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When I woke up, I’d figure out a way to get free.
It was a lie, but one I had to force myself to believe if I was going to survive another day.
I cracked my eyes open, rubbing the grit in them. The pit in my stomach was deep and yawning, desperate for food that wouldn’t come.
My captors would feed me when they pulled me out at sunrise. They’d give me a bowl of some type of grain with a few chunks of the perfectly-ripe fruits and vegetables I’d grown the day before. I may not have been growing things on purpose, but I was damn good at my job. Or my magic was, I supposed.
The food would only give me enough energy for my magic to drain right back into the earth again, but I still yearned for it.
I eased myself out of bed, wincing in pain at the bruises on my ribs, both new and old. I had to believe that I was going to find a way out; there was no other option.
Slowly, I made my way to the window, and then sat down in the seat below it. The seat was simple and made out of stone like the rest of my tower, but compared to the uneven logs I was forced to occupy outside, it might as well have been a throne.
My gaze moved over the portion of town I could see from my window. Both of Evare’s moons were up that night, so everything was illuminated enough for me to see the evidence of my magic. One of the moons rose every second night and the other only rose every third, so most of the time they were only up together once a week. I always looked forward to that night.
Thick, vibrant plants bloomed wildly and covered nearly every building, all of them for the sole purpose of growing food and spices. My mother made sure everyone cut down and burned all of the flowers and purposeless plants that grew.
I could see the two dozen guards walking the streets of the town, and silently went over their names, the way I always did. I knew which guards worked which nights every week, and which routes each of them followed.
Coby.
Kelle.
Ren.
Jor…
Who was that?
My gaze caught on a man I’d never seen before.
Even from my window, I could see that he was built much bigger and stronger than any of the others in town.
Though he strode down the middle of the street, he seemed to be dressed in nothing but a simple pair of shorts. Most men wore thick work pants and long-sleeve tunics to protect themselves from all three of our suns, even though those in my town were rarely forced to work in the heat of the day.
Most of them were rarely forced to workat all, thanks to me.
My brow furrowed, and I leaned closer until my forehead and nose met the window.
My gaze flicked between the newcomer and the other men and women walking the streets. He didn’t seem to be carrying a weapon of any kind, and the way he moved was strange.
Or maybe not strange. Just different.
He didn’t walk, or storm; he prowled, like the jungle cat I’d seen on the border where my town met the Broken Woods as a child. The shifters lived in the Woods, so entry was forbidden to any human who wanted to keep their life.
The prowling man in the streets halted abruptly.
My gaze may as well have been bound to him with rope, for all I could pull it away.
His eyes collided with mine, and even from my tower, I could see his gaze glowing dark blue with magic.
My heartbeat picked up.
Every magical being in Evare had eyes that glowed. It was one of the many things that set us apart from the humans and nonmagical creatures, which I was reminded of as I saw my own eyes glowing bright green every time I looked in the mirror.
The magical man didn’t look away, and neither did I.
Something in my chest sort of… thrummed.
