Page 137

He shrugged, averting his gaze. ‘Best you can do is break the damn things.’

Right. I sucked in a breath for courage and turned back to my victim, that broken body covered in traces of torture. My voice shook only a little as I forced my attention to the question at hand. ‘Alright, if you all felt the loss of your magic with the loss of whatever else she took … Is that why she always takes something with the bindings, then? Not because she likes to hurt people, but because it’s the only way to pull the magic out of others – by linking it to something else?’

I assume it’s necessary in some ways, yes, Creon signed, pursing his lips.She wouldn’t force a price from her allies otherwise.

A damn good point. ‘So what are we going to take from this one?’

‘His fingers?’ Naxi suggested brightly.

‘For fuck’s sake,’ Lyn said with a scoff. ‘Whatever is easiest for you, Em. Just don’t take his heartbeat. Helenka would be displeased.’

To hell with Helenka and her displeasure, I wanted to say, swallowing the words for the sake of diplomacy. I rubbed my hands over my face, then tapped them back against the moss and the fragile skin of the starving fae male. What was even left to be taken from him?

Except, perhaps …

The idea did not so much spark as ambush me, latching on to me in the time it took to draw in a breath. I did have one decent option – one option that would still allow me to look myself in the eye when I was done. Itwouldoffend Helenka, though. She might accuse me of undermining her, and truth be told, she wouldn’t be wrong.

Which meant I shouldn’t do this. That I should just take the prisoner’s voice or eyesight or whatever other cruel price and send him back to suffer the rest of his short life in chains of thorns.

But hell, I didn’twantto.

Resolve solidified somewhere just below my midriff, a little core of stability that I could cling to even as my thoughts wavered. I couldn't give up everything for the fate of the world, Creon had said. And not being able to look myself in the eye ... that was not a sacrifice I wanted to make. Helenka might kick me out, Lyn and Tared might be furious for endangering this alliance, but Ihadto make choices.

And Creon would have my back.

I moved abruptly, forcing the decision before I had time to change my mind. Pearls and shells. I closed my eyes, focusing on that flimsy, many-coloured impression of iridescence in my mind’s eye. This time I didn’t aim it at a magic that I couldn’t reach, concealed deeper than flesh and bone; instead, I dug for something far more accessible, something that was part of the outer layer of the skin under my hands. If I could just dragthatout, enough a part of my victim to bring his magic with it …

Power flushed through me, and this time it hooked onto its target.

My eyes flew open. A thin, shimmering line had spun itself between my fingers and his skin, spreading over his body like hoarfrost. I pulled at it in an odd but instinctive reverse drawing of magic, and the spread of the pearly hoarfrost slowed, halted, and reversed.

I dared to lift my hand an inch, two inches away from the fae male. The line didn’t snap. I reeled it in with slow, gentle tugs, until with a strange, sucking sensation, the magic slipped out of him in a pulsing ball, fragile like a bubble of soap as it hung in the air between us.

For a moment, I didn’t dare to breathe.

‘Em?’ Lyn said, her voice small with tension. ‘Is it working?’

Oh. They couldn’t see my new powers, then. I swallowed, unable to pull my gaze away from that throbbing bubble of magic, and whispered, ‘I think so.’

None of them replied, but I could almostfeeltheir widening eyes. I pulled my hand back until the magic was half an arm’s length away from its former possessor, drew in a deep breath, and let go.

With a whoosh I felt rather than heard, the pulsing bundle dove back into the fae male’s labouring chest.

‘Fuck!’

‘Trouble?’ Tared said sharply.

‘Ihadit.’ I dropped back into the moss with a frustrated gesture as I looked up at him, suppressing the urge to curse again. ‘The magic was pulling out. Just … as soon as I let go, it shot back into him.’

‘It’s the first time you’re doing this,’ Lyn said reasonably. ‘Give yourself a few chances to fail. Do you think it would help if you pulled it farther?’

‘I don’t know.’ I gritted my teeth, facing the captive once more. ‘Let me try.’

But even when I pulled the magic a full stride away, it found its way back to where it had come from; hell, even when Creon experimentally dragged the fae male’s body to the other side of the clearing while I held his magic with me, it shot back to him in a flash of silver iridescence the moment I released my powers. Which didn’t make sense. The Mother had not been standing half a mile away from the others while binding them.

Any last ties you can severe somehow?Creon signed after carrying our victim back to me and installing him in the grass and moss with just a little more care than expected.Or perhaps there’s something you can change about his magic?

I tried and tried again, until the moss had gone flat green and we needed another dose of yellow to bring back its iridescent sparkle. None of my haphazard attempts had the desired effect. The magic pulsed and throbbed and shimmered wherever I sent it, but the moment I broke the line that connected it to me, it found its way back to its owner no matter how I tried to separate them.