His companion handled, for the time being, my goal was to get Cillian away from Freya and the girl. Freya had gotten her standing but Cillian lobbed a ball of flame straight at them. He laughed as the fire licked at their skirts. He raised his hand, the flames jumping higher and higher, trying to crawl ever closer to my friend.
Freya had leapt back, only slightly singed, but the servant girl wasn’t so lucky. The flames licked higher up the girl’s dress and she screamed, a sound of pure agony that shattered something fundamental inside me. This broken child, this innocent who had already suffered so much, was now burning because of my failure to act fast enough.
“Enough!” The word tore from my throat as my fire channel burst open, allowing me to take control ofthe flames.
Taking in the burn marks on the girl, a rage like I’d never known flooded through me. A barrier that had been holding me back snapped. Fire, earth, air, and raw power swirled through me in a torrent of fury. I threw my sword on the ground with a clatter of metal as I brought up a different kind of fire—a pure-white furnace, hotter than anything Cormac had ever used—erupted around us. But it would only burn those I demanded it burn.
The earth opened and swallowed Cillian’s feet, trapping him in place. He let out a cry of surprise and then one of panic as I strode toward him.
“Flames will not burn you, you say. Try these.” I didn’t recognize my voice. It was deadly calm, and whatever he saw in my face made his eyes widen in panic. As he struggled, vines like the ones that still held his companion stretched out to capture his limbs. My mind channel crushed his attempts to channel his own power. I felt the strangest sense of glee, watching him struggle. I was no longer me. I had given in to my power, and in so doing, lost myself.
“You threaten the innocent.” I took a step forward. “You threaten me.” Another step. “You are too great a risk to keep alive.” The third step put me within his potential grasp, but he would never again touch me, touch anyone.
“Your highness, I repent.” He held up his hands hastily, attempting a penitent look.
I looked at him, truly looked at him, with my soul channel fully open. And what I saw in there made up my mind. “No,” I said sadly. “You don’t.”
The look disappeared, and he spat with true malice. “You little bitch! You’ll rue the day?—”
I clenched my hand, and the flames closed in tighter and tighter around him. These flames were primal and hungry and solely obeyed my command. They would even burn another fire wielder.
He struggled against the stones trapping his feet, but the earth would not budge. There was no way to outrun fury given form. He tried to scream as the fire consumed him, his own flamesturned against him and amplified beyond his control. I felt his death through the earth as his body collapsed and was devoured, leaving nothing but ash.
I glanced at his companion, his image rippling in the heat of the flames, still struggling with the vines. My soul channel was still fully open, and I knew there was no saving him either. With a thought, vines snaked over his neck, and he stopped struggling.
The white fire disappeared as if someone had blown out a candle, the sudden absence leaving me feeling bereft. Empty. With the feeling of free fall, I returned to myself.
I fell to my knees, staring at my hands blankly. They were still my hands, but they had just taken two lives.
I was going to be sick.
Freya crawled over to me. There was a mixture of fear and pity on my friend’s face. She reached toward me but stopped before making contact, her hands shaking and hovering in place.
I looked up at her, almost unseeing. “I killed them.” The words fell from my lips, sending ripples of horror through me. “And I enjoyed it.” The admission came out as a whisper, and I waited for her to recoil from the monster I had become. “What does that make me?”
She went to take my hands. “Lexie?—”
“Don’t!” I screamed, scooting backward on my hands and knees. “It’s still there, below the surface. What if I hurt you? What if I can’t control it?”
She couldn’t touch me. Not like this. Not with all of this death all over me.
She was crying, but her voice was oddly steady. “Lexie, it’s okay. You do not have death all over you.”
I must have spoken those words out loud.
“You saved us both.” She grabbed both of my hands with hers and drew me toward her.
I didn’t hurt her. My hands didn’t hurt her.
My resistance crumbled, and I let her wrap her arms around me.We clung to each other for just a moment, as both of us shed the tears that the adrenaline had brought up.
I thought I saw blurry figures through the tears, but I wasn’t quite ready to let go of Freya. But then I heard it, heardhim.
“Lexa.”Griff. His voice could draw me through anything.
The daze of using my power like that.
The shock of killing two men.
