Page 166 of Prince of Darkness and Deceit

In a blink, his warm eyes harden to cold flint. His lips peel back in a snarl, a feral edge to his voice. “This has been forged with Fae Fire.”

“What?” Silas thrashes against his chains and tries to close the distance between him and his friend.

The chains pull taut, holding him back.

His face pales. “That’s not possible. You said⁠—”

“I know what I said,” Anton hisses, glaring at the manacles on my ankle like he wishes to smelt them down and pitch them into the ocean. “I was wrong. I cannot use my power to open these shackles.”

Dread gnaws a pit in my gut, spreading cold through my veins.

“Then get the blasted key,” Juniper cuts in, sharp and unyielding. “There has to be one.”

“Yes!” Silas’s eyes ignite. “The brute soldier. Fief. He had it last.”

Anton grunts. “Be right back.”

He vanishes down the ominous hall. Less than a minute later, he returns, a single key clutched in his fist.

My stomach twists as Anton kneels at my feet once more.

He inserts the key.

The lock clicks. Metal clanks to the floor.

The moment the shackle falls away from my skin, a blaze detonates inside me.

My body convulses. I bend forward, clutching my middle. A ragged gasp funnels between my lips as flames lick through my veins.

“Elara!” Juniper seizes my arm, then recoils with a hiss.

Red welts mar her hand.

Terror grips me tighter than the manacles ever did.

“What’s happening?” Anton shouts, frantic.

“Your magic, Elara!” Silas bellows, his words booming over the roaring in my ears. “You must release it!”

My magic?

No.

It can’t be.

My magic has only ever helped me. It’s never done…this.

I grunt my disagreement, when all of a sudden, my magic coalesces into a coil of intense heat in the center of my chest, the sensation crawling its way past my sternum and flesh and then⁠—

Bright, blinding light shoots from my body.

My back arches. A scream wrenches from my throat as it feels like my bones and muscles are tearing apart.

Wave after wave of magic crashes through me, punishing, unrelenting.

My power didn’t like its containment. In fact, it loathed it. Now it’s free. And I can feel its determination to never be bound again.

I squeeze my eyes shut. Tears streak down my cheeks.