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“I can’t recharge it,” I ground out.

“Well, it hasn’t chosen me. Apparently it likes an Annatalian farm girl.” His grip tightened, making my arm ache. There would be a bruise there by morning. “Begin…” His shoulders flexed with tension.

Squawk!

I straightened. We were going to get caught. A phoenix’s sense of smell was a thousand times that of a turkey vulture, and once the Elite Tracker princes fixed on someone, they didn’t stop until you were in the Northland Prison. On reflex, I had retrieved the pin from my hair, and his gaze flashed to it.

“Put that away. You’re going to need to close your eyes, grip the centre… The Cloud, find the light and fill it.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Sure, just like that! Are you delusional?”

He growled, really growled at me, and pulled the pin out of my hand and, within seconds, had replaced it in the hair stick and then put it in the pocket of my cloak.

“Hey!” There was a speed to what he had just done that was almost unnatural, or… phoenix magic.

His phoenix is nearby. The closer the phoenix, the stronger the Rider’s magic.

“You have your weapon, you can still defend yourself when you need to, but now… you’ll do this…” He pulled off my glove and placed the amulet in my palm and then placed his gloved hand on top of mine. “If this is working for you, then you have some magic in your bones.” I must have looked shocked, for he said, “Where do you think the power for this comes from? It’s from someone’s life force. If not yours, then whose?”

Aster’s. Did Aster have Earthworld magic, then?

Shaking confusion away, I focused on the amulet’s silver, swirling centre. Before I could ask any more questions, his grip loosened, and he stepped back.

“Ready?”

Not really. Ever since I’d lost Lex and our lands, I’d hated Phoenix Riders. Riders couldn’t love like the rest of us—on the day the fire ignited in their blood, skin-to-skin contact became a weapon, not a comfort. They took their oath and served only the Sky. But this one hadn’t hurt me… yet. If he really thought I could recharge the amulet, then I had nothing to lose.

The glass boxes further down the room rumbled, a magic warning, and my shoulder heated—danger—someone was coming down the stairs toward us.

Have they found us? Did they start tracking already?

If they had, then Ember’s scent—and mine—would be fresh. If they believed Frickel’s death was murder, it was serious enough for them to call in not only the Elites but also their unconfirmed leader. The one Annatalians called the Betrayer, the Smoke Rider or, as I had once called him, Torran.

I studied the hooded, mysterious man who spoke with Aster’s voice and wondered why I was trusting him even a sliver. There had to be another way to get into the cabinet.

Before I could think what that might be, the Nomad gripped my curls with his other hand, and my head snapped backwards. “This will hurt…” he said, like he’d done this before. My hair pulled at its follicles, red-hot pain shooting through my skull. I instinctively grabbed his arm and tried to tug free.

“Don’t fight,” he murmured. “It makes it worse.” His gloved hand tightened on mine, and everything heated.

Before I could react, my brain exploded in a sharp, blistering, white-light pain that took my legs out from under me. I couldn’t see. The world was a spinning black hole. And the memories flooded back.

After the castle had fallen, we had fled on horseback in the dead of night. Days on the road ended at a farm near the borders of Settlecent. Our months there were the first time we had ever experienced open-air independence, and it had been more beautiful than I had ever imagined. A world where court rules and traditions no longer restricted our movements. Aster had left us there the day after we arrived, and I didn’t see him again for years.

One sun-filled morning, we were riding out with the cattle ranchers, rounding up some strays, when phoenixes descended with such speed that there was nowhere to hide. A whole flock settled on the newly planted fields behind the thatched farmhouse.

Then came a huge black phoenix with a cage clutched in its talons…

…and the world fogged again…

It was like I was barrelling down into the abyss again, and again, I wanted to fight harder this time, but nausea rushing up my throat made it hard to breathe… I couldn’t breathe… There were whispered words telling light to flow… or to shape or…. My eyelids wouldn’t open. In the dark, an arm wrapped around me, keeping me upright and holding me close. Aster’s voice surrounded me, telling me not to fight—so real I almost believed it was him.

Aster?

No.

After what felt like hours, but was probably seconds, the pain stopped, but my body was spent, and he lowered me down to the ice-cold floor. I curled in on myself, trying to will the sickness away.

Get up and kill him. But I couldn’t move. I needed time to get my strength back. What did he do to me?