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“Wait,” Madi sings, eyes wide as she looks at Rin and me. “You can read my mind?”
“No,” I reply, though I scrunch my face to show my hesitance. “But reading the water in your body is close.”
“I’m sorry,” she says, huffing a humorless laugh. “What?”
Rin shrugs, her lips twisting to the left as she explains, “Certain emotions or reactions raise your temperature, which we can sense in the water in your body.”
“So…” Madi narrows her eyes at us. “Everyone in this village knows when someone else is mad or horny?”
“No,” I answer quickly, trying to placate her, as Rin says, “Yes. Not everyone, but all those with enough connection to the water element.”
“I’m in fucking hell,” Madi snarls to herself. “She’s joking, right?”
I fidget with my skirt, not loving the implications either. “I don’t know. But I hope so.”
“I’m not,” Rin says with a shit-starting grin. “Best kept secret. Some are better at it than others.”
Madi huffs, mumbling under her breath, as Rin presses her ear to the door.
“Did you hear that?” the pixie of a guard asks.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Madigan replies, observing the closed door.
“Does the air feel thinner to you?” I inquire, my chest aching with every breath I take.
Madi rubs her chest as she takes a deep breath. “It feels like I’m climbing a mountain, like the altitude just dropped.”
Rin jumps as something massive hits the door. It’s not a knock, no rough rapping of knuckles. It sounds like a body colliding with the surface.
“Someone is here,” she whispers, her hand around her neck. “Why is it so hard to breathe?”
“Slow inhales. Keep your breathing calm. Don’t struggle,” I advise Rin, then turn to Madi. “You can hold your breath. If you don’t think about the burn, it won’t hurt as badly.”
I don’t know if she can do what I’m asking, but I know she can’t die. Even if Madigan doesn’t believe herself a goddess yet, Spiran won’t let anything happen to her chosen fire bearer… But I’ve seen Madi have a panic attack, and I need her to stay calm right now.
Both of them.
I push Madi behind me and motion for Rin to move before the air becomes too depressurized for her to breathe. I need her behind the door once it’s open, so she’s out of harm’s way. She takes two steps to the left just as the wooden door is shoved so hard it splinters at the center, the hinges popping off the frame.
I block the debris with my forearm over my eyes. The slivers of wood sting, but they don’t stick.
Calm, Madi. Stay calm.
“No men with you today?” a familiar voice inquires as the smell of ginger and jasmine floats into the room.
“Fucking patriarchal bullshit,” Madi gripes, sounding fine. “I’ve not heard one single Mongrel make a comment like that until today—”
“He’s not a Mongrel, Madi,” I cut her off, tilting my head as I watch him. “Are you, Cotear?”
“I’m not a water elemental, if that’s what you’re asking,” he announces. “I was raised in this village, though. I’m as Mongrel as any who doesn’t command water.”
“Now, now. Exaggerating the truth can be seen as a lie,” I point out as I rub my fingertips together.
Rinya shifts on her feet, silent but not unfelt. Of course, air would work similarly to water. He’ll feel every move in the room.
A wicked grin crawls over his lips as he tilts his head to speak over his shoulder. “Don’t even think about—”
She doesn’t wait for him to finish. Rin launches herself at Cotear’s back, locking her arms around his neck. Sweat beads on the surface of his skin as she fights element-to-element, but she’s already feeling the effects of the thinning air.
