He coughs, looking the least dignified anyone has ever looked with a string of drool trailing down his chin. “Got...what to work?” he says, unconvincingly.

Someone has to do something, before she gets bored of playing with him like a cat with a wounded bird.

I look down at the roots trapping my limbs and crushing my ribs. My arms burn with pain where the roots wrap around the lightning marks. I can feel a bruise blooming painfully on my face.

Tree! I think at my magic. Make the tree do the thing. Undo the thing. You know what I mean.

It does not know what I mean.

My magic doesn’t care about my thoughts and reasons. It only responds to—

Instinct, I realize. Emotion.

I need to get out. I need to be free. To save everyone.

A flash of light and heat. Isolde screams. I scream.

By the time I realize my body is encased in blue flames, they’re already gone. The roots burn off of me like rum-soaked rags, but I’m unscathed. I stretch my arms and flex my fingers. The healing blisters protest, but they’re the only marks on me.

I’ve definitely got Aris’s attention now. Her bright eyes lock on the palm of my outstretched left hand, realization dawning. For the first time, she looks at me like I might be a real threat. Her eyes flicker with confusion as she tries to figure out what I am.

I’m going to pay for that later, but I’m not worried. I feel light-headed and airy. Even after using so much magic, more of it swells through me in a wave of warmth. I’m shaking with the effort it takes to hold it back, trembling from my fingertips down into my boots, from my boots into the earth.

Then I realize that the ground beneath my feet is trembling, too. Magic flows down, spreading in ripples around my feet, making the loose pebbles of the cliff’s sandy peak shiver and bounce.

“Don’t come any closer!” Aris warns, still gripping Raze’s hair. There’s the tiniest flash of fear in her eyes, and I don’t mind it.

“Release him and let us go,” I say, taking one shaky step forward. “We’re not telling you anything.”

As soon as I move, I know I’ve made a mistake. The fear on Aris’s face hardens into something dangerous, and her hand snaps out, firing concentrated light in my direction.

I don’t know if she misses my heart accidentally or on purpose, but the beam still burns a clean tear through my sleeve. Pain follows immediately, a searing red line over the already-tender burn scars from yesterday. I knew to avoid her light, but I had no idea it would hurt this much. It feels like the breath is being torn from my chest, ripping all the way down into the earth. My cry of pain echoes off the cliff as I squeeze my fists tight and pull them back in a quick snap.