Cyrene reached for her magic and felt it respond to her summons like a caress. She drew from her core with barely a thought, a fireball appeared in her hand. Matilde and Vera had said that fire was the hardest natural element, and she had effectively mastered all four in a week. Take that, Master Domas!

She launched the fireball at Kael’s smirking face. He waved his hand, and water from the basin on the ground between them shot straight up, blocking the path of the fire.

Her heart thudded as she swept a blast of air through the water. The fire, though diminished, continued on its trajectory. And she sent a second one careening toward him through the open hole.

He elaborately twirled his fingers, and all of a sudden, a cyclone of earth and air sucked the first fireball out of sight. He clasped his hands together, and all three of the elements fell to pieces in his hands. For a second, she thought he hadn’t seen the second fireball. Then, he caught it in his open palm and tossed it up and down, as if it were a toy. He closed his fingers around it, and the whole thing went up in smoke.

“Not bad,” Kael said with as much appreciation as he’d ever dished out.

“Not bad? A week ago, I could barely move a speck of water without intense concentration. That’s a miracle.”

“Hardly. It’s what you were made for. What I was made for. It comes easy because it is easy.”

He didn’t bother crossing the distance between them. He just lifted Cyrene off the ground with a gentle touch of the air and brought her directly in front of him. She would have been angry with him for doing so, but the feel of flying was too exquisite to yell at him.

When her feet touched the floor, she took a nearby seat and placed her hand over her heart. It was galloping ahead, as if it were about to burst out of her chest. She bent forward slightly and closed her eyes as another headache intensified.

“Headache again?” he asked.

“It’ll pass.”

“It’d better. You have a big day ahead of you.”

Cyrene straightened as the pain began to diminish. She reached into her pocket for a slice of bread that she had grabbed earlier and scarfed the whole thing down faster than she had ever thought humanly possible. It should help with the side effects. She wasn’t sure why they were there, but they weren’t as bad as passing out, so she wasn’t about to complain.

“I really don’t want to talk about today.”

“You’re not ready?”

“To become consort?” Cyrene asked. “Are you kidding?”

“I have a feeling it’s going to be…eventful.”

“It’s going to be miserable.”

“You’ll look stunning,” he said.

His eyes captured hers, and the air heated between them. She didn’t know if that was their magic reacting to their nearness or just their connection.

“Irrelevant.”

Kael held his hand out to her, and she allowed him to pull her back to her feet. His eyes were expectant. She swallowed and glanced away.

“One more round?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No. Get to your fitting. Conserve your energy.”

“All right.”

“And, Cyrene,” he said once she was already walking away from him, “save me the first dance.”

Cyrene smiled. “As if you deserve it, you scoundrel.”

His eyes were dark. “I’ll take what’s mine anyway.”

She laughed but knew by his expression that he wasn’t joking. “I’d like to see you try.”

His answering grin was vicious. She could see that he had taken her words as a challenge, and he never backed down from a challenge.

With a heavy heart and an anxious mind, she disappeared from the room she had found to train with Kael. It was one of many empty sitting rooms. They had rearranged the furniture so that it was open for their purposes. It was easier to get to than the woods. Lugging water and earth in for the practices hadn’t been her favorite thing either. Plus, a part of her missed the direct connection to the elements. Not that she had felt a connection since training with Kael. It was her and only her. And, already, she was famished again.

She hurried down the empty corridor with her magic at the ready in case of an attack but made it to her fitting room without incident. She pushed the door open and was surprised to find Lady Cauthorn already present.

“Lady Cauthorn!”

“There you are, girl. Don’t you know what day it is? We have much to do and little time. It would help if you weren’t late.”

“Late?” she asked, glancing at the three other helpers the seamstress had brought with her. “But I’m early.”

“Enough of that. Onto the block. Let me get a good look at you.”

Cyrene ran her hands down her hips and stepped up for inspection. Lady Cauthorn tsked and sighed and impatiently swatted at her.

“What have you been doing, child? I believed you were skin and bones when you arrived, but this?” She poked Cyrene’s side. “You don’t have to waste away to nothing in this place.”

Cyrene held her head high. She knew why she was losing weight. And it had nothing to do with this place.

“Into the dressing room with you. Quickly now,” Lady Cauthorn said. “Let’s see how it fits, and I’ll bring it in to match your new…figure.”

Cyrene’s eyebrows bunched together. Into the fitting room to put on my dress myself? Normally, she stripped down to her shift, and the assistants fitted her into the dress. Especially since her gown had this horrid corseting.

“Myself?” Cyrene asked.

Lady Cauthorn sent her a withering glare. “Do as you’re told.”

“All right,” Cyrene said uncertainly.

She stepped through the curtain and into the attached changing room. Her dress hung from a hook against the wall, and she found it hard to even admire the thing, knowing it was more like a death trap. Just as she went to reach for it, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grasped her wrist.

She didn’t scream; she just reacted.

Her magic came to her fingertips on command. She whipped the person away from her and slammed their body into the wall with a crunch. The man wheezed from the impact.

“Who are you?” she snapped.

Then, Cyrene got a good look into the man’s face. She gasped and released him. “Ahlvie?”

“Nice to see you, too, Cyrene,” Ahlvie said. He tenderly touched his ribs and shot her a rueful smile. “What in the Creator’s name did you just do to me?”

“Nothing. Forget it. Why are you here?”

“Nothing? That was nothing? My ribs would say otherwise,” Ahlvie said with a choked laugh. “Holy Creator!”

“Ahlvie, what are you doing here? How did you get in? Why aren’t you free, as you should be?”

Ahlvie ran a hand back through his hair and gave her that mischievous smile that she knew meant trouble. She’d seen it when he tried to sell her to the owner of a gambling hall over a game of dice and countless times since then.

“Oh no,” she muttered.

“I’m here to rescue you.”

“You’re here to rescue me?” Cyrene asked slowly.

“Lady Cauthorn got me in so that I could sneak you out with me.”

Cyrene shook her head in disbelief. “Today?”

“You’re about to be forced to be the consort. I thought today made perfect sense. Come on. I have a game to get back to.” He winked and opened up a panel in the back of the room.

“Ahlvie, wait,” she said, reaching for him.

“Through here. I know all the passageways. Now that I’m not in chains, I can get us in and out.”

“You’re insane. How did you get out in the first place?”

“We really have a narrow window. I can tell you everything when we get back. Move your cute butt through the hole, and let’s get out of here. Orden is waiting for us in case of trouble.”

“You really came to rescue me?”

She had felt so alone for so long. Trapped and lost and missing her friends. Missing having anyone to confide in.

Rhea was trapped in her rooms with her strange explosions. She had been confined to her rooms since aiding in Cyrene’s failed attempt to escape. Cyrene was lucky that she hadn’t been put up on the scaffold with Daufina since it was clear that she had helped.

Cyrene couldn’t talk to her family. They didn’t understand, and they were so sickly proud of her.

There was only Kael. And she didn’t know how she felt about that at all.

“Who do you think I am?” Ahlvie asked. He made a flourishing movement with his arms that she had seen him make as an entertaining mendicant in Eleysia. “I’m a cheat, but I’m loyal.”

A smile spread on Cyrene’s face. This was it. She could get out. She could start over. No one would need to get hurt for her escape this time.

She took one step toward Ahlvie and then stopped. Except that wasn’t true. Someone would get hurt. Her family was in perilous danger. All because of Edric’s obsession with her. He’d claimed that her family was safe, but she had once taken him at face value, and that had gotten Daufina killed.

He clearly still meant that her family would be safe so long as she stayed by his side and did as she was told. The thought made the anger and fury rise in her chest. Darkness settled in her heart, and she felt the distinct stirrings of shadows curling around her sleeves. She would right these wrongs. But she could only do it from within.

“No,” she said softly.

“No?”

“I cannot go with you.”

“Cyrene, what are you talking about?”

“You don’t understand. You must leave me here and not come back.”

Ahlvie narrowed his eyes as they swept her body. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing is wrong with me,” she insisted. “But I’m needed here.”

“Needed? You’re not needed here,” he spat. “You hate this place. This place will kill you. It is already changing you. How can you want to stay with these people when your friends are waiting for you on the outside? You are special, Cyrene. You are needed. Don’t throw that all away.”

“I don’t want to be special or needed,” she told him. “And I’m not throwing anything away. I’m protecting what’s mine.”

Ahlvie put his head in his hands. “Creator, Cyrene! What kind of mess are you in now?”

“Edric threatened my family, Ahlvie. If I leave, he’ll kill them.”

Ahlvie cursed obscenely. “He won’t do it.”

“In case you didn’t hear, he killed Daufina. I would put nothing past him. He wants me at whatever cost. I won’t risk them.”

He cast a string of curses that would make a sailor blush. “Fine. Fine. Fine.”

“Just go. I’m safe here for now.”

His eyes searched Cyrene’s, and he shook his head. “You’re about as far from safe as I’ve ever seen you, and we’ve been through a lot together. Promise me something.”

“I don’t have any more promises to give.”

“Just say, from one con artist to another…you’ll still be you when I finally get you out of here.”

She glanced down at her hands and then clenched them into fists. How can I promise that when I don’t even know who I am? When I feel like my very existence is slipping away from me?

She was becoming what she needed to be. And she would settle for nothing less.

Cyrene pushed him back into the tunnel with her magic. His eyes were round with concern.

She placed her hand on the sliding panel before she said, “Don’t come back for me, Ahlvie, and you’ll never have to find out.”