Page 10 of A Petal in the Crown

Destroy, that commanding voice inside her urged. The one laced with darkness and death. The one growing louder with every breath she took. Flames spread through her blood, her fire growing and her shadows coiling around her, begging her to listen.

Destroy.

Destroy.

Destroy.

But Lea knew she couldn’t. No matter how much she wanted to end their eternal existence. It would only doom them all.

It was always about fucking balance.

Lea turned away from the gods. She didn’t want to look at them, afraid seeing them would push her over the edge and sever whatever tiny thread of control she was hanging onto. They had betrayed her. Had demanded so much of her, all to allow her mate to be killed. They’d led them here, with no protection, as they’d battled Alaric.

Throwing her arms in the air, Lea built a wall of black fire behind herself in an attempt to block them off, furious at their inaction and afraid of their retaliation for the decision she’d made. Blazing heat exploded at her back, and a large, flaming hand wrapped around her bicep, stopping her in her tracks.

"You have doomed them all," the hand squeezed, whirling her around and sending agonizing pain shooting up her arm. "Our people.Yourpeople," the god of the sun roared. A fiery haze surrounded his body, so bright Lea could barely stand to look at him.

But she forced herself to meet his eyes. "I justsavedthem all." Darkness grew around them, her shadows becoming solid as they twisted around his arm and ripped it from her own. "And you will not touch me without my consent."

The god froze, his furyalmostmatching Lea’s. But she didn’t care.Couldn’tcare. The fire inside her was too much. Too hot. The black, primary magic twisted and expanded, begging to be unleashed, her skin burning with the intensity of it trying to escape.

She couldn’t hold it back. Didn’t want to. She’d lost her mate—twice. Her friends. Her life. Her kingdom.

And so she allowed it to burst free from the swirling, raging pit of power in her chest. Just for a moment.

Darkness slammed into the god of the sun, sending him flying backward, and he roared in fury as black tendrils knocked him down, white-hot fire exploding in an arc toward her. Lea called on the wind, commanding it to whip furiously across the hill as a solid shield of air wrapped around her body.

The god’s magic ripped against it, tore at the shield as it fought to get to her, but there was no way through. It was his own magic she wielded against him. His,andthe goddesses. The magic they had gifted her, hoping she could purge the earth of evil, but instead leaving her wholly unprepared for how to control the might of what was inside her.

She held his furious stare, lifting her chin defiantly. "Youare the one who did this to the world.Youmade me choose." Lea stabbed a finger at the god, unafraid. "One of us had to remain. You’d rather unleashthison your people?" Lea let go of the scrap of control she still held over her magic, and the hill beyond the veil exploded in flames. Black fire raced through the gently swaying grass, searing it into embers. The surge of power filled her with warmth, her fire shooting thousands of feet into the sky as her hair whipped furiously around her.

"You are unworthy of the power we gifted you." He lowered his chin, looking down at her with disdain, his lips curling in disgust. "The choice you made today will destroy everything. And only you will be to blame."

Lea raised her hands, her eyes darkening as she called her shadows and flames back into her fingertips. "Leave me," she ordered, lowering her chin. His mouth opened in shock and he threw up a shield, anticipating her attack. His fire grew brighter, his rage evident as he grabbed the moon goddess around the waist and pulled her closer, shielding her.

"You will regret this," he threatened, sparing only a brief look at Lea’s inferno of rage before disappearing in a flash of white-hot light, leaving her alone, finally, to burn in peace.

The earth smoked beneath Lea where she sat on the hill, her knees pulled to her chest and her fingers swirling gently in the thick layer of ash coating the ground as far as her eyes could see. Her gaze remained locked on the patch of hill in the distance where her home should be. But even in the pitch-black night, with nothing but the twinkling stars overhead to illuminate the landscape, she knew there was no house to see. She was no longer in a world where home existed. Nothing was left but her grief, her rage, and the overwhelmingly violent power inside her.

A flicker of fury danced down her spine and into the ground, energizing the flames that draped her like a gown and spread across the earth. Of course, she couldn’t watch her mate and friends. The universe was far too cruel to allow her even a sliver of peace in the afterlife.

It was her village she looked upon, but at the same time, it wasn’t. The land was as unblemished as when the gods had first created it, not a rock or piece of stone out of place to indicate that man or Fae had ever been here at all.

The fire inside her continued to ripple and expand, and Lea attempted to tamp it down.

She’d done what she’d come here to do. Gray was alive, and she didn’t regret her decision, even knowing it had infuriated the gods—that it would infuriate everyone who loved her.

History would call her a fool. But she was anythingbutfoolish. In fact, she was the opposite. Her decision had been every bit as calculated as it was emotional. Gray was the one who knew the land of Desia like theback of his hand. Who knew every inch of the castle and every weakness of his brother. While Lea, on the other hand, knew very little of her kingdom. Only her little village, and the way through the Wicked Wood into Calir.

Gray knew every member of his army—had plans he’d been putting in place for a century. And though she might have more raw power brimming inside her, she didn't know how to control it. This power… It was something wicked anddark,simmering beneath her skin and threatening to consume her whole, something terrifying and vengeful—the ultimate reason she’d forced Gray to return instead of herself.

Yes. No matter how she would be remembered in history for the decision she’d made, in the end, it had been that dark magic coursing through Lea’s veins and pumping through her body with every beat of her heart that had solidified her decision to slip the petal between his lips. The power inside her waswrong. Wicked and overwhelming in a way that made her worry if she were the one to return, that wrath and fury would grow so big, so terrible, that without Gray to help her contain it, she mightactuallydestroy the entire world in her quest for revenge.

She couldn’t protect her kingdom if she was too busy burning it to ruins.

A gentle breeze brushed against her cheeks, carrying with it the scent of honeysuckle, and Lea closed her eyes, inhaling deeply and trying desperately to find a hollow place inside to force her dark magic to hide. It was uncomfortable, the way it butted against her ribs and pushed them outward, as if the magnitude of the power might shatter her from the inside out.

Where her primary magic had once lived in her chest, there was only a massive gaping hole, and with nothing to hold the power back or lock it neatly in place, she couldn’t stop the storm of rage and retribution threatening to consume her. Was this how she would spend the nextthousand years? Burning from within from a power so awful, so horrifyingly omnipotent, that she’d be forced to spend every last second and minute and hour fighting the agony of its pull?

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