‘Say it,’ Marina hisses. ‘I want to hear you say it.’
The deafening roar of the crowd suddenly sounds far off, as though I am under water. Ifeellike water, like my limbs have been slit open and filled up with liquid. Like I could drown right here inside my own head.
The Eye digs into my chest. Round my neck sits Ostacre’s greatest weapon. It called to me, this enchanted talisman. Itchoseme.
Power itself.
Any power, all power, right at my fingertips, even if I don’t know how to use it yet. The old man said the Eye of the Soul gave the wielder the ability to take power, to possess it. To give it back, too. Elva proved that much. And what a beautiful thing, I think, as black spots begin to swim across my vision. To return that which was thought lost forever.
I blink.
The power to return power.
Whether forcibly taken, severed or lost, power can be restored by the golden Eye round my neck. And what did Marina just say to me?
Whatever twisted power you once had is long gone. It’s like your grandmother said – the days of storms are behind us.
Slowly, I lift my head. I see myself reflected in a puddle of water at my side, my hair dripping, my nose streaming red. I look into my eyes, wide and wild. Grey, like storm clouds.
Grandmother’s last words to me dive down deep into the ocean I drown in, pulling me back to the surface.
Remember who you are.
My mother named me Blaze. I am the daughter of two great Houses. I am the last Rain Singer. The beginning that brought the end. Some say I’m Gods’ damned. Some say I’m a murderer, a changeling, a freak.
My entire life was shaped by that storm, by power I thought lost forever.
But what if it’s not? What if I can get it back? It’s not stealing. I can’t steal something that’smine, so inherently mine that I was born with it. That it was born with me.
Remember who you are.
‘Are you listening to me?’ Marina snaps.
Mirrored in the water, I watch as she raises her arms to end this. But I twist round, catch hold of her ankle and tug hard. She topples over, shrieking in surprise.
Clenching my jaw, I make myself stand.
Marina lunges for me, but my spurt of water hits her square in the chest. I send a second, then a third.
Now it’s my turn to carve a wave.
It rears up in front of me, ten feet tall and frothing wildly.Marina staggers backwards, spluttering, but she barely has time to lift her hands before the wave surges forward and envelops her. I watch a moment as she thrashes, tumbled around and around.
Then I snap my fingers and the water freezes solid.
Marina is encased inside the wave, her hair suspended like a dark halo above her head, her limbs frozen at odd angles, her eyes round and terrified.
The crowd are on their feet, the Crowned Council leaning forward on their thrones.
Remember who you are.
I press a hand to the spot where Syla’s Eye sits in the centre of my ribcage.
You chose me, I think.Now it’s my turn to choose you.
The feeling starts in my chest and begins to spread. It is somehow both warm and cold, as strong as steel and yet as fragile as glass. It feels like … a soft tug on an innermost part of myself, one that has been asleep for a very long time.
There’s another tug. Sharper this time.
