I nodded my agreement, but before I could offer a better response, a familiar rebel on horseback came bursting from the trees. He nearly bypassed us for the entrance of the caves, but at seeing me, he made an abrupt stop.
“First Ward,” he greeted, jumping off the horse. He wasn’t one of my rangers, but I knew him.
“Miller,” I returned, rising from my spot in the grass. “Is there a problem?”
“Found a Valenian soldier,” he answered. “Man said he had information for you.” My eyebrows furrowed at that, but Miller continued. “Nikon recommended I get Kingston as well.”
“Aye,” I agreed, gesturing toward the caves. I suspected this had something to do with Hazlitt and the fact that we’d been robbing his supplies. “Go and fetch him.”
Miller nodded and hurried into the mountain, leaving his horse outside the entrance. He must have been a good distance ahead of the group who were following him with the prisoner, because before they’d even arrived, he’d found Kingston and brought him out. The fact that a rebel had arrived and brought Kingston didn’t escape the attention of the older children playing around us, including Nilson. My brother trotted over, posting himself at my mother’s side while he watched Kingston greet me.
The sound of hoof beats rose in the woods around us. It took half a minute, but then the rest of the group emerged. The rebel horsemen fanned out, their prisoner hidden behind them because he was tied to the back of one’s saddle. The men dismounted, one of them striding behind the rest to retrieve the prisoner. He led the captive forward toward Kingston and me, but the moment I recognized who the man was, I felt all the blood in my veins ice over. Silas.
Hazlitt was the true enemy, I knew that. But each of Silas’s betrayals had been more painful to me than any of Hazlitt’s treachery. Silas had been like a brother, but he’d threatened to hunt Ava and me. He’d put the bolt through Albus’s heart. He’d chosen not to defend me that day, and instead to support a king who was so clearly corrupt. The very sight of him felt like a slap in the face, and the second the shock of seeing him wore off, I felt a fury like I’d never known. The ice in my veins melted, and then it boiled, until I could feel the heat burning in my face.
I didn’t wait for the man to bring Silas to us, and barely had the mind to turn Nilson toward my mother, so he wouldn’t see as I spark jumped the distance between Silas and me. It didn’t even matter to me that Silas’s hands were bound in front of him. I reached him, and before he could react to the fact that I’d got there so quickly, I pulled my arm back. With all the strength I could get out of my torso and shoulder, I let my fist fly straight at his face. That first punch got him so hard it knocked him right off his feet, and he hit the ground on his back with a heavy thud. But all the fury in me… I wasn’t done.
I pitched myself on top of him, kneeling over his hips and grabbing the collar of his uniform, yanking him up to meet my knuckles as I hit him a second time. There was already blood trickling from his nose, and a red split in his cheek, but I still hit him again. And again. I wanted him dead for everything he’d done, and I could’ve used my magic to make that happen, but more than I wanted him dead, I wanted him to hurt. If I couldn’t make him feel all the agony I’d experienced the last six months, I’d make him feel something as damn close as I could, and even though his hands were bound, he didn’t once try to raise them and stop me.
Every punch I threw was fueled by every bit of anger and strength I had in me. The next one I landed hit him in the mouth, and I was so lost in my madness that I barely noticed I split my knuckles on his teeth. I just kept hitting him, the blood from my fist mixing with the blood covering his face, until I couldn’t tell what blood was his or mine. And nobody pulled me off. Nobody tried to stop me, though at one point through my rage, I heard Kingston mumble for someone to get Sevedi. They just let me beat him, until I was panting for breath and until the energy I’d expended left me tired enough to focus through the haze of animosity.
The first thing that registered was the tears in Silas’s eyes. It didn’t calm me, didn’t make me feel bad. He didn’t get to fucking cry. He hadn’t earned it. He didn’t deserve it.
I stopped hitting him and grabbed the other side of his tunic with my bloodied hand, pulling him even closer to me. “I should kill you,” I growled.
He choked on the blood that had collected in his mouth, turning his head away so he could cough and spit it out. When he looked at me again, the tears had mixed with the red soaking his cheeks, and the whole right side of his face was already puffed up. His eye had swollen shut, but he looked at me with the one eye he could. “I know,” he managed to croak.
Two pairs of hands finally grabbed me by the arms, hauling me off of Silas and back a couple steps. Silas was so weak that when I released his shirt, he fell back in the grass, and he just lay there. I was breathing heavily, panting from the exertion, and while I still felt furious, I wouldn’t go back for more.
Everyone around was dead silent, watching to see what I’d do. For a moment, remembering that my mother was sitting there, that she’d seen what I’d just done, I felt repentant. Then Silas struggled to sit up, and as he worked himself to his feet, that feeling faded. I materialized a current of sparks, still undecided on whether or not I should kill him.
“You should,” Silas murmured. He teetered on his feet, so unsteady and damaged that he couldn’t stay standing, and he dropped to his knees. “Just let me say what I—”
“What could you possibly say that I have any interest in?” I spat.
He sniffled, and blood was pouring so steadily from the wounds in his face that the front of his shirt was already stained with it. He took a weak breath so he could answer, “I know where Ava is.”
It was so unexpected that my heart skipped. “Tell me!” I commanded, and as the words left my mouth, I felt a splitting pain down the front of my skull. It was in the same exact place that tingled when I controlled animals, only now it was harrowing.
In response, Silas blurted, “There’s a ship in Royal’s Key Harbor. It’s been moored in the shallows for six months. Flies a merchant’s flag, but never once left to sea.” He blinked rapidly after his answer, eyes fixing on me in confusion. “What did you just do to me?”
There was no time to absorb that I’d just controlled him. I needed to get to Ava. Now.
From behind me, Kingston said, “I’ll gather horses.”
There was no time for horses either. I paced past Silas to our rebel group’s navigator. “Map,” I ordered. He pulled one out, laying it flat on the grass. “Show me the harbor.” He pointed to a place on the eastern coast of Ronan, over three hundred miles away and lying against the Balain Sea.
There was only one thing to do—a three hundred mile spark jump. I wasn’t even sure if I could go that far. All I knew was that I had to, and if my magic was as powerful as people kept saying it was, then just maybe I could. I shut my eyes and took in a deep breath to prepare myself, to gather as much strength and energy as I could because failure was not an option.
“Kiena,” Kingston warned, predicting what I was about to try. “It could be a trap.”
It didn’t matter. I was gone. Shot into the air and flickering on a bolt of lightning. Every time I jumped like this, it happened so fast that I didn’t get to feel it. Now, it lasted just long enough for me to. I felt like static. I couldn’t see anything but the blinding light that consumed me at each jump, but I could feel the charge around me. The hairs on my arms and neck rose to meet it. It tickled my flesh, vibrated through the blood in my veins. Though it was slow enough to feel, it was still at such a speed that not even five seconds passed before I landed again.