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He whirled back to Cal. ‘See? It’s practically a royal order to be ourselves.’

Cal put his head in his hands and groaned.

Wilder couldn’t help laughing, if only out of sympathy. He addressed Torj. ‘Are they always like this?’

‘Yes,’ Torj, Thea and Wren answered in unison.

As they settled back into a mixture of chatter and bickering, Wilder watched Thea hand her fate stone to Wren, who had concocted a strange paste in that mortar of hers.

‘What’s she doing?’ he asked Thea.

She didn’t take her eyes off her sister, who was coating the piece of jade with a thick layer of the gunk. ‘She’s treating it with the same stuff as before…’

‘You mean to mute your magic?’

‘Yes.’

Wren caught his eye from the floor. ‘I told her I think it’s a stupid idea.’

Beside him, Thea sighed. ‘I can’t control it, Wren. You saw what happened in Harenth. The storm lured me out, like a lamb to the slaughter. I was called to it, somehow linked to its chaos. If you hadn’t been there to pull me back —’

Wilder’s gaze snapped to hers. Wasthatwhat had happened? Thea had succumbed to the lightning’s thrall? He knew little of the royal lines, but surely the magic within her was a fair match for any storm of natural means?

‘I can’t have that happen again,’ she continued. ‘Not with everything else going on.’

‘With enough training, you and I could have struck that army from the sky,’ Wren told her.

Thea’s hand tightened over Wilder’s. ‘I know…’ she murmured.

It was the first time he’d heard her admit anything about her power and how deep it ran. He’d seen it for himself, of course, on the cliffs of Thezmarr, and amid the ruins of Dorinth as her lightning fought a reaper offhim. But she’d never spoken about it, never acknowledged just how strong she was…

‘That kind of magic could help us,’ he said gently.

‘It could if I knew how to contain it, control it,’ she replied.

‘You haven’t hurt anyone,’ he tried to reassure her. ‘You saved me… Twice.’

‘I hurt Wren in training,’ she argued.

‘No, you didn’t,’ Wren cut in. ‘I was fine.’

But Thea continued as though she hadn’t heard her sister. ‘As for what happened at the ruins… I didn’t know what I was doing. I just —’

‘Followed your instincts. Perhaps that’s all you need to do.’ He was aware that the others had grown quiet once more, that they were listening in awe, reminded of who sat among them.

But Thea shook her head. ‘I won’t risk it.’

Wilder silently cursed Audra, wondering if it was her session of tough love that had instilled such fear in Thea.

Wren, however, seemed to accept her sister’s decision. ‘This should soak overnight,’ she said, motioning to the fate stone in the bowl. ‘Then it should work as before.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘As sure as I can be,’ the alchemist replied.

‘Is there anything to be done about that thing?’ Torj asked, nodding to the stone resting in the mortar before letting his gaze settle on Wilder. There was understanding there, and suddenly it was a relief – a relief that someone other than Wilder himself knew of his torment. That he had just found Thea after all this time, only to learn that he would not have her for long, that she was bound by fate, on top of all else that burdened her.

‘No,’ Thea replied bluntly.