17. Sapphire

Sapphire

“Try again,” Zoey says, and I close my eyes, picturing Riven’s room for the fifth time in the past hour.

As per Zoey’s instructions, I’m sitting with my back against the wall, so my body won’t have an unfortunate collision with the ground if this works.

I’d probably heal relatively quickly, but still, it’s better to be safe.

Project, I think, as if thinking the word can ignite my magic.

Nothing happens.

I open my eyes again, frustrated to find Zoey frowning in disappointment.

“I can’t do it,” I tell her.

Even if I could, what am I going to do? Tell Riven I changed my mind, and hook up with him to get what I want ?

That’s what Zoey said I should do. It’s what she would do. It would also be better than staying in here and freezing to death, but I’d rather figure out a solution that doesn’t involve sleeping with the enemy.

“Maybe you should try covering less of a distance,” she says, and then she stands up, glancing out the window. “There’s a guard down there now, and there’s no sign of Ghost. It’s not safe. But what if you try projecting yourself right outside our cell? Just to see if it works?”

“It’s worth a shot,” I say, since we’re not doing much of anything else in here, other than freezing and starving to death.

I close my eyes again.

“Wait,” she says, and I open my eyes to look at her. “You said that when you did it before, you were looking at the place next to Ghost at the bottom of the tower.”

“Yes.”

“You have to repeat exactly what you did. So, don’t close your eyes. Look at the hall outside of the bars instead.”

“Okay,” I say, since even though Zoey’s the one without magic, she seems to have a better basic understanding of it than I do.

So, I shift my position and focus on the narrow hallway just outside the cell .

Project, I think again, picturing myself standing out there, beyond the bars.

Suddenly, I’m no longer in the cell.

I’m standing exactly where I was looking.

My body lies limp on the floor next to Zoey, who’s staring through the bars at me with disbelief shining in her wide eyes.

“It worked,” I say, although I can’t stop looking at my body.

It’s lifeless. It doesn’t even look like I’m breathing.

No wonder Zoey thought I was dead.

She scrambles to her feet, moving closer to the bars. “Holy crap,” she says. “You’re really out there. It worked.”

“I’m here,” I say slowly, still focused on my body inside the cell. “But I’m also there.”

She hurries over to check on it, her hands hovering over it as if she’s afraid to touch it—or me, or whatever this is.

I can’t blame her. The sight of my own limp form, pale and still as the stone beneath it, is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.

She reaches out and places two fingers on my wrist, checking for a pulse. “You’re not dead, but you’re definitely not awake,” she says. “It’s like you’re in some sort of coma. ”

A shudder runs through me. “This is so weird.”

“Definitely weird.” She turns her attention from the unconscious version of me to the current version of me, watching me carefully. “You said you felt everything when you were in Riven’s room, right? Like, you were solid? Minus the part where Riven ran at you with his sword?”

“Right.” I reach for the bars to test it out, and while there’s a slight shimmer to my skin that you’d have to be looking for to notice, the bars are as real as ever. “Totally solid.”

I reach for the padlock to the cell, trying—and failing—to open it.

“We need a key,” I state the obvious.

“Maybe you can steal it,” she says.

“Maybe. But pulling off a prison break is going to be a lot more complicated than stealing a key. There are guards. Not a ton of them, but if one of them catches us, we’ll be toast. As for my body, we can’t leave it here—or anywhere. So, once we’re out of the cell, I’ll have to stay in my body. Projecting again is out of the question. I’ll be too vulnerable otherwise. At least, my real self will be too vulnerable. Whatever we want to call that version of me.” I glance at my unconscious form, unease prickling through me at the sight of it.

“There are definitely a lot of things we’re going to have to learn and plan,” she says, and she stands up, starting to pace around the cell. “But we know that if you steal the key, you can bring it back with you, since you were able to bring Riven’s jacket back with you. We know that Ghost was willing to help you. If we can get far enough to find Ghost, then maybe?—”

She’s cut off by the sound of a door closing at the end of the hall.

Without even having to think, my projected body snaps back to the one on the floor.

My heart pounds as I sit up, the world rushing back into focus around me.

Zoey hurries over to me, making sure I’m okay as the guard approaches. It’s the smaller guard—the one who takes the night shifts. He normally doesn’t talk much, if at all.

But now, he stands just in front of the bars, studying us, as if we’re animals in a zoo.

“I’m guessing you’re not here to deliver a filet mignon?” Zoey asks him, and my stomach growls at the thought.

His eyebrows knit together, as if she’s speaking in another language.

They probably don’t even have filet mignon in this realm, given that the fae don’t eat meat. I don’t even know if they have cows.

Maybe they could flay a Wendigo for me. It didn’t have much meat on its bones, but I’m so desperate that I’d try it.

“I just received word from Prince Riven, and was told to report to you immediately,” he says, not bothering to answer Zoey’s question. “Because the two of you will be taken to court again tomorrow evening, for another trial in front of the king.”