Only when he ripped his hand away did she realize that she was taut with exhilaration, sparking from head to toe and deep down, gasping for breath, as though she’d been running for days. She rolled over and pushed up to her feet.
Flat on his back, Kaelan panted. He was pale and wide-eyed.
“Are you all right?” she asked, edging closer. The force of the iron pressed against her, but she felt temporarily inured to its malignant power, as if he’d given her some kind of shield against it.
“I’m fine,” he said, raking his hand back through the thick shag of his light hair. Another Prince with blond hair, though his was dark gold where Endreas’s had been platinum. “I’ve never healed a Rae before.” His emerald green eyes met hers. “Is it always like that?”
The only time she’d been healed by a Prince was when Endreas had done it. The two experiences could not have been more different.
“I don’t know,” she said, crouching down by the grate. That’s when she noticed that the brand scars on her arms were gone. Not just healed, but vanished. She ran her fingers over her skin. She hadn’t known it was possible for the marks of iron to be healed.
“What is it?” Kaelan asked.
“Nothing,” she said, focusing on the grate again. “Are you going to be strong enough for this?”
He sat up, gazing at her. A thin scar hooked under his left eye and traced along his cheekbone. Rather than detracting from his Princely good looks, it somehow made him more beautiful.
“You look strong enough for both of us,” he said. “You look... I didn’t think I’d be able heal you so much.”
She tapped her nails against the floor near the grate in a short pattern. “You may not wish to be claimed by a Rae, but you were made to heal them.”
The big black rat reappeared at her summons, poking his twitchy little nose between the holes of the grate. Behind him, dozens of beady, glinting eyes peered up at her. She smiled. Her message had gotten through. He had brought his friends.
She pressed her fingers to the top of his skull and imparted the image of the gloves into his mind, followed by a mountain of bread.
As soon as she took her fingers away, the rat zipped out of the grate and squeezed under the wooden door. She watched him go and then reached down to press her fingers to the next rat. She glanced up at Kaelan, who was watching her guardedly.
“I don’t suppose you have any more bread,” she said.
His lips pressed.
“We’ll just have to find some other way to reward them,” she said, sinking into the rat’s mind, “if we survive.”
AS THE ROOMfilled with the din of dozens of rats gnawing and clawing at the soft shale floor, she fixed on Kaelan again.
“How did you end up here?” she asked.
“I told you,” he said, hovering in the midst of his cell, frowning down at the rats. “I refused to be claimed by Lavana.”
“But how did she come to capture you in the first place?”
He was grim. “I don’t know. Ever since I came of age, I’ve taken care to stay hidden from”—his green eyes darkened—“Raes. But somehow she discovered me. I think she used some Elf magic.”
She chewed her lip, keeping one eye on the door. “Why do you think that?”
“She told me she’d given up too much to gain the means to locate a Prince, and I heard her telling one of her servants that she owed the Elf King too much to back out... whatever that means. I only assumed she used Elf magic. I can’t imagine how else she could’ve located me.”
“Anyone who knew you would know you were a Prince,” she said. “You can’t hide a face like that.”
A flush spread over her cheeks as soon as the words left her mouth, but she kept her eyes on the door. And then she recalled how he had been shrouded in shadow when she’d first arrived.
“Except you can,” she said, looking at him again. “You can obscure yourself, can’t you?”
His eyes narrowed, the deep shadows of his brow closing in around the bright green lights underneath.
“That’s a neat trick,” she said, gaze flicking back to the door, “and very useful for a Prince who doesn't wish to be one. But I suspect Lavana was only keeping you in here until she began to Shine, then you would’ve begged her to claim you. Lucky for you, she found a new Prince before that happened.”
“I’ve heard about this Shine . . .”
