“Until I realized you’ve been pulling some witch shit to get me to talk,” he snapped.
Whoops. I was hoping he wouldn’t notice.
There was something I could do—it was a simple energy like persuasion I exerted that cooled someone’s ire. But the side effect was that it made them much chattier.
He jumped to his feet, his chair hitting the floor behind him. He gave me his back while running his hands through his short dark hair. “Those magic cuffs you got on? They don’t work, do they?”
I pursed my lips, but then let the cuffs fall to the wooden floor with a clank.
He laughed darkly, his back muscles tense under his thin white shirt. He didn’t dress like a stuck-up prince, but more a humble one. He might be a profligate, but I learned he might have a softer side to him.
“Fucking witches. I should quarter and hang you all.”
Or . . . maybe I just spoke too soon.
The cuffs never worked on me. It wasn’t a normal gift, but any magic cuffs, locks, or enchantments I’d come across were useless against me. And I wondered why that man’s brand seemed to work.
“You can look at me, you know. I’m not going to turn you into a woodland creature if you do,” I said, slightly amused. Henry inspired me often.
“No, you’ll only have me sharing every foolish thing I’ve done in my life. We’d be here for fucking hours.”
I got to my feet and opened the cell door, being that it was only locked with nothing but a charm. It creaked as it opened, and Maxim’s back tensed with the sound.
“No. I know all I need to know now, thank you. But I am leaving.”
And then it happened so fast, the breath slammed out of me. The iron bars hit my back, while a forearm pressed against my throat; it wasn’t a painful pressure, but it was a meaningful one.
I raised my hand and blew the rest of my powder in his face; there was little left, but it should have been enough to knock him out. Color me shocked when he blinked, shook his head slightly, and then pressed harder against my throat.
“Short memory, Calamity? I’ve trained as a Titan. I’ve taken every known poison each day for years. They do not affect me.”
Damn every prince to hell.
“It would take one thought to end this life of yours,” he said, and I became blatantly aware of his bare forearm across my throat, “if I so much as even think you are using magic.”
I breathed shallowly as though if I took even too deep a breath, it would make his touch lethal.
“You haven’t been addressing me respectfully.”
I glanced up at him with widened eyes. Was that really important? By all, you just couldn’t take the prince out of the man. I couldn’t get enough air in his presence, it seemed; his body twice as big and closeting me in. And maybe I was dreadfully terrified of what his hands could do with only a thought.
He looked at me with contempt as if he could see the witch in his proximity. “You’ve forgotten what I am.”
My eyes hardened. “I assure you, I have not.”
A familiar burn in my palms and chest sent the feeling of blessed relief through me. Thank you, Alyria.
“Why shouldn’t I kill you?”
“Because I promise you, you won’t get out of this ship alive, if you do.” I flashed my eyelashes with a smile as an oil lamp lighting the hull, suddenly burst into flames, catching a wooden crate on fire.
He barely seemed surprised, but his forearm pressed harder against my throat. “I told you I would kill you if you did magic.”
“But you won’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you want something from me. How would you get it if you killed me?”