Elias ignored Ilena’s cry of relief. His dark hair barely covered a bruise on his temple and another, fresher one on his cheekbone.
Madoc surged toward him.
“You can control souls?” Elias pressed.
Madoc ignored the question. “Are you all right? Where were you?”
“I’m fine.” Elias yanked out of his mother’s grasping hands. The abruptness of it sank into Ash’s heart, making her aware of how hewasn’tfine. “Stop—I said I’m fine. Petros’s guards grabbed me. They wanted to make sure I was occupied during your fight.” He gave Madoc a heavy look. Ash remembered—Elias had geoeia. Was he the reason Deimos thought Madoc was Earth Divine? Was he using his power to assist in Madoc’s fights? “It seems like Petros thinks you can control souls too. He wanted to see what you couldreallydo.”
Madoc’s face paled. “I don’t—”
Seneca grunted in impatience. “I’ve watched you grow up, Madoc. You’ve always been far more sensitive to other people than most. If this is what you are, you could take down all your opponents like you did with Jann. Drive them mad by playing with their emotions, or weaken their geoeia until they were ordinary, or just pull their souls out like draining the milk from a coconut. You helped that girl without even thinking about it.” Seneca waved at Ash. “Imagine what you could do if youtried. You could take out any mortal. Or even, maybe, a bigger target.”
A bigger target? Ash felt her body grow light.
Could Madoc even affect agod’ssoul? Was that why Ignitus feared him—not only because he was descended from a goddess who shouldbe dead, but because Madoc could hurt him?
Ash’s mind spun with a mix of excitement and terror.
Madoc threw up his hands, cornered. “What happened with Jann was an accident, all right? The same with what I did for Ash. It was afluke.” He looked at Elias, imploring. “Petros shouldn’t have touched you. That wasn’t the deal—”
He stopped, eyes closing on a wince.
“Deal?” Ilena twisted to Madoc, cutting in front of Tor and Ash as if they could have this conversation in private. “You made a deal with Petros?”
“Petros changed the cost of Cassia’s indenture,” Elias said. His bloodshot eyes never left Madoc. “He won’t accept coin now—the only way he’ll give us back Cassia is if Madoc wins the war. That’s what Petros’s men told me. When were you going to let us know about that, Madoc?”
“I had it handled,” Madoc bit through a clenched jaw.
Elias’s shoulders slumped. His eyes slid to Tor, then Ash. “Is that what you’re doing here? You want to make a deal with him too?”
“No,” Madoc said. “I won’t—”
But Elias grabbed Madoc’s arm. “Would you just shut up for a second and listen to them? Whatever they want can’t make things worse. If you stay in this war, you’re going to die. Petros already took Cassia. We can’t lose you.”
“Elias,”Ilena hissed, but Ash noticed how she looked from her son to the Kulan champions, waiting. She wanted to hear what they said too.
Tor stepped forward. “Earth Divine and Fire Divine together could easily free a servant. We’ll rescue your sister—if you try to use your powers on Ignitus.”
Ash gaped at Tor. She had never heard him say anything like that before, willingly putting himself—and Ash—in a dangerous situation for enemies.
But he returned her stare with a firm nod, resolution straightening some of the worry lines around his face. Seeing that change in Tor made all of this suddenly, shatteringly real to Ash.
Madoc had energeia they had never seen before. He could be the person Ignitus feared.
He could be the very thing she had been looking for to save Kula and bring down a god.
Madoc’s nose curled, disgusted, horrified. “You want me to try to affect agod? Do you have any idea what would happen to my family if I got caught doing something like that?”
“Madoc.” His name slipped between Ash’s lips. “Geoxus is just like Ignitus, only he hides it behind wealth and prestige. He has a list of my country’s resources, and he checks them off every time he wins one, as if he’s collecting them. We aren’t even asking you to turn against your god. Just ours. We have no idea if your powers can affect gods, but—we’d ask that youtry.”
Madoc was silent long enough that hope welled in Ash’s throat. But when he shook his head, the flurry of it dissolving stabbed her like knives.
“And get my whole family killed in the process? What do youthink Ignitus will do to them if I fail? This conversation—” He swept his eyes over the room, waving his hands wide. “This conversation never happened.”
Madoc pushed past Elias and Ilena. He yanked open the door and shouldered around Taro and Spark, the slapping of his sandals echoing up the hall.
Ash bit her lips together so she wouldn’t call after him. The way he had looked at her seared her mind like hot iron, the repulsion she had feared since she’d revealed his secret. Since she’d revealed her own.
