I sat in a cell that was beneath the Consul's chambers. The walls were covered in mosses and ivy that I knew if in the hands of a well-trained mage, could be used as restraints. Water dripped in one corner of the cell. It was the only noise I had heard since being here. I was saddened to think that it may be the only sound I ever hear again. Had my mother not bound my magic as soon as she got her hands on me, I would have stopped the continuous dripping.

Having your magic bound was not a fun thing for a mage. It was like having one of your arms tied behind your back and being told to fight the biggest man in a bar. I felt completely and utterly useless. It did not help either that my life rested in the hands of my sister, who, while I loved her, was not a great mage with fighting skills, and a boy who had almost died as a child and now was cursed to lose any magic I had put on him.

I was pulled from my depressing thought to the sound of footsteps above me. I could tell that it was two people. One of them walked lightly in high heels, definitely my mother. I rolled my eyes at the thought of her stupid hills she had tried to force us all to wear. The other person's footfall was heavier and defiantly male.

"Ma'am, thank you for meeting with me on such short notice," said the gruff voice of a man, a man I knew far too well.

Cornelius Newman was a mage from the kingdom of Nightshade. He was a tall man with hair as black as night with no moon, and his eyes were as white as the freshly fallen snow. He had been in the Council for a long time. He was part of the reason I had left.

I could hear my mother's heels as she walked over and took a seat at her desk, causing the chair to squeak.

"Hello, Mr. Newman. I assume you are here because you have heard that I apprehended my daughter finally?"

"Yes, Ma'am. I was hoping we would be able to continue the deal we had made before she went off and left for that Kingdom."

I held my breath. I hoped my mother would say no to Cornelius. He had asked for my hand in marriage when I was younger. My mother had agreed because she thought it would tame me, but when I had found out, I had relinquished my membership to the council and had escaped into the forest with my sister to start a new life.

"Of course, you would be the only man who would take the girl now anyway. But I do have to tell you I have bound her magic. You will have to take control of her before I can ever give it back to her."

My blood ran cold at my mother's words. She wanted Cornelius to control me. I had always thought the council would never dip into such dark magic, but my mother was proving to be my worst fear. I was going to become one of their puppets.

Cornelius laughed above me, pulling me from my thoughts back to the conversation that was deciding my future for me.

"She will be easy to control, Ma'am. Especially now that I have the whole Kingdom of Nightshade under my control."

I let out a gasp. I could not believe that they had been manipulating kingdoms. If every mage who was under my mother's control was ruling a kingdom, the whole world would be doomed. A sinking feeling was forming in my stomach. I could not let Cornelius control me.

I looked at the moss and ivy that was growing on the walls, something I had not paid any mind to when I had been thrown in here in the first place, but now it just might be my way out.