Cold terror washes over me, and I nearly double over with a wave of nausea stronger than any the poison could have caused. I need to find her—save her. The alternative is unthinkable—I refuse to accept even the possibility that I’m already too late.
Fighting my roiling stomach, I jump to my feet, my head still spinning as I frantically scan my surroundings.
It’s a prison, alright, just not one I’ve been in before.
I’m in a cell, smaller even than the one I shared with my friends in Dyaspora. It’s dark, but from the light of a tiny window near the ceiling I can make out the cold stone walls, iron bars, and a dim corridor beyond. There seem to be other cells lining the wall across from mine, but they’re completely dark, without a hint of movement.
“Anyone there?” I ask, my voice hoarse.
I’m not surprised when only silence answers me. I’m entirely alone.
I rush to the window and peer outside. I’m slightly surprised when I see nothing but wide blue-gray sky. That tells me two things: First, it looks to be morning, which must mean that I’ve been passed out for longer than I thought—six, perhaps eight hours? Longer?
Second, wherever I am, it’s not an underground dungeon. A tower, perhaps? Not that it matters much where I am if I can’t get out of this cell.
My first thought is that I could shift and try to slip between the bars as a wolf. My wolf form is still large, but at least I might stand a chance of getting my shoulders through.
That idea turns out to be useless, because when I try to shift, nothing happens. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I try to force my wings out, just to see if I can. Again, nothing happens.
Just to be absolutely certain, I focus on the feeling of when the poison was coursing through me. I try to imagine that I’m about to die, and let my wings out again, but nothing happens.
I picture Aurelia slumping forward on the table, and imagine that she’s dying. That makes my heart race with real terror and my skin feels cold and clammy. If I could let my wings out, I’msure they would have appeared by now, but it’s no use. Like Dyaspora, this prison must block all magic.
That’s fine, I’ll just have to get out of here myself.
I cross the small cell again, and wrap my fingers around the iron bars, shaking them with all my strength until my shoulders burn. That does nothing, so I find the heavy iron lock and try shaking that instead, roaring with the effort.Nothing.
Wiping sweat from my brow, I stagger back, now scanning the floor for anything—a loose stone, a forgotten tool—something to break this damn lock.
I don’t immediately see anything, but I get on my knees, crawling along the ground and feeling into the corners of the dark cell. For several long minutes I don’t find anything, then finally, my fingers scrape over a crumbling bit of wall. My heart leaps.
My fingers close around a stone roughly the size of my fist. It’s far from the perfect tool, but perhaps if I hit the lock in exactly the right spot?
I return to the door and begin slamming the rock against the weakest part of the lock as hard as I can. After only a few strikes I know it’s not going to do anything but leave me exhausted, but I keep going. It’s better than doing nothing.
My mind wanders as I work on the lock, and I keep having to pull it back from the edge of the abyss. I can’t think about what’s happening to Aurelia right now. I can’t wonder about the rest of my friends—Kai and Luka, Jett and Connell, and all the rest—because thinking about that will make it impossible to focus on escaping, and that’s all that matters.
My mind lands on the moment earlier when Aurelia was in the bath. I should have just gone in there with her, rather than sitting outside trying to talk to her through the wall.
A new idea hits me at the same moment as my hand slips, and I accidentally slam the edge of my hand between the rock and the iron lock. “Fuck!”
I step back, ignoring my throbbing hand, too focused on my new idea to care.
Closing my eyes, just like I did earlier, I call out in my head.“Aurelia?”
I’m not surprised when she doesn’t answer, but I’m not done trying yet. I’ve never had to think much about how to speak mind-to-mind. I don’t know why we can’t hear all thoughts, just those intended as speech. I don’t really know what the full range is, or how close I would have to be to speak to someone. These are all things I just took for granted.
I try to focus on projecting my thoughts outward. “Aurelia, say something.”
Again nothing happens and I swear again, with frustration this time rather than pain. I pick up my rock again and go back to slamming it into the lock.
“I don’t know what I was expecting to happen,”I say in my head, still projecting my thoughts outward even though I’m sure she can’t hear me.“I know I’ve heard you before, but I don’t know why it doesn’t work when I want it to. That fucking figures. I usually prefer silence. I never thought I would find someone whose voice I wanted to hear.”
Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t answer, but for some reason I keep talking.
“I’ve always liked listening to you talk. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did.”
The rock keeps clanging against the lock, and I speed my movements, hammering faster.
