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When I tried to go through it, I was met with resistance; it was as if the wall had become solid even in the Ether.

“What’s happening?” Lucien asked. I found it strange that I could hear him perfectly. I also found it weird that I could still see the room I was in, and hear the footsteps of the man entering, even though both Lucien and I had definitely phased.

Had I triggered another ability? Or was the person walking into the room blocking me from leaving?

Maybe both.

“I know you’re in here, Ethera,” came a man’s voice. He sounded old, his voice laced with the kind of authority that only comes with old age. “I know what you want.”

I kept trying to push us both through the wall, but it didn’t work.

“You are the second Ethera to set foot in this temple in almost thirty years,” said the man. “The last time one of your people were here, it was as friends. Now, you come to steal from us.”

“Who is he?” I dared ask, keeping my voice low.

“I don’t know,” Lucien said.

“Come out,” the man continued, “And you will not be harmed. You have my word.”

The cold shiver running up and down my spine suggested the man was lying, and that I would absolutely be harmed as soon as he could get his hands on me. Right now, though, we were still phased, still hidden from the Recondite’s eyes.

For how long that would remain true, I didn’t know.

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

“You can’t get us through the wall?” Lucien asked.

I shook my head. “It’s solid. He must be using some kind of magic… we’re also not really in the Ether. I think we’re… cloaked, or something. Invisible.”

“Did you use the wrong spell?”

“I panicked! I’m not sure what I did.”

“There’s only one thing left to do, then,” Lucien said, and I didn’t like the look in his eyes.

“You want to fight him?”

Lucien shook his head and reached into his jacket pocket and produced the small ball that reeked of demonic power. It whispered, and hissed, as whatever was inside of it tried to get out. As Lucien held it in his hand, the ball gave off pulses of dark energy that I couldn’t stand to be near.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to unleash a problem for our new friend.”

“With that? How do you know you can control it?”

“I can control it… but you need to trust me.”

I looked into his eyes, then, ignoring the ball as much as I could. Trust him. Trust that he could control the creature he was about to unleash. Trust that he could get us out of this. Trust that he would keep his word and not let me rot in his father’s mansion.

“I know what they did to you and your family, Ethera,” said the man, and my heart leapt into my throat. “They are a wretched people, murderers, and pillagers. I can protect you from them. I can even protect you from the one you are with now… all you have to do is reveal yourself, and the nightmare can end.”

Lucien’s eyes were hard as diamonds. He had heard the Recondite’s words, too, and he knew what was running through my mind right now. Part of me wanted to trust Lucien, to put my faith in him. The other part of me still worried he would be powerless to stop his father from keeping me locked inside a cage.

“Do it,” I said to Lucien, and he opened the ball.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight