My stomach clenched with sympathy. Kaden hadn’t strayed from my thoughts once since he’d been taken, but I’d never stopped to consider how Sorsha was processing it all.
It certainly wasn’t her fault that he’d been taken prisoner. She’d been on another continent.
I’dbeen there, and I’d failed him.
“It wouldn’t have made any difference,” I said quietly, hoping to ease some of her guilt even as mine redoubled.
“Right,” Sorsha scoffed. “Because I’ve allowed my magic to get soweakhiding on that godsforsaken island while my brother —”
“No,” I said quickly. “I didn’t mean . . .” I sighed. “I just meant that we were outnumbered. Semphrys caught Kaden off-guard, and he . . . didn’t fight it. He let himself be captured to givemethe chance to escape.”
Sorsha’s brows drew together in sympathy, and she knelt beside the pyramid of sticks I’d made. As she held her hands near the base, I felt a tingle of familiar magic, and flames flickered to life.
My jaw dropped.
Having lived for so long without magic of my own, I sometimes forgot what the fae could do. Even if Sorsha’s powers were too depleted for her to summon her wings, she was still pretty incredible.
“Do you think you’ll regain your full powers?” I asked. “With time on the mainland?”
The princess swallowed and sat back on her heels, watching the flames consume the kindling and lap at the dry sticks. “I don’t know,” she said quietly. “None of the Drathen soldiers have been stationed there for more than a few years at a time. I don’t know anyone else who’s become as depleted as I have.” She gazed up at the gnarled trees, hugging her arms around herself. “I’m not sure there’s enough magic left in these lands to replenish what I have lost.”
“It’s not your fault Alfrigg banished you,” I said. While I might have been stating the obvious, I had a feeling Sorsha needed to hear it.
She shook her head. “I shouldn’t have stayed hidden away in that fortress like a good little princess. I should have fought. Should have staged an insurrection. Should have donesomething.”
“If you’d tried to rally your people, Alfrigg would have had you killed.”
Just like their mother.
“What good is my being alive? I haven’t accomplished anything or made life better for my people. I haven’t even reallylived.”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, watching the flames swell as the wood caught fire. “Well, now you can. Maybe you and Kaden —”
“Do you think there’s a chance . . .” Sorsha closed her eyes, and she didn’t have to finish the sentence for me to know what she was asking.
“Semphrys has been living on stolen power for a long time,” I murmured. “If we can cut the threads of the soulshe’s bound to his life, he will be vulnerable.” I swallowed. “I promised Kaden that I would put a dagger through his father’s heart, and I intend to keep that promise.”
Sorsha met my gaze over the fire, her turquoise eyes blazing with hope and something like fear. Fear forme, I realized.
Then she chuckled and took up a stick, stoking the flames. “You are too good for my brother.”
“I doubt that,” I grumbled, sitting back and peeling off my right boot with a wince. The ill-fitting shoes Adriel had outfitted me in had nearly rubbed my feet raw. Angry blisters had formed and burst, causing the worn leather interior to cling to my skin.
“That looks painful,” Sorsha said with a grimace as Adriel emerged from the trees with a silver hare dangling in his grasp.
“It’s not great,” I admitted, thinking of the creek where we’d quenched our thirst. I longed to soak my aching feet in the cold water, but the comfort of Adriel and Sorsha’s presence kept me where I was.
Wordlessly, the royal guard sank down by the fire and began skinning the hare with the blade of his dagger. I watched as he ripped the pelt off the animal, arranged the carcass on a makeshift spit, and set it over the fire to cook.
Withdrawing the small leather pouch from around his neck, he fished out one of the leaves he’d given me and handed it to Sorsha.
Her expression lightened as she took the herb, scooting closer to him as she placed it in her mouth.
Adriel stiffened at her movement, but then he seemed to relax.
For several minutes, it was silent apart from the crackleof flames and the sizzle of roasting meat. The crisping flesh of the hare gleaming from the spit was possibly the least-appetizing thing I’d ever contemplated eating, but I was so hungry that I didn’t hesitate as Adriel tore off a haunch and handed it to me.
I ate without really tasting the meat and wandered back to the stream to quench my thirst and cleanse the open wounds along the backs of my feet.
