A Girl Named Calamity (Alyria 1)

I sighed. “I don’t know, that might be an interesting exper—”

“You have these crazy ideas in your head of how you’re going to die. And yet, you’ve never thought I would do it. Maybe you should be more concerned,” he growled.

“You won’t kill me; I’m too valuable,” I said smugly.

“No, but I could compel you to have your mouth shut for the rest of this trip.”

I swallowed hard and looked at him with wide eyes, but he only lifted my leg around him, keeping his eyes on mine. I hopped down from Gallant and walked in the tall grass.

I really wasn’t sure if I’d won that round or not.

CHAPTER THIRTY

EMPTY CITIES

I couldn’t believe that Grandmother had spent all that time teaching me how to be a lady and not how to resist some mere compulsion. Maybe she’d thought if she didn’t teach me about magic, I wouldn’t be touched by it. I made a note to chastise her about it as soon as I saw her again.

I had been stuck in this room for over two hours now because Weston compelled me. Apparently, he didn’t trust me after what had happened in Latent City. That, and stabbing him possibly had something to do with it.

The room was small and needed a good cleaning. Just like the city. I snorted when I saw the sign that was blowing in the wind as it hung sideways. I had to tilt my head to read it.

Tanded City

Where all your dreams come true.

I could imagine that the rundown buildings, grass overgrown in the streets, and the black, sludgy-looking lake nearby was the last place all my dreams would come true.

Maybe one of my nightmares . . .

The frustration of my situation had hit me when Weston slammed the door in my face. I was trapped by four wooden walls, and it felt like they were closing in on me until all that would remain would be me locked inside a wooden casket. I tried to leave the room many times, but there was an invisible boundary across the door, keeping me in—a product of Weston’s stupid compulsion.

I paced around my room, trying to come up with a plan. Maybe I couldn’t use any magic because of the cuffs and if I took them off, I could. But then I remembered The Burning City and how a cuff had been off and I still couldn’t do any magic. Grandmother had said they both needed to be on to work. The thought of taking them off had my stomach rolling with the idea of that inhuman rider finding me anyway.

I felt claustrophobic, and my frustration was building until I let it out with a scream and a kick to the small wooden table near the bed.

I almost screamed again when a man appeared in the room. Out of thin air. I stared at Weston with wide eyes.

“Why did you scream like you were being tortured?” he asked,

his eyes narrowed. How the hell did he do that? And why did he look angry at me when I was the one trapped inside this stupid room for hours?

“Oh, was heartless Weston worried about me?” I taunted. I wanted to make him angry, something to get rid of this frustration.

He frowned. “I need you whole to open the seal.”

I narrowed my eyes. Liar.

He stared at me with a hard expression and I knew that he heard that thought. The silence was thick, and the walls were already closing in on me. The tension in the air was just too much.

“How did you just pop in here like that? Are you a Mage?” I already knew he was something much more than that, and he only raised an eyebrow to say, Another question you already know the answer to.

“If you can do that, why aren’t we at the seal right now?” I asked. “How do you even know where it is?” He hadn’t ever asked me where it was. I wouldn’t be able to tell him if he did anyway.

“Come on,” he said while walking to the door. “The princess can leave her tower.”

I scoffed. “If this is a fairy tale, I can only hope the villain gets killed in the end.”

He laughed. “Come on. Before I change my mind.”