‘Blaze understands the devastation caused by her birth, Your Imperial Majesty, and she will do everything in her power to make sure we never see its like again,’ she says, in a voice loud enough for all to hear. ‘As you can see, her gift is now firmly under her control.’
King Balen gives a little cough. ‘That is all very commendable, Lady Harglade, but I was under the impression that I asked for rain. Not this –’ he gestures gracefully towards the ceiling – ‘vapour.’
Beside me, Ember snorts quietly into her wine glass. I flinch as she hisses in my ear, ‘A family like ours was bound to have a rotten apple some day, cousin. And here you are, rotten to the core. You’re not fooling anyone, least of all me.’
Her words are poison delivered in a voice like melted honey. My heart races, pounding against my ribcage, and something stirs inside of me. Something cold.
Flint steps forward then, smiling graciously at King Balen. ‘I suspect Blaze was just being modest, sire.’
‘Oh, I have no time for modesty,’ responds the Ventalla King silkily. ‘I wish to be entertained.’
‘Come now, brother,’ begins the emperor, but I don’t hear what follows, because Ember leans in close once more.
‘I’m just glad dear Aunt Analiese isn’t around to see it. To seeyou.’
I feel myself go still, my whole body rigid, as though I am frozen in place. All at once, the drizzle stops.
‘How burdensome you must have been to her, Blaze,’ Ember continues softly. ‘How …disappointing.’
I always thought fury would feel like fire, but I was wrong. Fury is ice. It burns cold, searing through my veins.
Ember opens her mouth to say more, but she doesn’t get the chance. For in every wine glass in every hand, the dark liquid quivers, ripples, and then freezes solid. Seconds later the hall echoes with the sound of a thousand shattering glasses.
White noise fills my ears as the crowd staggers backwards away from me. I can’t hear their screams, or Ember’s shrieks as she holds up her hands, red trickling from a series of deep gashes on her palms.
My gaze falls on Prince Haldyn, his cheeks spattered with flecks of blood or wine or both. Next to him, Flint is looking at me as though he’s never seen me before.
Then Grandmother seizes hold of me, debris crunching underfoot as she half drags me from the ballroom. But before the doors close behind us, I look back.
Among the sea of horrified faces, King Balen smiles on.
Still holding what remains of his broken glass, he looks into my eyes, and raises it.
5
Ilie twisted in red-silk sheets, listening to the soft crackle of the fire. It had sprung to life in the hearth the moment Grandmother had marched me through the door to my rooms, and has remained burning long after she disappeared downstairs to clear up my mess.
Sleep.
That’s all she said to me, as if I were no more than a cranky child in need of a nap. But I’m too shaken-up to do so much as close my eyes. I’m wide awake, skittish and deathly cold. The fire casts the room in a warm orange glow, yet I can’t stop shivering.
Aside from the rain, which answers only to a Rain Singer, the Aquatori learn to harness three main kinds of water manipulation – simmer skimming, wave carving and ice making. After the storm, after my rain was replaced by drizzle, I long held out hope that my other water gifts would materialize one day, but they never did.
Until now.
The fury has all but drained out of me and I feel … I don’t know what I feel. Horrified? That I gave the Etheri yet another reason to fear me? That I have serveda seventeen-year sentence only to kiss any chance of exoneration goodbye?
I sit up, hugging my knees tightly.
I made my cousin bleed for what she did. And there was a part of me, a very small part, that had wanted to hurt her. Hurt her like she hurt me.
But hadn’t she deserved it? Those things she said about my mother, they were unforgivable. She knew exactly what she was doing. Only, I didn’t. It was unintentional, reflexive. Like a release. All that anger, all that fury, all of a sudden it was lifted. Redirected. Turned into something cold and sharp and vicious.
For the first time, I didn’t feel powerless. I feltpowerful. And Ilikedit.
So yes, I expect I am a little horrified by what I did. But what scares me more is not being able to do it again.
My head spins with unanswered questions.
