Chapter 49
I was hoping the bond with Kezra would help me break out of these cuffs. If I could just get my powers back, I could get out of here so much more easily.
That hasn’t been the case. I woke up today feeling like something was different, but it’s very subtle.
Defeated, I throw on some clothes and head for the kitchen. No drinks this morning. I have a big swim ahead of me.
“Do you really think they’ll just let you swim off the island?” Phaedra asks.
“No one has tried to stop me yet.”
“Maybe they didn’t believe you could actually do it. At first. But I’ve seen Adrian watching more…”
I shrug. “I don’t care if he’s watching me. He’s not going to stop me.”
“What if he lets you go all that way and then follows in a boat and apprehends you. You won’t get far.”
“If he lets me go all that way just to snatch me back after, I’ll fucking kill him.”
She gasps.
“What?”
“That’s just… I don’t know. He’s only following his orders from the king…”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Yeah. The orders of an evil dictator. The same ones that got my best friend killed.”
She looks down at the floor. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I,” I mumble.
But she’s got me thinking. Am I a fool for thinking they’d let me leave here? My backup plan just might need to become my primary.
Instead of heading to the shore for a swim, I walk to the garden. The one I’ve refused to look at again since Adrian first presented it to me.
I hate it.
But he usually comes around this time of day, so I’m hoping he’ll find me out here. Perhaps he’ll believe it’s softening me to him.
I don’t wait long.
The large yellow petals of a flower feel silky soft on my fingers as a voice pierces the air from behind me.
“You love those.”
I take my time turning around, preferring to face the flowers over his face for as long as I can.
He’s wrong. I hate these flowers. They remind me of him.
I curl my lips up softly, without showing teeth, and nod as I face him.
“I miss home,” I lie.
He reaches out a tentative hand, and I work my absolute hardest to make sure the disgust that I feel deep inside my core isn’t showing across my face.
He gazes into my eyes, and we stay like this, suspended in a torturous moment that feels like an eternity.
Then he leans in, and I know what he’s going to do.
My heart races, and not for the good reasons.
Everything inside of me is screaming. I haven’t been kissed in a year, and there’s only one set of lips that I want to touch mine.
It’s not these ones.
My body stiffens as the softness of his mouth meets mine. It’s gentle, restrained. I’m not going to give much enthusiasm beyond standing here and allowing it to happen. I can’t. My blood turns cold as I wait for it to be over, which, thankfully, happens fast.
He pulls back, staring deep into my eyes again with a smile that touches his eyes.
He suspects nothing.
I feel a small amount of satisfaction knowing that I fooled him, and that one day soon, I will best him and reveal to him how much I still truly hate him.
His head leans in again, slowly, and I shake my head, feigning sadness.
I hold up my cuffed wrists before him. “As long as I’m a prisoner, I’m not doing anything further with you. It doesn’t feel… right,” I finish in a whisper.
He pulls back, his brows furrowed, and I can see the inner battle he’s having behind his distant eyes.
“Okay,” he finally says, looking at me.
“Okay… what?” I ask in a gentle, weak, totally fake voice.
He breathes in deeply, his broad chest expanding as he flicks his gaze away before returning it to me. There’s still some hesitation there, but finally, it appears he’s made a decision about something.
“I’ll remove them if you promise me one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Stop swimming.”
“Stop swimming?”
“I don’t want you to feel like a prisoner. So I’ll remove them. But if you take off swimming the moment they’re gone, I’ll have no choice but to come after you. Your father would have my head otherwise.”
“But… when will we go back home?”
He rubs his chin, looking away. “I don’t know. I have to be back in a few weeks, and I can’t just leave you here without…” He glances down at my wrists, and I see doubt creeping in again.
No. I can’t have that.
I reach out for his hands, gazing up into his eyes in the most loving way that I can manage. “I’ll do whatever you ask of me. I won’t cause trouble, okay?”
His eyes dance back and forth, searching for a truth that I think he hopes to find. He’s either a fool, or he’s lying to himself.
Or I’m excellent at faking.
He nods, then flips my wrists up gently, holding them suspended in the air like an offering. He’s not a terra wielder, so I’m not sure how he’ll take them off. Then again, both terra and verdant wielders worked together to create these dreadful things.
With two slow waves of his hands, the cuffs disappear.
I breathe in a slow sigh of relief, staring at my bare wrists. It’s been so long, the cuffs were almost becoming a part of me. It feels… strange without them.
A large part of me is tempted to blast him in the heart with an ice spear right now, but I need to play this smart.
There’s still an island of soldiers who guard the docks, and all the ships.
They’ll be looking for him, and they’ll know what I’ve done eventually.
I could act now before anyone knows what’s happened, but I don’t know how many soldiers I can take on at once.
I haven’t used my powers in over a year, and even then, I wasn’t very practiced in combat.
If I face even a few of them, they could overpower me with their elements quickly, then imprison me and cuff me all over again, possibly heightening my security.
And if Adrian is left alive, he’ll never trust me again.
I pretend to stare at my wrists in wonder still as I think through all the scenarios.
I think waiting it out for now will be the best route for success. I’ll keep playing Adrian, though I need to speed that plan along, because I don’t know how much more kissing I can take, and I’m certainly not going to let him take me to bed.
My stomach sours at the thought. At least he’s making me feel… something. Even if it’s disgust. It’s progress.
I finally look up at him with an elated smile. He looks hesitant as he smiles back at me, as if he’s bracing for me to try something.
“Thank you,” I say.
“You’re welcome.”
I step closer, wrapping my arms around his neck in a soft embrace and leaning my face against his hard chest.
After a moment of pause, his arms wrap around me, and he breathes out before kissing the top of my head.
Now what?
I pull back, looking up at him again, flashing another smile. Then I begin to stroll through the garden, and he follows along. With my powers back, I want to do anything but this, but I need to toughen up and deal with it for a little longer.
“Tell me what I’ve missed this last year. Anything exciting?”
He takes a deep breath, forms his thoughts for a beat too long, then responds. “Nothing much has changed, really.”
Why don’t I believe him?
“No? What’s my father been up to?” That vile, conniving, bastard.
“Same as usual. I think he misses you.”
He’s watching my side profile for a reaction. I won’t give him one.
“Oh.”
“I don’t know all the details of what happened between the two of you, but maybe you can move past it, eventually…”
I glance sideways at him. “You don’t?” I pause. “What do you know?”
He shrugs. “I know he didn’t approve of your new…” He stops himself, looking uncomfortable. He’s hiding his irritation poorly. “Friends,” he finishes.
Friends is laughable. I think he means the male I fell in love with. The male who is ten times more honorable than he will ever be.
The male I almost gave up on.
Now that my power is back and I’m feeling better than I have in a long time, a realization washes over me. One that makes me completely disgusted with myself, more so than the elf who stands next to me.
But before I can dive deep into my own inner hatred, I need to focus on what Adrian’s telling me.
He doesn’t know?
Adrian doesn’t know about the curse, about the relics, about how we were hunting them down?
My father really is a conniving dictator, full of secrets and hidden agendas. He hasn’t even told his most trusted soldiers. There must be someone he has confided in, though… Perhaps Syrus Soraya, whose elvish pride is worse than anyone else’s I know. He’d be the perfect person to confide in.
And does my father really not know where the elvish relic is? Does that mean it’s not hiding in Ellyar? For the first time in a long time, I allow my mind to settle on thoughts of Rhydra and Raef. What have they been doing all this time? Maybe they’ve already found it. Or found a clue.
It's then that I realize I’m beginning to let myself feel that small sliver of something again—something that gives us purpose, that gives us a reason to keep going.
Hope.