Benny frowns. ‘You said you couldn’t call fire.’
‘I can’t. Couldn’t.’
Kyor is sitting up straighter, a frown marringhis forehead.
‘Since when have you been able to do that?’ Caz asks. ‘I thought … I thought it was just body heat?’
‘It was,’ Ruben confirms. ‘I started doing this just a couple of minutes ago when Rose somehow transferred some of her magic into me.’
‘When you didwhat?’ Kyor barks, tension clear in every line of his body. He launches to his feet and begins to pace. ‘How?’
The way he speaks it’s like he expects me to have an answer. I don’t.
‘It was just after you left,’ I say to Kyor. ‘The ice was still on the ground, and I was touching Ruben’s shoulder, wishing he could have more magic, and then the ice just … melted. It disappeared entirely, and suddenly Ruben said he felt odd. And then he just … well, he created a flame.’
I decide against telling them that he nearly set the forest on fire. Kyor probably wouldn’t love that.
‘I think I somehow took the Issen magicI’d just used and pushed it into Ruben instead. That’s why the ice vanished.’
Silence swarms around us.
‘Let me get this right …’ Benny says, scratching the back of his neck. ‘You’re saying that your magic works like energy?’
‘I am?’ I question.
‘Maybe,’ he responds. From the slowness of his speech, it’s clear he’s thinking through his explanation as he shares it with us. ‘Energy can’t be created or destroyed. Just transferred. Magic comes from the Gods, we all know that, and when we die it returns to Mortidem to redistribute it. It’s transferred. Just like energy.’
I worry my lip with my teeth as I think aloud. ‘So what I did wasredirectthe Issen magic that I’d already used?’
‘Exactly,’ Benny replies. ‘Maybe if it’s lingering where it doesn’t belong, somewhere that’s not final?—’
‘Like not yet with me or not yet with Mortidem,’ I continue, nodding my head as the idea becomes clearer, ‘then I can pull it out of that interim place and give a magical boost to someone else. It didn’t give Ruben ice magic, it just … elevated the power he already has.’
I’m fully aware that what I’m confessing to is not just strange … it’s dangerous. World-altering. But being able to give Ruben firepower might be something that will save us on this arduous journey, and we won’t be able to explain away his sudden flame-abilities from our companions. They all know his magic is nothing more than warm hugs.
This confession is huge. And the silence around the fire tightens like a noose.
For a heartbeat, I dare to glance at Kyor. He’s staring at me like he’s never seen me before, like he’s trying to reconcile the girl he loves with the weapon I’ve just revealed myself to be. The look in his eyes is equal parts awe and horror, and it twists something sharp in my chest.
‘Is anybody going to say anything?’ I finally ask.
‘Yeah. I’ll say something,’ Kyor says. He glares at everyone. ‘I want to make one thing very clear,’ he growls. ‘If a single person here breathes a single word about this outside of this group, I will put a lightning bolt through their fucking heart with such precision that they will feel their insides burn, turn to charcoal, and finally crumble to dust before they die.’
Caz grimaces. ‘Graphic, but we get the point.’
‘No.’ Kyor shakes his head. ‘I don’t think you do. Rose, what you’ve just told us makes you the most valuable person in Morathka and beyond. Everyone will want that. If you can transfer power to other people … if you can take magic that you’ve already used and give that to someone?’ He swallows. ‘My father won’t just kill you for this. It’ll be so much worse. He’ll keep you captive … and do whatever it takes to ensure you’re doing his bidding for the rest of his life. He’d use Kay against you. Whatever it took to make you comply.’
His voice doesn’t crack, but his hands do, flexing uselessly at his sides, as if he’s imagining all the ways he wouldn’t be able to reach me if his father locked me away.
For all his talk of duty and crowns, this isn’t just politics for him. It’s fear consuming him, fear for me.
I swallow hard. Is this why Korvane had anyone with ice powers killed, not because of their icy heritage, but because of the sheer terrifying power of it? Can all Issen transfer their powers to others?
And what does that mean for William? Can he do the same?
I assume if he’d known as much he would have told us when heshowed us his skin, so it’s likely he doesn’t know that he runs the risk of transferring magic to someone by accident, the way I did with Ruben.
The thought is enough to make me sick. William might have control over the ice within him, but this is an entirely new level of danger he doesn’t even know about.
