“Breaking me out, obviously,” Nero said, mostly to himself, as he stretched his burly shoulders.
“—something about taking all the glory for herself and overthrowing the Rosses? I dunno, Mitt, she sounded insane. I need you over here so I’m not the only level-headed person defending this place.” Ira concluded her rant with a hopeful sigh, but it was nearly drowned out by Nero’s increasingly vociferous growls.
“I’m on my way,” Mitt assured her through the radio before glancing around to his four prisoners, eyes gleaming like silver caskets. “Just don’t—” He shook his head. “I’ll be back—I hope.”
His departure wasn’t met with comfort or well wishes, only agitation because he hadn’t offered to free them. Angor didn’t bother to stop him, though; perhaps the former principal knew there wasn’t much time to waste convincing Mitt to help them—or perhaps he knew Periculand was sure to burn if Adara was free to contribute to the chaos. She spat indignantly at the thought.
No one in this room was as enraged as Nero, though.
He seethed and simmered with enough intensity that Calder slipped to the opposite side of the cell to avoid him. When Nero ripped apart his handcuffs, the metal shards blasted in all directions, a few barely missing his ally’s eyes.
“Your sister.” Chest heaving, Nero towered over Calder, but the Pixie Prince didn’t display a hint of fear. Adara quickly realized it was because he already had his defenses in place: His cuffed hands didn’t stop him from conjuring water that eddied along the ground, preparing to merge and obstruct Nero’s airways if he turned violent.
Adara was sure he would, especially when his hands formed fists the size of footballs. He’d managed to break her nose with minimal effort, and now, at the height of his furor, he would pulverize Calder.
Three months ago, she wouldn’t have minded. Nero had punched her; she would have let him punch Calder. Even two months ago she would have rejoiced to see him demolished after he’d nearly drowned her in the training gymnasium.
But now—now she wasn’t sure she was ready for Calder to die. She hadn’t mocked the Pixie Prince nearly enough for him to leave this world, and he certainly couldn’t perish before witnessing her break out of this wretched cell. What would be the point of freedom if she couldn’t rub it in his face?
She was ready to do something—she wasn’t sure what she was ready to do, and interfering with a quarrel between her two rivals seemed to counteract her goals, but she was ready when Nero lifted his fists. Instead of striking Calder with the full brunt of his strength, though, he reeled and slammed into the concrete wall at the back of their cell, plowing through it like a sheet of fabric.
Rubble shattered and dust plumed at the crack of Nero’s body colliding with the wall. He tore through it with ease, plunging onward and fleeing through the alley between the police station and the firehouse before Adara could process what had happened.
Coughing and sprawled against the wall in shock, Calder stared at the crumbling doorway to freedom Nero had carved for them. He hadn’t looked back to see if his minion followed; he expected it enough not to wonder if Calder would obey his lead.
The Pixie Prince had every reason to leave. Periculand was soon to be under attack by terrorists, and he was one of the few who stood a chance against them. On top of that, he’d just discovered his sister had betrayed him, content to let him waste away in prison while she sieged the town as her own.
He might have been confined in handcuffs, but he’d proven he didn’t need any of his extremities to produce a storm. His eyes darted toward the hole, still showering dust and debris, and though Adara had seen it coming, a crevice of vehemence split within her when he marched through it.
“Don’t you dare, Pixie Prince!” she shrieked, all inhibition abandoned as she launched at the bars of her cell, wrapping her fingers around the electrified metal. In her red haze, she barely felt the current course through her. If anything, it fueled her more, especially as she was zapped backward, her body skidding across the concrete floor, probably giving her another bout of road rash. She welcomed the injuries, because once she was liberated from this cell, those scars would remind her of who her natural enemy was—of who she needed to scorch the life from.
“Don’t I dare what, Stromer?” The sly voice snapped her out of her murderous thoughts. Blinking, she finally focused beyond her cell again, where Calder stood, staring down at her with cynical amusement. “Did you think I was gonna leave you here? If you were a normie, I would have, but even I’m not proud enough to deny we need your talents tonight, however untalented you are with your Affinity.”
“You—you—” She scrambled to her feet as his smirk broadened.
“I don’t have an Affinity for walking through walls. I had to go around.” He nodded toward the gradually closing door to the lobby, the one he’d walked through to retrieve her—to finally release her from this cell.
“I understand that taunting Adara is your favorite hobby,” Angor said calmly, “but it would be ideal if you unlocked the gate.”
Calder strolled to the electric panel on the wall. “I’m inclined not to let you out at all—but you created this town. You deserve to defend it. So, what’s the code?”
“The code?” Angor echoed, befuddled.
“To unlock your cell.” He glanced over his shoulder quizzically. “Neither of you know?” Adara and Angor exchanged a stupid look that had him rolling his eyes. “Of course, you two are incompetent…” he grumbled as he tampered with the screen, both hands raised because of the cuffs. “I should’ve just gone with Nero…”
“It’s strange that you didn’t,” Adara pondered aloud. “I thought you were his loyal little dog, Mardurus, but here you are, stealing Nero’s slave as your own. Finally decided to snap the leash, did you?”
From this angle, she just barely saw a muscle bulge in his jaw, but he didn’t retort.
“The leash comment really gets under your skin, doesn’t it?” she observed, pacing across the cell to lean casually against the same wall the control panel rested on. Calder refused to look at her as his eyes glossed over the glowing screen. “Really pollutes your waters, huh?”
Now his eyes slid toward her, eyebrows raised. “I guess that’s one way to put it.”
Humming, she tapped her fingers on her lips. “I’ll remember that for future torture purposes.”
His frown intensified as he motioned toward the control panel. “I’m trying to help you escape, if you’re unaware.”
“True, but I think we all know any alliance we form in here won’t last long—and that anything you do for me can’t come without a price.” Even though she’d been the one to voice the words, she had to force herself to remain nonchalant when a devious little smirk surfaced on Calder’s lips.
“Perceptive, Demoness.”
“The devil whispers in my ear,” she hissed with comedic eeriness. Angor, hovering only a few steps away, shifted uncomfortably, but Calder huffed a humorless laugh. “You weren’t going to discuss this bargain with me before freeing me, then?”
“I’m surprised you find me decent enough to give you a choice. Everyone wears a leash, Stromer, even those wild enough to be strays.” His blue eyes raked up and down her body, pausing on the burned portions of her shirt. “Someone will pick yours up eventually, and I’d like it to be me.”
Adara succumbed to a sour expression. “I’m beginning to see why you don’t like the leash comment.”
“I don’t think anyone likes the leash comment,” he said darkly. “You agreed with me before—that freedom is an illusion. Has being imprisoned changed your mind?”
“I don’t want to leave this cage for another one. Even if it’s in your majestic company.”
Ignoring her jibe, he dropped his hands from the control panel. “Well, luckily for you, you won’t be leaving this cell any time soon. I guessed the password wrong so many times it locked me out of the system.”
“What?” Adara lunged toward t
he bars but then thought better of it. “I thought you were hacking the system—not just putting in random codes!”
“I’m not a computer whiz.” He paused as his eyes illuminated with an idea. Taking a step back from the wall, he lifted his bound hands and snaked a stream of water into the control panel. The screen fizzled and sparked before going black, the ever-present buzzing of the bars dying with it.
Sprinting across the cell, Adara pushed on the gate, but it didn’t budge. The control system was down but the cell hadn’t unlocked. Fuming, she shook and kicked the bars, as if her meager strength could break the metal.
“I’ve done my part, Stromer,” Calder sang as he waltzed along the outside of the cell. He stopped inches away from her, with only these aggravating bars parting them. “I was hoping to do all the work so you’d be eternally indebted to me, but…I have been itching to see you melt your way out of here. And now you have the chance.”
His gaze slid from her fingers, growing white from gripping the bars so tightly, to her eyes. She wondered how red they truly were—how demonic she looked now, trapped behind these bars, clutching them like some feral beast.
Where she was a monster of rage, Calder was a monster of mischief, his expression smug as he watched her struggle. A true Pixie Prince. “I never gave you a second chance to take that shower you refused. Now I’ve handed you a second chance to burn your way out; will you really refuse it?”
“Can’t you use your water to unlock it or something?”
Instead of attempting the challenge, Calder took a step closer to the bars, so close she felt his breath on her face—cool, almost cold compared to her natural heat. “Afraid, Stromer?”
She didn’t think before grounding out a pathetic, “No.”
“You seem afraid—and weak,” he taunted, his tone slow and deliberate. She was very conscious of the droplet of water now running through the creases of her fingers, emerging on the back of her hand and sliding down her wrist, but she refused to acknowledge it with a look—refused to break his unrelenting gaze. “Maybe that’s why none of your friends bothered to come here and free you, even when this town is on the brink of destruction. You’re not good enough for them anymore.”
“I know what you’re doing,” she said through gritted teeth. Knowing what he was doing didn’t stop it from irking her, though. The heat still rose to the surface, threatening to materialize. That droplet of water steamed, but Calder ensured that new particles appeared, allowing it to climb steadily up her arm. When it slipped beneath the sleeve of her prison garb, she stifled a shudder.
“Is it working?” He flashed a grin, as if he hadn’t dug into the most sensitive parts of her heart. She was so focused on ignoring his jabs that she almost didn’t notice the little water droplet seep out from the collar of her shirt—and then expand into a spiral that soaked her entirely.
Despite the no on Adara’s tongue, her answer was very clearly a yes. The water he’d drenched her with evaporated, her skin, hair, and clothes drying as quickly as they’d dampened. That he thought he had so much power over her—that he did have so much power over her—was frustrating enough to melt the metaphorical cage around her Affinity.
Her hands charred as flames erupted. Instead of worrying about the effects of the blaze, she reveled in the heat, in the dawn of her destructive capabilities—in the sight of Calder stumbling away from the bars. He’d wanted to leash her, but he’d unleashed her, and not even she could harness herself.
Especially when the door to the hallway burst open, presenting her with the person who had led to all this, the person who had recently become the target of her anger. Past the blurry flames climbing up her arms, past those goddamn bars, and past Calder’s horror-stricken face, stood Unicorn Fairy. At Adara’s vindictive grin, the girl balked, cheeks paling beneath that rainbow curtain of hair.
“What a pleasant surprise,” Adara intoned, wrapping her fingers around the bars once more. The metal melted within her grasp, but her fear was as hardened as her skin, her mind as unfeeling as her body had become. “I’ve been craving a midnight snack.”
Eliana hadn’t realized how terrified she was of Nero until she’d found herself at the mercy of his crazed girlfriend.
Directly ahead, Nixie walked backward, her hands dancing in the air as she threatened to drown them all. Though her dark blue eyes were identical to Calder’s, there was something inherently different about them. Looking into Calder’s irises was like squinting up from the depths of the ocean, where warmer, sunnier air awaited; looking into Nixie’s irises was like gawking down into the depths of the ocean, where deadly, monstrous creatures festered.
Even though the orbs of water remained over their airways, ready to strike at any moment, Nixie had been gracious enough to permit them each a small breathing hole, which was the only reason none of the primaries had drowned on their trek from the Mentals Building. The only reason Eliana wasn’t panicking was because of the various thoughts her friends unintentionally threw her way, Tray’s being of the utmost hilarity. He kept fretting over how unreasonable Nixie’s fishnet top and miniskirt were in this frigid weather, as if not wearing a coat was the worst crime she’d committed.
Now walking toward the Residence Tower, Nixie led the group with her backward stride while her turquoise-haired friend brought up the rear, smacking a long metal chain on the ground like a whip. Eliana knew her name was Demira, and she also knew the girl wouldn’t hesitate to beat any one of them with her metal chain if they retaliated. Ackerly seemed to be her target, as he had been during Nero’s Dominion all those weeks ago, and the poor kid had gone from being distraught over Ashna’s true identity to being terrified for his life.
“Oh, don’t look so glum, Dispus,” Nixie said to Lavisa as they approached the Residence Tower. Lavisa’s mind swarmed with an assortment of lethal moves she wished to execute, but she masked her defiance with an air of indifference. “Once I save Periculand, the Reggs will surely gift this town to me, and you would make a formidable ally. What do you think, Demira?”
“I think her brother’s a useless twat, but I’d take her over the rest of these primies.”
Hartman raised his hands, as if they were in a position to ask questions. With a weary exhale, Nixie dropped the orb around his face, drenching his white sweatshirt as he gasped for air.
“What, Corvis?”
“If you’re betraying Nero, does that mean we can be friends now? I’ve always found you attractive in a really scary way, to be honest.”
“We’re not betraying Nero,” she said, almost as if trying to convince herself of the fact. “We’re simply proving our worth in this town—our power. I don’t want to rule beside Nero as some second-in-command girlfriend—I want to rule as his equal.”
“Oh…” Hartman nodded, lips twisting awkwardly. “I take back what I said about the attractiveness, then—totally a joke. I hope we can still be loving stepsibling-in-laws—”
Another mass of water consolidated around his face, choking him as he stumbled forward into Lavisa’s back. Eliana wasn’t sure if Nixie gave him a breathing hole this time. From the corner of her eye, she spotted the dark gleam in Tray’s eyes, an entirely different species than his typically frustrated scowl.
“We suspected Than was a Wacko,” Nixie informed them superiorly. “You primies aren’t nearly as good at guarding your minds as you’d like us to believe. It wasn’t hard for Watkins to discover your suspicions. We told the Rosses, and they even had Fraco investigate, obviously to no avail…”
That was why Fraco went into Than’s office the night she and Kiki had. Eliana couldn’t decide if she was more embarrassed about the recollection of that night or that the Rosses and their minions had leeched information from them for weeks and she hadn’t noticed.
“It was a nice little treat for you primies to uncover that Floretta is a Wacko as well. You two will be the perfect sacrificial offerings,” Nixie called to where the teachers trudged along beside one another.
Demira emitted a cackle from behind, but the noise went right through Eliana’s ears. Her focus was trained acutely on the front of the Residence Tower, where the Regg ambassadors assembled students in a battle formation. Many of the older teens with powerful Affinities were positioned at the front, while the younger, less aggressive Affinities lingered near the rear. Seth, Naira, Ashna, and Cath were all absent, which wasn’t wholly surprising. What really disconcerted Eliana was that Kiki was nowhere to be seen, either.
Their argument seemed so petty now that Eliana thought about it. She shouldn’t have taken her grief over Zeela out on Kiki; it wasn’t even confirmed that her sister was injured at all. She ached to discuss it with Kiki—to apologize for her absurd outburst—but even though Orla was stationed at the center of the throng, as if she could defeat the Wackos with her good looks alone, the younger Belven was out of Eliana’s range of sight and mind.
Eliana, an unpracticed mental voice beckoned, and it took all of her will not to glance in Lavisa’s direction. Although she’d accidentally pried through the girl’s mind a few times, Lavisa had never intentionally sent thoughts, and her face contorted with the effort. I’m going to attack Nixie before the Reggs apprehend Floretta. We can’t just offer her as a sacrifice, even if she used to be a Wacko. Tray and Hartman will help me. I need you to get Ackerly out of the way. I don’t like the way that metal-wielder’s eyeing him…
Bowing her head in the slightest nod, Eliana braced herself for action—but then the Rosses noticed them, thwarting Lavisa’s assault.
“Ah, Nixie,” Artemis greeted pleasantly, leaving her husband to corral the students on his own. “I knew you’d find Stark and his rebellious friends.” Her dark gaze bored into each of them with contempt. “I shouldn’t be surprised Mr. Terrier opted not to inform Fraco of the impending invasion. You’ve probably been in league with your little Wacko girlfriend all along, haven’t you?”
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