Avani strode toward the closet doors and flung them open. It was filled with gowns in all imaginable shades of blue and red, some of them a blend of both colors. “I was a bit confused when I saw them bring up both fire and water colors,” Avani said, eyeing me curiously, and I realized then that while she might not know anything, she had her suspicions. “Could they have made some kind of mistake, perhaps?”
“Possibly,” I agreed, approaching the closet. I selected a practical gown with long sleeves and a simple, A-line skirt with minimal layers. If I needed to run or fight, I wanted as little fabric to get in the way as possible.
I changed into the gown and matching slippers, then followed Avani down the stairs to meet my fellow prisoners. We passed through a sitting room with wide, rectangular windows overlooking the courtyard, and I paused to look through the bars at the view down below.
“It’s so…desolate,” I said, taking in the gardens. I knew winter was around the corner, but I still expected to see some plant life. Instead, the trees and shrubs were stripped bare, branches gnarled and twisted, trunks hunched in and shriveled into husks of their former selves. The flower beds were barren, not so much as a single shoot popping up from the dry-looking soil. Fountains stood here and there, but they were dry, and I couldn’t see a single sign of animal life.
“I know,” Avani said sadly. “It’s the shadow taint. Nothing will grow in those gardens, no matter how much work is put into them. I myself have tried to cultivate flowers over the summers, but they never take root. The earth itself has been corrupted.”
I turned away from the depressing scene outside, and followed Avani into a small dining room. Two fae sat at the table already, delicately spooning some kind of creamy soup from the bowls in front of them—a water fae in a diaphanous blue gown, and an air fae dressed in pure white. The air fae’s mass of curly hair reminded me of Quye, except her curls were cropped short to form a halo around her head, and the water fae had cornflower blue eyes remarkably similar to mine.
“Cascada, Tempest,” Avani said by way of greeting. “This is Adara.”
“Hello Adara.” Tempest flashed me a smile, her silver eyes glinting as she studied me.
“You’re the girl from the prophecy, are you?” Cascada asked. Her face remained unsmiling, and there was wary look in her eyes as she scrutinized me that put me on the defensive. “You don’t look like much.”
My back stiffened, and I took a seat at the table, trying not to scowl. “Does everyone know about this prophecy but me?” I demanded, too out of sorts to touch the food. “I only just learned about it last night.”
“There isn’t a single person in Lochanlee who doesn’t know about it,” Cascada said. “King Aolis sends his shadow guard to search the newborn babes every year for a female with fire magic.” Her eyes narrowed. “Can you really do it, then? Use water and fire magic at the same time?”
“Not at the same time,” I admitted. “But I can use both.” I glanced at the manacles on my wrists and sighed. “I would show you if I wasn’t wearing these things.”
“Hmm.” Cascada seemed skeptical. “Are you going to use your magic to undo the shadow corruption?”
“I would, if I had any idea how to do that,” I said. “But so far, all I can do is set things on fire and put them out.”
“I would think you could do more than that,” Tempest said, sitting back. “You’re not some youngling still trying to master your magic.”
My ears burned with embarrassment. “I didn’t know I had any fire magic until three days ago. And I couldn’t use my water magic at all. My mother made me wear a primal stone that was spelled to keep my powers hidden, and raised me in a tiny village in Domhain. Everything I know, I’ve learned only recently.”
“The last three days?” Avani asked, in disbelief. “That’s hard to imagine.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I changed the subject. “Why doesn’t Aolis have you three in cuffs?” I asked. “Isn’t he worried about you three trying something?”
Cascada huffed. “Hardly. We may be powerful, but we are no match for his shadow magic, and besides, it is not us who would suffer for our disobedience. He would punish us by attacking our families instead.”
“But wouldn’t that just perpetuate a vicious cycle of war?” I asked. “Your families would retaliate too, wouldn’t they?”
“They would try,” Avani said slowly, “but it would be a losing battle. Aolis’s shadow magic is insidious—it infects everything it touches, and while everbright potion is effective against shadow creature bites, there is no cure when the attack comes straight from the source.”
“One of my cousins tried to rebel against the king once,” Cascada said, a deep bitterness in her voice. “Aolis was taking too many of his people. The king decimated his lands in a single night, using shadow magic. That was ten years ago, and still nothing grows or lives there save the nightmarish creatures he left in his wake.”
My stomach turned at the idea of so much senseless destruction. “That’s awful.”
“Still,” Tempest said slowly. “I don’t think the king truly wants the kingdom to be consumed by shadow magic. He likely sees you as a solution to the problem he created.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I have a feeling it’s not as simple as that.”
Tempest shrugged. “Perhaps. But what does it matter if Aolis is the one who unlocks your magic, so long as youcanget rid of the taint?”
I opened my mouth, but before I could answer I heard a heavy door unlatch, followed by boots clomping across the floor. A soldier in jet black armor with a wicked-looking sword strapped to his side entered the dining room, and a shiver ran down my spine as I took him in. His snow-white hair, which was slicked back from his head, was nearly the same color as his skin, and I caught the shadowy outlines of black veins creeping up the sides of his neck and down his hands. Unlike Avani’s, his did not disappear no matter how much I blinked.
“You’re part of the shadow guard, aren’t you?” I blurted. He wore the exact same armor Slaugh and his soldiers had when they’d stormed Mrs. Aeolan’s house and taken me captive.
He nodded, taking another step into the room. Tendrils of shadow wafted from the edges of his form, nearly invisible to the naked eye, the same ones that clung to General Slaugh. Part of me wondered if I was the only one who could see them—no one else at the tryouts seemed to have noticed, or if they had noticed, they’d kept their mouths shut about it.
“King Aolis requires your presence at dinner tonight,” he said, looking me up and down. “I am here to escort you.”
