Ruby’s eyelids were drooping shut now as her head nestled into my left shoulder, her small, soft body sagging against me with inconceivable vulnerability. I adjusted my right arm around her to hold her safely in place, following the guidance Jasper had given me before we had left the underground island. Then I strode forward to the open patch of road just before that towering, ramshackle barricade.

It had been built by respectable society’s hatred and fear of exactly the kind of creature falling asleep in my arms now. That hatred and fear had bracketed me all my life, forcing every shield of disguise and protection around me and making me turn all the blame upon myself when I hadn’t managed to hide my own true nature after all.

If someone attacked this infant, though, the fault wouldn’t be hers for being different. That I could see without needing to be told, even though all of Dad’s reassurances through the years had bounced off me without sticking.

If I wouldn’t shame Ruby for being herself, though, then perhaps it was finally time to stop letting myself feel shame for my own gifts, either—especially when I could use them to make a real difference.

I’d never tried anything so monumental before. I’d always limited myself, keeping my options small enough to be manageable, never hoping for too much or daring to make too much of an impact.

What would happen if I actually let go of all of the internal cages that I had built for myself?

Closing my eyes, I shifted my chin onto Ruby’s small head to enclose her in my bubble of protection. Then I sent my senses out through the air…and seized.

Metal clanked in the air as all the different piled metal pieces within the barricade shivered in place before me, making the massive structure wobble dangerously.

“What’s she doing?”

“What—?”

“Shh.” That was Leander. “Let her work.”

He was the only one who could have guessed what I was planning to do. I hadn’t dared give detailed explanations underground of exactly how I would get us all out of the city. Metal magic like mine was so unnatural as to be entirely unknown; even Leander had never heard of another metal mage before me.

Telling a group of frightened strangers that I had an affinity for iron—the one material that was anathema to all of them—had seemed a guaranteed recipe for panic. So I’d kept our discussion vague enough that they’d probably expected me to arrange flight for all of us through the air over the barricade instead.

I was after something deeper, though. Something more structural…because these people gathered behind me now weren’t the only ones who needed saving.