“Fine,” he says, the word coming out clipped. “One more time, if I can even get us back far enough again.”
“What do you mean?”
“More time has passed now than any of the other times.” He shakes his head, doubt clouding his features. “And I don’t know if I can push past thirty seconds again, since we aren’t on the Crown right now.”
“You’ve already done the impossible by bringing me with you.” I grab his hands, squeezing tight, needing to get through to him. “And the last time you brought me, we weren’t on the Crown, either.”
“This is different?—”
“No.” Electricity sparks between our joined hands, silver-bright in the darkness, the exact opposite of his shadow flames. “You’re Logan Ashford. The man who bends time to his will. Who saved my life four times tonight. Who’s been carrying this burden alone for gods know how long.” My voice softens. “I know you, I love you, I believe in you, and I know you can do this. We have to do this.Please.”
As I speak, my magic gathers. Not the usual crackle under my skin, but something deeper. Something that pulls at the air around us.
Thunder rumbles, low and warning.
Then, lightning splits the sky, striking close enough that the hair on my arms stands on end.
But it’s more than just proximity. Because as the brilliant silver light fractures the darkness, something inside me responds.
The electricity under my skin—the power I’ve always thought of as separate, contained, and something to control—suddenly feels connected to something vast. Something infinite.
Logan’s eyes dart around, taking in everything around us. “If we’re doing this, we have to be willing to do whatever it takes,” he says, his voice yanking me out of my storm-induced trance.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we’ll have seconds after we get there, if even. Which means the only way to save Oliver is to kill Thad before he can strike.” His gray eyes bore into mine. “Are you prepared for that? To take a life?”
I think of Oliver’s shocked face, his blood spreading across volcanic rock. Of Evie losing her brother. Of telling her I watched him die and couldn’t save him.
Another lightning bolt cracks overhead, and I feel everything—the charge building in the clouds, the moment when positive and negative align, and the split second before release. My body hums with recognition, every nerve ending singing the same frequency as the storm.
“Jade?” Logan’s voice sounds distant. “Your eyes…”
But I barely hear him. Because for the first time in my life, I understand what I am. Not a witch who has mysterious electricity magic and can’t create more than a few pathetic flames.
I’m lightning made flesh. Storm given form.
And suddenly, everything makes sense. Because fire is emotion made manifest. It flows, it spreads, and it consumes. But lightning? Lightning is choice. Instant. Irreversible. A split-second decision that changes everything.
Fire asks permission.
Lightning takes it.
Blaze Academy built itself on fire’s philosophy: let emotion guide you and flames dance with your heart. But I’m the counterpoint they never expected. The rebellion against their careful balance. Where fire nurtures, lightning disrupts. Where fire warns, lightning strikes.
“That’s why the Lampades attacked me in the Drowned Tower.” The revelation hits me like, well, like lightning. “They weren’t attacking us. They were attackingme.Because I’m not supposed to exist here.”
Logan shakes his head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“It doesn’t matter. Because I know what to do now.” My voice comes out different. Steadier. More certain than I’ve ever been about anything. “And yes. I’m okay with killing Thad. Given that he’s already killed me multiple times, I’d say we’re past the point of moral debates.”
Logan studies my face, and whatever he sees there makes him nod slowly. “I can’t travel through space and time in the same trip,” he says quickly, apparently fully on board with the plan now. “It’s one or the other. Never both. So, assuming I can bring us back far enough, we’ll arrive here at the start of the loop, then we’llimmediatelyfire travel up to the Crown. No hesitation. Every second counts. Got it?”
“I won’t hesitate.” Lightning flashes again, and I reach out with my senses, feeling its path through the sky like following a map of my own veins.
“The second we arrive?—”
“I’ll be ready.” I meet his exhausted gaze. “Trust me.”
