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“You cannot,” he said.
For a moment Amara met his eyes defiantly, and then she deflated, her shoulders slumping for a second time. Tears pricked at my eyes.
I couldn’t blame her, though. Master Drake might be old, but that only meant he had great skill and control. He was the master of her own affinity, and she couldn’t possibly fight him.
Was this, then, why he had been placed here? Not to guard against me, but to block those who might try to reach me? My pulse quickened at the idea of who else might try to force entry, but Master Drake continued talking, distracting me.
“Delphine is safe in here for now,” he said softly. “If you’re concerned for her, expend your efforts where they’ll be more useful.”
Amara paused for a moment, her eyes measuring his, before she nodded once. She grew tall again, her usual straight bearing returning.
“You are right, of course.”
She met my eyes over his shoulder and mouthed a silent apology. I nodded, waiting until she’d turned away to dash the tears from my eyes.
I had just slept, but I felt exhausted in the wake of her brief visit, tossed around on waves of conflicting emotion. Their final words had burrowed into my head, taking up residence there and replaying over and over. The Master of the Elements had issued no overt threat, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there had been danger hinted in his words. The implication that my future safety was in question. What battle had he sent Amara off to fight on my behalf?
And stronger even than my fear about myself was another thought, the one that had come to me earlier. Ever since my arrest, I had been thinking that no one knew where I was. But Amara had found me. And if Amara found me, then she couldn’t be the only one who knew where I was. And ifheknew…
The longing to see Nik was so intense it took my breath away. Every time I heard new footsteps, my heart leaped, sure it was him. Once he knew where I was, he would come.
But even stronger than the longing was my anxiety about what would happen when he did. Over and over, I silently told him not to come, wishing there was a way for him to receive the message. Wishing he would listen if he did.
Because when Nik came and Master Drake denied him entry, he wouldn’t accept it and leave quietly like Amara. Nik would bring down the walls of this prison before he would allow me to remain imprisoned here without charge, trial, or crime.
It was true he had changed, but in some ways he remained the same. Never for a second did I doubt that Nik would throw his full strength into fighting to free me. And he had plenty of strength to fight with. Nik could literally rip out the stones keeping me here.
But he had never finished his training. Master Drake had decades more experience, as well as a host of guards to back him up. If it came to a fight, I feared for Nik. He wouldn’t harm his own people, but he wouldn’t hesitate to tear apart the prison itself, and they might well hurt him to stop that. And even if they managed to restrain him without causing him physical harm, he would be branded a traitor as well as an outcast. He would lose any chance of reconciling with his family and resuming his interrupted apprenticeship. He had finally agreed to come home, and the last thing I wanted was for him to ruin everything for my sake.
But neither did I want to be stuck in this cell for the foreseeable future. So it was impossible not to indulge daydreams of a dramatic rescue.
But the hours ticked on, and no familiar face or voice appeared. Eventually night fell, announced by Drake’s snores, and then breakfast arrived again, and still no one came for me. I had willed Nik not to come, but sorrow crept over me at his continued absence. I was alone in this cell, with only my fear for company, and I couldn’t deny how much I wanted to see his face and feel his arms around me again. He shouldn’t come—I didn’t want him to come—but my traitorous heart still called for him.
Finally, sometime during the afternoon, my straining ears heard footsteps that didn’t belong to a guard. The approaching person was alone and moved briskly, their steps confident.
I rushed to the bars, gripping them eagerly with both hands.
But the figure that came into view was much shorter than I expected, a girl only a handful of years older than me. She threw a curious glance my way, smiling when she saw me watching. But she turned to Master Drake rather than trying to speak to me.
He surged upward, standing with an alert expression. I shook my head at the sight of the two of them facing off. Drake towered over the girl in height, bulk, and years, and yet she wasn’t diminished by his presence. She might be young, but she carried herself with an authority that could only come from power in all its forms. Master Drake might be the rolling force of the tide, but she was the sweeping strength of lightning and thunder and gale force winds.
I sucked in a breath, transfixed by the sight of her.
“You’ve heard?” The girl didn’t waste any time on greetings.
Drake sighed and nodded his head once, his stance slackening in the absence of an attack.
“It’s utterly ridiculous,” the girl continued. “They can’t be serious.”
“You know they are.” The sorrow in Drake’s voice made my stomach turn. What ridiculous decision had been made, exactly?
“Then we’ll have to find a way to change their minds.” The girl sounded resolute, but Master Drake remained silent.
She threw him a curious look. “I know you don’t agree with them.”
“Neither do any of them. Not really,” he said, making both me and the girl frown.
“No one wants to be responsible for such an atrocity,” he said. “No one wants to make the final decision. And yet no one is willing to set her free either. And so we remain stuck in stalemate, no one willing to move either forward or back.” He gave her a knowing look. “I’ve been stuck down here for days, but I’m right, aren’t I?”
