She thinks he’ll refuse to answer again, but instead he says, voice cool, “She was killed by a witch assassin trying to get to Zryan.”
A beat while that sinks in. Fucking Vaar, no wonder he hates Astrid so much.
A Precog, he said. She wonders if she saw her death a few seconds before it happened.
“My mum was killed, too,” she says, voice level. “By Dreki,” she adds pointedly. “Not witches.” There’s a flicker of something across his face, before it’s gone. She wonders if it’s guilt, or if that’s only what she wants to see.
She takes a breath, feels calm settle over her. She narrows her eyes at Axel. “You’re doing that, aren’t you? Making me calm.”
He hesitates for the briefest of moments. “Would you rather I didn’t?”
She glances at the cliff again—but this time, her insides do notclaw at her. “No,” she says. “It’s probably helpful, all things considered.”
“We’re nearly there,” the Air Bringer calls, casual as you like, as if they’re all about to tie up the boat and go for a leisurely swim.
Axel glances at Skylar, as her panic fights through his control. She can feel the sweat on her top lip, the way her heart has picked up speed.
“I don’t always mean to do it, you know,” he says conversationally. She frowns, no idea what he’s on about. “Manipulate others’ emotions,” he explains. “It’s easier for me, when other people are calm.” She can see that—if she could tune in to people’s emotions, she’s sure she’d rather they were calm, too.
The boat slows and her stomach lurches.
“I’ve always been able to read emotions,” Axel continues, “but Influencing came later. At first, I had no idea how to control it.” Skylar looks at him, the breeze tugging his blond hair. “I’d be laughing and then my mum would be laughing, too, and she wouldn’t know why. At some point I realized what I was doing.” She gets the tiniest glimpse at another side of him—a person who laughed with his mother, who grew up with someone loving him. Like her mother had loved her before that was snatched away when she was just ten years old.
“Zryan and I snuck out of the castle once. We can’t have been more than fifteen. We tried some alcohol in the pubs. Something we don’t have in the castle. It had some kind of bitter taste…”
“Akavit,” Skylar murmurs.
“Right. Anyway, there were these two men fighting. Shouting at each other, I don’t even remember what about. But I remember feeling it, that anger between them. And without knowing what I was doing, suddenly I was amplifying it. They got angrier and angrier. Started beating each other. I could feel what was happening, but I couldn’t stop it. Zryan tried to get involved, but he was still getting to grips with his power, too, and this was before he was in the army. The space between his jumps gave the men time. Enough time for one of them to beat the other to death.”
Nausea rolls again as Skylar imagines the scene. But a part of her isn’t as repulsed as she thinks she should be. Because she knows, doesn’t she, what it’s like to have a power you can’t control.
She takes a slow breath as the boat drifts to a stop, the Air Bringer lowering the anchor. She glances at the cliff edge—the color of a lethal sunset. This is it. None of them can come onto dragon soil with her—not without risking being eaten—so this is where they leave her.
“It’s working, you know,” she says quietly. She brings the chalk out of her pocket, rubs it onto her hands. “Distracting me.” Because he’s not just come across warm and fuzzy-ish—for no reason.
“Good.”
She glances at him sideways. “That doesn’t mean I forgive you for using me as bait.”
He nods slowly. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. And I wouldn’t ask for your forgiveness.” He pauses. “Not for that.”
But for something? she wonders. She stands on legs that don’t feel steady. “Any last advice, then?”
He gets to his feet, too. “Zryan tells me you’re a survivor,” he says slowly. His gaze meets hers, holds it. “So prove him right. Survive, Skylar.”
She nods as the Air Bringer holds out a hand to help her off the boat.
“Oh, and, Skylar?” She looks back at Axel. “I didn’t only tell you that story to distract you. I was scared of my power at first—but I’ve learned a lot since then. No matter what, power isn’t something to shy away from.” His jaw is set. “So if there’s anything you’ve been holding back—now’s the time to let loose.”
She climbs. And as she does, she feels Axel’s calming Influence leave her. Her heart thuds, her fingers become desperate to shake. Years of training mean she doesn’t look down, but she can hear the waves crashing below her—and she knows that if she falls, she will likely be dead on impact.
Don’t think of that, Skylar. Think of safe things.The feel of the sun on her face first thing in the morning. The memory of the song her mum used to sing to her, one she has never heard since. Cam’s smile at the end of a long day, a smile reserved only for her.
When her fingers curl around the top, she lets out a sob of relief. Her arms are so sore she’s not sure how she finds the strength to pull herself over—but she does.
She crawls away from the edge. The smell of sulfur is so overpowering, it makes her want to gag, but she pushes to her feet. Wind rushes past her ears—and she thinks, from the way it makes her skin hum, that it is not an ordinary wind.
But there is no sign of the dragons. She does a quick scan of her surroundings. Volcanoes peak in every direction and steam billows from hot springs. It is red, and harsh, and almost unbearably hot—how she imagines being shut in a furnace would feel. But it is also beautiful. There is green out to one side—a forest, she realizes. Storm clouds gather in the distance, and she can see snow where there shouldn’t be on the peaks of hills.
