“Fine.” Eira folded her arms. “I’ll do it. And then I’m done with all of you.” She wouldn’t give Deneya the opportunity to cast her out again. They just wanted to use her. “I’ll help you take down Ferro, then, good or bad, I’mnevercoming back here or helping you. You’re on your own.”
“Very well,” Deneya said coolly, as though she wasn’t wounded in the slightest to agree. Eira wondered if she’d ever meant anything at all to the woman. If the mentorship she had once felt from her had been like everything else about the Court of Shadows—an act, an illusion.
“We should go back, for now.” Eira went to leave. Her feet felt like dead weight, numb. “I trust you’ll get word to me about what you want me to do, exactly, when the time comes.”
“Are you sure about this?” Cullen asked softly, taking her hand.
Eira looked from their intertwined fingers to his face. “Of course I am.”
“But—”
“I said I’m sure.” Eira ripped her hand from his. “Now, let’s go. We should get back before dawn and leave them to clean up this mess.” She started to leave, Cullen and Noelle following.
“One more thing.” Deneya halted them. Eira faced the woman, skeptical that she would say anything good. Deneya wore an unreadable expression. Whatever she felt toward Eira now, she was doing a good job of concealing. “How did you do it?”
“Do what?” Eira asked.
“We put out the fire by sucking up the air and then these two used their powers to handle the rest,” Cullen answered.
“No…” Deneya continued to stare only at Eira. “How did you give me power when I had none?”
So she hadn’t imagined it. Eira stared down at her empty palms. They hadn’t been able to summon glyphs, but the strength that returned to Deneya hadn’t been chance. Could she have really done that?
Steal people’s magic… Ferro had said those words. He thought she had the power to take magic and Eira had begun reading about closing channels. But Deneya thought she had the power to give it. What was true? Or, were they both wrong? Eira forced a blank expression on her face.
No matter what the truth was, she’d uncover it on her own.No, not alone. She had friends at her side now. True friends. The ones who didn’t abandon her when it was convenient for them or those who saw her as nothing more than a token on their gigantic war table—someone to be maneuvered but not respected or heeded.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Eira shook her head and blinked as though she were startled. “Giving you power?” She glanced to Cullen and then Noelle. “Either of you ever hear a Waterrunner doing something like that?”
“No.” Noelle shrugged.
“Can’t say I have.” Cullen frowned slightly. There was a glint in his eyes that suggested he might just believe the claim. But if he did, he had the better sense not to say anything for her sake.
Eira shrugged. “Sorry.”
Deneya pursed her lips slightly. “Very well. Go and—”
“Await further orders,” Eira finished. “Yes, I’m familiar.”
She put her back to them and left. Eira could hear them whispering. She felt a stirring of Cullen’s magic.
“Don’t listen,” she said under her breath, glancing up at him. Vi Solaris was a Firebearerandhad Lightspinning. They couldn’t be certain a woman like that didn’t have some sort of other powers that could detect magic. “It doesn’t matter. Let them say what they want.”
Cullen stared at her with shadowed eyes and a hard line for a mouth. He gave her a small nod and then looked forward. Eira could feel his frustration and confusion. All of this was new to him. The perfect nobleman’s son, thrust into the smoky, burning underworld that she’d been dealing with for weeks.
As they passed the blown-in hole, Eira waved her hand and the ice she’d used to block the tunnel the Pillars had infiltrated from disappeared. Let the court deal with it. She was only good to them when they wanted, as they wanted.
The three Solaris competitors ascended through the main hall as a handful of shadows began to carry bodies, piling them up to be burnt. This was the last time she’d see this scarred and singed place. Even if she continued to work with the Court of Shadows, they would no doubt move hideouts.
Eira said her mental goodbyes to it all as she crossed the threshold of what was once the door. Two more nights, then the ball, and she was done with the Court of Shadows for good.
33
“Eira,” Cullen said softly as they neared the end of the dark hallway that led to the Solaris chambers.
“Yes?” Eira continued walking, eyes forward.
He caught her hand. “I want a word.”
