Kai lifted her in his arms and laid her on a tall table with a padded top. She blinked, seeing the room for the first time. The beige, tiled ceiling was decayed and deteriorating in places. A single light in the center of the ceiling dangled from frayed electrical cords. It cast a sickly pale yellow glow that left the room half in shadow.

She glanced around, seeing water trickling down one wall. Vaguely, she could tell it came from a broken pipe, her water magick flickering faintly in response under the heavy press of the wards. Smashed hospital equipment, chairs with mold on them and other refuse lay around her like abandoned skeletons from an earlier time. Graffiti painted the walls.

Where the Houses was she?

"If you try to fight us," said Kai in Aemni, "I will bite you. Do you understand? If you so much as brush the elium or attempt to use your magick, I will bite you."

"Wards," she croaked. She couldn't access her elemental magick anyway.

"Wards, yes. We prepared this area just for you," answered Tevan, stepping from the shadows at the far end of the room. Tevan, with his soap-star chiseled face, made her flesh want to get up and run away without her. He frightened her even more than Kai. "But you still have fight in you. Do not. You will only suffer if you try. You're alone here and under our control. You have no friends to aid you, no backup. You cannot expect to prevail against us."

Her jaw locked. Did they really think that would keep her from trying to get away from them? Maybe they didn't understand the strength of an aeamon's will to live. Especially now that she had something—someone—to live for.

"And if you don't obey us in this," drawled Kai, "remember that we know where your fire witch is. The man, Adam, we could easily bring him here, easily dismember him in front of you, limb by limb. Don't tell us that he means nothing to you. You have traveled with him for many days and have undoubtedly formed a bond with him. Your kind is annoyingly prone to that."

Yes, well, she could hardly deny it. Especially since her mouth and throat had gone dry from Adam's name merely passing Kai's lips. They wouldn't hesitate to make good on their threat. Murders like that were entertainment to the Atrika—sustenance for their violent souls.

She turned her gaze from him and stared up at the half-destroyed light. "If you leave Adam alone, I won't fight you."

"That's good." Kai nodded. "Don't expect any rescue, either. You are in a place where no one will find you. Hope is lost for you."

"Rue is dead," Tevan added.

The words held such a finality, sure a surety, that her chest clenched painfully. The notion that Rue could be dead clawed at her rib cage from the inside, making her realize that deep down she'd been hoping he might show up looking for her. If anyone could take back the elium without killing her, it was Rue.