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elementally-aligned energy flowing through him as the door opened, strengthening him, amplifying his abilities. Aiden faltered as the three of them walked into the room; Dylan saw Aira reach out and touch his hand, and knew that she was bolstering him just as he had bolstered her in the cell they had found Alex in.
    “Aira,” Oriel said from the bunk. “Fancy meeting you here.” 
    Oriel’s gaze flicked over to Aiden. 
    “How do you like the ambiance here, traitor?” 
    Aiden raised an eyebrow.
    “How am I a traitor?” 
    “You’re fire-aligned like I am. You took up with the biggest enemy to our kind and even married her.” 
    Aiden rolled his eyes.
    “Aira is an air elemental. By her very nature she’s not an enemy to our kind.” Oriel sat up. Dylan took in the sight of her: there were telltale signs of her confinement in the watery cell that were easy to read. Every moment in the suppressing atmosphere sapped more of her elemental energies, pushing down her ability to fight. He knew that because of her grandfather’s status as an elemental ruler she was occasionally let out of the cell—particularly for a prisoner who had been held for so long, it would be a huge benefit to re-stoke her elemental energies outside. 
    “The only reason you haven’t come up as an unstable is because you’re bonded with her,” Oriel said, almost snarling. She had lost weight in her confinement, the skin on her face was paler and her eyes had a washed-out look. “If you had stayed out of it and just let her die, we’d have a much more amenable ruler of air, and my grandfather’s authority would still be firmly in place.” 
    Aira sighed, stirring the air in the room to a quick breeze.
    “Oriel, you were on the wrong side of that fight. I am no threat to your grandfather.” 
    Dylan felt the power blossoming inside of him, an onrushing torrent that he could barely control.
    “Aira has done more to protect unstable talents and keep them safe than anyone else has for a century,” he said, feeling a flash of resentment towards Oriel’s priorities. 
    “What brings you here, anyway?” Oriel glanced between the three of them. “Is it time for my fate to be decided?” 
    Dylan took a deep breath. He wondered if this was what it would feel like when he came into his abilities fully on his upcoming birthday. No wonder Aira had been so agitated; if it was anything like this, Dylan wasn’t sure that he would be able to maintain his own stability.
    “We need to talk to you about an attack,” Aiden said, reaching out and putting his hand on Aira’s shoulder. “It won’t do you any good to try and hedge—even if I can’t do anything about it, you know Aira’s fine and Dylan can practically obliterate you right now.” 
    “An attack? Oh, was your stupid wedding interrupted or something?” Oriel’s eyes flashed with glee and Dylan decided that he had no real interest in playing it safe—in working up to more intense forms of coercion. He strode quickly across the room, murmuring the beginnings of a spell. Oriel didn’t have the energy to try and evade him; she shifted on the bed but didn’t get up, even as his hand descended on her shoulder. 
    Her elemental essence was at a low ebb—Dylan felt the dim remainder of her energy simmering. He closed his eyes and let the emotional force wash through him and into her. She couldn’t fight him; even if she hadn’t been incapacitated by the long confinement in a water-aligned cell, the power that flowed in Dylan’s body from proximity to such strongly water-oriented materials would have made it difficult for her to avoid the influence of his magic. He impressed the pain, fear, and anxiety of the air elementals who were subject to the attack on Oriel’s mind. 
    The woman cried out, trying to push his hand away, struggling half-heartedly against the hold of his magic. Dylan opened his eyes. “People died, Oriel. People who had nothing to do with your petty