“Well, I don't know if you should be thanking me,” I admitted. “We kind of got lucky with the whole smoke thing....”

“Very true,” Kiran interrupted. “Sebastian, can you still get a hold of that friend of yours?”

“Yes, absolutely,” Sebastian replied, pulling out a cell phone and immediately dialing a number.

“We're going to need to meet. Tonight. And tell him that Avalon must come. I will not let Eden destroy a hundred plus lives tomorrow morning because of her stubborn unwillingness to help,” Kiran commanded.

I looked at him, truly hurt by his words, but he responded with only a glance of mild disgust. Then he turned to Talbott and gave quiet instructions about what to do with Rosalind.

I fell silent, reluctant to argue with Kiran and not ready to admit to myself the truth of what would happen tomorrow morning. There was hope in meeting Avalon tonight, and in being reunited with him, but unless I could get the magic back, hope meant nothing at the cost of so many lives.

Talbott led Rosalind away, and Sebastian took my arm, guiding me back to Kiran's room. I leaned on him, exhausted from the day already. How could I have let things get so bad?

“Did you call Titus?” I whispered.

We were walking up the stairs to Kiran's room. Sebastian put his arm around me, holding me tightly to him. Kiran followed silently after us. Even without my own magic, I could feel his angry electricity swirling around the stairwell. I was too afraid of him to even turn around, so I snuggled closer to Sebastian, letting his friendly presence shield me from more royal wrath.

“Yes, they will meet us tonight,” he whispered back, his tone thick and serious. “Eden, you have to get your magic back. No more messing around, all right?”

“All right,” I agreed, although I no longer needed convincing. “I'm sorry for all of this,” I apologized to Sebastian because he was the only one who could hear me right now. He kissed the top of my head and deposited me into Kiran's room, staying outside to speak quietly with Kiran.

I sat down on the edge of Kiran's bed and felt myself crumble from the weight of my role. Lives were at stake, a hundred lives, with a countdown clock ticking away the precious last minutes of their existence. I put my hope in Avalon, and seeing him. Surely our twin connection would make the process smooth and quick. He was able to get his magic back from me. I would be able to do the same. And I would return in the morning to offer my magic again for the safety of my people. Only this time, I would be offering more than my magic. I was offering my obedience, my loyalty, to a king that would use me for his monstrous intentions. I would not be martyred. I would not be given an easy way out. Whatever Lucan manipulated me into doing for him, I would have to live with the consequences for the rest of my life.

Chapter Three

A knock at the door roused me from a deep sleep. I was curled up underneath Kiran's thick comforters. I tried for several hours this afternoon to get a head start on the magic, but nothing happened except exhausting myself.

I opened my eyes and met Kiran's gaze from across the room. He was sitting in one of his leather chairs watching me. His face partially masked by the darkness of the room, his fingers pressed together in a sign of silent concentration.

The knock at the door sounded again, but neither of us moved to answer it. He did not remove his eyes from mine and I could not have looked away if I wanted to.

I was afraid of him, and his penetrating gaze sent shivers down my spine. I wasn't afraid that he would hurt me, and I could hardly even believe he would go through with our upcoming wedding. But something about his change of demeanor frightened me.

Slowly, over the course of the last few months he changed. He was more concerned about the well-being of others and his kingdom than anything else. He stayed consistently somber and serious, never smiling and seldom softening his eyes. He cast me aside, as if he might a small child that he was forced to take care of and couldn't bother to pay attention to.

Until now. With the full power of his stare holding me captive, I couldn't even begin to guess what he was thinking. But I knew that I did not want to know, I did not want to hear more cruel words or more anger directed at me, even if it was from somebody I didn't care about either. I was fragile since my magic was gone. Or maybe I had always been fragile; at this point it was hard to tell.

The door opened; the knocker impatient for one of us to answer. Kiran released his piercing hold, greeting Sebastian as he walked through the door. “Are you ready?” he asked, his voice hoarse and rough.

“Yes, everything is in motion. Talbott is waiting for us,” Sebastian explained somberly.

I stretched underneath the covers, frustrated with how slow and tired no magic left me. But that would change tonight. It had to change tonight.

“I need to.... freshen up,” I announced crawling from beneath the covers and standing up unsteadily. “How should I dress?”

“Comfortably,” Kiran answered. “And cool. It's sweltering out.”

“Dark colors would be best,” Sebastian offered.

I walked to my closet and pulled a pair of black yoga pants and a black t-shirt and then took them to the bathroom. I rested against the door for a minute, finding the courage to face the night. So much rested on my ability to recall my magic; the weight of the task felt too impossible to carry. But I remembered Kiran's instructions to have Avalon there, wherever there was, and that gave me courage. I was going to get to see my brother tonight. We would be in the same room and that alone was enough reason to get dressed and find motivation.

I pulled my hair off my neck and into a high, messy bun. The tattoo at the base of my earlobe sent an iridescent finger of light down my neck like a colorful shadow. I touched my finger to the small snake, curled around eating its own tail and rubbed at it. The illuminated blue still shined with me, just like the blue smoke. Even without magic I was still an Immortal. Even without the strength of my supernatural electricity I was still meant to be ruler of this kingdom.

Getting rid of my magic was immature and rash. I realized that now as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I needed my magic to win this war. I needed it to stand up against Lucan and fight for the rights of my people. I would not let another victim die because I was too mortal to save them.

I shook my head and forced myself to focus. It was time to go, ready or not....

I opened the door of the bathroom and found Kiran and Sebastian in a heated conversation that silenced as soon as I stepped through the door. The moment felt so plainly tense and awkward, I almost retreated right back into the bathroom.

“It's not like that, and you should know me well enough not to assume otherwise,” Sebastian growled at Kiran, getting the final word in.

“I'm ready,” I blurted out, stating the obvious.

“Sebastian, I need a word with Eden,” Kiran announced gruffly, dismissing his cousin with a spoiled wave of his hand.

Sebastian shook his head and walked out the door mumbling, “Then what were you doing all day?”

“Kiran, I promise, I won't be difficult anymore. I'm going to get my magic back, you can trust me,” I explained before he had the chance to lecture me.

His dark blue eyes bore through me from across the room. He had that same look on his face, the one that I couldn't identify and I shifted uneasily on my feet.

“Good,” he replied, walking toward me until we were only a foot apart. “I shouldn't need to explain to you how much I'm risking tonight. If my father were ever to find out that I let you come face to face with your brother, he would kill us both. Is that understood?”

I nodded, feeling the gravity of his words.

“Please remember, that you need your magic, Eden. And not just for the sake of those lives facing death tomorrow, you're too.... You're very delicate like this.” Darkness passed over Kiran's face and he reached out and touched his thumb to my revealed tattoo, subconsciously.

“Let's go!” Sebastian popped his head back into the room and Kiran came back to himself, clearing his throat and dropping his hand.

He turned on his heel, leaving me to follow after him. Sebastian held the door for Kiran and then for me.

Sebastian and I walked side by side down a dark hallway after Kiran. It was a back hallway, out of the main areas of traffic, and something that servants would use to stay discretely out of the King's way.

“Sebastian,” I whispered, curiosity winning over the need to stay quiet. “I thought the only way for Immortals to die was for another Immortal to take their magic and then kill them.”

“Yes, that's true,” he agreed, his voice equally as soft in the dark corridor. After a while of walking through a maze of hallways and dimly lit passages we came upon a dark stairwell and descended into the blackness.

“Then how did that sword almost kill Lilly's mother?” Even my hushed voice echoed off the narrowed walls of the stairs, my question reverberating into the dark void and repeated a dozen times. The stairwell wound around with stone walls rising on either side and with no alternate exits except for the top of the stairs and wherever it was leading us to at the bottom.

“It's magic, Eden,” Sebastian explained gravely. “Their swords hold ancient magic, so that when one is stabbed with it, it opens an unsealable wound that drains the victim's energy. The original Titan army made them from those Immortals that King Derrick murdered first. They are made from the blood of our people to take the blood of our people.”

“That's awful,” I nearly choked on the words. I remembered the first time I saw the swords, when I met the Titans taking names at the gates before the All Saints Festival last fall. I thought them decorative and ornamental, not lethal, not drenched in the innocence of an oppressed people.

“Warn her Sebastian,” Kiran instructed from a few stairs below us.

“Eden,” Sebastian obeyed immediately, “we have to walk through the prisons. You have to remember that the only way to help these people is to get your magic back. You cannot save them now; you cannot even speak to them. We have to be absolutely inconspicuous, even from the prisoners, or we will never make it to your brother. All right?” he finished sweetly, coddling me with gentle explanations.

I nodded my head and reaffirmed my resolve to get to Avalon. I had to trust Sebastian, trust that I would be able to save these people if I got to my magic.

At the bottom of the stairs we walked through a crumbling arched passageway. The stairwell was uncomfortably dark, and the darkness of the prison we entered turned oppressive. Even without magic I could feel the weight of a mystical force that would strip away the energy of any Immortal spirit.

I gripped Sebastian's hand, allowing him to pull me along, but even he slowed his step and seemed weighed down by the presence of an unknown force. And then I remembered that his magic would be restricted too. Kiran, Sebastian and I became equal in this place.

The prison smelled terrible, the filth of countless Immortals bathing the rough dirt ground and cold stone walls in thousands of years of captivity. The air was cold down here, frigid and stale. I shivered from the oppression though, not the temperature. This would truly be a miserable, hopeless place to be imprisoned.