Page 48 of A Petal in the Crown

"My daughter! Help her!" Lea pushed down the wave of nausea in her stomach at hearing a mother screaming for her child’s life. She didn’t know how many people were in the church, but she’d had enough. Enough death. Enough suffering. Gray and Erik ran toward the flaming chapel, but Lea knew there was nothing they could do. Not againstthismagic. Alaric’s magic.

The magic of thousands of Fae. Stolen and wielded by a madman.

It’d all been a trap, just like the one surrounding the cage inside the castle, the one that had held her mother hostage for decades.

Enough. Enough of the games. The death. Enough of the fighting and losing. Enough suffering. Lea’s flames grew taller, mixing with the fire around the church, making it grow hotter and burn faster.

"No!" she screamed. Or, at least, she thought she did, but Lea wasn't sure.

You must become the darkness,Evangeline’s voice circled in her mind, and Lea’s heart stuttered, pounding furiously out of rhythm. Shecouldn'tbecome the darkness. It would kill her. But if she didn't, they would all die. Every single person screaming for their life right now inside that church. Every innocent villager—her own people. Sweat broke out on her neck, panic surging up her throat, but she forced it down.

She’d watched helplessly as Gray’s eyes had glazed over with death. Never again would she allow it to claim one of her own. She was their fucking queen.

Not a coward.

Not a slave to the gods’ power.

She was a warrior.

No one had fought for her. Not until Gray. Not really. Her parents had lied. Her birth mother had abandoned her. But she’d felt love now. Real, sacrificial love.Thatwas the kind of queen she wanted to be. A loving one. A brave one. One willing to risk it all for the people who depended on her.

Lea closed her eyes and shoved away her terror, reaching inside and allowing the darkness to claim her—to seep into her marrow and wrap around her bones, merging with her own flesh until it was coursing through her bloodstream with every beat of her heart. Her head flew back as she opened herself up to it, calling it home, begging it to fill her—to change her.

A flicker of fire ignited in her chest, and instantly, the inferno consuming the church began to pull back, climbing up Lea’s body and wrapping around her in a blazing tornado of flames. Agony, unlike anything she'd ever experienced before, spread through her veins and arteries. Through her capillaries and into her organs and across her skin. She screamed again, falling to her knees, her voice sounding miles away as she screamed until her voice was raw and her throat bled.

Andjustas the pain became too much, the moment Lea was certain she was going to die, her agony disappeared into nothing. The pain was gone, as was the inner turmoil she'd been battling since returning from the dead.

Lea shot out a hand, forcing shadows from her fingertips in the direction of the church. Enormous storm clouds of darkness flew forwardand shrouded everything in black. Emma shrieked and Gray shouted her name, but she couldn't focus on them. There were lives at stake.

Striding forward through the black smoke, Lea pulled a moonflower seed from her pocket and shoved it into the ground at the base of the steps to the church. She felt the last flicker of fire extinguish within the building, then grabbed her sword, pulled the magic of the sword inside her, and forced a gust of wind to blow the smoke away. The windows to the chapel shattered outward and thick black smoke poured out between the remaining pieces of jagged glass.

Lea pulled her shadows back into herself, sighing in relief as they nestled back behind her breastbone. The brilliant red sun was blindingly bright now that her shadows weren’t blocking it, and she squinted as she stumbled up the stone stairs to the still smoking church. She grabbed the old wrought iron handle of the door, pushing and pulling, but the door remained shut. Lea gritted her teeth, rage bubbling inside her as she lifted a hand to burn the door away, but Gray was at her side in an instant, kicking the door inward, splinters of wood flying through the air from the impact of it hitting the inside wall.

The cries of pain and agony from those inside grew louder. So intense, the sound made Lea dizzy. She wasted no time, jumping off the stairs and kneeling on the ashy ground as she pulled a handful of moonflower seeds from her pocket.

"Bring them out here!" Lea ordered as she shoved her fingers into the dirt and funneled her magic into the soil. The moonflowers responded instantly, threading across the ground and blooming into pristine white flowers within seconds. Her heart thundered as she plucked them, reveling in the way they remained white—almost glowing.

She held her palm out to the side, not bothering to stop picking petals with the other, and Janelle took them from her, distributing them to the men and women being carried through the doors.

Oozing, charred skin faded to red, then pink as wounds healed over, the color returning to the faces of those still unconscious. Lea held her breath as she waited, watching for them to wake up.

"It's the smoke, I think. Their lungs," Emma said, tilting her head to the side and closing her eyes. "They were near death, but I can still feel them. Stronger now. I think they'll wake soon." She placed a hand on Lea’s arm. "You saved them."

Lea didn't have the time to feel relief.

"Who did this to you?" she asked a young woman coughing in the grass next to her. A child clung to her waist, soot coating his cheeks and throat.

"The King. Alaric. His soldiers rounded us up. All of us who didn't fall to the Lonely Death. He locked us inside and just left us there."

Lea's vision dotted with black as her fury grew. "How long were you in there?" she asked.

"Four days, I think." The woman scrunched her forehead as if she couldn't quite remember. "Maybe more?"

"Where did he go?" Gray dropped to Lea’s side, having finished evacuating all the villagers from inside the church. Sweat dripped from his brow, and he rubbed it away with the sleeve of his forearm, smearing black ash across his forehead.

"I don't know. He looked sick. Terrifying. His veins were black, and his eyes…" The woman shivered. "I picture them every time my eyes close. Any time I even blink. He was furious when more of us didn't contract the Lonely Death. He said he needed more. More. More. More. He just kept screaming it."

Lea’s darkness roared, black fire bursting from her skin, but Gray’s shadows trailed up Lea’s back, a silent reminder he was with her.

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