“So am I.” He’d seen what she’d done to the elfin’ra, hadn’t he? “Wait a moment, begin healing, then move. I’ll only need a minute to bring about destruction.”
A sinister grin found its way onto her lips and Vi turned before either of them could notice. They didn’t need to see her like this. She barely wanted to see herself like this, and some part of her curled up in the far back of Vi’s consciousness, remaining oblivious to the horrors she was about to unleash.
She’d entered the isle unsure. She’d been taken over by sympathies for the people here. But Taavin was right: these people were murderers. It took seeing the brutality of the elfin’ra and the state of her father to remind her of that.
Vi’s hands balled into fists at her sides.
She wouldn’t forget it again.
Banging echoed to her through the cave, dull and distant. Vi pushed her feet harder against the ground, picking up speed. With a wave of her hand and an utterance, the opening to the cave was blown wide open with an explosion of splinters. The chair she’d propped against the front door rattled with another loud bang.
Vi imagined the men on the other side, slowly rearing back. Perhaps they had a battering ram. Perhaps they were just putting their shoulder into it.
She hoped for the latter as she shouted, “Juth calt!”
The whole front of the building exploded outward. Vi leapt through it, over the bodies that had been sent tumbling by the shockwave of her magic. Her feet hit the wooden walkway bordering the city’s canals.
Vi pinwheeled her arms, preventing herself from tumbling in. She took a step and a small leap onto a nearby bridge and started running. She had no headway and no purpose other than to burn it all.
She was a blaze of fire through the dark night. Her flames licked through the permafrost of the buildings and ignited tinder as they had on theStormfrost. But unlike theStormfrost, Vi was at her best—she’d recovered, she’d been trained, and she’d learned how to channel the darkness within her.
A man lunged from an alleyway with a curved sword. Vi took a step back. Magic flew from her lips and hands—a shield to block, a blade of her own to plunge into the soft spot of his throat. She was moving forward again before the body even hit the ground.
Where was Adela?Adela must be here. She’d been expecting them—preparing for them. Where would she hide?
Sliding to a stop across snow and ice alike, Vi sent out a wave of fire, giving herself a moment’s reprieve. She pulled one of the earrings she’d taken from Fallor’s crew from her pocket and said, “Narro hath.”
The glyph appeared above the earring and the sensation of a communication channel being opened pulsed through her.
“Come and face me,” Vi demanded and dropped the earring, letting go of the magic.
Her challenge issued, Vi continued through the city, zig-zagging as arrows were fired from rooftops and stoking more flames. She started heading away from the port, setting buildings and boats aflame left and right, then dashed across the bridges that spanned one of the canals and looped back. Pirates came at her from all directions, but none could manage her flames. They were all too disorganized, too startled, or too under-trained.
Without warning, a crack of ice snapped across the ground and a large spear jolted upward in an attempt to impale her.
Vi spun away at the last second, flame at the ready, turning to face the pirate queen.
Neither of them said anything. For a brief moment, they were the only two people in the world. But pirates filed in around Adela, emerging like rats from every alley and doorway.
“You finally show yourself,” Vi called over. She smothered the flames around her fingers and readied her next attack. If the woman was smart—and Vi knew she was—half of the men surrounding her were Lightspinners ready to cancel her magic. All it would take was one goodjuth calt.
“Give it up, girl.”
Vi would grant Adela this—even in the moment she should feel most panicked, most worried about defeat as her pirate city burned around her, she remained calm and composed. The command was said as though Vi was nothing more than a child who had wandered too far from home and needed to be scolded.
“I may have lost your father, but I will not lose you.”
“Let me go, and I may let you live,” Vi threatened.
“How long have we been doing this?”
What?
“We’re alike… aren’t we? It’s how you got this far. It’s how you destroyed my ice around the crown decades ago. You have their blood, too, don’t you? Was it your mother or your father who was elfin? Who are your real parents?”
Vi took a small step backward, feigning shock; really, it was an excuse to look around and get her bearings. Let Adela yammer on about parentage in an effort to distract her—meanwhile, Vi sighted the cave she and Taavin had entered from. The snow leading to it was disturbed, but Vi couldn’t be certain if it was their footsteps from earlier, or if those were fresh tracks from Taavin and her Father.
“Let’s end this, finally. Just you and I, girl.” Adela held out her icy hand. The fingers elongated, combining into a single column, and crashed into the ground. It was as if the pirate queen was merging with the isle itself. “The elfin’ra can kiss their Dark God’s arse. This will be the night when one of us dies.”
