Grounding the Storm ✓

Chapter 33

Renit's silver eyes flutter open, blinking once, twice. A deep groan rumbles in his throat and he sits up in bed, moving on shaken arms. All but a second later, he realizes there's a titanium band on one wrist and he's chained to the bed with the other. He yanks on the chain but the bedpost doesn't give way—neither does the titanium band.

Each movement is weak from the sedative Hallie provided hours ago.

I hate to see him this way, a threat to my safety and to anyone else who might come into his chambers. We don't know if his power is taken care of; as soon as we remove the band from his arm, it could swallow us all. This Grounding is worth nothing if that happens.

"Roux!" He shouts, oblivious to me sitting on his windowsill and watching as a doe and her fawn nibble through a small meadow hiding within the trees behind the castle. "Roux, get in here!" He yanks on the chain again and the wood groans. If he wanted to, he has the strength to take down the entire bed and carry it with him out the door.

I clear my throat and he jumps, eyes flying over to where the sound came from. With the lazy wave I give him, a simple twist of my wrist with the key, he growls underneath his breath.

"Good morning," I jest.

"Unlock the shackle and the titanium band. You have no right," he barks.

I want to milk this for just a few moments. I want him to feel what it's like to be me, to walk around this castle without a hint of one's power. With no band around my wrist, the presence of rock and stone pushes in on me and the entirety of my power wants to take down the tower and the entire castle with it. My power wants to work.

"Let me know why you snapped." I walk over to the side of his bed, barely out of reach, and cross my arms over my chest. The key dangles from my fingertips and Renit watches it warily. He's forming a plan in his head and trying to figure out what he can do to get that key without the arms to do so.

"I don't remember, the power had taken over by then." His arm reaches forward and I watch his fingers stretch only inches short of reaching my stomach and wrapping around my shirt. He grits his teeth with the strain.

"You must have a hint of what happened. The power doesn't push you out of the way entirely; you continue to see and hear what is happening—you just can't do anything," I retort.

His nostrils flare. I smile wickedly at the shackle wrapped around the post and how helpless he looks in this situation. Anyone walking into his chambers right now would think this setup was different.

When he notices what I'm smiling at, a muscle feathers in his jaw and he forces himself to look at the windows—at the armoire, anything but me. "Something you said must have triggered it. I don't know."

"Would you be able to recognize the words if I said them to you?" I ask, moving to sit on the foot of the bed. Now he's really out of luck, if he wanted to, he could have used his legs to grab me moments ago. His boots are only inches away from me. The look of disappointment on his face tells me he recognizes the missed opportunity.

He rolls his eyes. "I might," he growls through clenched teeth.

"You are demon to some. Angel to others. And you are my angel."

He blinks at me, at the words that left my lips. They hang in the air, cold icicles threatening to drop onto our heads and stab through our skulls. At first, he says nothing. His face switches blank, pale, then his throat bobs as he swallows. "My power recognized those words. They're from...a book somebody I knew used to read. They said those words to me too," he says quietly.

I sigh. It's time. He needs to tell me who is burdening his memories because whoever it is, they're in the way of this Grounding and who Renit is trying to become through his power's tendency to be a nuisance. They're eating away at his soul, slowly. It will leave him with nothing. "Who did you lose?"