“You are too broken to be the whole of anything.”
—and I’m not going to leave you behind.
Corin felt the dagger crystallize in her palm as she plunged it in his back.
She didn’t know how it happened. She had materialized into something solid, a translucent force that moved with only one goal in mind. But she barely made a difference. The Demon King had hardly been wounded. Instead, he turned around, black eyes narrowing at Corin.
No, that wasn’t right. His eyes were looking through her.
A scream ripped out of Malicine’s throat. “Amelia—!”
Corin didn’t have time to react. Oleander’s arm swung at her, and the impact made her entire being shatter. Pain bloomed her whole body, then tore it into pieces. She broke apart until fragments of herself were left on the floor.
Darkness returned to the edges of her vision. A blinding, searing ache that made its way through her bones into tingling numbness. She felt herself losing shape and sensation. Then heat warmed her skin, reminding her the edges of her body. The room turned hot, and the walls around them shook like an earthquake. The scream that once echoed from Malicine transformed into something deep, guttural. Their presence shifted into a bigger force than the tower could contain. The roof split apart, and the ground caved in.
As Corin slid inside the rocky debris, flames trickled between the gaps, a wall of vermillion that shone through the darkness. For a moment, she forgot about the pain and cracked an impossible smile. She could see the dragon rising from the ashes. The creature tore through the sky, terrifying and magnificent at the same time. She knew the dragon would save her and get them out of this island. This was Malicine, after all, and they were more powerful than anything in this world.
CHAPTER 30
101 YEARS AGO
MALICINE WAS SUPPOSED to die alone by their own father’s hands. Sacrificed to make some impossible wish come true, all so that Oleander could create a new world from his own flesh and blood. He didn’t care if that meant killing his own child. The dagger would slash Malicine’s throat open, the blade already pressed into their neck.
Instead, the knife retracted, and the pain was gone.
There was the sound of something piercing flesh, but it wasn’t Malicine’s. They opened their eyes and saw a glass dagger punctured through Oleander’s chest. The blade looked hastily carved, yet sharp enough to wound him. A shudder of breath, and Malicine noticed it came from a new person, one whose silhouette was made of glass.
Amelia pulled out the dagger and stumbled backward. Her body toppled to the ground, slicked in blood and stone. There was a crack in her ribs, translucent bones protruding from paper-thin skin. She struggled to push herself up, and Malicine realized it hadn’tbeen a dagger she carried, but the sharp end of a broken hand.
Questions spun in Malicine’s mind. How long had Amelia been wandering to find Malicine? How could she break so easily and still be here?
And why,whydidn’t she leave Malicine behind?
The stab wasn’t enough to kill Oleander. If anything, it only resulted in a minor wound. A temporary distraction that would result in another death, one that didn’t even need to happen if Amelia hadn’t been foolish enough to return. She backed away as he turned around, trembling under his shadow. Sharp talons flashed. A blur of claws swiped the air. A guttural scream ripped from Malicine’s throat before they could make sense of why they cared.
“Amelia—!”
She shattered before them, a burst of glass and silent cries. She didn’t even make a sound as she broke apart. The shards split in different directions across the floor, pieces of her scattering near Malicine’s feet.
They stared at the fragments of the only person who looked for them. In their reflection, they shed tears. Amelia had been falling apart, and she still came back for Malicine.
The world turned still, only the sound of their shaky breaths betraying their body to tremble. Outside, the sky rumbled through the smoke. If there were stars, they’d bleed the world red. The black rocks looked like expressionless figures, but if Malicine concentrated hard enough, their pulse beat alongside the trees beyond. There used to be life in this world, and perhaps it still existed, something innate and covered. Like lava that once flowed through the forest, incinerating tree trunks to form the hollow cylinders around Malicine. A flame that broiled inside them, as well.
Oleander turned to them with a wicked smile, assuming they trembled from fear, not anger. He had said that Malicine was broken. He was wrong. Broken people didn’t feel the sort of rage that made them alive. Broken people didn’t have ravens who followed their side or lost princesses who chose them over anywhere else.
If anyone was broken and alone, it was him. It was why he sought them. Because the core of Malicine’s existence, their blood, their soul, held more multitudes than he could ever dream.
Popping noises rang from the sky. Cracks appeared in the fortress, running down the invisible barrier in the jagged shape of veins. It allowed for black smoke to trickle inside the tower, the red sky to bleed through the fissures. Oleander spun around, watching his world fall apart. But it wasn’t breaking down at all. It was only becoming alive for Malicine.
Rage exploded from within. Their mouth expelled a whorl of fire and blasted Oleander to the other side of the tower. He broke through the window, a ball of flames that barely had time to react. Chains broke from Malicine’s limbs as they grew bigger, taller, crashing through the vaulted ceiling and rising higher than any spire. Walls crumbled, and from the debris and ash, they rose as a dragon.
Their tail swung at the columns in Oleander’s direction. He moved quickly, arms raised to block the rocks. Black scales crackled across his skin as his horns spiraled into the sky. Laughter rumbled from his extending throat, his neck twisting around the trees, sharp teeth gleaming between the branches. The amulet glowed from his scales, and in his reddened eyes, Malicine saw blood.
“You are too inept to be acting stubborn.” When he spoke as a dragon, his voice was toneless, guttural. It echoed through everytree and shook the ground. “Don’t you understand, child? In every world, you are the same.”
Oleander’s mouth gaped open, a large void with teeth sharp enough to tear Malicine to shreds. Gusts of violent wind blew as he charged forward. Malicine didn’t retreat. Instead, they faced their father directly, green eyes locked onto the amulet at his throat. The gem radiated light through the void, as if sensing Malicine’s blood and ready to consume them.
They soared toward Oleander and swung for the gem. Their claws pierced his scales, digging into flesh until they could rip the amulet from his body. They let out a guttural snarl as his teeth clamped over their limbs. Blood spurted from both dragons as they tore into each other. Pain blossomed through Malicine’s body with each scratch. A blinding light split the sky open. The amulet pulsed like a beating heart, slicked with both their blood. Oleander’s laugh was monstrous as he grabbed the gem, keen to take the newfound power. But it burned under his touch, and he let out a howl as holes burned into his scales.
