It had come from me. Me. Frommyhands.
I had created it out of nothing. How? How could I have done that?
“Eirabella!” my captor yells, his voice sounding like a million miles away. I vaguely feel him grabbing my arm and pulling me back from the campfire, stomping out the embers licking at my feet.
The flames of the campfire seem to grow toward me, mocking me with their dance. My breathing quickens, and I feel a cold sweat break out on my skin. I don’t understand. The panic rises in my throat, choking me as I whip around to face the four men watching me intently.
“What… what happened?” My voice is shaky, the words tumbling out in a rush. “Did I… did I do that? At the village. Was that real? The ice—” I clutch my head, the memories crashing over me like a wave I can’t escape.
He straightens, his hand still tight and hot on my arm, his expression no longer impassive. There’s something fierce in his gaze, an intensity that makes my skin prickle. “You don’t remember?”
I shake my head so hard, I’m almost afraid the memory will fall right out of my mind again. Or maybe that’s what I’m hoping it will do. “No! I mean, I’m remembering now, but… how? How did I… do… that? It can’t be true.” The reality of what I did hits me like a punch to the gut, leaving me breathless. “I didn’t know I could do that. I haven’t had any magic for years.”
His eyes narrow, disbelief colouring his tone, but curiosity, sharp and undeniable. “Say that again?”
“I said I’ve been magicless for a decade! I can’t have donethat!”
He grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. “You’re telling me you conjured that ice shield without knowing how?”
“Yes!” I shout, the panic rising with every breath. “I didn’t… I don’t know how! I haven’t had magic since I was a child.”
He takes a step closer, his gaze scrutinising, as if trying to unravel me with his eyes alone. “What’s your Strength?”
“My Strength?” I repeat, incredulous. “Are you listening? I just told you, I don’t have any magic! No magic, that means no specialty magic! I haven’t had any since the fever nearly killed me as a child. The healers said I lost it all.”
His eyes narrow further, studying me with an intensity that borders on interrogation. He’s not just curious—he’s calculating, almost as if he’s weighing each of my words. His hands loosen but don’t let go completely. “So you’ve been without magic for years, and it’s only just returned now? Are you certain?”
“I think I would know if I could conjure giant ice sculptures out of thin air!” I snap, my fear tinged with anger. “Why do you keep asking that?”
He doesn’t answer immediately, his gaze locked onto mine with an unnerving focus. The firelight casts shadows across his masked face, making him look even more unreadable. “Because if what you say is true, it’s highly unusual. Magic doesn’t simply vanish and then return without cause.”
“I’m just as confused as you are. I don’t know how or why it happened.” I look down at my arm, at his hand still gripping me.
He blinks and follows the line of my sight, then his hand splays open, as if he hadn’t realised he was still touching me. Then, as though he is the only reason I’m still standing, my knees buckle, and before I can catch myself, I’m sinking back down onto the log.
The images of my fellow villagers fill my vision again, their faces stark with fear.
Huddled under that ice shield. My ice shield.
And suddenly, for the first time in my whole life, a deep, resounding cold travels through my body. “What happened to my friends?”
He takes a deep breath and rubs the back of his neck. “I… don’t know. I, er, I stopped you from falling when you passed out. Burned out, I assume, from using too much magic. And that’s when I…”
“Kidnapped me?” I say, without an ounce of irony. “But why?”
“It wasn’t… safe for you there.”
It makes no sense. Why save me and not everyone else? What isn’t he telling me? “You have to take me back,” I whisper, looking up at him. “I need… I need to know they’re okay. They’re my friends. Youhaveto take me back.” I look past the fire to meet the eyes of the other guards. But nobody says anything.“Please,”I softly beg for the first time since I woke up on a strange horse with a strange man.
The words barely register when he says no. “I can’t,” he says quietly, the finality of it tearing through me. “No.”
My whole body tenses as sudden anger boils to the surface. Hewon’ttake me back. Notcan’t. My village, my friends—left behind in a cloud of smoke, fire… ice, and he won’t even let me see if they’re still alive?
Janus… Kahlia… BonBon, my mind races back to the market, to their faces. Do they think I abandoned them? My stomach twists, bile rising. What if they’re… dead? The thought slashes at me like a knife, and something inside me snaps.
“Take me back right now!” I scream, my voice shrill and cracking under the weight of it all. I leap from the log and launch myself at him. “They’re waiting for me!” I shove him,fists pounding his chest. “You have to take me back!” The desperation rises with each word, my voice trembling with anger and pain. He stands there, unmoving, and something in his silence breaks me further. “What kind of monster are you?” I shout, my throat raw. “They need me!” My hands are shaking, balled into fists, and I swing at him, the frustration exploding into every hit. “You fucking heartless bastard!”
He doesn’t react, not even when my fists, my palms, my fingernails land on him, hard. On his chest. His face. His sides. Not when his lip splits, blood trickling down his chin. Not when I reach for a burning branch from the fire and wave it toward him. Through my blurry vision, I see the guards move, their hands out to pull me away, but his voice is a low growl. “Any one of you take another fucking step towards her, and I’ll cut your heart right out of you.”
