He was taking her.
“No!” she screamed, her voice lost to the wind. Heng clamped her mouth shut with gloved hands. She thrashed and fought, her eyes wild, as more of Qian’s men held her wrists so she couldn’t summon her power.
I couldn’t get to her. My legs weren’t working.
Through the storm, emerging from around a mountain of coconuts, coming for me, was Qian. He was dressed for battle: dragon scale armor, red cloak, knife in hand. He seemed to barely acknowledge the storm raging around us. His eyes were locked on mine.
“Leave the monster to me,” he said.
28
Qian’s menpouncedon Lucas, slamming him to the floor.
Lucas struggled, but they pressed his head to the cold marble and bound and gagged him. He fought to break free, but it was no use, not with five men on top of him. Their knees dug into his back, and he let out a wheeze.
He watched me, eyes wide, fearful, as Qian stepped over him.
Prince Qian towered over me. His eyes were cold and sharp, just like the silver blade in his fist.
“You’ve shown the whole city what you really are,” Qian said. “Look at you. You really thought you could trick everyone into thinking that you weren’t a monster?”
The pain in my stomach was so unbearable I could hardly move, even as Qian lifted his foot and kicked me down the stairs leading to my throne.
I yelped when I hit the bottom and struggled to rise, but I was so weak. Everything inside me screamed for this to be over. I wanted Qian to end it so I wouldn’t have to go through this anymore.
“The aswang queen of Biringan,” Qian said, pointing at mewith his silver knife. “You thought you could hide, but in the end, monsters always reveal themselves.”
“You can stop this,” I said. I could hardly get the words out. “Stop the invasion. I’m the one you want.”
“You will no longer be a curse on this land.”
Gani’s words came back to me:There are curses to inflict on one’s enemies, but it is a mirrored arrow. What shoots forward must also shoot back.
Qian closed in, his face illuminated sharply by Amador’s lightning while she fought the rest of his men. His focus was only on me. The silver knife in his hand gleamed.
I looked at Lucas, at Nix fighting against her captors, at Amador as her storm raged all around her. Time itself had seemed to slow down to a crawl.
A mirrored arrow.
The vision I’d had in the healing spring.You can’t kill me. I’m you.
The black tar in my soul that refused to wash away.
I created things.
My power was transformation.
I looked at my hand, the hand I’d used to try to curse Amador that day in the garden. The same hand that had turned into claws. A reflection of my own suffering. A mirrored arrow.
My mind raced. And then it was as if I’d been struck by one of Amador’s lightning bolts. No one had cursed me.
I had cursed myself.
All this was my fault. All my self-doubt and insecurities had backfired, rotting my heart from the inside.
I was jealous, and self-hating, and bitter.
I was an alchemist. I could change matter, transform one thing into another.
