I have no time to feel relief, though, because he pulls up the bottom of my gown. “Which leg?”
“Don’t touch me,” I whisper.
“Left,” Jouni says.
Sig’s warm fingers are on my thigh, and I clench my fists, wishing I could stop him as he slides my stocking down, past my knee, along my calf, and reveals the blood-flame mark. He whistles and pulls my skirt over my legs again. “How did you manage to hide yourself for so long?”
“Because I’m not the Valtia. I know I have all the marks, but I swear I’m not her.”
Sig purses his lips. “Then how did you manage to encase so many men, a fair number of them magic wielders, in a giant block of ice?”
Jouni laughs. “And then she got Oskar of all people to take the blame.”
Sig’s head jerks up. “What?”
Jouni’s smile evaporates. “Oskar. He was with her. Bragged that he—”
“Oskar would never brag, especially about something like that,” Sig snaps. “You didn’t mention he was there.”
Jouni slides his cap off his disheveled reddish-blond hair. “I didn’t think it was important. You told me he had ice magic, but I’ve never seen him do anything with it.”
“That’s not because he can’t.” Sig plops down in the sand next to my pallet, frowning. “He was protecting her, Jouni, either because of who she is—or who she’s not. I need to know which it is, though.” His eyes flare with light, and he shoves off the ground. His arms hanging loose at his sides, he takes a few steps back and throws off his cloak. Beneath it, he wears no tunic, only trousers and boots. He spreads his fingers, and twin spheres of flame burst from nothing and hover a few inches from his palms.
I wrench myself up to sitting, squeezing my eyes shut against the pain. My arms are still bound at my sides. “Just let me go,” I plead.
“Free yourself, Valtia,” he says. Then he hurls one of the spheres at me. It hits me in the chest, setting the hemp ropes aflame. They fall away from me as he hurls the second ball of fire right at my face. I feel the kiss of its warmth on my cheeks, a polite greeting, before the fire disappears. Sig’s brow furrows and light flickers in his dark pupils.
Jouni curses and steps back, just like Freya did when Sig heated the air in the cavern. Sig himself is sweating now, cooking in the fire of his own making. A shining drop slides down his chiseled face as he watches me sitting before him, feeling nothing at all.
“Tuuli,” he finally barks.
The brown-haired woman lays her spitted hare on a stack of flat stones. “You want ice?” When he nods, she grins. “As you wish.”
She comes closer, regarding me with her dark-gray eyes. I smile wearily at her. I’m so tired of people shooting their ice and fire at me, and it’s not like I can pretend anymore—it’s impossible to fake serious burns and ugly frostbite, and I’m in too much real pain to put on an act. Tuuli’s hands rise from her sides, her fingers shiny with grease. Her lips are pressed together and her arms shake with the force of her efforts to wield the magic inside her.
Perhaps she’s trying to freeze my blood. The air around me cools, but I cannot help the thought—she is nothing compared to Oskar. Of course, the faintest reminder of him makes my throat tight. Will he be relieved when he discovers I’m gone?
Tuuli’s chin trembles, and she shivers within the frost of her magic. Even Sig has goose bumps on his pale chest now. But me? The only thing that’s left me cold is knowing that Oskar might be glad to be rid of me.
“You look chilled,” I say to the magic wielders in front of me.
Tuuli lets out a frustrated breath, and her arms drop to her sides. She gives Sig a nervous look. “I—I could try to—”
“Don’t bother,” Sig says, staring at me.
Tuuli’s shoulders sag as she returns to her cooking, but Sig looks more intrigued than disappointed. “Only someone with balanced magic could withstand fire and ice like that,” he says, moving closer once more. “But why don’t you strike at us?”
I’m saved from answering by the whinny of a few horses just beyond the dunes. Sig had said he was camping at the oak bluffs, a stretch of high cliffs over the Motherlake on the northwestern shore of the peninsula. The city must be