Page 170 of Ash and Feather

Over and over, I kept reminding myself of that. Telling myself that it was not over. They had not killed her. They had not killed Dravyn. They had not killed me. Theywouldn’tkill me.I was a goddess. I was fire and fury, perfection and power, and this was not my ending.

But my sister…

Of course they had gone after her.

I should have known I was putting her at risk, asking her to meet me. I should have been better prepared to protect her.

But no.

I was a fool who couldn’t even protect my own flesh and blood, much less save the realms from the wars threatening them, as I’d hoped to do. I’d only ended up killing more. Causing a bigger mess.

I took a deep breath.

Tried to focus on the things thatweren’ta disaster.

Dravyn was safe. I was safe. My sister was barely conscious, but still alive.Injured. Not dead.

This is not an ending.

But I had never felt so ready for everything to be over.

I wanted to collapse to the ground, yet I kept moving. Weaving through the flaming fields on my own, letting the tendrils of heat scour my skin. Mentally sinking into the magic within that heat. Bolstering the magic where it felt weak, sending some of the flames so high they could likely be seen for miles around.

Iwantedthem to be seen.

I wanted them to serve as a warning to all our enemies. To one enemy in particular.

Come close to this house again.

I fucking dare you.

A reckless challenge, I knew, when we were better off lying low while my sister recovered. Which was why I wasn’t surprised when I looked over my shoulder and saw a section of the distant field barely smoldering, the roaring blaze I’d set reduced to nothing more than charred and smoking ground.

Someone was putting my fires out.

I felt a cool breeze caress my skin moments later, pulling my attention away from my broken and battered thoughts. I didn’t have to look in the direction of that breeze to know it was Valas approaching from the east. His power preceded him, countering and starting to calm my own just by its mere arrival.

“Sorry to undo your impressive work,” he said, flashing me a crooked smile, “but it was getting a bit warm for my taste.”

I folded my arms across my chest and simply nodded. I didn’t want to argue. Or even talk. But I was not entirely ungrateful for his company, either, so I kept silent when he fell into step beside me.

Together, we walked the perimeter of my family’s land. I continued to occasionally set fires whenever I grew restless. He never asked me to stop. He only put out the worst of them with simple flourishes of his hands, gestures that filled the air with sparkling crystals that hissed into steam as they clashed with my power.

“I’ve just come from Altis, if you’re curious,” he said after a few minutes of walking. “The city is secured. The fires in and around it have all been put out.”

“And the king?”

“Not thrilled with how things unfolded, as you probably guessed. Rumors are he’s mobilizing troops at Mindoth and elsewhere, preparing to march northward.”

“Toward the Hollowlands? Toward Ederis?”

“One assumes.” He sighed. “He already had these forces lined up and ready, but now…”

Now he has no reason to believe peace is an option.

Because I’d failed to hold up my end of the deal.

He was surely furious at me, at my sister, at anything and everything associated with us. Angry that he’d taken a chance onme. How many of his people had the elves killed to get at my sister?

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