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“If you’ll let me make contact with you, I’ll prove it,” I told the captain, desperate enough to take the risk of revealing my secret. “I have the ability to purge Grey’s lies.”
The captain hesitated, his eyes flashing from the unconscious Miro, to the battle behind me, to the men watching him with wide eyes.
“I swear I will do nothing but purge your mind of the lies,” I said, knowing he would see the truth in my words. “I swear I will not harm you or use my power for any other purpose.” Extending the risk even further, I added, “If you’ll let me do this, I’ll hand Miro over into your charge. If I’m proved right, I trust you’ll arrest him yourself. If I’m wrong, he’ll be free.”
When he still hesitated, I put my whole heart into my eyes. “Have you ever been to the capital, captain?”
He blinked at the unexpected question and nodded. “Five years ago.”
“Did you see the royal family?”
He nodded again.
“Then look into that room and tell me who’s fighting Miro and Slate’s men right now.”
For a silent moment, the captain stared into the room, and I allowed myself a quick glance as well. Nik had leaped on top of the throne chair, using the higher ground it afforded as he held off multiple attackers, a haze of increasingly small wood shards whirling around him.
The captain swallowed, looking back at me with wide eyes.
“Very well,” he said hoarsely.
A couple of the men behind him called out protests, but he ignored them, holding my eyes as he moved forward and held out his arm.
Using my free hand, I lightly brushed my fingers against his. Reaching into him, I called up his natural wall. His eyes widened as it sprang to life, driving my power out before it and Grey’s lies along with it.
He fell back a step, breaking the remaining physical contact between us. One of his men stepped forward to steady him, glaring at me suspiciously.
“Captain! Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m…” He cleared his throat. “I’m fine. It’s…I don’t…” He looked at me, and I looked back sympathetically.
“I’ve experienced it myself,” I whispered. “I was once fooled by Grey as well.”
He shook his head, a wild look in his eyes that felt all too familiar. He couldn’t be putting more blame on himself for falling prey to Grey than I had when I first realized the truth.
“It’s true,” he said in a loud voice. “We’ve been deceived.”
“Please.” I stood, letting go of Miro. “Help the prince.”
A murmur passed down the line of law keepers when I mentioned Nik’s rank. The captain nodded grimly, gesturing for the men behind him to come forward and calling out orders as he did so.
“Wait!” I said. “Let me help them too.”
I didn’t stop for more debate. Reaching for the first bit of exposed skin I could see, I called up the wall of the person it belonged to. He gasped, jumping away from me, but I was already done. Reaching for the next person, I did it again and again. Several of them grabbed me back, but as soon as I’d purged their minds, they let me go, crying out in surprise.
Moving along the line, I reached for the next person only to realize there was no one left—at least for now. Turning back, I saw Miro awake and on his feet. He was spluttering and protesting, but both of his arms were gripped in firm holds, and from the careful placement of skin on skin, I guessed his captors were both healers. However strong his elements ability, Miro had little chance of breaking free from two determined healers who already had him in their grip.
“Nik,” I murmured, running toward the door of the destroyed room.
When I stepped over the threshold, my feet crunched on wooden splinters. The debris littered the entire floor, heaviest around the throne which had somehow been split cleanly down the middle.
No more wood flew through the air, though, and the only upright figures I could see in the room were the captain and his men from the corridor.
“Nik!” I called more loudly, dashing into the room and spinning to try to see in all directions. “Nik!”
The captain looked up from where he knelt over a prone, blood-stained figure, and my heart nearly stopped. But as I raced toward them, I recognized the weak beat of a heart in the patient he was busy healing, and two steps later, I saw his face. It was one of the guards who had been attacking Nik.
I stopped, spinning again, as I peered through the people milling around. There! I caught a flash and then a second one as someone moved again.
