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“Julian is dead. But yes, I know who you are to me,” I said carefully, watching her face. I didn’t know who, exactly, was in these other cells, if they were even capable of listening. If they cared about anything but their own misery.
“We will get you out of here, Adele. But we have to find Raziel first.”
“Another name I haven’t heard in the longest time.”
Keys rattled then Tavion was in front of me, unlocking the door. The next moment, my arms were around Adele—my mother—her too thin frame crushed against me, every bone as sharp as the knife strapped to my thigh. “We will get you out of here, and we will burn this fucking place to the ground.”
“Anaria.” She put so much motherly reproval in her voice, some part of me cracked wide open.Cheated. We’d been cheated of everything, by the king and the Oracle and fate.
And we were going to cheat all of them right back.
“Open every cell,” I told Tavion. “Every last one, and then we move to the next level.” A wild, savage glee coursed through my veins and despite the iron bands, my magic sang right along with it.
“We are going to free everyone inside this prison.”
“What about the guards?” Adele’s brow scrunched together, her hair floating around her head like spiderwebs.
“Leave them to me.” I slid the bands off my arms and slipped them into my dress pocket.
27
ANARIA
Stardust danced through Tempeste’s prison.
Probably the first time in a thousand years this dismal place had seen anything except blood and screams.
Tavion’s furious warnings kept me from losing my head more than once, but by the time we reached the second level of the prison, every prisoner had been liberated, every guard lay behind us in ashy piles on the floor.
By now, Adele was shell-shocked, her frail body barely covered by the tattered gown, but her eyes were feverishly bright as she watched guard after guard fall beneath my magic, cell doors springing open to release prisoner after prisoner.
We paused before the thick iron door that sealed off this floor while I prepared myself for Tavion’s argument. We’d already had the same fight five times and I expected we’d have the discussion at least twice more before we reached the top.
“I can’t go first.” He growled, teeth bared as he carefully adjusted Adele in his arms. “There will be more guards on this floor. The most vicious of the prison’s guards. They’ll be armed, and some have magic of their own. Do not hesitate, Anaria. Strike fast and hard.”
I glanced behind us, to the crowd of prisoners waiting for this door to open, for a clear path to be made. Once we liberated this floor, we’d promised them free reign to do what they wanted, and they were losing patience.
“Will do. Stay behind the door until the guards are down.” My eyes flicked from Adele to Tavion, and he gave me a shallow nod.
Power thrummed in my blood when he kicked the door wide, star flecked magic spilling through the opening in a mighty wave of white.
As it turned out, every protection on this prison was working to our advantage right now.
The thick iron doors sealed off the noise, the magic, the guard’s screaming, and by the time we reached the main floor of the Citadelle, the freed prisoners would flood the palace, then the streets.
Hundreds of them, and in the melee, we would escape.
That was the plan, anyway, if this worked.
Guards swarmed in then fell in smoking hulks to the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash before fiery pain tore through my right arm. I faltered then turned and sent a spear of magic toward the guard rallying himself for another volley. Without a sound, he collapsed, a faint haze of power rising from him like mist.
“Damn it. Let me see your arm, Anaria.” Tavion’s voice teetered on the edge of demand and fear. “You’re burned.”
“We don’t have time for that right now.” My injury was the least of my concerns right now. We had a mob of angry prisoners at our back, and a fight between us and freedom.
“Now, where is Raziel?” I pulled out the keys and paced the length of the familiar hall, losing my breath when I stopped in front of the room where Solok had tied me down. Tortured me. Something rattled loose inside me, my body trembling beneath the onslaught of bloody, painful memories.
I couldn’t open the door, I couldn’t…
