“I think...it’s been more than twelve years.” How could she have lost so much time? And worse...not known just how long it really was? “I was at university. So I guess…I would have been twenty-two? Twenty-three? I don’t even know where. All I remember are the lilies outside my apartment.”
* * *
If she didn’t geta move on, she’d be late for her exam. Sameen slung her bag over her shoulder and pulled the door closed behind her. All day, the headache throbbing behind her eyes had slowed her down. Even the simplest things: making breakfast, showering, getting dressed had taken her longer than they should have.
The intoxicating scent of lilies surrounded her, but there was something wrong about it. Something too sweet. Cloying. She felt like she was walking through quicksand, each step harder and slower than the last. Then…she was face down in the planter of lilies. Why couldn’t she get up? Or scream? Everything went silent and dark, but she knew she was moving. First a gentle, swaying motion, then a sharp tug, like she was being shot out of a cannon across the sky. Her stomach lurched, but as nauseous as she was, she couldn’t throw up, couldn’t open her mouth, couldn’t even breathe.
“This is the conduit? You are certain?” A woman’s voice broke through the silence, and Sameen opened her eyes. A stone ceiling. She was on her back, cold air flowing over her naked body, and she couldn’t move.
“Yes, Celia. There is no doubt.” A young woman stepped into her field of vision holding a sharp stone knife, and before Sameen could react, the blade slashed her upper arm. For a few seconds, she felt nothing. But then the cut started to burn like it was on fire. The woman uttered a string of words Sameen couldn’t understand, and then light obscured her vision until she squeezed her eyes shut.
“You have done well, Glenna. Ready the iron.”
* * *
“I passed out,”Sameen said, her voice fading after talking more in the past thirty minutes than she had the entire time she’d been the Thirteen’s prisoner. “The next thing I remember is a dark stone cell. I couldn’t move. Breathe. Blink. I don’t know how they kept me alive that way. No food, no water. I couldn’t feel my heart beat. Like…they’d turned me into stone. My eyes were open. By the time they came for me again, it had been so long, my sight was mostly gone.”
The sensation of being trapped, of being awake and aware, but unable to move overwhelmed her, and she started to wheeze, the cup tumbling from her grasp.
Peter’s warm hand molded to her cheek. “Look at me, Sameen. You’re safe. No one’s ever going to hurt you again.”
His face swam in and out of focus. More out than in, since Regulus had only managed to restoresomeof her sight. The Thirteen had taken so much from her. It didn’t matter that Peter’s voice held nothing but pure and total conviction. He didn’t know the Thirteen like she did.
Next to her, someone moved, and she jerked, squinting at Tierney who was mopping up the mess at her feet.
“I’m so sorry,” she choked out with a glance at Regulus. She tried to slide off the couch to help the werewolf, but Peter stopped her with his arm around her waist.
“Relax. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”
“He is right,” Regulus said mildly. “I have no particular attachment to that rug. If anything, you have done me a favor. There are ten more in the attic that hold more appeal.”
Farren held up her hand. “Can we forget about the feckin’ rug so someone can explain what the bloody hell a conduit is?”
“I can hold elements. The Thirteen killed dozens of elementals, and Celia—the coven leader—would send some of their power…into me.” Sameen shuddered, remembering the pain every time the witch forced her to take in yet another sliver of power her body didn’t know what to do with.
Panic flooded her limbs, making her hands tingle and her chest tighten as air rattled around deep inside her, straining to be freed.
“Ye’re an elemental?” Liam asked.
“No. I can’tusethe elements. They’re just…in me, and that’s not natural.” How could she explain the utter helplessness of succumbing to a power she had no means to control?
Oh, God. Now that the Thirteen couldn’t find her, there was no way she’d ever be able to get all this poweroutof her. Sameen pressed her hand to her stomach. Everything hurt. Her skin. Her bones. Her head. Air, water, and fire started a war inside her, and her muscles locked up, her lids fluttering. Retreating into the quiet darkness of her broken mind, she prayed just this once, she’d escape the pain.
Peter grabbed her and hauled her into his lap. “Sameen? This is what happened when I found you, isn’t it? I’ve got you. I won’t let go.”
The strength of his embrace steadied her, but she couldn’t see his face. That’s all she wanted. To focus on his eyes. She tried to say his name, but her lips refused to bend. This was a different kind of hell than being trapped by Celia’s magic. This was the pure agony of the fire inside her trying to burn its way free. Of the water straining to wash her away. Of the air determined to scatter her to the four corners of the earth.
“What’s wrong with her?” Caitlin rushed over and took a knee next to them.
“It’s a seizure.” Peter shifted her slightly so he could rub her back. “Damn. She’s hot.”
“Is this really the time to think with yer dick?” Liam asked.
“I’m not, asshole. She’s actually hot. Like a fever.”
If only she could talk. She’d tell them Peter was right. At least three times, the Thirteen had kidnapped fire elementals and siphoned off their power. Or…tried to. She had more fire than anything else in her, and the element waswrong. It wasn’t hers. Wasn’t evenwhole. Maybe that’s why it kept fighting her. Fighting to be released.
Caitlin whispered a few words with such a sweet accent, they sounded like a song. The air stirred all around Sameen, cooling her cheeks and bringing blessed relief to the overwhelming heat.
