Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(103)

She seemed to believe this, and I watched Calix as he glanced down the darkened hall. He looked back to the quaesitori and nodded.

They finished tying her down, and one of them stroked a knife over the crook of her arm. She flinched, and blood flowed out instantly, collecting in a bowl beneath her.

“That’s it,” the quaesitor said gently. He smiled at her, and she smiled back.

“Calix,” I called, my voice low.

He heard and walked over to me. “Care to show me something?” he asked, smiling.

“Leave her alone.”

She shifted on the table. She was looking at me, growing unsure.

“I have a purpose for her,” Calix said. “A dual purpose to motivate you. You don’t want her to die, do you?” he asked.

“Of course I don’t.”

“Then save her, Shalia. You tore down the bridge to the desert—you can save one little girl, can’t you?”

I shut my eyes. “I don’t have my power anymore, Calix. I can’t show you what isn’t there.”

“Then I will continue my work, and you will watch,” he told me. “Open your eyes.”

I didn’t respond, and he pushed me, enough that my weak knees gave out and my body jerked down on the chains, cutting my wrists. I cried out, pushing my feet underneath me. “My feet will never fail me,” I murmured.

“What was that?” he asked.

I opened my eyes, looking at him. “I am a daughter of the desert, and my feet will never fail me.”

He pushed me again, and he laughed as I fell again. “Well, they seem to fail you a little bit, my dear.”

The girl whimpered. She was pale now, and the amount of blood in the bowl was growing.

“She controls air,” Calix told me. “I have found many powers of water, and air, and a few of fire. You’re the first earth. I wonder if that is the limit of these powers, or if there are more.” He looked at me like he expected me to answer and shrugged. “No matter. I’ll discover eventually.”

“You are a monster,” I whispered, shaking my head as I looked at the girl. “She’s not even a person to you anymore. She’s an insect whose wings you tear off.”

“I am a god,” he growled at me. “And this—unlocking the secrets of this damnation—will not only please the God but it will prevent my enemies from coming for me. I will stop them all, Shalia. I will have all the power, and no one will question my reign again.”

“You are making your enemies,” I told him. “And losing your soul in the process. You don’t see what you’ve done? You killed our—you are making your own prophecy come true. Your god will never forgive the torture of innocents. Do you think Danae will, when she finds out? What about your mother? She would be ashamed—”

“Do not mention my mother with your filthy mouth!” he roared, and everyone in the room jumped. “You know nothing about her!” he screamed, hurling his finger at me but not touching me.

The sounds of harsh, fast breathing filled the room, and I turned back to the girl. Her skin was disturbingly pale, and she was breathing hard, sweat breaking out on her gray forehead.

“Calix, she’s dying,” I told him. “Stop!”

“What?” she whined. She looked to the quaesitori, and blood kept flowing out of her arm, dripping into the bowl. “No! No, please!”

Tears rushed out of me as I reached for my power, but it wasn’t there. I tried to think of my family and Galen, but every good memory was stained with heartbreak, and I couldn’t call my power to my hands.

No one moved, and within moments her confusion and anxiety melted away. Her eyes went half lidded, and her breathing was still too rapid, like a tiny, frightened animal.

“Calix, stop,” I begged.

He turned to me, wiping tears from my cheeks. “Your power, not your tears, will save her life, Shalia.”

Her body went limp, and still several minutes passed before the blood stopped dripping.

Calix lifted his shoulders. “Too late, it seems.” He pointed to the blood, and one of the quaesitori picked the bowl up and brought it down the hallway. Two guards came forward and took her body away.

Calix followed the quaesitori down the hallway, and I was left there, chained and staring at the table where they had murdered a girl without thought or care, like blowing out a candle just to see the trail of smoke it would leave.





Alive

The next time the guards let us go down to the river to bathe, I could barely hold myself up. I stumbled, and Iona caught me, wrapping her arm around my waist and pulling my arm around her neck.

The contact rushed through me, and I looked at her. “Did you feel that?” I asked her.

She nodded.

“Has that happened before?” I whispered.

She shook her head.

As we walked, I felt stronger, her healing power just like Kata’s. The cuts on my wrist scabbed over, and she held her hand forward. The redness in the stumps was gone. “Healing?” she whispered.

I showed her my wrist. “Yes. If you can control your powers,” I whispered, “and heal some of us to do the same, we might be able to get out of here.”

She pulled out from under my arm. “Don’t say that. They’ll hear you.”