Sensing my racing pulse, Kalden assures me, “He’s okay. Unconscious, but alive.”
The chancellor pulls himself up from the sandy impression left by his impact. “I’ll help you meet the fiery destruction you so desperately crave!”
I glance over my shoulder and watch the guards closing in on the Huntresses . . . and Gem.
Twilynn and Aruna have crested the next dune so far in front of the other two that they might make it to the village. But they left Gem dragging Demi through the sand, leaving a thinning trail of blood and a swarm of guards fresh on their heels.
I kneel to my side, where a fallen Pyre lies. The clasp of the collar around its singed neck unhooks after several awkward twists and pinches of the mechanism. I wrap my fingers around it, pulling it free.
The chancellor lifts his head, twisting towards me. But before he can react, Kalden directs a kick into his stomach, causing him to collapse once more.
I wrap the collar around Chancellor Bren’s neck, and it clicks easily into place. “Call off your men! Now!”
“No, no, no!” Through gasping coughs, he claws at his throat. “You can’t!”
“I’m done asking.” I stand over him, casting a shadow across hishunched frame, and jam my thumb into the button on the black box still in my left hand.
The chancellor’s body convulses, and he lets out an eerie garbled cry. Red skin blooms across his nose and quickly spreads along his face before emanating a glow. I step away while flickers of heat from his eyes threaten to burn me.
No.I need him to give the order to stop the guards.
I reach in to remove the collar, but the increasingly white-hot heat of his skin makes me recoil. Kalden grabs my arm and pulls me away. He picks up Niles and follows quickly after me. While I turn to shuffle back, Gabe stops and falls to his knees not far from the scorching shell of his father.
The sand surrounding the chancellor begins to flow into a glassy bubbling pit. The glowing form of what was once a man lifts to its feet. The deep navy armor falls away, engulfed in flames on the ground. Its form stretches and wretches. A fiery orb expands from its skin and lifts into the clouds followed swiftly by a blinding light.
A quick glance reveals that the guards, the shadows, Gabe, even Gem have slowed or stopped to learn the fate of the chancellor.
An explosion of fiery magnetic force washes past me and Kalden, forcing us prone.
When we look back, Chancellor Bren is no more. In his place stands a monstrous black charred form with talons where its hands used to be. The creature gags, six long wiry tongues spilling out of its throat. A bitter smoke wafts through the air, stirring the acid in my stomach.
“I-I didn’t mean to . . .” My legs shake while Kalden pulls me to my feet.
“That’s not how it normally happens,” he says raggedly.
A roar resonates from the freshly turned Pyre, and it staggerstowards us, gaining its bearings before taking small bounds.
I fumble for the box that fell into the sand. The creature takes a final leap, and I press the button. Convulsions tear through what remains of the chancellor, and the figure lands roughly. It stills for a few seconds before shifting forward.
Again, I press the button, and it finally stops its attempts to lunge. I stare into the black-and-gold irises that were once an icy blue. Circling the button with my thumb, I wait for the chancellor’s charred shell to make its next move. It finally turns and lifts its tongues into the air, as if sensing the plentiful humanity on the other dune, then jumps towards the group of outlying guards who’ve been watching the spectacle.
Hundreds of guardsmen scatter across the golden landscape, and the chancellor’s husk tears apart his own forces as they haphazardly retreat towards Caligo.
Commander Guffian grabs Gabe’s shoulder and pulls him up. “Shadows, secure your new chancellor.”
Gabe peers over his shoulder as he’s prodded and pushed within a circle of bodyguards, and I sense his condemning glare prickling down my spine.
I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for what I just did to his father. And yet, something in me feels like I only revealed his true nature. To so many of the women in Caligo, Chancellor Bren has always been a Pyre, feeding on our humanity. His twisted words tore through us and made us believe we deserved a life of sacrifice.
I watch the sole Pyre chase the group of fleeing guards into the forest, leaving a trail of bodies and blood in its wake.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Scarlet clouds streakacross the sky like blood as the sun approaches its descent. Although there’s been no sign of the chancellor’s men since they bolted into the forest, I keep a watchful eye on the horizon, waiting for any hints of movement or unnatural black smoke from the unaccounted-for nightstone missiles.
“They won’t strike again so soon,” Kalden says, placing a steady palm along the base of my spine. “Not until Caligo’s had time to adjust to their new chancellor.”
I dip my chin. “I know.”
