Free Such a Daring Endeavor by Cortney Pearson Page B

this. I force softness to my voice though I want nothing more than to scream at her. “If that were true, then you would have your guard kill me instead of dragging me in here.”
    She lifts the hand she’s been cradling. It glows a soiled, vibrant purple, and her eyes flicker with a devious glint. “That’s the thing. Why would I let someone else do it when I could do it myself?”
    I call my magic forward carefully, letting it sizzle just below the surface, and with it, my hope rematerializes. She hasn’t Proned the room. It’s all so Duncan can hear outside the door and report back to Tyrus, nothing more.
    Gwynn rises from her chair, straightening the flared bottom of her fitted khaki shirt. Mouth pursed, her fingers slip toward the dazeblade tucked at her thigh.
    She won’t do it, she won’t. Not the girl who used to come over for ice cream, who used to stare blank-faced back at me while I dabbed at her bruises, the girl who waited to walk home with me every day after school.
    I tried to explain emotions to her. I tried to explain how it felt when people teased me, how it felt when I crushed on Nick Reeves and the time he barely even exhibited surprise when I touched his hand. I could gush now about how I hadn’t wanted her to leave, how sad I was, what it was like to go to school that next day without her, to sit through that assembly without her, how alone I felt in those moments. She was all I had for so long.
    Gwynn poises the dagger, staggering her arms so the blade points directly at me. Her purplish white magic slithers forward, tailing the blade, glinting off its metal.
    I glance to the door. Maybe she’s trapped here just as much as Talon is. Duncan may be guarding her to keep her from leaving.
    Then why is her hand purple?
    “Is it his?” I ask, referring to Duncan, or maybe the other guard she dismissed. “Is he Itharian, like Ren?”
Like you?
    “Shut up.”
    “There’s still hope, Gwynn. You can come with me. Ren is here—we’ll get you out.”
    I lift my hands, hoping to calm her.
She won’t do it. She won’t.
“You don’t want to do this. This isn’t you.”
    With a steadying sniff, she cocks her arm back and throws the sizzling, purple-lit blade. I duck and divert it with a spurt of my own magic, but it’s not enough to keep it from slashing an arrow of blood across my thigh.
    Pain hisses through me. Her chest rises and falls. A few blonde hairs straggle over her forehead, and we stare at each other across the rug.
    She was aiming for the wall. It’s all for show.
As if in affirmation, Duncan knocks on the door outside.
    “My lady? Are you all right?”
    Though my body trembles, I can hardly move. Her fallen dazeblade lies pathetically on the floor, feet away. The purple gleam drains, leaving the blade a bloodied gray.
    “There,” I say. “He heard your attack. Now come on, let’s get out of here.”
    She quivers, battling with the disillusionment raging through her.
Give in. Let this go,
I plead inwardly. But she remains motionless as I use the control panel for support and rise to my feet. 
    She could stop me at any moment.  But she doesn’t.
    “We can get down to the dungeons,” I say, thinking aloud as I scan the screens. “We can get you out of here.”
    I glance around the display of different rooms for the image I saw before…and… There. He’s there, crumpled against the wall of the cell. Fifth floor down, just where Ren said he would be.
    “No,” Gwynn finally says. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
    My magic curdles up in an instant, licking along my bones, waiting to be used. With a quick motion I touch the power canister on the panel and release a volt into it.
    The singe seems to knock sense back into her.
    “Stop!” Gwynn shrieks, diving forward and spiraling magic at me. I dodge it just as a high-pitched fizz resounds, emitting the strong scent of burned wire. Steam rises from the buttons, and every image on screen dissolves into black and