18
Irace for the door. Grayson told me that he would be ten minutes. If what he said is true then I won’t make it outside the cloaked area, but I can definitely look around inside it. I speed along the corridor, skid to a halt to avoid elves from the House of Verity standing around the corner, and impatiently wait for them to move on before I race in the direction of the back door.
Once there, I run as fast as I can to the buildings I didn’t get to visit earlier. But as I draw closer, I’m disappointed. One of them is a greenhouse filled with exotic flowers. I recognize some of them from pictures Elise showed me once of flowers that are used in healing potions. As I veer away from the greenhouse, I find that the other building is a stable for winged stallions. Most of the stalls inside it are empty, but three of them contain the beautiful creatures.
Could a prison be hidden under the stable? Or was it never here to begin with? I search my memory for what Elwyn Elder said about it… He’d yelled that Grayson was supposed to take me to the prison. He never said it was here. I just assumed. Which means it could be anywhere.
The nearest stallion nickers. There’s no way that ordinary stallions could be kept this close to each other—they are like alpha males and fight each other for control of the herd—but winged stallions are gentle creatures, more like brothers with each other than rivals. Riding one is easy. And they fly much faster than I could run…
My heart lifts but quickly plummets. I won’t make it out in time. I’ve already used up seven of the ten minutes and Grayson said he wouldn’t be that long…
A sharp tug on my spine tells me my time is already up. His power is like a wash of electrified air as he strides up behind me, his presence a powerful reminder of my captivity. He rasps, “You said you’d stay put. What are you doing out here?”
I turn on him. It’s time for me to ask the questions. “Where is the prison? Where are you keeping my Storm Command?” I face up to him with my demand for answers.
He stands his ground but he looks… ashen. Troubled. Maybe even a little worried. My eyes narrow in thought. He can’t be that concerned about me being out here; as he says, he can pull me back to him at any time. Something else has happened but… what?
He asks, “Is that why you wanted to look around?”
“I need to know where they are. I need to know that they’re safe.”
He opens his mouth but closes it. Starts again. “They aren’t here, Marbella.” A tone of urgency enters his voice. “I need you to know that they were never here. That I… had nothing to do with their imprisonment or treatment. I didn’t know. I swear…”
He stops. Inhales. Contemplates me. Doesn’t go on.
Fear slides into my heart, settling there like a cold chill. “What happened? What was the situation you had to deal with?”
My heartstones gleam. In all the time I’ve been here, I’ve only taken the headpiece off so that I can sleep comfortably and, to my knowledge, Grayson has never tried to touch it. Now he studies it, eyeing it, his shoulders drawing forward like a gargoyle would draw his wings around to protect himself, feet planting, telling me he’s bracing for my reaction to whatever he’s about to tell me.
I take a step toward him, near panic. Whatever he’s going to say, it’s bad. My voice rises as I repeat, “What happened, Grayson?”
His gaze drops to mine. “They told me… that your advisor, Elise, was killed.”
The floor drops out of my world. My whole body freezes. The temperature of the air around us plummets with my heart. My hands begin to shake, rattling at my sides. My head shakes too, side to side. “No. That’s not… possible…”
I step away from him, backing up, the cold building in my feet, clawing up my legs into my stomach, filling my chest, sliding toward my neck. Part of me doesn’t believe him. She is my best friend and a spellcaster too. I know what her presence feels like. I know what her power feels like. I would have felt her death. I would have known. I can’t… I can’t believe…
I demand, “How?”
He is very pale. He doesn’t look at my heartstones anymore, focusing on my face, my eyes. “They were trying to get information out of her and they went too far.”
“Torture?” Now I advance on him. Any sane elf would back away from me but he stands his ground. He continues to meet my eyes. The runes across his chest are subdued. He doesn’t draw on his power even though rage burns through me and crackles loudly in the space between us. The stallions stomp and shift in their stalls, sensing the danger.
I’m two seconds from burning this building to the ground. The only things stopping me are the innocent creatures I’d destroy with it.
“I’m truly sorry, Marbella.”
If he had played the evil villain, gone on the defensive, made excuses, even remained aloof or masked his emotions, anything other than what he does next, I could have held it together.
But instead he offers me his hand. “Take my hand and let it out. I can take your pain.”
My chest heaves, my breathing rages, and a scream winds its way into my throat.Elise. My beautiful Elise.
It can’t be true. He’s lying. But if he isn’t… I can’t hold in my fear anymore. I clasp his hand, gripping hard, knowing that otherwise I’ll tear apart the stables, the stallions, the greenhouse, and everything else around us.
I scream out my fear that he’s telling the truth. Pain shrieks through our connected hands flowing fast from my body into Grayson’s. He flinches as the force hits him. Power shoots though his arm, straight across his torso, crackling under his skin. It’s the same force that tore Howl to shreds. Cracks appear like spider webs all over Grayson’s chest and up his neck, down his arms. His muscles clench, his forearm and biceps bulging. He grits his teeth as I continue to scream, pouring all of my pain into the contact. Despite it all, he refuses to look away. Even when I drop to my knees, dragging him with me, my scream turning into a wail.
It has to be a trick. It can’t be real… “I need to see her body.”
