“And Zahra?” Eliana blinked back tears. “What will happen to her?”

“You’ll free her. We’ll engineer a way to open it.” He hesitated. “Maybe Simon will know what it is. He’ll have insight.”

“What if we can’t open it?” She couldn’t look at him, could only glare wearily at the ground. “What if, when I try with my castings, I hurt someone? Or Zahra? You saw what happened back there. You saw what I did. How many people did I just burn, back in the Nest? How many weren’t able to escape, simply because I can’t control this power I didn’t ask for?”

He didn’t reply; his silence held volumes.

Then a new voice joined them from the shadows.

“And if the wraiths of Annerkilak follow you here and kill everyone in this castle as vengeance, it will be your fault.”

Eliana looked over Harkan’s shoulder to see Simon approaching, a few Astavari soldiers behind him.

She bit her tongue and met his furious blue gaze in silence.

“Hello, Simon,” Harkan said, fumbling for his words. “We were just—”

“I know exactly what you were doing. Are you injured?”

“Slightly. I’m also hungry.” She held up her hands for him to see, biting her lip hard to keep from crying out. “Also, these little shits have burned me.”

“She needs to see healers,” Harkan said. “Or do you intend to hold us down here as punishment?”

Simon ignored him. “Where’s the wraith?”

“Zahra.” Setting her jaw so hard it hurt her teeth, Eliana held up the box for him to see. “Call her by her name.”

His gaze fell to the box in her hands. He frowned. “Is this some sort of joke? What is that?”

And with that, Eliana’s heart sank, too swift and hard for her to pretend otherwise. “I was hoping you’d know.”

A beat. Then his gaze narrowed. “Are you telling me she’s inside that?” When no answer came, Simon exhaled sharply. “So now, whatever comes next, we have no wraith to help us. Spectacular news. I hope you’re quite proud of yourselves.”

“That we managed to steal the antidote that will help Navi heal?” Harkan said. “Yes, actually, I am quite proud of us for that.”

Simon gave him a withering look.

Eliana wished Harkan had said nothing, hating how righteous he sounded, how unabashed. Only now, shivering and burned on the shores of Tameryn’s lake, did she begin to see the true rashness of what they had done. Her fire could just as easily have consumed the two of them, as well—leaving Remy both orphaned and sisterless. All of that, and what if the antidotes they’d stolen didn’t work? What if they could never break Zahra free of her tiny gleaming prison?

Eliana looked away, unable to bear the sight of Simon’s glare.

“We’ll fill this passage, collapse it,” he said, addressing the guards who had accompanied him. “And we’ll need twenty guards stationed here, day and night. If anything comes out of the water, kill it. If the thing attacking you looks human and pleads with you for mercy, kill it anyway. Look for the eyes. They’ll be black. They can’t hide their eyes.”

Another guard, looking rather aghast, cleared his throat. “Black eyes, sir…like the Empire generals?”

“Black like angels.” Simon glanced at Eliana’s burned hands, his mouth twisting. “Come with me before you pass out.”

His voice was thin and precise, a needle poised to pierce.

Eliana followed him, wishing she had the energy to argue.

• • •

Simon sat in a low chair by the hearth while the healers changed Eliana’s bandages.

Long hours had passed since they returned from the Nest, during which the healers had declared Eliana’s burns quite minor and begun their treatment. They reapplied an acrid ointment to the red lines left behind by the castings’ blazing chains, then wrapped clean cloth bandages over the wounds and carefully refastened the castings around her wrists.

One of the healers, a small, stout woman with pale skin, glanced up as she clasped the last of the casting hooks. As Eliana’s eyes met hers, a silent current of understanding passed between them.

Eliana carefully pressed the woman’s hand between hers. “Thank you, Ilsi. He won’t hurt me.”

The woman relaxed slightly, but she nevertheless glared at Simon on her way out.

Once alone with Simon, Eliana arranged herself more comfortably on the sofa, allowing the silence to stretch on. She smoothed the folds of the clean tunic the healers had brought; she examined her nails.

At last, Simon spoke. “Did she really think I was going to hurt you?”

“So it would seem,” Eliana said coolly.

“She said nothing of the sort. Can you read minds now as well?”

She fixed him with a hard stare. “A woman doesn’t need to read minds in order to speak to another woman. We have a language, especially when danger is near.”

“I’m no danger to you, Eliana.”

“Tell that to Ilsi.”

“I would, were she still here.”

“You frightened her away with that unattractive glower of yours.”

“I would have no need to glower,” he said tightly, “had you not run away.”

Eliana sat straight and still. “I had no choice. Navi was ill. No one had been able to help her. If I’d asked you for permission, you wouldn’t have allowed me to go. So, here we are. And soon she will be healed.”

Simon scrubbed both hands over his face. “Yes, and Zahra is now incapacitated and useless to us. Having a loyal wraith around to help when we need it would have been my preference, if that matters at all to you.”

“It doesn’t. And I’ll free her from that box soon enough, so worry not. Soon she’ll be useful to you again.”

He watched her, implacable. “I don’t suppose you managed to find out what it is, during this mission of yours? I’ve never seen metal like that before.”

Eliana glanced at the little box, sitting innocently on her bedside table. In the midmorning light, its copper metal shone iridescent—violet and indigo ripples, so deep they looked like furrows, and yet the box’s surface felt smooth to the touch.

“No, but I don’t care what it is. Once I’ve recovered, I’ll find a way to break it open. She’ll be freed, and then you can stop scowling.” Eliana paused. “Oh. Wait. That’s impossible for you, isn’t it?”