“You can keep running,” he says. “But I will always find you, Heart Queen. You fooled me once when you were a child. I’m not too proud to admit I underestimated the slip of a girl who lay on that table all those years ago. But I won’t make that mistake again.”

He lifts a hand and flicks his fingers as someone emerges from the trees. This one carries a collar made of the same glowing blue stone I recognize from Tyr. The same material I broke through last time Rion had me. I buck harder, trying to wrench myself free.

“You destroyed my cuffs. How did you do it?”

I shake my head as he squeezes my face, tears slipping from the corners of my eyes. I don’t know how.

“These have been fortified with a special layer of protection,” he says with a dark smile. “I will need your magic soon enough, but for now, you’re only an annoyance.”

“No,” I say, trying to break from his grasp as his smile turns colder than an arctic wind.

The guard approaches with the collar as panic swirls in my gut. I notice it’s a duller blue, the edges tainted with black. I’m about to be caged again. I try to call up my magic, but Rion’s dark power blocks mine and I spiral into panic.

I attempt to scramble away as the guard approaches. He holds the collar open, reaching for me, ready to clamp it around my throat, and then . . . I dissolve into nothing.

CHAPTER 25

White smoke fills my eyes, mouth, and lungs. I hack at the intrusion, my body an amorphous collection of bone and muscle until it comes back together and I’m once again on solid ground. I lie on a cool marble floor with my cheek pressed to the tiles. It feels strangely good. I groan as I shift. My feet ache, my soles so shredded, they sting from the cool breeze. My skin burns from the beating sun, cooked to a crisp. My hair hurts where the guard grabbed me, and I feel the bruising on my arms and chin from Rion and his guards.

But I’m alive, and most importantly, I escaped him again.

A slow clap rouses me from the twisting coil of my thoughts, and I have to close my eyes to stop my head from spinning before I force it off the floor to find the source of my mocking. Of course, I already know who stands there. I recognize the weird, intangible emptiness of this place. I remember the smell. It’s both sweet and fresh but also reminds me of nothing.

My plan worked. I was counting on Zerra’s desire to keep the ark out of Rion’s hands, and instead of just reacting, I forced myself to think and it worked. Tristan would be furious with me, but he couldn’t argue with the results.