Despite the rain and the wind, Renit orders training the next day. I do as he asks and throw on a heavy jacket and a cloak. After trudging through the mud and into the clearing, my boots are soaked and my toes are freezing. But like every other day, I don't complain. Instead, as I approach the impatient prince, I smile and bow. He scowls.

There is no pleasing him.

"Hurry and settle your power. We need to get started," he barks, snippier than usual. Renit grabs my wrist forcefully, burning the skin, and unlocks the titanium band. I want so desperately to punch him right in the jaw but I avoid that by keeping my hand clenched into a fist at my side.

I take one step back and like all the days before, wake my power with a calming touch. After a full day without training, there is more force than usual but with one quick rumble of the ground and a slight shift of pebbles on the surface, my power is ready to bend at my will. The progress I've made in such a short time is substantial. If only I could show my father how far I've come. He would be proud of the control I have over the very rare and very difficult power of ground. The only person not pleased is Renit.

He ushers me with a damp hand covered in rain. The dark hood over his face conceals the angered features but the furrow of his brows and his frown are not hidden underneath. Neither is the unrelenting hate he has for me simmering off his skin.

"I'm ready," I tell him.

He twists his neck from side to side and rolls his shoulders. That's all the stretching he needs for his power. "Should have been done a long time ago."

He stuffs the titanium band in my pocket and ushers me forward, a few feet away from him. "Sorry." I try to meet his eye but he won't look at me. There is something different about today, something he doesn't want me to know. Is that why there's a storm swallowing the entire courtyard? Is he the cause of this?

Renit ignores my apology. "You need to learn how to finish your power. Settle it, turn it off. If you can't stop the power then you have no chance of controlling it."

Instead of bickering with him like I normally do, I plant my boots firmly on the ground and get to work with a nod. Rain patters on the shoulders and the hood of my cloak and I use that to calm my soul and distant my thoughts from the rest of the world. Renit isn't standing there, he isn't looming over me like a ghost. I don't have to master this right away, I can take my time. No matter how hard he pushes, I cannot let myself falter.

The ground shifts as I pull up a chunk, cracking and grumbling as it separates from the solid foundation crafted at the beginning of time. The strain is easy now, my body doesn't feel like collapsing when I hold that chunk of ground in the air, forcing it to elevate off the surface. Power fills my arms and my hands, sparkling at my fingertips with whorled dust and sand.

"Now put it back where it was. Imagine yourself throwing the lid over your power and pressing down on the force. Snuff out the strength," Renit orders.

I can do that. I've been snuffing out my power for years so I don't hurt anyone. All I have to imagine is Silas or Celestine standing on top, their life is in my hands. Their life depends on whether I can manage my power.

Slowly, the chunk of ground—filled with rainwater and sopped grass—slowly shifts back to where it was. The ground knits together, resembling what was before, when Silas was here a week ago. Popping and sighing, everything becomes one and as I look through the strain, it seems like the ground was never removed. Now, I can do what I've been trying to do for the past week.

Renit's words flow in my mind. Throw the lid on your power. Snuff it out. The titanium band in my pocket is a crutch and one I will not use. If I keep using that, I'll never know how to properly control my power. All to Renit's demise.

I try to do as he says, to throw the lid on my power, but everything bursts. Control slips away and same as before, the chunk breaks from the surface and shoots into the air. Exploding into small pieces of dirt, rock, and sand; the remnants flutter down on us and mix with the pouring rain overhead.

Renit growls. "You're useless!" He snaps. I jump, having not expected the tone. "Are you really so incapable of figuring this out? "I take a step back, ready to flee, but thunder booms overhead and my legs shake. This is the full extent of his ire, with the storm overhead. Watching, waiting to strike.

"I'm doing the best I can," I defend.

Renit pulls back his hood and runs a hand through his hair. "No, if you were doing the best you could, we would be done with this already and moving onto the next part of training." The thunder booms again and this time, I feel it in my core. His power swallows me whole, investigating mine.

"Calm down." I hold out a hand, ready to back away, as the dark clouds flicker with lightning. Today is not the day Renit will kill me. Not today.

Renit releases a dark chuckle. "Calm down? I'm engaged to a child, to a useless witch who knows nothing about who she is. Tell me again to calm down." His hands clench into fists as he towers over me, dark hair dripping with water. Where is Silas? I hate to think I need the crown prince to protect me but my power is no match for what he can control.

A shield, I can make a shield.

But my dander is already taking over. "Did someone make you extra pissy today or are you like this naturally?" I scream. He huffs through his nose. "I'm trying as hard as I can to figure this out and you are not helping in the slightest. All you do is shriek and shout and look at me like I'm a failure. You're not helping!" I raise my arms over my head and let them slap back against my sides.

"You are a failure!" His voice booms with the thunder overhead and the wind increases. My hood blows back and that storm suffocates me. Renit's eyes flash with an unforeseen resentment. "You're better off dead."

I stand there, frozen in shock. Stunned. Dead. I'm better off dead. Tears roll down my cheeks, mixing with the rain, but I can do nothing to stop the pain from seeking refuge. All the grief trapped inside me does not want to wait around anymore. My heart wants to escape.

"Do you think this is easy for me?" I croak. I hate when my voice breaks. "Your father killed my parents! He took everything I love and ruined it. My life was perfect without you or without the king or without this stupid castle." I point up at the stone through the fast-moving branches. The trunks appear ready to rip from the ground but I can feel them, they're secure. Roots are too strong to be torn away from the wind. "I have nothing left but my sister, who is already moving on from me. I have you, a prince, but you hate me more than anyone and I've only tried to please you."

I shake my head and droplets fly off the end of the scarlet strands. There is a forced softness in Renit's face, or is that genuine? It can't be, he's never conveyed the feeling. But as soon as that caring arrives, it's gone again.

"I'm not responsible for you," he says coldly.

The only emotional strength I have left is to scoff. "I know that, you fool. The least you could do is treat me like I'm worth something. You tried to kill me, you took me from my home, you train me until I'm bleeding, and then you wish me dead. As far as I'm concerned, you're the problem here. Not me."

His lips draw back in a snarl and I take that as my sign to leave. Another word and he'll burst at the seams. A tornado is forming from the clouds up above.

"Go rot in a hole," I snap.

My boots tread heavily against the soaked surface, seeping through the leather and into my socks, chilling my toes to the bone. Renit doesn't bother to follow me and I'm thankful for it because I can't take any more of his behavior or insults. One more and I might fling myself off a cliff just to get away from him.

By the time I make it back to my chambers, steam is rolling off me and I can do nothing but pace back and forth, dripping mad. Literally. Rainwater drips from my cloak and onto the rug and wooden floorboards. The quiet patter is the only sound other than my squished pacing.

I need to get out of here. I need to leave this castle and never return. I'll escape to a distant city where no one can find me. Renit can marry a woman he actually loves and Silas can stop trying to force friendship when everyone knows I'm the easiest to hate in this castle.

In a fit of frustration and tears, I stuff an extra set of clothes into a leather satchel and finally find a use for the weapons belt across my hip. A long, sharp dagger rests in my drawer and I quickly and carefully slide it into the sheath.

I'll sneak out in the dead of night. Renit is right—I'm nothing more than a failure.