Just as I will be the warrior they need.
“Maxim.” She uses my name, a rare occurrence, as her hand lands lightly on my arm, a bold move considering I could incinerate her in a heartbeat. “What will you do?”
Yesterday, she came to me to warn me that I must choose a successor. Now, she looks at me for the first time in years as if my fire is a strength and not a fucking volatile liability.
I give her a crooked smile. “Now, I’ll burn.”
She inclines her head and backs away from me, hurrying through the darkness and toward the underground city. It will take everything she’s got to keep our people calm and see them to safety, a task I can’t help her with. Our people are not soothed by the sight of me.
My golden serpent chooses that moment to slither up to my side, approaching from the dune where he sleeps.
His upturned gaze narrows at the funnel of darkness cutting across the Ember Kingdom.
It won’t escape him, as it hasn’t escaped me, that moonlight has resumed shining to the east and west of this new corridor.
But through my land, it remains.
What fucking curse must my people suffer now?
With purposeful strides, I return to the front of my cave and retrieve the satchel in which I’ve concealed the dragon’s skin.
I’ll need it for the journey ahead.
Returning to the outside, I find my serpent already airborne, skimming low across the dunes.
My legs pound the sand as I launch myself into a run and leap onto his back.
As we soar along the dark channel, golden light flickers around me, and at first, I fear it’s my fire, a threat to my serpent’s life, but the light streaks across my view, outside myself, fitful and sharp.
For the briefest moment, the darkness around me shifts. Still oppressive. Just as thick. But within it, Thyra’s form takes shape. A mere flicker. A short burst of time.
Within that heartbeat, I’m wrenched away from myself?—
Her face is turned away. I can’t make out her surroundings; everything is too dark, but she’s sobbing. Her cries strike through my heart as she claws at her right forearm, where the image of the Dragonstone Blade rests. She rips at her skin, viciously drawing blood, her cries turning to fearful screams?—
And then she’s gone again.
My surroundings rush fully back into view: the sand dunes, my serpent, and the dark channel we’re flying through.
The vision of Thyra lasted no longer than a breath, but it consumes me.
I don’t know where she is or what has happened to her, but she’s alone and afraid.
Vulnerable.
My sister asked me what I will do now, and I answered her with only half the truth.
I will find Thyra.
And then I’ll burn the world to keep her.
Chapter Sixty-Three
Stellen
Weakness will only get me killed.
I lean heavily against the wall of ice I created across the entrance to the catacombs beneath the Sacred Stone Temple.
