Chapter Twenty
Evaline
T he guard’s words hadn’t stopped replaying through my mind for the last hour since I’d gotten back from dinner.
He had bragged about hurting Maddox. My Maddox.
The thought made me spiral and took me down until all I could think about was what Maddox must’ve felt while he was tortured. He’d been alone, he’d been in pain, and he’d clearly refused to give Vasier any information because the Vasi said he’d been cut a thousand times.
I paced through my room, strode over the dresses, the art, the bedding, that littered the floor. I never cleaned it after my breakdown, and I didn’t care to. But from the look the guard had given the room when he’d opened the door and dropped me off, I knew he’d run to tell Vasier. He hadn’t seen it any other time, because whether it was food, or to take me to dinner tonight, he just stood off to the side until I came out.
The thought that the person who tortured my mate existed just outside of my door for these last few days, enraged me. That he even breathed at all, was a crime. I couldn’t help but picture all the ways I could kill him, all the ways I could make it last as long and as miserable as possible.
But what was even worse than the fact that my guard was the one who tortured Maddox, or the fact that Maddox had been tortured at all, was that it had all been for nothing.
I was here, in Mortithev. Vasier knew all about my Gods gifted magic, thanks to Sage.
And that’s when I remembered what was worse than Maddox’s torture being moot.
The fact that his friend had brought him to it.
Before Sage’s betrayal could send me down a path I wouldn’t come back from, before it could work the panic up my throat, I tried to focus on something else, on anything else.
And deep inside, I felt my magic stir.
I took a deep breath and reached for it. It was small and low, but it was there. I pulled it out, let it stretch into the room around me.
My head snapped to the door as I heard footsteps outside of it, but my shoulders loosened as I realized that the steps were moving away from my room. The guard was leaving?
My heart fell at the sound of his voice, farther away. He’d only walked down the hall. Close enough to stop me from leaving, but far enough that I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
I tilted my head and turned to face the door.
The fact that he moved farther away from me to talk, meant that whatever he said had something to do with me. He’d had other conversations just outside my door the last few days.
I’d used my Air as a shield before, to block out sound, but now I wondered if I could use it to hear, instead.
I threw my magic into a shield, like I normally did, but then twisted it until it was a tube. I lengthened it to an invisible tunnel that I hoped would echo the sound of whatever conversation the Vasi was having.
It slipped under the door, and down the hallway.
I moved it farther and noticed that the closer it got to him, the more my magic seemed to seethe. The more it began to hate .
I knew it hated him, as did I, but I pushed past it, tried to extend it all the way down the hall, but it couldn’t reach. And what length it did have wasn’t enough to send any more than a small increase in the volume of the mumbling I’d already heard. The words weren’t any clearer than they’d been before.
My magic was too weak from the ward to push it out that far away from me. I groaned in frustration and let the shield drop, resuming my pacing. I tried to ignore his mumbling down the hall, kicking at the items on the floor, when footsteps approached the door.
I clenched my eyes shut and stopped in front of the fireplace.
I didn’t feel like talking to Sage, knew I couldn’t handle that on top of everything else tonight.
But a soft voice called from the other side and I knew it wasn’t her.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but, I’m here to clean the mess,” a woman said, and by the tremor in her voice alone, I knew she was one of Vasier’s servants.
I jolted and ran to the door, shouldered my armoire to move it out of the way as quickly as I could and swung the door open, thankful to see someone other than Sage, Vasier, Lauden, or another Vasi.
She was a short woman, several inches shorter than me, with her light blond hair pulled up on top of her head into a tight bun like the humans at dinner had worn.
I didn’t recognize her, though, and wondered how many more humans Vasier had in this castle.
“Come in,” I urged quickly, moving to the side so she could enter. I didn’t dare look at the guard down the hallway, even though I could feel his gaze on me.
She bowed her head and strode forward and the moment she was through the threshold I shut the door, as slowly as my jitters would allow, and then shoved the armoire back in place in front of it.
She spun around in an instant. “What are you doing?” she rasped, backing a step away from me with frightened green eyes.
Immediately I realized my mistake. In barricading myself in here for safety, I barricaded her in here with a stranger.
I put my hands up in front of me, as if to show her that I wasn’t a threat, and shook my head.
“I’m sorry,” I rushed out. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” I half-turned and placed a palm on the top of the armoire. “This is for my safety. The doors don’t lock from the inside, only the outside.”
Her expression changed then, hardened, and she nodded. She didn’t say another word though, only turned and quickly moved to kneel in the mess on the floor.
The room was dark, I hadn’t bothered to relight the fire yet, so I grew the flame up from the embers it pulsed with, and she jumped.
But she must’ve already known I was a Sorceress, because she just bent down to continue working, a blush reaching up the back of her neck.
I moved forward, as slowly as I could with energy beating through my veins at this opportunity, and kneeled down a few feet away from her.
Before I spoke, I threw my shield of air around our heads so that the Vasi wouldn’t hear us, and thanked the Gods my magic was at least strong enough to manage that.
“I’m a prisoner here, too. Just like you,” I said as gently as I could. “They’ve diminished my magic, so I can only use it in small bits.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it and looked back down to continue pulling dresses into her arms.
“I was instructed not to talk to you,” she mumbled as she worked, but I leaned toward her.
“No, you can talk to me. They can’t hear us, I promise. I’m a Sorceress, I can wield Air and I’ve put a soundproof shield around us. They can’t hear anything we say.”
She didn’t bother to stop what she was doing to respond. “You can’t be a Sorceress with two elements.” She shrugged. “I don’t know much about Sorceresses but I know that’s impossible.”
I pointed to the ivy that crawled around the railing of my balcony, and the transparent curtains that hung over the open door fluttered from my wind.
“Look,” I said, when I realized she wasn’t following my gesture, and she raised her eyes.
They widened and I knew it was because of what she saw. I didn’t peek back at it, I didn’t have to. My Terra aided the ivy, stretching it higher and making the leaves grow fuller.
Her fair skin flushed. “That’s impossible.”
I shook my head before dropping my hand, and all my magic except for what maintained the shield, and placed my palms over my bent thighs.
“It is, I’m a different kind of Sorceress. I have all four elements, and I need your help.”
She was shaking her head before I even finished the last word, and turned around to pick up the dresses behind her.
“No. You aren’t going to trick me,” she said with a trembling voice. “I know my place and I know that I’m not supposed to interact with you, let alone help you.”
I stood and moved until I was back in her line of sight, kneeling down again to face her.
“Please,” I pleaded. “I need help. Vasier has abducted me, and he’s planning on doing something awful with my magic, I just know it.” I shook my head. “My m—” I started to say mate, but then decided against it. “My partner, he’s hurt. And I need to get back to him. My family, my friends, they’re all waiting for me back home and there’s going to be a war if I’m not returned to them. And Vasier, he’ll use me in that war. Use me for something awful.”
She listened but kept her head low, and when I was finished, she looked up at me and dropped the pile of clothes into her lap.
“And what do you think happened to me?” she asked softly, and I cringed. “I was taken against my will, too. My husband, my family, they’re all waiting for me, but they’ll keep waiting. Because unlike you, I don’t have powerful magic to save me.”
I shook my head. “If you help me, I can save you. If you help me to find a way to escape, I can take you when I leave.”
I reached forward and grabbed her hands. “Please,” I begged. “Please, I’m not allowed to leave this room. There’s never a moment outside of these walls that I’m alone.”
Her eyes flashed with sympathy for one second before she locked it down, and ground her jaw.
“If Vasier needs you, then you’re safe. If you try to escape, and you’re caught, nothing will happen to you. But me,” she started before giving a small shake of her head as her eyes misted to match mine. “I won’t stand a chance. I’d be lucky if all they did was kill me.”
She pulled her hands from mine and looked to the ground. “Can I please just do my job?” She asked in an even tone.
I swallowed my frustration. “No.”
She started to continue but then must’ve processed my denial. Her head snapped up at me.
“What?” she asked with wide eyes.
I wiped the tears from my eyes and waved an arm toward the bed. “I can clean this mess up myself,” I said and moved to take the pile from her hands.
“What are you talking about?” she asked but didn’t try to stop me from pulling the clothes from her grasp.
“I made the mess, and if Vasier is so adamant it be cleaned that he sends someone to do it for me, then he likely won’t let me just leave it this way.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s why I’m here. I have to do it.”
I continued piling clothes. “I will clean it. You can’t leave yet or they’ll know that you aren’t the one who cleaned it, and considering how little Vasier thinks of humans, I’m sure he wouldn’t be very happy about that.” I nodded my head toward the bed. “Sit down, lay down, whatever you need. I’m sure they don’t give you many breaks, or a comfortable bed for that matter.”
I turned away from her to gather more clothes and felt her stare for several moments as she must’ve believed this to be a trick, too.
But eventually, she did move to sit on the bed, and I warned her before I lowered my shields. I needed to hear if the guard was coming, so she didn’t get in trouble if he saw her lounging.
I worked in silence, and she must’ve been exhausted, because not half an hour later did I see movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to see her heavy eyes droop, saw her try to fight it for a moment before they shut completely, and she fell sideways, landing to lay in the bed softly.