“Very fast.”

“I need you to take a message to the prince. You’ll need to leave immediately.”

She scanned the group, her expression pinched. “I can’t leave. If I do, you’ll be vulnerable to attack.”

“And if you don’t, many people in Mytica will be in terrible danger.”

“And?” Her tone held an exasperated edge. “Am I to understand that you’re counting every living soul in Mytica a friend, and that I need to protect them all?”

“That’s exactly right.” Jonas took her by her shoulders. “Please, Olivia. This is important. Please do this for me.”

“Mortals,” she said, shaking her head. Olivia studied Jonas for a moment of stony silence. “Very well,” she finally said. “Compose your message. But if you die before I return, I refuse to be held responsible.”

Jonas nodded. “Fair enough.”

CHAPTER 25

LUCIA

PAELSIA

The deadly events in the Paelsian market had stayed with Lucia ever since, troubling her thoughts by day and stealing her sleep by night.

Kyan had grown increasingly irate ever since, his violence more easily triggered. Moments of calm and introspection were few and far between as they continued searching for a way to draw Timotheus out of the Sanctuary.

That search had brought them to two neighboring Paelsian villages—five miles apart.

Kyan had already turned one of these villages to ash.

Lucia stood with Kyan in the midst of the flames that continued to burn. In front of them was an old witch whom Kyan interrogated, believing her to know more than she was telling them.

“You’re evil,” the witch snarled. “And you need to be destroyed. You are bound for the darklands, both of you!”

Kyan regarded her with disdain. “If it weren’t for the misplaced lusts of the immortals, you witches, with your weak, tainted magic, wouldn’t even exist.”

“Enough,” Lucia growled. “She knows nothing that can help us.”

It had been a long, disappointing day, and all she wanted to do was try to get some sleep.

“Make her talk, little sorceress,” Kyan said. “Or she will die.”

Lucia had grown tired of witnessing so much suffering. She didn’t want anyone else to die tonight; just the thought made her ill. So she did what Kyan asked.

“Look at me,” Lucia commanded with as much strength as she could summon.

When the witch finally met her gaze, Lucia focused all of her magic into making her tell the truth.

“Where is the stone wheel that still possesses its magical link to the Sanctuary?”

Unlike all the others who’d fallen under Lucia’s spell, the witch neither flinched nor gasped. Instead, she cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “I told you, girl. I don’t know. And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

Lucia hissed out a breath and tried again, now clenching her fists.

Again, the witch deflected the questions as easily as if Lucia were speaking a foreign language.

Her magic wasn’t working—only more proof that she needed to rest.

“Try a simpler question,” Kyan hissed.

Lucia nodded assent. The sooner she got him a satisfying answer, the sooner they could leave this horrible place. “What is your name, witch?”

The witch spat directly in Lucia’s face. “My name will die with me before it leaves my lips tonight.”

Lucia felt the heat of Kyan’s fire. She turned to him angrily as the flames rippled down his arms. “There’s no reason to kill her.”

He extinguished his fire, now showing that his hands were curled into tight fists. “She’s useless!”

“So we’ll find someone else. Tomorrow, the next day. What does it matter?”

“It matters more than you realize,” he snarled at her, then turned and stormed away from them, trailing fire in his wake.

Lucia drew in a shaky breath, then turned back to the woman. “I didn’t mean for this to happen tonight. Your village—”

“Leave here,” the witch said through clenched teeth. “And never return.”

Lucia straightened her shoulders. “I spared your life.”

“Do you really think you can ever be forgiven for the death and devastation you’ve caused here tonight?”

“I would never ask for—”

“Leave,” the woman snarled, her eyes brimming with tears.

Flinching, Lucia finally turned away from the woman and then trudged out through the flames and destruction Kyan had caused behind her.

Kyan was waiting for her at the top of a nearby hill, looking down at the village he’d crushed so easily, as if it were an ant hill he’d decided to step on.

He gave her a sidelong look, his expression grim and unfriendly. “I’m disappointed in you,” he said.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I believed you to be the sorceress reborn.”

Her jaw tightened. “That’s exactly who I am.”

“Perhaps my memory of Eva grows dim after all this time. But you—you’ve shown tonight that you’re nothing compared to her. If she were still here, still alive, Timotheus would already be dead.”

Kyan rarely turned his anger on her, and when he did she didn’t like it one bit. She glared at him, defiant. “You said yourself I’ve accessed only a small portion of my magic so far.”

“Perhaps I was wrong. Of course I was—how could any mere mortal ever help me in my plan?”

Lucia’s indignation grew with every word he spoke, but she tried her best to calm herself. One of them had to think rationally. She took a deep breath. “We need to take a break,” she said. “We’ll find an inn in the other town and get rest, food. And we will find a wheel, Kyan. I promised I’d help you, and I meant it. I still mean it now. But you need to control yourself. This,” she said, indicating the smoldering village, “is becoming a problem.”

Kyan’s eyes flashed fiercely, and Lucia braced herself. “All this is, Lucia, is more useless, disappointing mortals turned to dust. I don’t see any problem with that.”

Despite herself, Lucia scoffed. “I do.”

“More proof that you’ve become useless to me.”

His words wounded her, but she refused to let it show.

She forced herself to breathe, to not unleash any more of her temper or, worse, start to cry. “The moment I killed Melenia, everything about my life, my journey, became so clear to me. I wanted to destroy everything and everyone.”

“And now?”

“I’m not so sure anymore. But that’s what you want, isn’t it? You want to lay waste to this entire kingdom. So go ahead.” She waited for his reply, but none came. “No? I think I’m starting to understand. You may be free of that crystal, but you’ll remain imprisoned until Timotheus is dead and your siblings are released, won’t you? Which means you do need me, much more than I need you. Which means you better start behaving yourself.”

A dark, cold shadow slid behind his amber eyes. “You don’t know me nearly as well as you think you do, little sorceress.”

“If you say so. Now, I’m going to make my journey—alone—to the other village so I can find an inn and get some sleep. Don’t disturb me until morning.”