Page 96 of Take No Prisoners
Niall yanked his arms behind his back at the sound of footsteps in the hallway. He wrestled with the cuff as the cook and his young helper peeked around the corner.
"I told you, you was seein' things," the cook said.
The boy looked like he was going to cry. The cook swatted him on the back of the head and led him away again.
"That was close," Klaus whispered. "Keep the cuffs on until I tell you."
They sat on the cot on either side of the tray. This time, the meal consisted only of hard tack and water, which was easier for Niall to eat on his own once Klaus held it out for him to grab with his teeth.
While they ate, Niall tried to come up with a good way to disable the ship and leave her stranded. He wished he could remove the cuff again and reach out with his magic.
Carefully, he slipped his wrist from the cuff, and his magic flowed over him like a hug from an old friend. He toyed with each of his elements, but no immediate ideas came to him. He would need to be creative if he wanted to take down Coryn's ship.
"Now!" Klaus said. He hopped to his feet and braced his back against the barred door. "Hide behind me and do whatever you're going to do."
Niall slipped both wrists from the cuffs and hid them in his pocket. They would be easier in a pinch than the rope they'd used on his grandmother, if he didn't lose them in his great escape plan.
He still had no ideas. What was he supposed to do? He squinted his eyes shut, waiting for a sign. Something. Anything.
His heart beat in his chest, and with it, he felt the pulse of Efren's core infused with his. He called on his water to calm him, and it came, rushing into his palms and between them in a ring like Efren had showed him.
Klaus snorted. "Is that all you've got?"
"No." He thought of Hannah, and he grinned. "I'm going to call a storm."
He'd never tried to use more than two powers at once, but his wind responded the moment he called water and lightning together into a giant storm overhead. His earth responded as well, shifting the silt beneath the ship and pinning her in place while a tempest raged around them.
The first crack of lightning split the deck above them and splintered the cot they'd been sitting on only moments before. In no time at all, water rushed in through the breach.
Niall moved toward the gaping hole, shoving with earth to push the boards further apart. It was almost large enough to swim through. He hadn't spent much time using his earth element, and now he wished he had. The wooden beams wouldn't budge.
Another bolt of lightning struck behind him, and Klaus yelped. Niall turned to find his friend's shirt on fire. That wasn't the worst of it, though. Klaus's fingers were blackened where they'd been wrapped around the cell's metal bars.
"Klaus!" Niall ignored the water rushing into the ship. Unlike with Renald, Klaus's spirit was still inside his body, held there by the tether to Vadim. Their life link was the only thing keeping him alive, Niall knew, but it also prevented Niall from healing him.
His grandmother had warned against anyone else breaking the connection, but Niall didn't have a choice. If he left Klaus in this state, he risked losing both Klaus and Vadim. He couldn't do that to Efren. He felt Efren's fear for Vadim in his core.
He had to act now.
Chapter 24
Efren
Efren didn't have the benefit of invisibility, so he stayed as far back from Coryn's ship as he dared, skirting the inlet to the south and then running parallel to the ship and far enough away that they couldn't be seen by her crow's nest.
The morning was deceptively calm. The sunlight-tipped ripples bounced off the rocks, hiding the shallow bottom in the narrow pass between an island of rock and the broken boulder trail left behind by a glacier.
"I've told Klaus we're in position," Vadim said. "It should be any moment now."
At first, Efren wondered if Klaus had gotten the message, and then, if he'd relayed it to Niall. While they waited for a sign, Efren considered all the possible calamities that could befall Klaus and Niall in their escape attempt.
General Coryn could stop them. She'd put element-dampening cuffs on Niall, according to Vadim. All her crew had to do was keep them around Niall's wrists, and he wouldn't be able to escape.
If he did slip the cuffs, they might be injured trying to leave, either by Coryn's crew or by Niall's own elemental magic. All elements could be unpredictable, and Niall didn't have a good grasp of any one element yet. Efren hoped Niall sank the ship using his water, but it would be difficult without using another element to break holes in her hull.
Efren even let himself wonder if Niall had been working for Coryn all along. It didn't take long to disprove, thanks to the miniscule portion of Niall's core still fused with his. Niall was afraid they'd be caught, and afraid he didn't know enough magic to escape on his own.
Then, Efren felt the change come over Niall when he called on his fragment of Efren's core for calm. Efren poured his belief in Niall into his own part of Niall's core, hoping to relay the message. Efren knew Niall would succeed in freeing himself and Klaus. He would also disable Coryn's ship so she couldn't follow them. Efren lacked faith in most things, but he believed in Niall.
