In fact, I’m completely surrounded by bars on all sides. I’m in a cage barely large enough for an adult to sit up comfortably, and forget lying down flat. Even I’ll have to bend my knees up to fit. I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone Aemon’s size.
Aemon.
Foggy images buffet my mind: me escaping with those girls, Aemon running toward me, him lifting the gun and shouting.
Somebody knocked me out and locked me up here, but what about him? I press my face up against the bars and look around.
Cages, identical to mine, stretch at least fifteen deep to either side. Across from me, separated by a narrow walkway, is another line of cages and beyond that, another. Spinning around, I find more of the same—rows upon rows of cages—surrounded by an endless sky. I scan the neighboring ones, searching for a shock of brown hair that would set Aemon apart from the mostly white-haired fae surrounding me. It all sort of reminds me of thekennels Leodin used to keep at Duje, but instead of dogs, these hold people.
Lots of people.
“Aemon,” I call out.
No answer.
“Aemon.”
“If you’re looking for the male they brought in with you, he’s gone.”
I spin around at the sound of the female voice to find a fae woman with bright white hair and angry, red, peeling skin sitting in the cage behind mine. “What do you mean, he’s gone? Where did he go?” I say, panic leaking into my voice.
She shrugs. “Interrogation, most likely.”
I swallow back my gasp. Interrogation. Oh gods. The sight of that wooden chair flashes in my mind. “When will they bring him back?”
She shakes her head, pity painting her expression. “I don’t know. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t.”
My heart shudders in my chest, and my eyes prick with tears. This is all my fault. Aemon could be dead, and it would be all my fault. I lift a shaking hand to my chest and breathe. I have to calm down. I have to keep my wits about me if I want to get Aemon and me out of this place. I search myself for any lingering magic in my system, but I feel… empty.
I start frantically tearing at my wrist with my fingernails. I have to get my magic back. I have to get us out of here.
“Uh, what are you doing?” the fae woman asks.
“Nothing.” A bead of red wells up from my skin, and I try to suck on it, but it’s too damn small, so I start scratching away at the already irritated wound.
“Are you stupid?”
I whip my head around to glare at the rude woman. “Excuse me?”
We lock eyes, and she cants her head, studying my face. “You know that only works for blood fae, right?”
“Yeah. I know.”
“So what? You part blood fae or something?”
Talk about a loaded question. I huff out a frustrated breath and continue tearing at my wrist. “Maybe. I don’t know. Does it really matter?”
“Well, color me confused, but if you were a blood fae, I’d expect you to know that won’t work, and if you aren’t one, I don’t know why you’d even try.”
I drop my wrist and turn around to face her. “Why won’t it work?”
“First off, your blood is already in you, drinking it isn’t going to change anything. You want more magic; you’ll need somebody else’s blood. And even if you were able to get some, the sun will negate the magic before you can even try to use it.” She points up at the sky.
I blink, while my mind tries to process what she said. “Are you telling me that sunlight destroys blood magic?”
“Well, yeah.” She clutches her knees to her chest. “That’s basically the whole point of the sky cells. The torment of being exposed to the elements up here is just an added bonus. Nobody ever told you this?”
I shrug. “I was raised somewhere else. I didn’t even know I could use it until—” I pause. Gods, I have no idea how long I’ve been here. “Until recently.” I glance around at the cages. There look to be a few humans here and there, but most of what I see are blood fae. I peer up at the open sky. My mind flicks to the day we were attacked in the woods—they had their whole bodies covered. And the day I fled the palace, my power faded so quickly, and I didn’t know why. “It all makes sense.”
