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“No, but the border prevented them from using it, and the elixir helped them forget.”

She’s delusional. My breaths come faster, the air thick and lacking oxygen despite all I pull in through my nose. This is wrong. I should be home…in my room in Caldera, laughing with Kelt, drinking coffee and adding to my maps. Not here, with crazy people who think they have magic. Eli’s fingers tighten on me, digging into my cheeks as if he feels my desire to escape.

“But are we safe now? Can’t they cross the border?” a girl asks, fingers interlocked in her lap.

“That’s what the elixir is for,” a boy in front turns to tell her.

The Centress steps forward, her toes almost touching the boy’s crossed legs. “Are we safe? You tell me. Two Hollows stand in your classroom. The elixir didn’t keep them away. What’s to say it will work for the others? The effect may not be enough anymore. This is why we must continue to guard our borders. They’ll take away our magic, squander it and let it die with them. We can’t get it back once it’s gone.”

The room is smogged with hostility. “So what do Vaile do?” she prompts.

“Preserve the magic of our land!”the class chants back in unison.

“At what cost?”

“At any cost at your command!”

“And how do we do it?”

“Maintain the Separation!”

“What will you give?”

“A friend, a life, a generation!”

“Remember those words. It might be up to you one day to turn in a traitor, give your life or take thousands more for Vaile.” The Centress clasps her hands, a glint in her black eyes. “Now who wants to touch the Hollows?”

She’s teaching these children to fear and hate Calderans—or Hollows, I suppose—to be willing to die to keep us away. For what? Because she thinks magic is real and we want it? And that justifies training children to hate and kill and die for nothing? I glance at Kelter again, needing my person. But I’m stuck in the arms of one ofthem.

The Centress steps aside, and the dozens of children lose their perfect posture and crowd forward. They reach for us—some with intrigue or fear, running fingers over the damp dress covering my legs, and others with the hard hand of hatred, squeezing and pinching, pulling on the chains between my ankle cuffs and shoving me hard enough to make me lose my balance. Eli holds me up through it, still covering my mouth. My tears trickle over his hand. I can’t help it…I’m a crier. It must annoy him because he shifts one finger up and strokes my cheek, the faintest motion, wiping away the wetness.

Their hands pat and poke and prod my body, tiny child hands that will grow into weapons. The crowd, the hands, the contempt—my body shudders against Eli, my chest heaving. They’re meant to be happy. They’re meant to laugh and play. The walls press in, crushing. They shouldn’t grow up like me, with death on their minds.

The red planks of the ceiling creak and crack. A sound like thunder booms above us. Eli squeezes me tight and backs us into the wall as the ceiling opens and boulders of ice fall through. They crash to the floor, sending children scattering and running out the door, small boots bounding and leaving piles of split and splintered wood and balls of glinting ice behind. Cold air sweeps through the room. The foundation shakes as more icefalls through the open ceiling and other parts of the building. Screams clip my eardrums. The screams of children, of pain. And beyond the gray walls—of death.

I would know.

The three guards pile on top of the Centress, limbs protecting every inch of her. Four children are left behind with body parts stuck under the frozen boulders. This can’t be real. A little girl struggles to free her leg from a three-foot ball of ice, pushing with her hands and pulling her body back while she cries. Kaleida leaves Kelter and runs to help.

Eli hurls me to the floor, balling me up and surrounding me—his torso above, his knees behind, his arms shielding my head and neck…and his cock pushing against my ass.

“Are you fucking hard right now?Again?”

“How could I not be with you under me?” he asks, squeezing tighter from every direction.

I try to get away to help, but he has me trapped, enveloped in coldness. I’m left with a pocket of air, dense and damp like a cave.

“Kelter!” I yell, unable to see him past Eli’s hold on me.

“Ever, are you okay?” I can barely hear him over the crying children. My whole body reacts to the sound of his voice buried in the noise and chaos, urgency slamming through me.

“I’m okay.” I push against Eli, arching my back into his stomach. “Get off me.”

He starts to rise then throws himself over me again as more boulders fall. I shove my head through an opening between his arms.

The guards release the Centress, and she smacks the long-haired one in the face once she stands and gains her footing. “Fools. I don’t need three of you on top of me.” She scans the room. “Chain the prisoners up here, take the rest of thechildren outside and gather the injured in the entry room. The Environmental Sphere will be here any minute to melt the ice.”

Eli peels his body off mine, grabs my ankle cuffs and drags me to the corner of the room, my bottom sliding along the granite floor.