“I’m sorry, Marcus,” she rasped with a dry throat. “I’m sorry.”
After about thirty minutes, a woman appeared. She startled at the sight of Eira sitting upright and promptly dashed off. The next person to arrive was the man of her nightmares.
“Hello, Eira,” Ferro almost purred. “I didn’t think we’d meet again so soon.”
She pressed her lips together hard, her teeth clenched. Her barely concealed rage only made him more gleeful.
“You want to kill me, don’t you? So why didn’t you?Hmm?Why didn’t you that night in the forest after you finished wailing over your dead br—”
“Don’t!” Eira shouted, lunging. The steel shackles, chained to the center of the floor, kept her in place like a dog on a leash. Her magic sparked in the air around her, instantly evaporating. Eira let out a yelp of pain as her skin suddenly burned, followed quickly by a cooling sensation. Her magic was keeping her from burning up in this room of eternal flame. If she used it for anything else, she’d be dead.
“I see you’ve figured out the nuances of our cell. All the fire is a bit tricky to maintain. But, lucky for you, we were prepared for someone of your ilk. We’d been intending to hold Adela’s first mate behind these bars as collateral. But her bastard daughter might be even better.” Collateral for Adela? Did that mean she wasn’t working with the Pillars? Eira stored the information away to bring to Deneya, should she make it out with her life. “Miraculous, really, all the ways I’ve been able to use the information you gave me.”
Those late nights, all his inquiries about the history of Solaris, the mountains around the capital, and the magic of Waterrunners…she was always the orchestrator of her own demise.
“I doubt I’m Adela’s child.”
“We’ll find out soon enough. The pirate queen is hard to clamp down, but we’ll get word to her. If you are, you’ll be just the thing we need to get her to agree to work with us.”
Further proof Adela wasn’t on their retainer. So, if not, then how did they get the flash beads? And who freed Ferro?
“If you’re not, then all we wasted was some time and magic keeping you alive.” The fires glittered in his violet eyes like a raging dawn. “Really, you should be thanking me. I lived up to my end of the bargain, didn’t I? I’m helping you find your mother.”
“You can rot!” she seethed.
“I see whatever infatuation you had with me has cooled.” Ferro swept a hand through his hair. “I did so enjoy playing into every sad, longing emotion you had. Poor Eira, alone in the world, so ready to see herself without anyone, practically begging someone—anyone—to sweep her into their arms and tell her she belonged. Tell her they wanted her. You made it so easy.”
Her mind, and heart, betrayed her. Cullen was in the forefront of her memories.He’dbeen the one who’d held her when she’d needed it most. He’d been there after the revelation, after Marcus. He’d laid himself bare last night—two days ago?How much time had passed since she was knocked out?And she’d run away from him. She’d never be able to thank him for all he’d done. Never able to tell him how she really felt.
Now she never might have the chance.
“However, if you can realize that I am still on your side, that I alone am your chance to mean something to someone in this world…I could be inclined to let you out of this cell.”
“What?” Eira didn’t believe him for a second. But she’d hear him out. It was her turn to try and make him talk. Maybe, this time, she would be the one to weave his words into his downfall. “Why would you do that?”
“It pains me to see you in here.” He put his hand over his heart, gripping his shirt. “Your beauty—yourpower—is wasted in this cell.”
His compliments grated against her ears, but she worked to keep her face passive. How did he want her to react? Once she figured that out, she’d use it to play him.
“Were you pained when you tried to kill me?” she asked, the quiet question barely audible over the crackling fire.
“Circumstances were different then.” His mouth tensed into a hard line, but relaxed again quickly. “You were a liability and a loose end. But things changed and I adapted…now you could be an asset to us if you came to the light.” Ferro approached the bars, stopping a step back from their immense radiant heat. “The current vote is to kill you if you can’t be used as leverage with Adela. But I think I could sway my peers into reconsidering, given your otherunique abilities.”
“You mean the echoes.”
“Yes.” The air between them shifted. His eyes held glittering malice in contrast to the almost sweet smile across his lips. “And how you can steal people’s magic.”
Steal people’s magic? What in the Mother’s name was he talking about?Eira pursed her lips.
“Keep your secrets, for now. But I know what you did that night. And if you consider sharing that skill for the glory of Yargen…” He shook his head and his whole expression shifted. It was uncanny how he could slip into a look of earnest compassion after giving the appearance of wanting to skin her alive. “After all, I can give you everything you ever wanted.”
“What I wanted?” she whispered, trying to sound hopeful, trying to sound like she was actually considering his insanity. Her empty stomach churned at the thought of even pretending to work with him. But she had to survive this somehow. And getting out of this inferno of a cell was a good first step.
“Yes, to come to Meru, to find your place—your destiny—here among us.” Sweat dripped off his nose as he spoke. Everything handsome about him was melting off like a lady’s cheap powder in the afternoon sun, exposing true ugliness beneath. How had she ever found him attractive? “You have a chance to make a difference. Show the Pillars that you can be one of us, that you can serve our causes. Your gifts are surely Yargen designed. I can make the rest of them see that if you swear to use them to glorify her.”
She was worth more to them alive—at least that’s what Ferro thought. Her ability to listen to vessels and whatever other gifts hethoughtshe possessed were clearly prized if he was willing to risk letting her out of the cell. Or, maybe he underestimated her. Maybe he thought she was that same ignorant, meek young woman sneaking off in the night to meet with him, thrilled by mere glances and hand kisses. That her heart was still that open, that weak.Fickle.
Eira tried to embody what she thought she had been like then. She tried to find the naivety she’d known living under Marcus’s shadow and protection.
