“Could it still . . .beher, though?” Cemmy aims that question at me. “I mean, if it’s the future he’s seeing, then doesn’t that mean it hasn’t . . . happened yet?”
“Technically, yes, but the timeline doesn’t fit,” I tell her, thinking back to Mom’s stories about the fates. “If Magdalena’s safe today, then it would take months before the shadows started feeling the effects of her gift.” Or at least, that’s how long it took her to destabilize them last year, when the Church triggered her power and locked her in an iron cell. “The future doesn’t usually reveal itself quite so far in advance. There would be too many unmade decisions standing in the way.”
“Then maybe it’s a different Amber.” Cemmy grasps at the next straw. “That dilution might be rare, but these things are random, right? We could have fluked into another one by sheer chance?”
“Well, if we did, they’re not in Sarotuza,” I say, crossing my arms. “I’d have noticed an Amber.”
“Are you sure about that, Ez?” Her reply is as condescending as it is blunt. “Because you’ve not exactly been paying attention lately.”
“Yes, I’m sure.” I bristle, but I make a show of blinking into my magic nonetheless, checking for any trails I might have overlooked. My gift isn’t limitless, but it does allow me to sense Shades from dozens of miles away, to track even the barest hint of them through the shadows. I only missed Magdalena’s trail back in Isitar because it never occurred to me to search the reformed side of the city—let alone an impenetrable fortress controlled by the Church. Today, I’m not making that same mistake, and a systematically thorough search later, I’m a hundred percent confident when I declare, “Sarotuza is Amber free.”
“Okay, so they’re somewhere else, then.” Cemmy’s frustration is glib. “If the Gray’s dying again, what other explanation could there be?”
“No—whatever’s happening, it’s happening here.” This time, Chase is the one to argue. “I can’t explain it, but I could . . .feelthat we’re in the right place. The vision, it was... chaotic, fractured—more like flashes of truth than an actual scene. But the future wants us involved, I just know it. And this is where it wants us to be.”
“Well, that’s too bad because we’re not staying,” Cemmy says, as though that decision isn’t up for debate. “We have to leave as soon as possible. The entire city’s looking for Ez.”
“Looking for us, actually.” I break the news to her with a sigh. “Turns out, the Indigo has a knack for resisting compulsion; she told the trackers about you two, as well.”
“Gods, of course she did.” Cemmy drags a breath through her teeth. “Then you know what, fine, since she’s so intent on sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, she can also tell us what this damn vision is supposed to mean.” It’s always act now, think later with Cemmy, run straight at the problem until you slam into trouble head first.
“No—let me do it.” I reach out to stop her, unwilling to let that temper make a bad situation worse. “When I was in there before, she mentioned something about the death of the Gray, I just didn’t believe her. Maybe I can get her to say more.”
Or maybe she’ll tell you to pick a hell and go rot in it.
Given what I allowed Chase to do, I wouldn’t blame her for cursing me right out of that room. Right out of the shadows, too, if I’m honest; that’s what I’d be wishing on her if our roles were reversed. But for whatever reason, the future chose to weave our paths together and lead us to this point.
It chose to meddle.
And meddling is its way of showing us something.
CHAPTER 14
RAYA
If I ever doubted that Hues deserved the hand fate dealt them, I don’t anymore. I always knew that their kind was dangerous, that their gifts were unpredictable and their blood was a poison to our world. But with so few left, I’ve never reallyseenit. Neverfeltit. Never imagined that I’d find myself at their mercy.
What mercy?If not for the fear and the anger, I’d have probably succumbed to the Gold’s torture and slumped into unconsciousness against the wall, let oblivion take me. But I refuse to give him that satisfaction. I refuse to give him my total surrender after everything else he took.
This’ll hurt less if you hold still.
Gods, what a fucking joke. Even now, my skin still burns with his magic, my whole body trembling like a leaf in autumn, the ache from the iron replaced by a pain that penetrates to the bone. There’s bile on my tongue, sweat in my hair, salt on my cheeks from when I begged him to stop.
And I did beg.
And beg.
And then I cried, screamed, and begged some more, without sparing a thought for how pathetic it made me look. Because his gift didn’t just feel like suffering, it felt like dying. Like having my very essence ripped apart by feral dogs.
This won’t kill you, he kept telling me, though when I finally get free of this pipe, I very much intend to kill him. It would be no lessthan he deserves—no less thanallof them deserve. For a few blissful moments, that fantasy stokes the rage in my soul. I picture my hand slipping out of the cuff and wrapping around the Gold’s throat; I picture the look on his face when he realizes that I’m not as weak as he and his half-breed friends first thought; I picture handing them over to the trackers and watching a Green stop their hearts in front of a triumphant court. But then a shadow wisps through the door to my prison and despite myself, I recoil, flattening against the wall in an effort to disappear entirely.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” The Sapphire quickly retreats to the far side of the room, as if to prove that he means to keep that promise.
“Like you’d even have the stomach for it,” I spit, reaching for a few of his very own choice words. “I saw how you looked away right before the good part.” Hells, I saw the way his Bronze had to lead him out before he puked. “Don’t worry, half breed, I’m sure you’ll do better next time.”
“Ezzo.” He barely flinches as he sits. “My name is Ezzo.”
“Good for you.” I make it plenty clear that I won’t be sharing mine in return. If these Hues are so willing to hurt me now, then I can’t imagine what they’d do if they found out who their prisoner truly is. How important her parents are. I’ve absolutely zero doubt they’d try to use me as leverage. “Are you going to let me go?”
