Her stubborn, unyielding presence in the bond, pulsing like a star through the chaos.
“I am sworn to protect the Vein,” I agree. “My people. My realm. The dreams of every world that has never even heard my name.”
Flame coils tight around my fists, white-hot now, beyond red or gold.
“And that,” I say, locking eyes with the thing wearing my kinsman, “includes protecting him from you.”
Idris bares Grier’s teeth at me.
“You would kill your own subject to spite me? If you allow your true form to take shape, to commit murder, there will be no going back, Thorne! You will become death!”
I smile—sharp and terrible behind the bone mask.
“I already am death!”
I thrust my hands into the ward.
Power detonates.
The lattice recognizes me—my mark, my flame, my claim.
It parts for me while resisting the corruption clinging to Grier’s flesh, wrapping around my arms like molten silk.
Fire sears up my veins. It is like grabbing a live star and dragging it into my bones.
I scream—and push.
Not at the Vein.
At the darkness nested in my kinsman’s soul.
“For every dream you tried to steal,” I snarl through clenched teeth. “For every miner you twisted. For every world you would see unmade—burn.”
The ward magnifies my fire, turning it into something cleaner, sharper, honed for one purpose.
Purging.
Grier arches, a strangled sound ripping from his throat. Shadows explode out of his eyes and mouth, shrieking, as my fire hunts them down.
Idris howls.
Not from this body—not entirely—but through it, an echo of true pain.
We lock there, the three of us—me, Idris, and the Vein—balanced on the edge of annihilation.
“You cannot win,” Idris gasps, his hold slipping, dark tendrils snapping one by one in my flame. “You can scorch my vessel, but I will always find another. Always. Until there is nothing left of you but ash and regret.”
“Maybe,” I rasp, heat blistering my skin, cracks forming in my bone mask. “But you will not have this one.”
With a final, furious shove, I pour everything I am through the ward and into Grier—and let the fire decide what to spare.
Chapter 30
Delia
Ashfell to The Ember Vein
The world spits me out in fire.
