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‘Not much to observe yet,’ he replied.

Thea’s nostrils flared, but she turned back to Audra and Wren. ‘So, what now?’

‘We try again,’ Wren answered.

Wilder thought Thea was about to snap at her sister, but she said nothing as she turned her back to them all, facing the expanse of sea beyond the Chained Islands. Her shoulders rose and fell as she inhaled deeply.

Wilder’s skin prickled. He had seen her lightning carve through the sky, through arheguld reaper… He knew it was something to behold, something to be feared.

But when Thea’s fingers flexed at her sides and she tipped her head back to the sky, nothing happened.

Nearby, power crackled at Wren’s fingertips, and he heard Thea click her tongue in frustration. ‘Show-off,’ she muttered.

‘You can do it, Thea. We all know you can,’ Wren encouraged.

Thea only stiffened at the kindness.

‘Find your centre, Thea,’ Audra coaxed. ‘That pocket of calm within —’

Wilder nearly laughed. Thea didn’t have a pocket of calm in her entire body; she was a living storm of chaos.

But to his surprise, Thea listened. Though her back was still to him, he could see the change in her breathing, could see how her body stilled as she tried to do as her warden instructed.

A minute passed, then another.

‘Fuck,’ Thea cried in frustration. She whirled on her heel to face Wren. ‘How are you doing it? I don’t understand.’

Wren grimaced in sympathy. ‘I’ve been dealing with it a lot longer than you. It will take time.’

‘I don’t have fucking time,’ Thea snapped. ‘If you’d just told me the damn truth —’

‘You weren’t ready,’ Wren said quietly.

‘That wasn’t for you to decide.’

Wren ignored this. ‘Try again.’

It was far less spectacular than Wilder had envisioned. Two young women and Audra all snapping at each other on the plains, punctuated by small bursts of lightning from Wren that only served to fuel Thea’s irritation.

But it became clear that Audra was right. Thea was struggling. And it hurt him to see her hurt. He wished there was something he could do to help her, even if it was just to listen to her fears. For he saw the fear in her, clear as day… The struggle between who she had been born, and who she wanted to be. But he hadn’t created a safe environment for her to express those thoughts to him. He’d left her out in the cold, alone with it all. That was something he’d have to change.

A gust of wind caught in Wilder’s hair and he glanced to his right to see Terrence the hawk closing in on the rock beside him.

Wilder almost didn’t reach for the scroll tied around the bird’s leg. There was no good news to be had of late, and he knew this message would be no different. He knew it was Dratos’ response from Naarva, about the half-wraith he and Thea had found in the clutches of the vine blight.

‘Whose eagle is that?’ Thea asked quietly, her lesson forgotten as she approached, staring at Terrence curiously.

‘He’s a hawk, not an eagle,’ Wilder replied, untying the scroll.

‘Whosehawkis he?’

Terrence ruffled his feathers and gave an impatient cry.

‘Go back to your training, Thea,’ he told her, tucking the parchment into his pocket.

Audra wasn’t nearly as patient. ‘Althea!’ she barked. ‘Tryagain. You need to hone that anger you’re clinging to. Once you do that, you’ll —’

Wilder saw something in Thea snap. ‘And how long do you think that will take?’ she cut in, turning back to her warden and wrenching her fate stone from the folds of her shirt. Wilder nearly shuddered at the sight of it, but a tempest still brewed behind her eyes, and he felt her magic simmer. Sensing the discord, Terrence flapped his wings and flew off.