Page 19 of When Roses Burn

I hesitated before pushing the door further open. I couldn’t enter the room with a prisoner who wasn’t confined. He’d kill me in a heartbeat.

I couldn’t see it, but there had to be something magical to keep them in check. The other casters entered this harem and left again without being slaughtered by the eternals within.

But then, maybe my mother preferred to see me dead. I’d been a thorn in her side since birth. Perhaps they sent the other casters into the harem with some knowledge of the prisoners that they’d denied to me.

While it was a possibility, it didn’t stop me from pushing the door further open. Certain death or not, I would get answers.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Briar

As soon as the door opened more than a foot, something lashed out from the ceiling and the sides of the room. It moved with such speed that I couldn’t see what it was as it pulled the elf’s arms and feet away from his body.

I gasped and stumbled back as I tried to process what had happened. Thick vines had erupted from the walls on either side of the elf. I didn’t see any holes for those vines, which meant they’d somehow come from the walls.

Thorns, the size of my thumb, covered the vines. Blood dripped from his wrists and ankles from where the vines bit into his flesh. The shimmering beads blended in with the cover. The elf didn’t show any reaction to the vines encircling his wrists and ankles, but fire burned in his onyx eyes.

My stomach turned, and if I’d had anything left in it from breakfast, I might have spewed it all over the room. Instead, I managed to swallow the lump in my throat as my gaze met his again.

The elf’s eyes told me he’d gladly kill me, but I couldn’t walk away and leave him like this. Creeping further into the room, I studied the vines as I stopped before him.

When I lifted my hand toward him, seeking to help him in some way, the vines lifted the elf a little higher in the air. My hand stilled, and so did he. When I lowered my hand a little, the elf lowered too.

This wasn’t my magic doing this; they’d bespelled the vines to follow a caster’s commands. They must be magicked into emerging from the wall when the door opened.

When I lowered my hand completely, the elf’s feet settled on the bed again. More blood dripped onto the coverlet.

I hated having him bound before me like some sort of sacrifice, but I didn’t know what else to do. I had no idea how to make them release the elf, and I was afraid that if I twisted my hand to try to get them to unravel, it would only cause them to tighten.

Creeping closer, I studied the vines as I tried to figure them out. Even if I could figure them out, I couldn’t free the elf; he’d probably kill me if I did.

“Have you seen a shifter in the harem?” I asked.

The elf’s forehead furrowed. I doubted he got many questions from the other casters.

“His name is Seth,” I said.

A subtle widening of his eyes told me that he recognized the name. “Are you Marina’s daughter?” he inquired with the refined accent all the elves possessed.

If Seth’s name had triggered this question from him, then the elf must know who he was. Without thinking, I stepped closer.

“Yes. Have you seen him? I can’t find him in any of the cells.”

“And you won’t.”

I gulped. “Did they… did she… kill him?”

The elf’s head tipped to the side as he studied me. “I thought you were the one who did that.”

I recoiled at his words. “No, never! I’d never hurt him!”

The elf didn’t say anything as he gazed disdainfully at me.

“Do you know where he is?” I demanded.

“No. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

I almost lunged onto the bed to shake him but restrained myself. “Did they put him somewhere else?”