think of. Like dark tendrils of smoke. I can control them, grasp things with them. Catch things, snuff flame.”
“Snuff flame? I don’t remember you being able to snuff flame with your ordinary shadows.”
“I can now. I’ve had to do a lot of lying over the past few months.”
“True enough. I’ve never known a shadow-born to have that gift. Few can snuff flame, even. Well, few can snuffmyflame at least. Let’s see if you can.”
Then he lights my fucking cot on fire.
“What the fuck?!” I scream, jumping to my feet and tripping over my chains before the fire can catch on my clothes. I lower as dark a shadow as I can as quickly as I can, and it does manage to put out the fire, but it leaves my sheets smoldering.
“Impressive,” says Seth, as if I were a child who just laced my boots for the first time, not someone who extinguished the bed full of flames we’d both just been sitting on. “I was hoping it might draw out the shadows with form, but I suppose we’ll just have to keep trying.”
I recoil from him as I realize what he’s saying. “Keep trying?”
“Yes, and we’d better be quick about it. If Adria realizes where you are, I’m going to have no choice but to give you over to her. I told you, I won’t let her think of me as her enemy.”
Oh, gods. I never should have told him anything. He intends to make me use my shadows, but he has no idea that nothing he does will make it happen.
But that won’t stop him from trying. And knowing him, lighting my bed on fire with me on it is the gentlest thing he’ll do.
I’ve made a huge fucking mistake.
Seth promises me he’ll come up with more tests to bring out my magic, but first, after a hard day of doing…practically nothing, from what I can tell, he needs to let off some steam.
He leaves the tent abruptly, and a few minutes later, the servants return to change the sheets and offer me a nightgown. It looks like it belonged to our grandmother, judging by the ancient floral fabric and dated lace cuffs, but it’s free from scorch marks, so I take it.
The young female servant removes my shackles to allow me to undress, but she doesn’t replace my leg shackles once I’ve changed. For a moment, I think she’s helping me, but then she explains. “We have a long way to walk tomorrow through the desert. Master Verran says you’ll be too slow with these.”
She places the chains neatly into a trunk next to Seth’s desk. Then she tucks the key that unlocks all of the shackles—including the two that remain around my wrists—back into her apron.
I could overpower her, probably. Trick her into coming back over here and choke her with my chains. I could take the key from her apron, and I could free myself and run before Seth could find me.
Seth knows this, so he also must know I won’t do it. And he’s right. Not just because I could never bring myself to hurt this girl who has done nothing to me, but because even if I did, where would I go? There’s nowhere for me to run. I have no boat to take the river, and the entirety of our army lies between us and Faros.
I recognize my best chance of escape isn’t in violence, and it likely won’t come on the road tomorrow, although I’ll keep my eyes open for the opportunity if it arises.
No, my best chance is in Seth himself.
He stumbles back into the tent hours later, swaying on his feet. Then he tosses a half-drunk bottle of wine onto my bed. “Don’t wait up,” he says. Someone giggles outside the tent.
And then he turns and leaves me once more.
