It’s forbidden. No one is allowed to leave Nightshade, and no one is allowed to come in. It is treasonous.
But I have nothing to lose.
There aren’t any maps of our world in this castle, but I’ve found abandoned libraries. While the others were honing their abilities for the massacre, I’ve searched, collecting pieces, until finally, I know the way. I know the distance. There have been benefits to being unremarkable, unworthy of much notice.
One last time, I tell myself. One last time to leave this room and explore everything outside of it. I portal farther than I ever have before.
I portal to Lightlark.
This land is not ash-covered. It is green. Its beaches are not ground-up rock, they are smooth and golden. It’s beautiful, like the stars roped in the sky.
These are our enemies.
It is treason to be here.
But I stay. I stay all night, exploring forests that have fruits I’ve never seen before, portaling to lands that are silver, and blue, and gold, and the deepest green.
By the time I return, my power is so spent, I end up in the winter palace gardens. I barely have enough ability to make it to my room.
I fall into a sleep as deep and peaceful as a waveless sea.
The next morning, I awake to the sound of screaming.
Then, silence.
Laila.
My door is locked, but I portal out of my room. I run through the halls.
That’s when I start to see them.
My siblings, strewn across the floor, their bodies mangled. Stacked. Bloodied. I have to step over them.
Laila. My abilities spread, covering the castle, searching for the unique shade of her emotions, panic bleeding through my chest.
Finally, I sense her. She’s alive. I can feel her confusion—
I turn hall, after hall, and then I see him.
My father, standing in the middle of all his dead children.
Holding Laila by the neck.
Her fear grips my bones. I’ve never felt her fear before. She’s never once been afraid.
“Tell me, Grimshaw,” my father says. He slowly turns to face me, taking her with him. “Tell me where you were last night. Tell me your secret to my face.” His black eyes are like two bottomless pools.
“I—” My mind goes briefly blank as his grip tightens on Laila. Dread sinks through me. Someone must have seen me appear in the gardens. My father must have tested his theory by locking me in my room. Somehow, I manage to keep my voice steady as I tell him what he already knows. “I can portal. I left the castle,” I say. “Now let her go.”
My father’s eyes narrow at the command, and that one look might have sent fear right to my heart, if it wasn’t already there. Not fear of him. Fear forher. “If your flair was any other than Cronan’s, I would slit your throat.”
I reach for my power. I try to portal her away, out of danger, but it doesn’t work. My emotions are too unstable, too unfettered. I’ve never portaled anyone but myself before.
He’s still holding her by the neck. “Kill her,” my father orders.
My voice does not yield, even though disobeying him is treasonous. “No.”
He tilts his head. “Let’s see if she would show you the same mercy.” With a push, he shoves her in front of me.
