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He nodded. “Dark magic. Blood magic. She was young during the war, only fifteen, but her appearance has been frozen in time for ten years or so. Many believe her to be immortal.”

Great. If Donika was truly immortal from her abuse of dark magic, we had no hope in this, no hope in getting out of here and defeating her. We would be trapped in this cell until she tired of us and decided to kill us.

“And if your feelings have changed, and you never intended for this to happen, then why did you still bring me here?” I asked.

“I didn’t,” he swore, shaking his head back and forth. “I wasnevergoing to fulfill my half of the deal. I was never going to bring you or the grimoire back here. If we hadn’t run into Tyr, she never would have known you were in Istmere at all, let alone that you had the grimoire in your possession already.”

Was that part true? Could I trust him on this?

“I was going to handle Fletcher and Ms. Finch myself, no matter what it took. I was going to kill them if it came to that. I tried to find Ms. Finch, but she had disappeared entirely. Fletcher or his men got to her first. I was going to break my deal with Donika and find a way to keep you safe. I was never going to come back to Akra.”

“That’s all well and good except I am sitting in a cell in the Stormvaultright now.No access to my magic, no idea what is going to happen to me or to Tess, and no foreseeable way of getting out.”

“Leave that to me and Puck,” he replied, his jaw tight.

“I don’t see how you could expect me to trust you, after everything,” I said.

“I don’t expect you to,” he replied. “I will earn your trust back.”

“Good luck with that,” I said tightly.

“Whether you believe it or not, I am telling you the truth. I will find us a way out of this,” he said.

“There is no moreus.There never was,” I spit out. “And if I get out of thiscage,I am going to unleash a storm on this city the likes of which nobody has ever seen before. And I will hunt you down, and you will be sorry you ever crossed me.”

“Good.” The ghost of a smirk crossed his lips. “There’s my firecracker.”

“I am notyours. I never will be,” I snapped.

A sadness passed over his expression, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, replaced with the steely expression I was familiar with.

“Now run off to Donika andkeep her busy,” I said, my voice dripping with disdain.

“I promise you, nothing has happened between me and Donika since we arrived back here. And nothing will.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” I replied coldly.

His gaze shot to Tess and then returned to me before he pulled himself up by the iron bar of the cell.

“Trust that Puck and I are working on it, we will be back as soon as we can. I am trying my best to stall her. At some point, she will call you back into the throne room for another interrogation. And she won’t be so nice this time.”

“Itrustnothing.”

How was he going to get us out of this prison if he wasconstantlyunder Donika’s watchful eye? He could barely sneak away to come down to the Stormvault in the first place. If what he said was true and he wasn’t on her side any longer, how was he planning on getting away from her himself? She was the most powerful witch in the realm. With dark magic in her arsenal, she would be impossible to deceive, and even more impossible to defeat.

Nik gave me one last glance filled with angst and longing, his emotions warring on his face. He pulled his hood over his swath of golden hair and dragged the black face covering up over his nose, disappearing down the long corridor, the light vanishing with him.

Whentheguardscameto retrieve us, I was almost certain it was the next day, despite there being no windows in the Stormvault to aid in the passing of time. My mother had to be going out of her mind wondering why we hadn’t come home. Surely, she had already called Tess’ parents, and they had uncovered our web of lies by now. I desperately wanted to get out of here.

Even if we managed to break out of this cell and out of the castle, how would we make it back to the portal without Nik and Puck’s help? I had no idea how to get back to Prins from Akra, and traveling through The Shadow to get to the portal by ourselves would be risky. Our only choice now was to trust them, despite every cell in my body telling me otherwise.

As soon as they got us out of here, we could cut them out of our lives for good and forget about this mess. I would have to find a better hiding spot for the grimoire, but even if we escaped, would Donika ever stop coming after me? Would I ever be safe from her? Maybe there was a concealing spell in the book of shadows that could hide us from her, so she could never find us.

I felt hopeless, and the longer we spent in this prison cell the bleaker things were starting to look. Tess and I had slept a good chunk of time, and Puck had sent a servant with another tray of food and water to keep our energy up. Neither Puck nor Nik had returned themselves. Thinking of the ways in which Nik wasdistractingDonika made my stomach turn.

Tess and I had been discussing our options when the iron door squealed open, the heavy sound of multiple sets of boots on the stone ringing down the corridor. Four soldiers appeared before the cell door, two for each of us. They shackled our wrists in front of us with the same ash shackles they had used before. This time they added a chain before pulling us from the cell like dogs on a leash.

We went willingly this time, knowing where we were headed. Donika had called us back to the throne room for interrogation, and Nik had warned us she wouldn’t be as nice this time. What would she do to me when I refused to give up the location of the grimoire? Was I more use to her alive, than I was dead? We walked up the steep set of stairs that led to the prison before twisting through the palace, ascending two more sets of stairs to the main floor. There were more people bustling about the castle today, both soldiers and servants alike. Everyone avoided our eyes as we were led through the hallways and up the final curved staircase to the elongated throne room.