fire hotter, heavier, with everything she had left.
Hands clamped her throat.
Ash lost the hold on her igneia, the fire snuffing out, throwing the courtyard into darkness but for the heavy, brilliant moon. It made Petros’s eyes look ghostly and faded, his snarl feral, his fury potent.
It was impossible that this man was Madoc’s father.
Ash clawed at his hand on her neck. His grip was relentless, but her legs were free—she managed a solid kick to Petros’s stomach that bent him double.
Petros hurled her to the ground and she gasped on the surge of air. The centurions behind him moved, but he waved them off, grinning at Ash from his slumped position.
“I can see what my son finds so appealing about the young Kulan champion,” he rasped.
Fury raged in Ash’s stomach. She couldn’t catch her breath, couldn’t piece her thoughts together. And in the yard, she saw the centurions heave and pull the earth.
Cassia was fighting them, stones flying, and—flame. Tor was with her.
The world shifted and Ash tumbled down the steps to land in the yard at Tor’s feet. He scooped her up, clamping her to him in a gruff, brief hug.
A few paces away, Cassia whipped away from having moved the step.
“I’m out of igneia,” Ash gasped at Tor.
He grimaced. “You go in low and—down!”
The moon vanished.
Too late, Ash realized that a boulder hovered over her head.
She looked up at it. Pieces of dirt drifted off and brushed her cheeks.
The whole of the night slowed. The centurions, bent on blood; Tor spinning on Petros, who stood now on the edge of the side door’s step, his arms lifted.
And Cassia.
She eyed the boulder. Then, dust flying under her sandals, she ran and urled herself into Ash.
Ash flew backward and rolled across the ground. A centurion spread his arms wide and snapped them shut, simultaneously opening and closing a solid mass of earth around her body.
She writhed, pinned, helpless as Cassia took a wide-legged stance under the boulder.
“Cassia!” Ash squirmed, tasting earth and rocks, grit in her eyes. “Get out! Just get out!”
Cassia’s arms stayed lifted, bracing the rock over her head with geoeia.
Tor advanced at Petros with flames, but centurions blocked, three of them—four of them—five surging at him, finally taking him to the ground.
Cassia was alone against the centurions and Petros.
Ash bucked, but the soldier holding her bore down. She sank deeper, only her head staying above ground, her arms trapped and her legs twisted in stone and mud. Panic swarmed her with the delirium of drowning.
“Surrender, girl,” Petros barked at Cassia. His raised arms bulged, strain showing on his sweat-glistened face as he pushed down while Cassia pushed up. “You’re useful to me alive, but your death can be useful too.”
Her feet shifted, slipping, but she held. “No!” Cassia screamed.
That scream moved the rock infinitesimally toward Petros, the force of Cassia’s geoeia shoving him back, grinding his feet against the marble step.
“Take her!” he bellowed. “Take her now!”
Movement pulsed from the door. A woman stepped out of the shadows, the moonlight caressing her small, bent frame.
Ash blinked. Squinted.
Cassia gave a cry of recognition. “Seneca!”
Hope tangled with horror. What was Seneca doing here? Had Petros captured her too? If she was here, was Madoc? Where was he?
Take her, Petros’s plea echoed in Ash’s ears, jarring loose a memory.
She took it from me, Stavos had wept before he died at Madoc’s feet.
Seneca smiled, stretched out her hands, and pulled.
Cassia bucked from her head to her toes. She dropped to her knees, gaping at her palms.
“What—” She flared her hands. Nothing budged, no stones or rocks or dust. The boulder over her head remained, only held by Petros now, who grinned wickedly.
“It’s gone.” Cassia launched herself to her feet, teetered, and went back down in a weak topple. “My geoeia—it’s gone. Seneca, what did you do?”
“Stop!” Ash begged. Tears rushed down her cheeks. “Stop it! Petros—let her go!”
He ignored Ash’s cries, Tor’s snarling curses, Cassia’s look of terror and brokenness.
“Keeping you imprisoned didn’t get through to Madoc,” Petros snarled. “Maybe this will.”
He dropped his arms with a savage grin.
The boulder, hovering over Cassia, crashed down on her.
“NO!” Ash screamed. “No—Cassia! Cassia!”
Sorrow cracked her chest. Only Cassia’s arm could be seen reaching out from beneath the boulder, motionless.
Petros walked into Ash’s line of sight, blocking the ivory moonlight. He lifted another stone, smaller but sharp and pointed at her skull.
“Ignitus will kill you,” she snarled through her tears. “He’ll kill you for murdering his champions, and Geoxus will have to let him.”
Petros