Page 50

Chapter Fifty

Annora

The tent canvas rustles in the desert wind as I follow Jasce inside.

How can this be?

One moment, I was asleep in Asha’s camp. The next, I’m with Jasce.

I lift my hand to my chest, thinking I should feel the pull of my magical bond with Aleksander, but it’s not there.

“I don’t understand,” I say as I raise my arm, seeing the three silver bracelets—proof that my magic is still bound to Aleksander.

“I have Aleksander too,” Jasce says, as if he knows what I’m thinking.

The ground tilts beneath my feet, and I grab the tent pole to stay upright. “You have him here?”

“Yes. We’re keeping him subdued with Jude’s magic.” Jasce steps closer. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

But he can.

“You don’t understand. He’ll break free.” The words tumble out of me as I tighten my fingers on the tent pole. “And when he does, he’ll make me hurt you.”

Jasce steps even closer to me. “He cannot manipulate you here.”

“Yes, he can.” I squeeze my eyes shut, longing for things to be different, for me not to have been so gullible by allowing Aleksander to trick me all those months ago. “I won’t stay here and hurt you.”

Jasce takes my hands in his and squeezes my fingers. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”

My heart thunders in my ears as I allow Jasce to lead me outside. We weave between fires and tents until we reach a smaller shelter tucked away from the others.

The four guards standing outside straighten at our approach, then move aside, allowing us to enter.

As we step inside, my breath snags in my throat at the sight of Aleksander slumped against a post, thick ropes binding his chest and arms so tightly they dig into his surcoat. A dark cloth covers his eyes, and a gag binds his mouth.

“See?” Jasce says. “He’s incapable of hurting you.”

Part of me wants to see Aleksander suffer, to feel a fraction of the pain he’s inflicted. But that darkness terrifies me. Especially, when the last thing I want is to become like him.

I swallow, unable to look away from him. “How long can you keep him like this?”

Jasce’s hand finds the small of my back. “As long as necessary.”

With everything in me, I want to believe Jasce, want to trust that this nightmare might finally end, but the memories of flames and screams crowd my mind.

“What if he breaks free?” I ask in a shaky voice. “What if he makes me hurt you?”

“Look at me, Annora,” Jasce says, and I turn to face him, finding his eyes full of that fierce determination I fell in love with. “I won’t let him hurt you again.”

Is it wrong to hope? To believe that after all this darkness, light might finally break through? Like the first green shoots pushing through snow after winter. Like rain bringing life back to parched earth. Like flowers blooming in abandoned gardens.

Jasce takes my hand and leads me from the tent, where the morning air settles around me like a light mist.

Each step takes me further from Aleksander, from the darkness that’s consumed me. My heart still races, but for once it’s not from fear. It’s from being near Jasce again, from feeling his solid presence beside me as we walk in companionable silence.

The eastern sky lightens, painting the clouds in shades of rose and gold. How beautiful it is. How serene. How perfect, as if the gods crafted it just for me.

There’s hope here. There has to be. Hope for a better future. Hope that Aleksander cannot taint me anymore. Hope that nothing will ever come between Jasce and me again.

His fingers tighten around mine as we walk. The simple act sends warmth coursing through me, melting the ice that’s crystallized around my heart since Aleksander bound my magic.

And for the first time in seventy-one days, I can breathe deeply again, and I can believe in miracles again. Real miracles. Life-altering miracles.