“What are we supposed to do?” I hissed. The restraints were thick and metal.
“What are you doing?” Levent demanded.
“What do you think? We’re busting you out, buddy-boy,” Rio said. “Naitlya, do you think you could use some of your skill to pick the lock?”
The half-blood pulled something out of my hair and handed it to me. He then stood up and pretended to examine the kin’s face for signs of his made-up disease, clucking and making disapproving noises as he went.
I stared at the cuffs for a solid minute. What skill was he suggesting I had? I blinked. Plants.
I looked at my palm. A little piece of the sparkling yew must have broken off and caught in my hair. I pressed the twig between my hands. The twisting branches of the plant would be a prefect lock-pick.
Having pushed a sufficient amount of magic into the twig, I pressed it into the lock of the cuffs around the kin’s ankles. Letting a little more magic flow, the twig grew and bent into the grooves of the lock until it could grow no more. Strengthening it so it would not break, I took a deep breath and twisted it in the lock.
For a split second I was filled with panic. Then the cuffs popped open. I sighed with relief, thanking the spirits for my luck.
“What was that?” The guard asked, turning around.
Rio jumped in front of her, blocking the kin and I from her sight.
“The sound of…” Rio paused. He was losing his composure now that we were so close to success.
“The sound of his bones cracking. Very sick. Needs medicine.” I supplied in a similar mock-accent as the half-blood. He just nodded in agreement, smiling.
With Rio distracting the guard, I removed the now reinforced twig from the cuffs and moved them to the ones around Levent’s wrists. As I did, the kin leaned forward slightly.
“You should not be doing this,” he whispered into my wimple. I flushed a little.
“Tell me stuff like that after we’re out of here,” I hissed back.
I spread my magic into the twig again, and turned it. This lock was a little stickier, but it snapped open eventually, just as the last had.
“What is this?” The Delfaethan soldier shouted from the door.
I glanced at the kin’s cuffs, and then looked up at his eyes.