Juth—destruction.
Starys—incinerate.
Hoolo… to hold.
The word had not been in Sehra’s book. Taavin had not had a chance to explain it, yet she knew what it was down to her very core. He’d armed her with the ability to hold, to maintain, to keep her fire burning as long as she needed until everything finally went dark.
It didn’t feel as though the power was even coming from her. This unstoppable magic was pouring from a source Vi had never seen from her own eyes. These flames were not her own, but something far greater.
When the light and fire ofjuthdimmed, the elfin’ra was gone, and she was left to hope that it was because she had burned him alive.
She’d burned a man alive. Vi stared at her palm. Warriors had spoke of the disgust that flooded a person after such an act. Of the horror of committing such an atrocity. Of the ways in which you were fundamentally changed by such an act.
But Vi felt no different. If she was honest, she didn’t even feel guilty. Perhaps it was because the man was a monster… or, more likely, because she had other concerns.
“Ellene!” Vi called, staggering over to the cocoon of rock. Her fire had heated all the stone to the point of glowing. The soles of her shoes had burned off. But at least she’d mastered enough control of her magic not to allow it to burn her clothes during the act. “Ellene! Jayme! Andru!”
The rocks half melted, half crumbled away, revealing her friends. Sweat ran down Ellene’s temples, whereas Vi’s brow was still dry. But she otherwise looked fine. Andru was in a similar state. Jayme was not so lucky.
“Is he…”
“I killed him,” Vi declared, still hoping it was true. She knelt down at Jayme’s side. “I can cauterize some of the bleeding.”
“Don’t.” Ellene stopped her. “The plants are medicinal for clotting, healing, sleep… I’m trying to keep her in stasis.”
“How long can you hold it?”
“I don’t know.” Ellene looked at her with fear in her eyes. “She’s bad, Vi. I don’t know…”
“Stay here. Keep her alive… I’ll go back and get help.”
“Vi, I—”
“She’s still breathing. The best thing to do is not move her.” Vi clamped a hand over Ellene’s shoulder. “You can do this.”
“Don’t leave,” Ellene whispered softly, grabbing Vi’s hand.
“Be brave.” None of them had any other choice. “We both have to be brave for Jayme, because she was brave for us. Andru will stay with you.”
Andru slid a little closer to Ellene, avoiding eye contact with Vi. He’d known she was a sorcerer… No, this was the trauma of the day, nothing more.
Ellene sniffled and then her face hardened. She gave a stiff nod. “Be hasty.”
“I will.”
Even though she was sill exhausted and every limb felt like lead, Vi left at a jog. The singe marks from her flame extended halfway across the bridge Ellene had made between the platform they’d ascended and the heart of the ruins. Vi didn’t even glance over her shoulder, immediately clamoring down the worn stairs and large boulders toward the ground far below.
She started into the woods, raising her fingers to her lips and letting out a shrill whistle. Jayme was dying. She had been wounded because of Vi, and if Vi couldn’t save her now, she would never forgive herself. That would be the death that would linger with her. Not the elfin'ra. But Jayme, her friend, her first sworn guard.
Gormon came bounding through the trees, skidding to a stop before her. Vi worked to mount him. Her muscles ached, spasming with every thrum of his large paws on the ground.
She would make it, she had to. There was no reality Vi would entertain where she didn’t save Jayme. She gripped Gormon’s fur tighter, spurring him onward.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Vi feltevery inch of her bruised, battered body. Every rock that had pelted her was making its ghostly presence known as she rode Gormon deeper into the jungle. The rush of the fight was fading and, in its wake, pain bloomed.
But Vi rode onward.
