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She turned back to me. “Strip, impostor,” she ordered.
“I can’t,” I said, speaking the truth. But then, she knew that. She had been the one who helped me into the impossible gown in the first place.
“Strip,” the guard said, repeating Ada’s command.
The corners of Ada’s mouth tensed in a suppressed smile, like this was all playing out exactly how she wanted. Her smug expression finally tipped me off to her plan.
“I can’t get out of this dress on my own,” I said, speaking the words as if the admission was being dragged out of me.
The guard’s low chuckle was like raw sewage sliding over my skin. “I think I can help with that.” He stepped around Ada and approached the cell door. “Turn around, sweetheart,” he said, fitting the key into the lock, not remotely hurt by the lethal current of electricity charging the cage. “I’ll get you out of that dress in no time.”
Behind him, Ada mimed gagging. I stifled a highly inappropriate laugh and turned my back to the guard. My eyes locked with Sid’s, and I wondered if Fin was still in the raven’s head, watching this all play out. Assuming he was, I flashed him a quick, reassuring smile, though it was more for myself than for him. If this didn’t work, I would surely be killed. Ada, too.
Which meant ithadto work.
I stood stiffly while the guard skimmed his fingers over my neck and shoulders, making my skin crawl. He took his time with the tiny buttons running in a line from my nape to my tailbone. I gritted my teeth, cringing every time he caressed the exposed skin of my upper back.
He was almost to my hips when Ada finally struck.
His hands fell away, and I spun around to see him scratching at the thin leather belt Ada had wrapped around his neck. Her pretty features were contorted into a ferocious snarl. I had thought it many times before: peoplealwaysunderestimated Lady Adasia, with her gentle smiles and soft curves. It was what made her so dangerous, and part of why I had chosen her to be Liam’s primary guardian when I wasn’t around.
“He’s an Elemental,” I blurted. “He’s electrifying the cell!”
“Not anymore,” Ada gasped.
Only then did I realize the incessant hum of electricity was gone. She was nulling him.
The guard stumbled backward, ramming Ada’s back into the cell bars, but she held fast, raising one leg and digging her knee into his spine to increase the pressure on his neck that much more.
It didn’t take long for the loss of blood flow to his brain to knock him out. His eyes rolled back in his head, and his knees gave out. Ada grunted as she dropped to the floor with the unconscious guard.
She didn’t let up for another couple of minutes to ensure he was out for good, not merely unconscious. She blew out a breath, releasing the pressure on the belt, and slumped sideways. Her chest heaved as she struggled to squirm free from where she was pinned against the cell bars by the guard’s body.
I rushed forward, gripping his shoulders to pull him away from her, and she scrambled free. “Ugh, why are men so disgustingly predictable?” she grumbled, climbing to her feet.
I stifled a laugh. “If they weren’t, this might not have worked,” I reminded her, turning my back to her so she could finish what the guard had started. She gripped either side of the gaping gown and tugged, popping buttons clean off and sending them clinking against the bars.
I shoved the sleeves away from my arms and pushed the stifling gown down until I stood only in the black silk slip I had worn underneath the dress. I hastily stripped the slip off over my head and turned back to Ada.
She already had the satchel open and tossed me a pair of black leather leggings.
“Who’s with you?” I asked, pulling on the pants.
She handed me a bra next. “Just Garath. He’s rounding up the loyal guards scattered throughout the grounds and getting them out into the city. He’ll meet us at the hedge maze. The others are waiting at the harbor.” She handed me a dark gray tunic, leather patches hand sewn—likely by Ada herself—onto the shoulders to protect me from Sid’s talons.
Once I was dressed, I reached for her hands. “Thank you, Ada. I don’t deserve you.”
She gave my hands a squeeze and flashed me a cheeky smile. “Nobody does.”
I returned her grin. In a matter of seconds, I had sifted through her surface thoughts to absorb the details of the plan she and Garath had concocted together.
She intended to boost my empathic gifts, allowing me to remotely create an illusion—something I could never have done on my own. Once the two guards stationed at the base of the tower were essentially blind and deaf to us, believing nothing out of sorts was going on in their immediate vicinity, we would leave the tower, with them none the wiser. Then, we would row Ada’s little boat across the moat and meet up with Garath. After, we would sneak to the secret entrance of the western escape tunnel to flee the castle grounds. It was beautifully simple.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
I took a deep breath, then nodded and closed my eyes, focusing on constructing my illusion. I cast out the mental mirage like a net and held my breath. If it hadn’t worked, if they noticed someone was tampering with their senses of perception, we would know in a matter of seconds when the other guards burst into the tower. Or in a few minutes, when we found a slew of them lining up for us on the outer edge of the moat.
Nothing happened. No creak of rusty hinges. No clang of the lock.
