She tilted her head back, and the fiery eather throbbed. “Daughter.”
That voice.
Hervoice.
Soft and smooth. Sultry. Wretched. Ruinous.
An icy heat ramped up inside me as the mist spun and coiled tighter, the shadows deepening and the crimson brightening as the fury built. I saw Jadis, her bones jutting in her bare skin, her eyes hollow. I heard her begging to die. I saw the spilled blood of innocents in the cavern in Oak Ambler. I heard the cries and pleas of countless families that had gone unanswered. I saw the state she had pushed Casteel to, his eyes burning like a blood-starved Ascended’s. I saw the life go out of Ian’s eyes and Duke Teerman leaning over me, his pale face flushed, and lips smeared with crimson.
Her smile continued to widen until I saw a flash of white teeth—slightly sharpened canines. “Do it,” she whispered, but it was a shrill scream in my head.
Fear drenched the air, and I took it inside me as I drew in a breath. I welcomed it. Fed on it.Usedit.
Death woke inside me, cooling the fire in my veins. Ice drenched my skin as the golden power of life flickered and went out, swallowed by the achingly cold and dark essence of death. The air contracted and expanded. Flashes of lightning erupted overhead, streaking from one cloud to the next.
“Strike me down, Daughter,” she urged. “I’m sure that will help with…” She glanced around with an idle flick of a slender wrist. “Whatever you planned with this.”
Eather gathered in my chest as the coldness streaming from me snuffed out the flames spreading across the courtyard. I didn’t know what this thing was, but I refused to think of her as Isbeth. It didn’t matter. It would turn to ash.
The shouting was closer, clearer. It was a name, and I felt the presence of a Primal. Attes.
“Do it.” She drifted closer, her hips swaying. “Show them what you can do. Show them what they were not allowed to see at the Bone Temple.” Her voice carried. “Show them what the Queen of Flesh and Fire is capable of.”
My chin lowered as essence sparked from my fingertips. Mist spun, rising behind me as the shadow of twin arcs fell over her. The spinning ball of eather in my chest started to unravel—
“Penellaphe!”
Her laugh was like broken wind chimes as she lowered herself onto her knees. As she dared to bow before me. “Show them who they should fear.”
“Stop.”
The voice sent a jolt through me. I cranked my head to the left as…Valyn dipped under Reaver’s head.
“You need to calm,” he ordered, his voice low and strained. He straightened as Attes stopped on Reaver’s other side.
Calm?
Essence erupted, spilling down my arms. Lightning struck the ground an inch from Valyn. Wind roared through the avenues and whipped around the houses, catching curtains and sending them flapping through open windows.
“Maybe not tell her to calm,” Attes spoke. “In my experience, that never ends well.”
Valyn’s jaw tightened. “Penellaphe,” he tried again. “Look around you. Look.” He tentatively stepped closer, the strands of hair blowing back from his face. “Please.”
My gaze flicked away. I saw the faces of those who lingered. Pale faces.
“This is what she, or whatever the fuck this is, wants,” Valyn said.
“Excuse me?” she huffed. “As usual, my dear Valyn, you have no ideawhatI want.”
A sound came from my throat. A hiss. My head snapped back toward her.
“Look at them,” Valyn demanded. “See them.”
My attention shifted back to the remaining crowd. I saw faces gray with shock and fear. I felt terror, cold and stinging.
“I wouldn’t—” Attes fell silent as Valyn reached up and grabbed my foot.
My head cut down as the essence spiraled around my palms.
