Page 9 of By the Flames of Her Fury

“Wh-what did you do to—to me?” I gasped out as I stumbled to the ground. My quick Shifter healing should’ve kicked in by now, but whatever he injected me with was still spreading through my body.

“A new serum I’m testing,” he said. I could no longer see him. His voice was garbled when he said to someone, “Watch her until we can get the bars fixed.”

Dismay crashed around me. “Wait!” I called out, hauling myself to the bars with my last ounce of strength. “Please. Let me see my m-mother. I need to know she’s—she’s okay. Please,” I begged, my tongue heavy.

There was a pause. “Your mother is unavailable at the moment. But I will bring your concerns to Lord Scarven.”

And with that, he disappeared.

My breaths were shallow with terror. I tried to be strong, like Nox always was, but I couldn’t hold out much longer. My limbs locked, trapping me in a crouch by the bars.

When I finally went numb and collapsed to the hard ground, whatever strength I had left shattered with it.

I woke up to something hot and itchy on my arm. I raised my hand to scratch it, only to feel metal wrapped around my wrist and a heavy weight dragging it down.

My head pounded. With a groan, I pried my eyes open. A set of chains was attached to a cuff at my wrist, secured tightly to the stone wall at my back.

What in the⁠—

I glanced around, and the memory crashed into me. Kane Scarven had his men lock me up. I must be in the cells beneath his mansion. My heartbeat quickened, a frenzy rising again. Why had he put me here? I hadn’t done anything wrong. I’d been so good. Ever since I was a kid, I did everything Scarven asked me to do—I trained with his guards, I let him run his experiments on me, I obeyed his every command so he wouldn’t hurt Mama and Nox.

So why was I here?

I tried to stand on shaky legs, barely able to move a couple feet before the chains pulled me back again. I gritted my teeth at the little black cuffs, concentrating my phoenix fire on the metal. But the second I summoned my magic, agony ripped through my arm. I clamped a hand over my mouth to stifle a cry.

“Careful,” a hoarse voice said. “You can’t use your magic here.”

I jumped backward and hit the wall. “Who said that?” I hissed, looking around my empty cell.

“On your left.” I could tell the voice was male this time. I jerked my head to the left, but all I saw was the blank stone wall.

“Lower,” the voice said again. I dropped to the ground and felt along the floor. “Higher.”

“For Fate’s sake,” I mumbled. “There’s nothing there!”

“Come closer.”

I scoffed, momentarily forgetting the throbbing in my arm. “Sure, because I’m gonna listen to the invisible man in my cell.”

“I’m not invisible, and I’m not in your cell.” He sounded exasperated. “See?”

I searched the wall again, seeing nothing, but then a finger poked through a tiny hole. I got down on my knees and inched closer. There was someone in the cell next to me.

He removed his finger, and a second later, I was staring into a dark green eye. It widened slightly as his pupil grew larger.

“Hi,” I whispered.

He paused, then murmured, “Hello.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m like you.” His voice lost its hoarseness each time he talked. It sounded smoother now, with a deep, husky tone. He was a few years older than me, maybe seventeen or eighteen. “A prisoner.”

“What did you mean, I can’t use my magic here?”

He backed up just enough to let me see his raised arm, which had an identical black cuff. Above the cuff was a scar in the shape of the number seventy-two, its edges pink and ridged as if it had been burned there. “There’s an enchantment on them,” he explained. “Makes it too painful to use our powers.”

“Wanna bet?” I bit out, calling on my lightbending magic. It was another one of the six magics in the Veridian Empire—one I wasn’t technically supposed to have, but was the very first power I ever manifested. I clenched my jaw and tried to make lightning appear at my fingertips, pointing them at the chains attaching me to the wall.