Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Ellery

My chest constricted, but I somehow managed to keep breathing as my ribs crushed my lungs. Just think. Just think.

"I can't make that much money by becoming the Hooded Robber again," I murmured.

Before, I'd justified my stealing because I was helping others, but now, I'd only be helping myself. And my mother.

"It would take at least a month or maybe more to steal that much money," I continued.

"The most we ever stole was from Ryker."

"Which was about three thousand carisle."

"And more than double what we'd ever stolen from anyone else."

I rubbed my temples as I recalled the chest full of money; that damn chest I couldn't resist stealing. When I opened it, I'd almost drooled over all the carisle within.

For a time, that money helped bring some relief and joy to the residents of The Hollows and other towns before Ryker tracked it, and me, down. I'd managed to escape him, and he still didn't know I was the Hooded Robber, but he'd reclaimed his money.

"We got lucky when we stole from Ryker," I murmured. "Or completely unlucky."

When I stole it, I set all this in motion, and it culminated in a broken heart for me and prison for my mother.

"We robbed for months before we stole that much money," I continued.

"Before Ryker, we probably didn't get a combined total from all our other robberies as much as we received from him."

I yearned to sit down and cry, but I couldn't. I had to work through this, figure it out, and move to free my mother.

"I haven't stolen in months, but anyone with money still avoids the woods. What little anyone in the forest does carry with them won't get my mother out of prison," I said. "And if the Hooded Robber returns to stealing after being on hiatus for a couple of months, and I show up at the palace with five thousand carisle…."

"It wouldn't look good," Scarlet said when my voice trailed off.

"I don't think King Ivan is smart enough to put two and two together, or at least not attentive enough as he's mostly focused on himself, but the duke and Ryker might notice."

Ryker would notice any new activity from the Hooded Robber. He'd been hunting me for months. When I stole his money, it changed his life and mine; it also made Ryker determined to hunt down the amsirah who robbed him.

I hadn't seen him in a couple of weeks, but I was sure he was still hunting the Hooded Robber. If I started stealing again, he'd stalk the woods for me, and it would only be a matter of time before he found me again.

He believed the Robber was a man because of my lightning-bearer ability. He might start thinking differently if the return of the robberies coincided with them taking my mother. Once he put two and two together, he would come for me.

I could turn myself in to King Ivan. They'd taken my mother to the palace, which meant he would decide her fate.

If I went to the king and revealed I was a lightning bearer, it might give me some leverage. After he got over his shock at learning a female lightning bearer existed when none ever had before, he might….