Page 142 of The Reaping Rose

A figure is stretched across a long table, and while it’s nearly impossible to see through the darkness, I make out an orange-red ringlet hanging off the side.

“Perame, wake up,” I call out, gripping the rusted bars.

The cell bars are iron, not obsidian, but there’s no getting past them. I can’t summon more than a drop of magic with this pressure dampening it. Callum pushes to standing, wobbly on his feet as he moves to the front of his cell. His eyes narrow as he wrestles with the bars, but they don’t so much as creak.

“Something is affecting us.” He pushes his hair off his face, frustration palpable.

A door creaks open on the other side of the room in answer.

“You’re awake.” Overlord Farseth grins, stepping into the room with a torch. He sets it in a large iron vase, casting an ominous glow through the room.

Esen trails behind him, a shadow in the darkness. A numbing cold wave crests with her every step. Her fingers don’t move from where they hang relaxed at her sides, but something radiates from her.

“What have you done to our friend?” I ask through gritted teeth as Overlord Farseth stops outside my cell.

“Nothing yet.” His lip quirks. “That will depend on you.”

“What do you want from me?” I shift back a step, my fingers clutching the satin dress.

The overlord tips his chin, dark eyes tunneling. “Pull back, Esen, my dear.”

Esen closes her eyes, exhaling. The binds around my ribs loosen. The stifling pressure that had burrowed over my magic releases.

I reach my hand out in front of me, grazing my fingertips over the shell that limits me from going any farther. Esen eased her hold on my magic, but there is a limit to that freedom.

“You can control the void,” I whisper, my fingers dancing at the edges of Esen’s power.

My magic caresses the point at which she stops me, testing the new line she’s drawn.

We assumed the void would be an object that we’d have to physically contain. After finding out it was a person, I never considered that she could control it as well as she does now. The black veins on her face swim as she manipulates the void.

She wields it like magic.

Maybe that should worry me in this moment as she uses it to contain us. But if she has this power over the void, she can use it against Malachi without further damaging our realms. One burst to strike the orb and then no more. I just have to convince her to help.

And break her free from the overlord, unfortunately.

“She’s a magnificent creature, is she not?” The overlord gleams, glancing over his shoulder at her. She doesn’t meet his gaze. “Like you, she is strange, wielding what should not be possible for a human. Although… her blood is mortal, and I sense yours is not.”

“Mine is many things.” I narrow my eyes at him. “Set me free, or you might find out what those are.”

“Ah, there’s the fire I suspected you were tempering when you strode into my parlor. Such a lovely facade for a vile creature.”

“The only thing vile is you and what you’re doing. What you’ve done.” I glance from Overlord Farseth to Esen. “You don’t need to listen to him.”

The overlord twists his ring on his finger, and Esen winces. “That is not entirely true.”

Esen’s green eyes avoid mine. She stares out the window, and I wonder if she is even here or if she’s an illusion wandering somewhere else so she doesn’t have to listen to this. Maybe that’s how she endures this madness.

Anger beats inside my chest. It’s a pulse that radiates as my attention moves from Esen to Perame on the table. My veins prickle, fingers clench. The spark of something I can’t contain swells up inside me, impossible to hold back.

Overlord Farseth glances down at my hands, at the magic I feel crawling up them. Free but contained in the shell of a void Esen placed around me.

“There you are.” He grins wider. “I suspected we could do great things together. I understand our meeting has been less than pleasant, but it doesn’t need to be like this. We can help each other.”

“What could I possibly need from you?”

His head tilts. “Protection. Especially now that my men are out there, hunting the Arch which you came through. You are not going home, and you are not safe here. Not alone. Not even if Esen were to release her hold. There is a reason the Fae came and went. You cannot survive on a Mortal Realm.”