Trial by Fire

It had been a long time since she’d eaten. She had to try to get away now, or she had no chance of opening the lock. Lily was actually hoping that Carrick would dare to come into her cell. Then she could lay hands on him, drain all of his body heat, suck the electricity out of his nerves, and leave him a corpse at her feet. As she should have done when he’d taken her captive in the tunnel. Even though she was dazed and weak, she could have taken power from him. It would have killed him, but as long as Lily was conscious and had even one of her willstones, she could always take the life force of another to fuel herself. She’d had to come to a point where she was ready to kill in order to even consider it an option, but she was ready now.

In fact, she had dreamed about killing Carrick, but she didn’t count on it happening. She couldn’t count on anything anymore. The only thing she knew for certain was that once she got out of her cell, she had to get the shaman out, too. She didn’t know what kind of shape he was in—neither of them had been fed since she’d been brought here—but if the brilliant aura she’d seen on her spirit walks was any clue, he had oceans of energy that she could borrow to break him out. Then they would get away together.

Out into the light.

“Lily girl? Are you dead yet?” the shaman asked. The sound of his voice warmed her and gave her strength. She might be in the dark, but at least she wasn’t alone.

“Not yet,” Lily answered, smiling.

“Then let’s get back to work. You’ve got a lot to learn.”

Lily lay back and made herself comfortable. She was dehydrated and literally starving to death, but as soon as she stepped out of her body, she would no longer notice it. She took a deep breath, looking forward to a spirit walk. When she was just on the verge of jumping up, she heard the shaman’s voice.

“The universes branch out, sort of like a great tree. Every choice we make—every fork in the road where we have to decide to go left or right—is actually two new universes bubbling up and being born. In one universe, we go left; in the other universe, we go right,” he said in his soothing voice. “And so it is with every choice we make.”

“That’s a lot of universes,” Lily mumbled.

The shaman laughed. “So many, it gets awful confusing. It’s powerful easy to get lost in the worldfoam.”

“Worldfoam. I like that. It sounds fluffy.”

Lily thought about a universe where Tristan hadn’t left her to find Miranda at that party. He’d never cheated on her. She’d never had a seizure. They’d never fought and she’d never allowed herself to be taken by Lillian. Somewhere in the worldfoam this had happened. And that Lily had never learned she was a crucible. She’d never felt the touch of another person’s mind in hers or the raw rush of power when she transmuted energy. There was a Lily who wasn’t kept prisoner in the dark—a Lily who had never met Rowan. She wondered if that Lily was happier than she was.

“Why are you teaching me all this?” Lily asked. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d spoken aloud until she got an answer.

“Because I made a terrible mistake,” the shaman said sadly. “I violated a sacred law, and now you’re paying the price for it.”

“Is that why you’re here in the oubliette? Because you broke a law?”

She heard the shaman chuckle to himself. “I don’t believe the Great Spirit punishes, but I do believe I’m here with you for a reason. And that reason is to restore the balance by teaching you how to get out of this prison and go home.”

“Home,” Lily mumbled.

“Yes, home. You must go home as soon as you are able, Lily,” the shaman said stridently.

“Why?”

“You don’t belong here. And I’m to blame for what you’re going through right now.”

“You taught Lillian how to spirit walk, didn’t you?”

The shaman didn’t answer right away, and when he did, his voice sounded heavy and sad. “Witch magic and shaman magic should’ve never come together. I taught Lillian how to spirit walk because we thought we could cure this world of the Woven. But we were wrong, Lily. And now Lillian’s just about tore this world apart because of my arrogance.”

Lily took a breath to argue with him. The shaman was a lot of things, but he certainly wasn’t arrogant. The shaman spoke over her. “Do you hear me, girl? You can’t stay in this world for anyone or anything.”