I create a flame on each palm, and Otavio laughs. “You think you can defeat me, silly girl. Always so silly.”
“You’re a slut!” Sayanne yells, her feet locked in ice. “Always been a slut.”
Otavio is still laughing. “You can make a foolish attempt on my life and face the consequences, or you can join me. Howwould you like to have all the power you want? Your silly little fire won’t kill me, Astra.”
He’s messing with my mind, and for a moment it worked, but I’m not a little girl anymore. I smirk. “It doesn’t hurt to try.”
I send the strongest fire blast I can conjure on the bed. The flames catch quickly, and so does his body, as he emits the most horrific yell ever.
I don’t care, and say, “Maybe it does hurt.”
Beside me, a movement startles me. Sayanne somehow freed herself from the ice holding her, and advances on me, a dagger in her hand. I’m still wielding fire, and I don’t want to burn her and need to focus on Otavio. Ziven runs to her, and all she does is scrape my arm.
He subdues her on the floor, and Azur comes to help hold her down as I burn Otavio some more, just to make sure he’s completely turned to smoke. Again there’s only that strange dark cloud, no burned body.
Sayanne laughs. “You lost. Looost!” she says in a singsong voice. “He loved me! Me! Only me! Not you.”
So that was her problem. I always thought she was ambitious, but I suppose that wasn’t the whole story. What she truly wanted was Otavio’s attention, Otavio’s approval, in a very twisted way.
I used to feel something similar, except that I saw him as a father. She saw him as a lover. The depth to which he manipulated her mind drove her insane. She was my friend once. My sister, even. All I see on the floor is a puppet.
I glance at the door and make sure it’s barred, even if I hear no guards coming, then I kneel next to Ziven. “We’ll need to put her in a cell.”
He shakes his head, and I look back at Sayanne. There’s a purple liquid coming out of her mouth, and her eyes are turning glassy. She poisoned herself. I can’t believe it.
“Sayanne!”
She emits one final gasp, then her breathing stops, and she stares at nothing. I close her eyes as my chest feels strangely both tight and light at the same time, battling with sadness and relief, and yet mourning my friend.
Ziven and Azur let go of her, and Ziven says, “We should go.”
Go. Right. I need to transcend, but my thoughts are slow, confused even. For a second, I wonder where I am. My vision is blurry, and I decide to look at my arm. It’s black around the scrape.
“Poison,” I mutter, then I fall on the floor, and still manage to say, “Black worm ooze. I need…” My mind goes blank for a second, but I try to focus.
I need to focus—if I want to survive. There was something important I had to say. It comes to me fast like lightning. The antidote. Antidote. I need to tell them what the antidote is.
What antidote? What was I even trying to say? I don’t know where I am. Don’t know what’s happening.
MARLAK
My entire body’s taut, and I think I’m only going to relax when Astra’s back.
Tarlia, Renel, Nelsin, and Ferer are sitting around the kitchen table, their faces tense, while I’m in the sitting room with Mirella and Lidiane. I wonder if I should ask my sister what’s going on between her and Ziven, but I don’t know if I have the presence of mind to do that right now.
Three lightstones in sconces on the walls light the downstairs area, a gloomy glow, just like our mood.
And then, all at once, they go out, and the house is immersed in darkness.
“Brace for attack!” Renel yells. “It could be a circle of magic.”
He lights a candle in the kitchen, then Tarlia passes daggers and knives to all of us.
I keep my ears perked and my eyes on the window, but I think they’re exaggerating. Ihopethey’re exaggerating. Wasn’t the Witch King frozen? How would he get here?Whywould he even come here, if the house is warded?
I try to condense some water, but I can’t. Oh, no.
I ask, “Is anyone’s magic?—”
