“You’re right about the sword. You broke mine. I owe you one.”

He tapped his naked chest over his heart. “This is the spot. Give it a shot, Kate. Let’s see what happens.”

“What is it you want from me, Hugh?”

“Short term, I’d like you to say my name with a please attached to it. I’d like to walk into Jester Park with you on my arm.”

Jester Park, Iowa. Once a park in Des Moines, and now one of my father’s retreats.

“Long term, I want to win. And I will win, Kate. You’ll put up a good fight, but eventually you’ll be sleeping in my bed and fighting with me back to back. We’ll be good together. I promise you.”

“What part of no don’t you understand?”

“The part where I don’t get what I want. You need to be taught your place. It’s not at the Keep.”

Something inside me snapped. “And you’re going to teach me where my place is?”

“Yes.”

Time for a reality check, Hugh. “You have what you have only because my father mixed your blood with his. Everything you do and everything you are, you owe to someone else and when he’s done using you, he’ll toss you aside.”

Hugh’s eyebrows came together.

I kept going. “I’ve carved my own life out of this world. You try getting by without Roland’s help and then come back and lecture me. Oh wait, you did, and first I kicked your ass, then Curran broke your spine and threw you into a fire. How does that feel, Hugh? To know you’re second best?”

“You’re pushing it,” he told me.

“You’re hired help. You can’t even tell Roland no. So how about you shut up and go back to what you do best. Roland’s boots need cleaning.”

“Suit yourself.” He put his hands behind his head and smiled. “I have nothing but time.”

I jerked awake. The cold water washed over me. Ghastek stared at me, bleary-eyed.

“Curran will come for me,” I told him.

• • •

MY LEGS WERE cramping. The cramps came with sickening frequency, twisting me, so painful I would’ve screamed if I hadn’t been so weak. We had gone through four magic waves now. During the third, Ghastek spoke to the wall begging his mother not to die. We were on our fourth wave now and he had fallen silent hours ago.

I’d tried using power words, but none of them worked. They just bounced off the walls of the shaft. Hugh must’ve warded it.