One day, perhaps she would make a different choice. A better choice. Today was not that day.
Anniliese braced herself, reaching for her flames. She struggled to grab onto that ember in her chest, to pull it free and into her hands. It was as if her flames fought against this purpose, as if they wanted nothing to do with all this death and destruction. Just like how’d they’d burned her hands when she’d destroyed the Salis house.
It made sense, in a way. The fire was a gift from the Goddess of Life. And despite flame’s destruction, this carnage wasn’t what it wanted.
A small golden flame flickered to life in Anniliese’s palm. Her stomach curdled.
“I hate you,” she whispered, barely more than a breath in the wind. “I hate you so much. You ruined my life. I lived in a prison, but it was better than this torment.” A tear spilled down her cheek, tracking through the soot coating her skin. “I hate you.”
She threw the flame into the pile of corpses, the inferno in her chest blossoming as the fire burst back to life. Heat flared across her face, fire devouring hair and skin and clothes.
And not for the first time, Anniliese found herself wishing she were better and smarter than what she was.
She was a fool to ever think Kol capable of kindness or redemption. That first conversation with him had been nothing more than a trick, a way for him to understand her fears, a way for him to worm his way in.
But five thousand years was a long time for hate to fester. It had twisted him into madness. And whatever Mariah had taken from him, it was enough to push him beyond the point of saving.
Anniliese’s thoughts snagged on the young queen. She should’ve gone with her all those months ago; Mariah had offered Anniliese an escape, even when she had every reason in the world to hate her. And even more recently, when the oldest Laurent had fled Khento. Anniliese should have gone with him then, too. Even if she knew it would have only delayed the inevitable.
Instead, she’d given him Lisabel Salis’s ring and stupid words about wanting to understand the god of darkness and shadows. About how she hoped the queen would prove Kol wrong in the end.
Anniliese had always known her pride would be her downfall. She just never realized how true that would end up being.
Her fire crackled and popped, melting the residents of Andburgh to ash.
She hated that magic. Hated what it had done to her. Hated how it was being used in this world.
She hated the choices she’d made that had put her here, doing the bidding of evil beings and the weak men who followed them blindly.
Most of all, Anniliese Hareth hated herself.
Chapter 59
Two days.
Two days since Niktael had kissed her.
Two days sinceSebastianhad kissed her.
Two days, and Ciana still felt like she was floating.
She stared at the woven branches of the ceiling in her rooms, hands twisting together. It was a quiet, rainy afternoon, and despite the thick forest canopy, rain still drummed a steady rhythm on the boughs.
Every so often, her hand would touch her lips, still not sure what was real.
She’d never thought a kiss could feel likethat. It had been so different from the one before Khento. Less cautious, less questioning.
Justmore. And his words…
Her gaze drifted to Sebastian, seated in a chair on the other side of the room. His long legs were crossed, muscles in his forearm flexing as he flipped a page of his book.
Ciana swallowed. She talked a big game, but acting on it? That had always scared the shit out of her. Just the idea of something likethatused to send tremors down her spine.
Not now. Not this time.
She’d been so lost in her flipped-upside-down world, she hadn’t even realized it was the Summer Solstice. Not until the two full moons had risen the evening before.
Vatha didn’t do much to celebrate the holiday. These people of logic, science, and reasoning didn’t waste a day reveling in godly magic, not when their inventions powered their lights and cooled their homes. The day had been theirs to do with as they wished, so Ciana and Sebastian had ventured out from the palace and into the city.
