Air {Elements of Power 3}

Chapter 43: Jasmine

As the painting swung closed behind us, we were encased in darkness. I flared fames up in my hands at the same time Avery sparked hers. She looked over at me, her face aglow with firelight. "That is incredibly weird."

I shrugged nonchalantly. "I can do much worse."

Her eyebrows rose in surprise, but she didn't ask for further details and we made our way down the glass stairs in silence. It went down some way, spiralling in a dizzying fashion. The passage was encased with dark grey stones on all sides.

At the end, we came to an iron gate, bolted with three ornate locks. Avery made quick work of the first two, burning through them with the blaze from her hand, but the flames were ineffectual on the last lock.

"Fireproof!" she declared, looking back at me, her brow creased in frustration. "Just like the bolt on my door. We're stuck."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," I replied, stepping forwards. I let the flames extinguish and focused instead on the static sensation that brought on the electricity.

Avery jumped back as the bolt sparked between my hands, running back and forth through them with a slight tickling sensation. Slowly, I manoeuvred my hands so that they were on either side of the lock. As the electricity came into contact with the metal, there was a flash and a bang and the lock fell away from the gate.

"What the flames are you?" Avery said, looking at me with fear in her eyes.

"I'm Jasmine Dystros and I'm going to be Cinaer's worst nightmare when we get back to the Arcan Realm." Grinning, I pushed the gate open and strolled through, Avery trailing cautiously behind me.

"So you know where they're being kept?" I asked her, looking back at her over my shoulder. The flames in her hands illuminated her face dramatically, highlighting the contours of her cheeks, the fierceness of her eyes. But the tunnel behind her was concealed in complete and utter darkness. Everything was eerily still down here.

"Roughly-Adresteia was gloating about it the other day-she likes to gloat. And boast. She and Cinaer must be very good together. Anyway, she said that they were being kept in the holding cells, which isn't too bad. Out of sight, away from questioning eyes, but it means that they're probably not being tortured or mistreated." She spoke so matter-of-factly, as though it didn't matter that it was her best friend's dad they had locked up; or her own mother, who was presumably down there too.

"Why were you upstairs instead?"

"I," she said, her voice tinged with bitterness. "Was plan B. If Roxy was killed in the Helian assault, I would be next in line to the throne, so Cin was going to marry me instead. The evil one wasn't too happy about that-she doesn't really want anyone marrying her precious little psychopath, even if Cinaer insists that it's the only way for him to legitimately take power." She laughed. "As if anything he's done so far has been in any way 'legitimate'."

"And you know that Roxy's dad is definitely still alive?" This had been bothering me since we had left the Arcan Realm-I had argued with Brae about it in the harbour. I was terrified that we would travel all this way, undergo all this risk, and find that he was already gone.

"Oh yes."

I let out the breath I had been holding while I waited for her answer.

"Adresteia complains about them all enough."

"All of them?" Avery's comments were so offhand and vague, it was infuriating. Didn't she understand the seriousness of the situation?

"Yes, my mum, Roxy's parents, Vincent, Blaise and Raphael; anyone considered a 'sympathiser' of the old regime."

"Roxy's mum too?"

She looked at me and rolled her eyes. "Didn't I just say that? Keep up pseudo-Arcan. You really are slow."

I ignored her jibe in favour of quizzing her further. "Why has she been locked up? I thought she and Cin were in it together."

Avery laughed, low, dark and dangerous. "So did she, until he murdered her father and locked up her husband. Then she was another of those 'inconveniences' Cinaer is so keen on wiping out. He wants control of the Realm, Seraphina would have fought him for it. Besides, she's the one with the real entitlement to the throne, not Emmerich-if she was still free, she could divorce Emmerich and remarry, leaving herself in line for the throne, rather than Roxy."

"This marriage law is rather complicated."

"It's all about ensuring heirs. Forcing monarchs to marry before they can rule helps to promote legitimate procreation. There are no loop holes either-it doesn't matter if you've already been married and had kids, or even if you're below childbearing age when you ascend to the throne. There was once a Princess, called Iphigeneia, who was only four when her parents both died, leaving her in line to the throne. Men from elite families all over the Realm clamoured to marry her; toddlers, teenagers and grown men were all suggested."

"What happened?" I asked, caught up in the story.

"In the end, they married her off to one of the older suitors-someone they deemed mature enough to rule in her place while she was so young. He then ignored her for the most part and kept dozens of mistresses in the castle. But when the young Queen turned fifteen she fell in love with a boy her own age, a young Protector in training. The King tried to have him killed, so she murdered the King herself and most of his mistresses along with him-it was an all-out blood bath. She then married her own love and ruled successfully for fifty years. Ironically, after such a bloody beginning, she was one of our Realm's most peaceful rulers. She was our own Queen Aurelia." Avery laughed again and carried on walking, oblivious to the effect her words had on me.

"Here we are," she said, looking back at me. "Home sweet home."

We were standing in front of another iron gate, this one bolted on the outside. Behind it, was another, narrower corridor, with a series of wooden doors leading off of it.

"You're up again," she grinned. "All of the locks are fireproof-for obvious reasons."

I let sparks fly between my fingertips, zapping to and fro, making a sizzling sound. As I lifted the charge to the lock, I heard a voice behind us, high and cold, say: "And what, exactly, do you think you're doing?"

{Who do you think they've run into? Please leave a comment to let me know and vote if you enjoyed the chapter. Also, if you've read my short stories Princess Charming or Mirrored Snow, please consider voting for them in the Fairytale Community's Retelling Awards. Voting closes tomorrow! I've added the link to this chapter and there are more details in the latest chapters of Princess Charming. Thank you!}