There was only pain in the Sonaria. Unrelenting darkness and misery. I didn’t even look up as they slammed the heavy metal door shut, locking me in the all-encompassing blackness of the windowless cell.
Only when the fenite forcefully ripped my power from my body did I finally scream. It felt like someone tore my body open and dug around inside to find every last ounce of magic that permeated my cells.
I screamed and screamed until my lungs had no breath left to fuel my suffering.
As the last drop of magic faded, death took up residence inside me. A cold feeling of emptiness like my soul had been extracted alongside my magic and now there was only pain. Neverending pain.
I had only the abyss as a companion, so I gave myself over to it.
Chapter fifty-three
“Rain?”
The soft voice cut through the fog of grief and fatigue, pulling me back into myself.
“Jenni?” I croaked out, my throat still hoarse. I recognized my crescia’s voice, but it sounded different somehow. Older.
“Rain is in trouble.”
“How can I even hear you,” I asked, still fighting the grogginess. “My magic is gone.”
“Jenni belongs to Rain. Jenni does not belong to the Source.”
Her stilted, childlike cadence was slightly more mature, and I found myself missing the innocent sound of my sweet little crescia in my head.
“Rain needs to escape.”
I slumped against the wall of the Sonaria. I could barely move. Escape was impossible.
“There’s nothing I can do,” I said hopelessly.
“Jenni can help. Rain is vitiate. Rain can break compulsion.”
I laughed bitterly as another wave of pain crested and washed over me. Maybe she didn’t know what had happened. “I don’t think that’s going to change anything. The damage is done. Belarius doesn’t need to compel me.”
“Rain will listen!”
Her tone was so forceful it almost distracted me from the pain. Almost.
“Jenni will bring Dey. Rain will free Dey. Dey will help Rain and Jenni escape.”
My face sagged. I hated to crush her little baby crescia dreams. “I don’t know how to use my powers to nullify someone else's compulsion. Bringing Dey here won’t accomplish anything.”
“Rain will trust Jenni. Rain will trust herself. Be ready. Dey comes soon.”
I wanted to allow myself to hope. To have faith like she did. To believe that maybe Jenni could do something, anything, to save me. There was simply nothing left, though.
I let myself fall back asleep. The only hope I could muster was the hope that maybe I would dream of Sin.
Rough stone ground the skin from my knees, but it wasn’t what woke me up. What pulled me from my beautiful dream of Sin making love to me in a vast open field surrounded by tulips was the pleasant tingling of my magic returning. The warmth of my fire and the coolness of my mental ability melding together in a soothing, calming balm for my soul.
I wrenched my eyes open. Two guards dragged me through the halls of the dungeons, each with an arm hooked under my shoulders. Someone had dressed me, but I barely registered the feel of the rough burlap on my skin.
I was out of the Sonaria.
They hadn’t taken me far though, I realized when they roughly tossed me into a regular cell down the hall from the fenite prison. My head cracked against the hard floor, and I absently rubbed the impending bruise. The door to the cell swung shut as the guards marched away and Dey stepped into view, kneeling to look me in the eye.
There was only a hard resolve on his face. “You owe me answers,” he seethed.
