A hollow feeling hit Kiva as she suddenly understood just how dire their situation was. This was the Trial by Earth—they’d been dropped deep beneath Zalindov prison, in the labyrinth of a tunnel system. It extended for miles in every direction, an unending maze that not even the guards could fully navigate. Some passages turned into dead ends, others were submerged and headed to the aquifer, and still more continued on seemingly forever. Without Jaren’s fire, they’d be blind down here. Perhaps that was what Rooke was counting on, his assumption that they’d be unable to see anything, left to feel their way through the darkness until dehydration, exhaustion, and starvation killed them.

No wonder the Warden had been so gleeful with his parting remark. What a hideous way to die.

But, while Jaren’s flames at least gave them light to see by, it didn’t help them get out of the tunnels. They were still lost; they still had no means to escape.

Perspiration began to bead on Kiva’s brow as a sudden, intense feeling of claustrophobia took hold of her. It wasn’t uncommon for tunnel sections to cave in, killing scores of prisoners in an instant. Something like that could just as easily happen to her and Jaren.

“Kiva?” came Jaren’s voice, his arm squeezing her shoulder.

She blinked and looked up at him again, seeing the concern on his face and realizing that he’d been talking to her for some time.

“Sorry, what?” she asked, and even she could hear the fear threading her tone.

Understanding filled his expression, and he squeezed her again, this time in comfort.

“I was just saying, we need to go that way.” He used his free hand to point to the left fork. “About twenty minutes of walking, and we’ll be out, with plenty of time to spare.”

Kiva looked at the passage, then back to Jaren. “How do you know?”

“Because I can feel it.”

“You can—”

Kiva cut herself off when she saw what Jaren was doing, using the same free hand to point at the ground. Before her eyes, the earth shifted, and out of the limestone came a green stem, leaves and thorns appearing on it, the end budding and flowering into the most perfect snowblossom Kiva had ever seen.

But that wasn’t all.

More of the earth cleared away around the base of the blossom, easing backwards, and seconds later, a small moat appeared, filling swiftly with water.

Kiva stared at the display. Stared and stared and stared as realization hit her.

Jaren couldn’t just harness air and fire.

He could also control earth and water.

All four of the elements.

No one had claimed such power since Queen Sarana herself.

“Now you know all of my secrets,” Jaren said, his voice quiet. “And that’s why the Royal Council chose to name me as heir, not Mirryn.”