What Vi had always seen as fire was replaced by strands of magic peeling off her flesh. They unfurled as though spinning from a spool of magic within her. Vi watched as they stretched off her, flowed into the air, and knotted into tendrils of pure fire.
What was this power? It wasn’t anything like she’d ever witnessed before. Yet it was as if she’d known it all along.
Samasha.
The word echoed through her like the peel of a bell, bringing crystalline clarity to the chaos roaring around her. All at once, Vi realized she’d never truly seen her magic before. This was not future sight. This was not fire magic at all.
Her power was light itself, and all the possibilities of the world stretched within it—the code of the universe writ large. Just like the glyphs she’d seen winding around the man, and around her watch—thiswas her magic. Vi took a breath and slowly brought her hands together, pressing her fingertips to make a cage. Narrowing her eyes, Vi focused on channeling the wild tendrils of light and fire to condense, to form a knotted ball of those same incomprehensible glyphs underneath her palms.
The fire subsided, her magic focused on one place. When it was squarely under her control, Vi merely pulled a string in her mind, and watched it all harmlessly unravel. Just like that, the flames vanished.
Vi blinked into the black, barren, smoking field, her eyes adjusting. They barely had a moment to come into focus on the charred bones of the noru, all flesh burned away, before darting to where Ellene’s protective cocoon of rock pulled up from the earth.
It had been split open, and Vi let out a scream of anguish—a sound unlike any she had made ever before.
Chapter Ten
She had killed her friends.
Her magic had broken free and unleashed its true nature—whatever that thread-like power had been—and it had been deadly to the two people who had been closer to her than any others in the world.
Vi buried her face in her hands, wishing she had been the one to burn instead. She stayed curled up on the barren field, naked and uncaring in her grief. The Empire would carry on just fine without her. She’d served her purpose as a ward in the North to keep peace. Romulin could take the throne and her parents—
“Vi!” Jax’s voice broke through her thoughts.
Vi lifted her head, turning. Off to the side, at the edge of the burnt ring, a group stood. Her eyes widened as she looked past the noru—the non-diseased kind—past the two warriors who were still mounted, and landed on Sehra clutching tightly to Ellene, with Jayme standing awkwardly off to the side.
Sehra was saying things Vi couldn’t hear from this distance. Her green eyes, on occasion, would flick Vi’s way. But neither woman made any motion to bridge the gap between them.
Better Ellene angry with her than dead.
“Vi,” Jax repeated, panting as he came to a stop before her. He stood bare-chested, eyes turned up toward the sky. His tunic was clenched in his palm. “Here.”
Vi looked from him to the article of clothing he’d removed to give her. Vi took his shirt and hastily slid it over her shoulders. He waited an extra second with his eyes averted, then looked back. She could see the relief that flooded his expression.
“By the Mother.” He dropped to his knees before her, wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders. Vi winced slightly from all the cuts and bruises, but his embrace was welcome support. “What in gods’ names happened?”
Where should she begin?
She’d banged herself up falling down a hole. Had an out-of-body experience tangling with the future,again, and then met a man who’d seemed to be more light than matter. She’d been chased and nearly eaten by a diseased noru. And then saw a magic she didn’t even know how to describe unraveling from her.
If she’d been tasked with imagining the strangest, most exhausting day possible, Vi wouldn’t have been able to come up with half of it.
“There was a noru that had the White Death and—”
“The White Death?” She hadn’t thought his tone could get more serious, but he proved her wrong. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure,” Vi affirmed without doubt.
“How do you know?”
“Jayme saw it,” Vi explained, avoiding mention of the vision of her father and the caged man. She’d tell her uncle eventually. But right now, her head was already swimming and there was only so much she could process at once. “She said she knew its signs from the capital. But even without her account, I had no doubt as to what it was.”
“This close to Soricium…” he muttered. Jax’s dark stubble folded in around his mouth as he pressed it into a thin line. “Let’s head back. We can discuss this with Sehra.”
He brought his fingers to his lips, letting out a shrill whistle. Gormon, the noru Sehra had gifted Vi a few years ago, came padding over. Vi watched it come close, swallowing hard. She’d had enough noru for one day. But she also knew when she was being ridiculous; Gormon was a loyal beast.
Crown princesses did not have the luxury of clinging to past emotional distresses.
