“Stop,” I whispered. “Just stop! You’re holding my sister in a cage.”
Vaeris spread his hands. “I’m sworn to protect her.”
“Then prove it. Show her to me.”
Annoyance flickered across his face. Then he smiled and gestured to someone off to the side. A moment later, Rheya stepped into the frame.
The world fell out from under me.
My vision blurred. For weeks she’d only existed as a memory, and now she wasthere. She looked…good. Her cheeks had color; her hair was braided and clean. She wore trousers and a linen tunic—not fancy, but comfortable. She wasn’t shackled.
“Aelie,” she breathed.
“Rheya!” I lunged, splashing into the pool as I reached for her reflection. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. Really. He’s been…decent.”
“Where are you?” I demanded.
Vaeris touched Rheya’s shoulder, and she stiffened. “That’s enough.”
“Rheya, tell me where you are!”
“She doesn’t know,” Vaeris said firmly. “Even if she did, I wouldn’t let her answer.”
A guard appeared, grabbing her arm. Rheya twisted, trying to keep me in sight.
“White walls,” she shouted. “Pear trees?—”
“Wait!”
I scraped at the water like I could claw through it, but she was gone.
“She’s well cared for.” Vaeris’s gaze slid to me. “I can reunite you with your sistertonight.”
My chest ached. “No. The second I walk through your doors, you’ll use me to break the seal. Then Rheya and I die with everyone else.”
“I told you. The dragons won’t harm us.”
“What do youreallywant?” I asked him.
“To free us from a world that will never see us as anything but half-breeds and animals,” he said earnestly.
“I didn’t know what freedom felt like until I left you.”
Silence stretched between us. Vaeris’s expression didn’t change, but something behind his eyes went cold.
He gave me a black look. “Then you leave me no choice.”
Kairos grabbed me, his palms sealing over my ears, but Vaeris’s muffled command tunneled through my skull.
“Aelie, come to me.”
My rune ignited. Agony ripped through my abdomen, and I collapsed, screaming. Kairos caught me before I hit the floor.
Mist rolled out in a creeping wave and torches guttered, drowning us in darkness.
“You,” Kairos snarled in a low hiss, “are the most pathetic male I’ve ever met. The moment she says no, you drag her to her knees.”
