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Pain?“Who could love her?”

“Someone did. It doesn’t have to make sense. Love is feral. It’s not within our control.”

Eli forces his feet to move and drags me down the granite hallway—toward the trill of children.

The classroom is bare, shades of gray all around except the red planks angled toward the high center of the ceiling—no colorful letters on the walls, no chalkboards, no desks and no wide window with a playground outside like the schools in Caldera. Each child wears a charcoal jumpsuit and sits on the floor with a back as straight as a wall, evenly spaced, every right leg folded under the left. Some scramble backward at the sight of Eli, then resume their stiff position.

The Centress stands in front of the classroom, towering above her three hovering guards and the four of us behind her. I move toward Kelter, his warmth and safety, but Eli grabs my wrists and pulls me to his other side. “I said no touching your little boyfriend.”

“Silence.” The Centress’ polished voice spills over the room. The children shut their mouths as it reaches them, as does their teacher, blending into the wall in a gray jumpsuit. “To complement your lesson on Hollows, I’ve brought two living specimens.”

Specimens.

Each pair of eager eyes finds us, flaring with loathing and fear. They look about eight years old, devoid of joy and personality.

“You’ve heard about Hollows in Caldera, the danger beyond Sonnet. You face them in your nightmares, the harm they cause when they steal what’s ours. But now, despite the elixir, two have crossed into Sonnet. Today, you get to see them up close for the first—and hopefully only—time, then they’ll visit other classrooms before we reclaim what they’ve stolen.”

She’s mad. “We haven’t stolen a fucking thing,” I snap.

The Centress whips around, all three guards mirroring her movement. “Silence her.”

Eli moves behind me and clamps his hand over my mouth, his other hand holding tight to the cuffs at my front.

Oh, no you don’t.

I twist my head back and forth under his grasp, trying to escape his fingers. His grip harshens. He smashes the back of my head to his hard chest. Our rain-dampened clothes press together. I can’t escape his hand, the constraint, the pressure—I shove my tongue between his cold fingers.

He startles and removes his hand, just long enough for me to blurt out. “What elixir?”

Kelter groans, and Eli slaps his hand back over my mouth, leaving it tingling and burning under his touch.

Even fiercer this time, the Centress’ voice brims with threat. “Control your prisoner, guard.” She turns to face him and reaches a hand above my head, her lips spread thin. “Or I’ll control you.”

His body flinches at her touch, his head jerking away. Her hand trails down his arm, all the way to the hand holding my cuffs. I gather the belly of my dress into my trembling fingers. Eli’s muscles flex against my head and back, his teeth grinding above me.

“Such a high tolerance for pain,” she lilts.

The Centress faces the children again. “Over two centuries ago, Vaile lived in harmony with the Hollows across the land, sharing our gifts with them and living and working side by side.”

Eli tucks his lips close to my ear, his voice barely more than hot breath. “I told you to behave. You’re going to get us both in trouble.” He squeezes my jaw. “If you wanted to taste me, you could have waited until tonight, little prisoner.”

Phantom blood pools under my tongue, and I swallow away the tang. “You wish you were good enough for my mouth.”

My words are a muffled mess behind his hand, but he grunts in my ear and whispers again. “I wouldn’t fit.”

I jerk against him at the thought, pushing into the body part in question—hard as fuck against my back—then force my attention back to the Centress to stop the vivid images in my head.

“But the Hollows grew envious of our gifts of magic from the gods when they had none. They wanted magic for themselves and their children—so they took it. They went straight to where it’s stored and drained the plants with their siphoning hands, filling themselves with magic and hollowing their souls, an atrocity not even Vaile are capable of. And they’ll do it again if we let them. They’ll take the magic from our plants. We must be willing to destroy them when they threaten us, when they come to Sonnet and steal from us. They’re more dangerous than you could ever imagine.” The Centress goes quiet for a moment, letting her words sink in.

Magic? These people are insane. I thought I was the one barely holding it together. I turn my head toward Kelter as much as Eli’s grip on my mouth allows. Twitchy hazel eyes look back at me…at my covered mouth, my trapped body. Kaleida stands next to him, one hand resting on his cuffs.

I got the wrong guard.

I angle my wrists until I can spin my pinky rings, around and around like my endless thoughts. The children clutch their knees and scowl.

“And so began the Separation,” the Centress continues. “Hollows would stop at nothing to have the magic they craved, but the Vaile’s protection was unfaltering. We put up a border, containing all the magic within Sonnet—Hollows on one side, and magic and Vaile on the other, safe from their greedy hands. We lost most of Sonnet’s land and sacrificed even more magic to protect it, but it was the only way.”

A boy raises his hand, holding it as straight as his back, all the way to his fingertips. The Centress tips her chin at him. “Centress Oreyla, did we get back the magic that the Hollows took?”