Page 161 of Heir

The creature hissed and threw it off, turning. Upon seeing who had interrupted her twisted rite, she smiled.

“Ah, the little witch.” Div oozed into the form of Sirsha’s mother, freezing Quil with a motion of her hand. “Come to save your lover? You’ll have to do better than that.”

Sirsha’s magic scattered as the creature turned the enormity of its evil upon her.

“Kill me,” Sirsha called to Div. “Not him.”

The creature considered Sirsha with a broadening smirk, as if she couldn’t believe her luck.

Yes, Sirsha thought to herself.Closer.The Jaduna buried her bindingdeep, the way she’d realized Quil did. There in her darkest heart, she let it build, for the timing was crucial. She must release it as Div attacked and hope that by powering her binding with a sacrifice—an emotion far stronger than mere desire—she would tear Div apart.

Div grabbed Sirsha and took a long, deep sniff at her throat.

Not yet, the elements whispered at Sirsha.Hold the binding.

Div laughed in delight and the sound fell like knives upon Sirsha’s mind, for it was the cackle of a creature glutted on innocent souls. It was laughter underlaid with screams.

Sirsha sweated as she poured more of herself into the magic. As she thought:Me, not Quil. Me, not Quil.

Sirsha, the wind, earth, and sea spoke to her as one.Is your sacrifice true? Do you offer yourself in place of the Martial prince?

“Yes!” Sirsha screamed, even as she felt a terrible pain in her chest—Div reaching for her heart. “Obviously!”

Why?

Thinking the words was easier, of course. Love was pain. Love was hurt and betrayal. But it was also the reason she stood here, battling a creature of ancient and unrelenting hunger, instead of on a ship a few hundred miles away. Love was why for the first time since her family cast her out, Sirsha didn’t feel alone.

“Because I love him, you cussed nags! Why else!”

Sirsha’s magic swelled and flickered as if filled with lightning. For a moment, she saw Div’s truest self, a seething mass of suffering. Sirsha felt a soul-deep relief that she was destroying such an abomination. That Div would no longer be allowed to exist in the world.

She poured her magic into the binding, triumphant as it built, and built, and built, until everything and everyone was swallowed by its light.

48

Quil

Because I love him, you cussed nags! Why else!

Quil heard Sirsha’s outburst, saw her speaking to voices he couldn’t hear. The coin at his throat burned white hot, but he couldn’tdoanything. He felt a sudden awareness of Sirsha, a glimpse of the inside of her. All the pain that she kept caged away, like a wild animal that she couldn’t risk letting loose. But the love, too, infinite shades of it veined through her soul.

For a second, she was resplendent, garbed in her magic, her power finally unleashed. The light grew so brilliant that he had to look away, shielding his vision.

Then he felt an emptiness. A yawning chasm in the shape of the girl he realized he loved. Though the moon shone through the window of one of the jail cells, its light felt wan. The shadows of the cellblock contracted, slow and heavy as a lament.

Sirsha was gone.

Quil could move again, no longer held in place by Div. Sufiyan and Arelia limped toward him.

“What the bleeding hells happened?” Suf asked. His clothes were covered in blood. His hands shook, and he couldn’t stop looking at the two prone bodies on the stone floor.

Cero and Aiz. Dead.He considered the former—so desperate to free his friend, desperate to protect her. And Aiz.No, she’s not Aiz. Nor is she Ilar. She is the Tel Ilessi. The beast who unleashed the hells on your people and her own.

“We need to go.” Tas lurched toward Quil, a gash on his head oozing an alarming amount of blood. “If the High Seer’s soldiers find us downhere with dead bodies, we’ll be answering questions for days. We need to get back to the Empire. I’m assuming he told you a way out of here.”

“He did, but we can’t leave.” Quil spun around the cellblock. “Not without Sirsha.”

Arelia shook her head. “I don’t know if her magic consumed her or if Div did, but I saw her disappear. One moment she was here, and the next…”

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