“Stay there.”Apollo waved the knife at her.
Her alchemist ring burned.Temple was nearby.And angry.She tried to send him comfort through the iron, but she could not think of that.
She needed the light.
And it flashed in the sky.
Could she?Could she steal from the lightning?It was so far away.She’d thought the same thing earlier, looked to the storm grumbling on the horizon and wished she could pull it closer, cloak the garden in drenching, obfuscating rain, call on the storm’s wicked white, sky-splitting light.
Apollo took a step forward, arm outstretched, weapon held in a white-knuckled grip.
She’d been holding back her fear since he’d appeared, caging it so she could act with calm efficiency.She’d not been able to the last time they’d faced one another.
This time different than the last.No shivering, helpless desperate woman now.She could control her power.She could wield it.
But the fear in the cage was shaking, breaking free.For every step Apollo took toward her, she stepped back, thrusting her chin high, grinding her teeth to keep her chin from trembling.
The light from the house.
The storm.
Her back hit a tree.She reached for the sparse light, the light miles away but rumbling closer.Traveling faster.Clutching her hands in her skirts, she imagined grasping the nearest lightning bolt…
Apollo put the knife to her throat.
She gathered the light reflected off each raindrop…
“I don’t want to kill you,” Apollo said.The knife’s point nicked her skin, ripped away whatever speck of composure had remained.“But I am nothing without taking what you have.I have always been nothing.An empty vessel, damned and purposeless.”
“That’s not true.”Her voice shook.
The rain came quickly, beating down on her cousin’s shoulders and streaking down his face.Lightning flashed across the sky, making a noon moment of the midnight garden.As thunder rumbled around her, she grasped the light, held it within her.The sparking power of it gave her strength, made her brave.
“You are whole without the talent, Apollo.I know because I was whole before it.Worthy of respect and friendship and honor and love!”Her fear and sorrow were burning away in a white-hot rage.“Have you always thought me less than human?Less than you?Incomplete because I could not change my appearance or hide my faults behind a beautiful mask?”She wanted to spit.She wanted to claw his eyes out.“You’re wrong!About me, about yourself!I am complete without this cursed talent, and without your approval or that of any man who thinks himself better.Put.The knife.Away.”Her voice was thunder now, loud and powerful, demanding.Not idle demands, either.If he kept that damned knife to her throat, she’d show him how angry she was.
More lightning.She possessed that, too.She was calling the storm to her, bringing the rain, grasping the light.In the brief flash, a sight to make her heart sing—Temple stepping from the trees, clutching something, raising it high.
When darkness reigned once more, she lost sight of him.Fear returned, shaking the cage.
“What are you looking at?”Apollo glanced over his shoulder.
No.No, no, no.Run, she wanted to yell.Hide!But that would give Temple away, and he would not listen.He would stay and fight.One of countless reasons she loved him.
Another flash of lightning.
Apollo jerked, spun around, and brandished his knife at Temple.He’d seen.
“Do as the lady says and put down the blade.”Temple’s voice was deep, dangerous.
“I’ve nothing to live for.”Apollo’s words were so small, so quiet, the rain almost swallowed them entirely.He raised the knife.
Temple raised his fist, and whatever he held in it.
And like gods fighting on Mount Olympus, the two men threw themselves at one another.
Fear broke free.For her, for Temple… for Apollo.The light she’d gathered seemed to explode from her all at once, and she reached for even more.She’d transform their knives to snakes in their hands.Or feathers.She’d produce so many copies of each man neither would know who to swing for.
She’d scorch the earth between them with her lightning?—
