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So what secrets does she carry? What untapped potential lies dormant within her? I need to know. I need to understand what makes her different. What allowed her to respond when so many others have remained deaf to my call.

But, no matter the reason, she’s here now. My unexpected key.

I pace along the edge of my binding, anticipation coursing through me for the first time in years. My mind races with plans, and with the intoxicating taste of freedom after so long.

Could this woman truly be the one to break my chains? I dare not hope too much. And yet … hope is a stubborn thing. It grows in the darkest of places, even after years of being crushed.

My captors were brutally efficient in their work. They designed this prison with one purpose. To ensure I would never walk freeagain. In all my time here, I haven’t found a single loophole or weakness. There’s been nothing but unending isolation.

Yet, even they couldn’t predict this.

They planned for everything, except her.

I stop pacing, and turn to focus on her sleeping form.

Who is she? This stranger from Chicago? What life did she lead before stumbling into my summons?

What does she know about Meridian? Does she know anything at all?

Her ignorance could be useful. The less she understands about this realm, about the powers that flow through it, and aboutme, the easier she’ll be to guide. I need only offer enough truth to seem honest, enough help to seem valuable, and enough direction to keep her moving along the path I choose.

I’ll need to tread carefully. Build her trust, and convince her that helping me is the only way to help herself. I can play on her desperation to return home, and her confusion in this strange place.

She wants to go home. I want to be free. I’ll make her believe these goals align perfectly.

She doesn’t need to know the reality of my prison, or when I’m at my most dangerous. Better to let her believe she’s safe with me, and that Iwantto help her.

By the time she discovers what the cost of freeing me could be, it’ll be too late to change her mind.

She stirs in her sleep, mumbling something unintelligible. Her face contorts briefly, as if caught in a nightmare. Given what she’s experienced today, I’m not surprised. Being dropped into a desert,nearly dying of heat and dehydration, then finding herself trapped in a tower with a stranger … I have no doubt it would break many minds.

Buthershasn’t broken. There’s resilience beneath the fear and confusion. I saw it in how she fought to stay awake despite her exhaustion. That strength is promising. I need someone with a will to survive, with determination.

The binding tightens as night deepens, an invisible force pressing in on all sides until it forces me to my bed. I’ve grown used to the pattern over the years, the narrowing of space until even standing becomes a strain. My captors knew exactly what they were doing when they crafted this prison. They understood perfectly how to limit my power when it should be at its strongest.

The night should belong to me. Instead, it buries me.

I glance over at her again. She’s still curled against the wall, still deep in sleep. I wonder what she’ll make of me in the morning light. Will she remember our brief exchange, or will her mind have blocked it out in her exhausted state?

She shivers in her sleep, pulling her knees tighter against her chest. I could speak, wake her, direct her to the blankets again. But I don’t.

Instead, I stretch out on the bed, hands tucked beneath my head, and wait. With midnight almost here, I can feel the binding close to my skin. I won’t sleep, I rarely do anymore, but I will lie here and plan.

Tomorrow, I’ll offer her food and warmth. I’ll be the solid ground in her shifting reality. By the time the sun sets again, she’ll have taken the first small steps toward trusting me.

And trust, once given, is the key that openseverydoor.

Chapter Three

ELLIE

“The unfamiliar stings less than the certainty of being known.”

Wisdom of the Wandering Sages

Cold seeps into my bones,pulling me back from unconsciousness. My eyes flutter open to violet-blue light pulsing along the curved walls. For a moment, I can’t remember where I am. Everything aches. My head hurts. Then memory slams back into place.

The desert. The tower. The man.