Everything stills, and one of Caspien’s eyebrows lifts, humor dancing in his eyes. “Well, that was interesting.” He chuckles. “Pathetic. But interesting. With how much I gave you, there’s no way you should be able to access any of your magic.” He studies my face, a momentary curiosity filling his eyes.
Thunder rumbles from outside the building, distracting him. He looks up at the ceiling with a villainous grin. “She didn’t like when I killed Nova either.”
I do everything I can to move while he is looking up but the best I can manage is getting a hand flat on the slick floor.
He must notice my efforts since he looks back at me and laughs, “Like I said, Pathetic. So, how should we do this? Should I kill your human friend first and make you watch?” He says it casually - playfully- like we are figuring out plans for the day. Hiseyes brighten, “We could wisp my brother! Let him listen to your screams!”
The rage that rushes through my body sends a tingle across my skin. Hope blooms in my chest that my magic is returning. I reach out to pull at the seed of power but it still lay dormant just out of reach. Buried by the effects of the forget-me-nots and whatever else he gave me.
The tingling intensifies anywhere my skin touches the stone floor, and a soft pulse begins beneath my palm. This time, I don’t try to take from my element - I surrender to it. And in that surrender, I feel it respond. Not by giving, but by taking. The moss and algae that cling to the floor rise to meet me, drawing the poison from my body as if the earth itself is protecting one of its own.
Distracted, I don’t even realize Caspien has stopped pacing. Pain erupts, white and searing, as fire chews through my ankle where he just grabbed me. I scream as the fire blazes through my veins. The putrid smell of burnt flesh fills the room with my cries, turning my stomach.
“Great, now that we are all listening,” He says, voice simmering with sarcasm. “Like I was saying, Mother always said I am too reckless. So I guess I shouldn’t risk involving a wisp.”
My chest heaves erratically. The microorganisms below pulse harder, knitting my charred skin back together, leeching the toxins from my blood.
I am physically exhausted but haze filling my mind thins. Caspien is back to pacing, now ranting about Isolde’s criticism of him.I get that.But when I roll to my back he pauses mid sentence.
“How did you-” he snarls, stomping over. I’m still weak. My heart is still pumping poison through me. But I can’t pass up the opportunity he unknowingly gives me.
As soon as he is within reach I lunge. Seizing his legs and yank as hard as I can. A loud crack fills the room when his head smacks against the stone.
I roll away from him but freeze. A laugh, low and broken, crawls up his throat.Not unconscious. Not even slowed.
Looking over at him, a stream of blood drips from one of his ears. I didn’t expect it to kill him but I had hoped it would at least knock him out for a breeze.
“That wasn’t very nice.” He seethes as he props himself on one elbow, blood sliding down his face, dripping into a puddle on the floor. His dead eyes locking on me.
With surprising speed he reaches out to grab me. I jerk backwards, sliding across the floor, scrambling to stand. The room tilts and spins, my vision blurring.
“Neither was killing my sister!” My voice splinters, echoing off stone. “Or kidnapping me, you lunatic!” My legs swaying like a sapling in one of Gaia’s storms, roots too shallow to ground me.
He tilts his head like he is genuinely considering the accusation as he stands. “True but I never said I was a nice person, Nissa.” He states, flashing me a bloody smile.
My body shakes, my muscles still half-frozen. I blink when, a subtle vibration whispers to me through the wall. Through the cracks a sprout, tiny and green, calls to me.
Caspien advances, “You’re barely standing.” He mocks, each step slow and deliberate. “I’m not sure what chance you think you have against me.” Fear coils around me, each step like a wildfire driven towards the forest. But I remind myself that sometimes the blaze is what clears the way for new growth.
I bare my teeth at him, hoping the element of surprise will benefit me. I reach out my hand andpull. The tiny sprout transforms before my eyes into a vine, thick and spiked.Responding to my call, it snaps out, binding him around his waist and ankles.
The act drains me. My vision doubling. Sweat slicks my palms.
I close my eyes and focus on finding any roots to get me to the next room where I can get Ophe and rootwalk out of here. But it doesn’t come. Even if I was able to find a root system to connect the two rooms, I’m too tired.
My bones ache, the tainted blood in my veins is sluggish, my muscles fighting against every movement.
Blinking my eyes open, the room blurs and slants. I rub my eyes to clear my vision.
“Very impressive,” he says, drawing a blade. I glance between him and the door and my heart withers. He is too close to be able to make it out without him grabbing me.
Caspien slices through the fibrous flesh of the vine that is wrapped around his waist before leaning down. But instead of cutting his feet free, as I suspect, he slowly drags the knife over the flooring.
I flinch as the shriek of metal against stone slices through the silence in the room, flaring embers in its wake.
Calling the sparks to him, fire licks to his palm — igniting into a blinding flame.
His eyes bore into me through the flame as he burns my element away. “You,princess,” he snarls through the firelight, “should not have access to your powers.”
