“I’m fine.” Not the entire truth, but once I’m out of here I can focus on what I came back to do—take down the Chancellor. Somehow. I try to swallow but my throat is raw.

The problem with my whole plan in the first place is I lack what the Yakanna had. They broke into the Chancellor’s own building and broke me out. Together.

“It’s just… I’m…” I hold up my wrists, and despite the dim underground light, they gleam in the orb light. “There’s only one of me.”

Maybe if…

Oh my god, that’s it!

“Bri, I need to find a spell to restore the Ancestors’ magic.” Thinking I could take on the Chancellor myself was… stupid. Shortsighted. We need to fight him together.

“Oh, wow. You really think that’s possible?”

“There’s got to be a spell somewhere about magic messing up and needing to be restored. That only makes sense, right?”

“Uhmm.” Bri’s eyebrows cinch in skepticism but she keeps her mouth shut, which I appreciate. I have a world of doubt on my shoulders; I need this ray of hope.

“There has to be a way, Bri. And I’m going to find it. I’m fighting beside my people against him next time.”

“I’ll help, however I can, of course.”

I shake her shoulder in excitement, light budding in the shadows where I hide my fears. “When we get there, we need to find Bati. He’ll know where their spell books are.”

“Shouldn’t we try to figure out what the Chancellor’s been up to since we’ve been locked up?”

“Yes, that too. But magic is the key. Trust me.”

She nods and we walk the next few minutes in silence, my mind working over any remnant of information I’ve ever even seen on magic restoration. Maybe it takes magic to restore magic, and that’s why they haven’t done it?

Kai leads us through the winding corridors. My calves ache like we’ve been running forever. The tunnel converges with several others. There are ten or more directions we could go, and each looks exactly the same: dusty pavement, stone archway, and floating orbs lining the way. But Kai and her girls don’t hesitate and lead us down the third one on the left.

We follow the twisty tunnel. The orbs are fewer and more spaced apart. By the time we stop, I can hardly make out my hand in front of my face. A door in the ceiling attached to a set of stairs that pull down like a ladder is barely a sliver in the dark. Finally.

Kai grunts and light splits the ceiling wide open, hinges groaning as she opens a steel door above us.

“This will put us closer to the Chancellor’s building than I like, but it is the shortest route to where we’ve been hiding.”