My order quickly spread through the ranks, and the outpost emptied. Varz and Calder paused for a moment, their eyes on Lily. I gave them both a hard look, and they dipped their heads, then evacuated with the others.
Lily, of course, didn’t leave.
In fact, she’d steppedcloserto the infernal thing.
A low growl ripped free of my throat, and I almost palmed my face. Why?Whydid she never listen?Whydid she insist on always putting herself in danger?
“Lily,” I snarled. “Let’s go. Miriel built this damn thing. Do you understand? She put this here to kill you. Me. Anyone with flesh. It’ll rot through the skin first, then start with the muscle. Blood will thicken to sludge. You will suffocate from the inside. I’ve seen it happen.”
She glanced at me, her eyes nothing more than a quick flash of blue. “Then we contain it.”
“Or,” I said, dragging out the word, “we leave, close this handy door to keep it contained, then collapse the room.” I’d already mapped out the support points. A controlled cave-in was the simplest, easiest option.
“What if it creeps out? It only takes finding one hellspawn for it to spread.”
“Then we’ll light the place on fireafterwe collapse it.”
“Miriel would have planned for that,” she said quietly, her focus locked on the pestilence bomb. “She knew about my hellfire. She knew that was my go-to when it came to fighting.” She grimaced. “Wanna bet she designed this to react to fire?”
“You don’t know that.”
She planted her hands on her hips and studied the weapon.
“Come on, just back away?—”
But the bomb finished this argument for us when it suddenly—and silently—erupted. The hairline fractures imploded, and a black cloud burst outward.
“Lily!”
I reached for her, determined to drag her out of this room if I had to—but she moved faster. And steppedstraightinto the cloud.
The pestilence surged forward, but before it could touch her, aseconddark cloud exploded within the room. Except, this one didn’t come from the bomb—it came fromher. The black entity ripped out of Lily. It wasn’t smooth or graceful. It tore from her in a violent blast, writhing around her like a living thing with its own will. The tendrils lashed outward, slamming into the pestilence and halting its spread, shielding not only Lily, but me as well.
I froze. I’d seen Lily do many amazing things. I’d seen her conjure hellfire and shadow from the palms of her hands, hide herself—and me—entirely from sight, create an army from nothing, break down a dragon into its purest elements and fashion weapons from it all, and fly with wings made from pure magic. But this…this was unlike anything I’d ever seen her do.
The darkness thickened until it practically consumed her. The pestilence clawed at it, trying to break past the barrier, trying to spread—as pestilence always did. But whatever this blackness was, whatever new ability Lily was demonstrating, it wouldn’t let a single thread pass.
She clenched her jaw, and her hands trembled as she raised them. The floor shuddered so hard I had to reach for the nearest wall to steady myself. Cracks split through the stone beneath her feet, a chaotic web radiating outward. Finally, the pressure won and the ground split wide open, forming a rift right beneath the bomb. It spread wider, the stone groaning like it was in pain, until it was big enough to swallow the pulsing orb.
The bomb dropped into the magma below, and the resulting explosion sent a rush of heat through the room. Lily swayed against the shockwave but didn’t waver. Obeying some secret command, her tendrils snaked through the room, wrapping around any lingering pestilence. Then it thrust the sickness down into the rift, burning it away just like the bomb. When the final thread of sickness vanished, Lily clenched her fist. The rift obeyed, and the two sides slammed together with the force of a thunderclap, sealing the wound shut.
Lily dropped her hands, and the darkness receded, sliding back under her skin, leaving behind a black scar burned into the broken stone floor.
She staggered.
I hurried forward and caught her before she fell—because there was no realm or universe in which I didn’t go to her—and braced her weight. She laughed weakly, the sound hollow and shaky. Sweat slicked her temples, and her breath came in shallow pants. Her eyes—too dark, too sharp—met mine, and for a heartbeat I wasn’t sure I was looking atheranymore.
Speechless, I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight.
Holy shit. What had I just witnessed? I’d never seen her doanythinglike that before. And I’d known Lily her entire life.
It took me a few moments to catch my breath—and unscramble my thoughts—but then I demanded, “What was that? And what the hell were youthinking?”
She gave another weak laugh. “You mad?”
“Oh, beyond,” I growled. “Miriel designed that thing to kill everything—celestials included. And you walkedintoit without a second thought.”
“In all fairness, I actually gave it a third and fourth thought,” she retorted.
