Make it stop?—
Spare me?—
Forgive—
No.
My grip on my own mind slipped.
A flash of movement caught my eye—shadows straining against a wall of fire. Rydian, shoving every ounce of his power against my flames, fighting to get to me even though coming closer risked burning him alive.
“Stop,” I whispered.
My fire didn’t listen.
It surged higher, up the slope, licking at the rocks. The heat struck my face like a slap. Somewhere in that glare, I thought I saw Keres’ silhouette vanish into the blaze.
Gods.
Rydian.
I tried again. This time, I didn’t reach for the fire. I reached for the mark. For the source.
Hel’s rune seared. A sound tore from my throat, half snarl, half scream. The influx of stolen power slammed against whatever limit was left in me.
Too much.
It was all too much.
The ground shifted under my boots. The air warped, thinner, crueler.
Something deep in the mountain groaned.
“Aurelia!” Slade’s voice cut through the din from somewhere off to the right. “You’re going to bring the whole gods-damned peak down?—”
I turned. Or thought I did. My vision tunneled. The world narrowed to fire and gravel and the feeling of the realm itself shuddering around me.
A fissure cracked across the slope above the cave, splitting stone like dry bark. Ice that had crept into every crevice from Heliconia’s arrival met the white-hot heat of my power. Water flashed to steam inside the rock.
The mountain exploded.
A thunderclap tore through the hillside. Boulders sheared free, tumbling down in an avalanche of stone and ice. The entrance to the cave disappeared behind a choking cloud of dust and debris.
My knees hit the ground.
The fire kept going, burning through the last of the enemy’s camp. Then, like a candle snuffed by a giant’s fingers, it went out.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Aurelia
Isurfaced to pain, a dull, heavy ache that seemed to weigh down every limb. My throat was raw, my lungs scraped clean. I might have been lying on snow or stone or the back of a Brindalorn; I couldn’t tell.
Something cool brushed my forehead.
“Thank the gods,” a familiar voice muttered. And then louder, “She’s waking up.” Murmured replies sounded, and then the voice added, “I was starting to think I’d have to haul your soul back myself. And I really don’t want to go to Hel today.”
I pried my eyes open.
