Page 40 of Captive

“Yes, fine. For Aevyr’s sake, hurry up, before they come back.”

She kicked the key across the floor. It skidded to a stop halfway between the two of them. He gave her a withering look.

“Sorry,” she said.

With an urgency she wouldn’t have thought him capable of until then, he stretched out one foot and scooped up the key, leaned over to pick it up, then twisted around until he managed to fumble it into the back of the collar.

The collar popped open and fell to the floor.

There was a burst of flame, and then the ropes around his wrists were gone. After what had happened in the other building, the sight of it made Novikke flinch.

He stood up and stretched, flexing his wrists. He took a long, steadying breath, then pressed his hands together by his forehead and closed his eyes as if in prayer.

After a moment of appreciative silence, he crept to the door, limping on his injured leg, then put his ear to the wood to listen.

“Untie me,” Novikke said.

He looked back at her with fresh annoyance, as if he’d already forgotten she was there. “There is more chance of one of us getting out of here unnoticed than two. Sorry.”

Novikke stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”

There was a shadow across the light coming through at the bottom of the door as someone outside walked past. They both froze, silent, until the footsteps faded.

“You can’t leave me here,” Novikke hissed.

“Of course I can.”

“I’ve just saved your life!” She kept doing that, and it kept backfiring. Maybe she should have learned her lesson the first time.

“Don’t pretend to be some magnanimous benefactor. You meant to use my fire for your own escape. I owe you nothing. I told you, I’m not your friend.”

“If you go through that door without me, I’ll scream.”

“Then they’ll know you delivered the key to me, and you’ll be punished. Do you want that?” He shot a pointed look at her burned arm. Novikke stiffened. She didn’t want that. She also didn’t want to implicate Aruna.

He reached for the door handle.

“Neiryn!” Novikke shouted.

The look he gave her could have melted steel. For a moment, she thought he would incinerate her on the spot.

“You’re not a mage, either,” she said quickly. “You can’t heal yourself, or you would have done it already. All you’ve got is your fire. You won’t get far on your own. You’re going to need someone to help you get to a healer. Maybe even to help you limp out of this outpost.”

He gave her a condescending smile. “And I suppose I should trust you to do that? As if it isn’t obvious that you’ll run ahead the first chance you get and leave me for the wolves?”

“I wouldn’t do that because I’m not as much of a bastard as you are, obviously, since I was naive enough to think we were on the same side.”

He hovered by the door, his face hard.

She was so tired of being powerless. She was so tired of being at the mercy of people who cared nothing for her. “Please,” she said miserably, having no further argument than what had already been stated. “Please.”

The sun elf made a face. He hesitated for a long time.

“If you try to run ahead without me, I won’t hesitate to kill you,” he said.

She slumped with relief. “Of course you won’t,” she scoffed. She suspected he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her even if she didn’t run ahead.

“Do we understand each other or not?”

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