The Other Side of the Sky - Amie Kaufman Page 0,140

my temper. Or—perhaps—my temper responds to changes in the mist.

“We need to go,” she tells me, voice firm. “The roads will be crawling with guards once she realizes I escaped.”

Her reluctance to say Inshara’s name reminds me how frightened and full of guilt she must have been these past days under the woman’s control. “I’m not leaving, Elkisa. I must save North. I won’t leave him with Inshara.”

Elkisa’s face darkens. “No. You can’t face her, she’s too powerful. What if I find you someplace safe to hide? I’ll get North out, then come back for you. The vigil will begin soon, they’ll all be distracted. I’m sure I can reach him.”

A strange uneasiness settles in the pit of my stomach. “You? But what if she takes control of you again?” I ask finally, trying to figure out why I’m so unsettled.

Though Elkisa opens her mouth, Jezara is the one who speaks. “What do you mean?” she demands, her gaze going between us. When I blink at her, she elaborates. “What do you mean, ‘takes control’ of her?”

Elkisa shifts uneasily, and I speak so she doesn’t have to describe her own ordeal. “At the feast, when Inshara breached the temple, she used Elkisa to murder Daoman. A kind of magic that shouldn’t be possible—it was as though Elkisa was a puppet, and Inshara the one pulling her strings.”

Jezara’s eyebrows shoot up. “A puppet?” She gives a short bark of laughter. “Inshara’s magic is strong. And though she is charismatic, persuasive, charming—physically controlling a person through magic is something out of a story. No one can work a spell like that, girl. Not even her.”

I frown at her. “I saw it with my own eyes, Jezara. She …” But my gaze has flicked toward Elkisa, and there’s an intensity to her face that stops me short.

When she sees me looking, she takes a step back. “She’s lying,” Elkisa snaps. “She’s on her daughter’s side after all, manipulating you. We should go, now.”

I have seen Elkisa do astonishing things. I’ve seen her scale a wall four times her height in a few seconds. I’ve seen her defeat half a dozen trainees while unarmed. I’ve seen her fighting for her very life—but I don’t remember her ever looking quite so afraid.

That uneasiness in my stomach gives a lurch as it clicks into place. “Elkisa … ,” I murmur, my mind shying away from the thing it doesn’t want to know. “How did you know about the deadline the cultist boy gave me? How did you know we have until the end of the vigil?”

Elkisa blinks at me. “I …” She licks her lips. “I overheard Inshara while I was being controlled.”

But her hesitation lasted a moment too long. And she knows it too. We gaze at each other across the dirt and leaf litter between us, an infinite moment that I wish would never end—because I don’t want to see who she is on the other side of it.

Then Elkisa grabs for her sword, her movements a blur—but I am different now. She does not know this part of me.

The mist is faster than she is.

A wave of force knocks her back against a nearby tree so hard that the ground itself quakes. She grunts as the air goes out of her, sword dropping from a suddenly nerveless hand.

“Skies,” Jezara breathes, witnessing my power.

“This isn’t possible,” I sob as the mist strains to press harder. Yet the guilt and fear suffusing Elkisa’s features confirms the instinct deep in my stomach. “You would never—you wouldn’t—”

The mist swirls around Elkisa, pushing her up the trunk of the tree until she is dangling a foot from the ground.

“Nimh …” Jezara’s voice is low and calm but laced with urgency. “Inshara has a way of persuading people to her cause. She is ruthless, but she is also … magnetic. Her talent for persuasion is disproportionate to—”

“Ni—,” Elkisa squeaks, the force of the mist gathering—pressing against her rib cage. “Can’t—breathe—”

“All of it—everything between us? How long have you been her spy? How long have you been my enemy? Did you ever …” Tears burn my eyes, but I ignore them. “Did you ever care about me?”

“Nimh!” Jezara’s voice cracks whiplike beside my ear. “You’re not a killer. I see your power. You must control it!”

Panting with effort and fury, I gather up my will and bend it to the mist holding Elkisa fast to the tree trunk. After a moment, Elkisa gasps a long, rattling breath as the pressure