Air {Elements of Power 3}

Chapter 12: Roxy

The next knock at the door was more authoritative.

"Come in?" I asked, when the door didn't open instantly. Why were they waiting? It wasn't as though I was a guest.

The door opened slowly. One of the Arcan Protectors was standing in the doorway. One of the girls. Dover? Denmark?

"I am Devon Panemos." Oh, that was it.

"And?" This was too easy.

"Brae asked me to come-to question you."

"Why didn't he come himself?" She entered the room now, but she left the door open. Good, she was nervous, this was going to be fun.

"Because he's too busy. He's just had his father's funeral and he's preparing for his coronation." Oh. It turns out you missed stuff when you were locked up in a room all day, every day. Poor Brae, though. To know that he would never see his father again... I may have left my father behind in the Helian Realm, but I knew that he was there, alive, and that there was a slim possibility I could eventually see him again. But for Brae... I couldn't even begin to imagine what he must be going through right now.

"What are you doing here?" the Air-Head asked, after a pause.

"I could ask you the same question," I shrugged.

She pulled a face. "Oh alright," I conceded. "But Tris told you all of this already...

"I was trying to help you escape. I had made a plan with Brae, but Cinaer overheard everything. He put me in manacles which prevented me from using my powers."

Flames flared instinctively in my fingertips, reassuring me that I was okay, I was whole.

"Looks like you don't have that problem anymore."

"Don't interrupt! I was getting to it! Cin Controlled me into giving away the details of the plan and he made me stand there in the clearing as bait. But I didn't take part in the fight-I was trying to help you-I kept an eye on Lorelie and I found Brae when he was Controlled and distracted Avery. I even sounded the Helian retreat!"

"Why should we believe you? There were dozens of us in the fight, but no one saw that you were Controlled. No one realised that you were trying to help. Doesn't that sound suspicious to you?"

Someone did. I nearly said it. I nearly gave her away. She deserved it. The scheming freak deserved everything she got.

But no. It was valuable information. Precious. Priceless. I wasn't going to waste it on Devon. Brae needed to hear it from me.

And... Brae didn't need to hear it right now. He had enough going on. I would tell him. I wouldn't keep her secret forever. But now wasn't the right time.

"I guess you're just going to have to take my word for it." I smiled.

"So what happened next? Where do the Sephans come into it?"

"After you left, Cin kept the manacles on me. He pretty much had me imprisoned in my bedroom. So I escaped. I got on a boat and I was trying to row to the Arcan Realm, but I ended up in the Sephan one instead."

"Why were you heading here?"

Brae was here.

I tried to shrug nonchalantly. "Well I wasn't going to put up with the water in the Brizan Realm-and they were hardly going to welcome me with open arms!"

Brae was here.

"And no one in their right mind would choose to live in the Sephan Realm."

And Brae was here.

"So, by process of elimination, the ice-Realm was left. I hadn't realised that it would be quite so cold though."

She didn't look convinced. "Look, what's the point of this? You clearly don't believe a word I say. You're just wasting our time."

"Brae asked me to talk to you, so I'm talking. But I think I've got everything I'm going to get, for now. If you think of anything else, just knock on the door and ask the guards for me."

With that, she was gone, leaving me to my solitude once again.

{Sorry this is late! What do you think? This chapter has some of my favourite Roxy bits in it. She is slowly starting to talk again, but her speech doesn't reflect what she's feeling at all. Her next chapter won't be for a little while now, but it will be worth the wait. Events that you have all be waiting far too long for are on their way, as well as the return of my FAVOURITE character to write in chapter 14. Can you guess who that might be?}