Page 189 of Daughter of No Worlds

All I could think was that I loved her.

I hadn’t told her that, but as that unsettling blue light grew closer and closer, I’d never felt any greater certainty. I loved her for her strength, for her beautiful brute force, for seeing what no one else does. I loved her for everything the world constantly used against her. I loved her for continuing anyway.

Promise me that you will keep fighting your battles even if I lose mine.

I stood with her, only her, until the end of our stories. But I refused to allow hers to be a retelling of mine. She deserved better than a lifetime of bloodstained hands and a tale with a bitter ending crafted from Reshaye’s terrible acts. She deservedepics.

And I loved her so damned much that I would fulfill the promise I made to her, even if it became the hardest thing I ever did.

Even if it meant embracing a part of myself that I would rather pretend didn’t exist.

The blue flames engulfed me. They were lightly cool, and they burned a slow, strange pain over my skin that rattled through me like lightning.

I waited until I couldn’t take it anymore before I did something that I had sworn to myself I would never, ever do.

If Reshaye was drawing from a deeper power, then so could I. For once, I wasn’t holding back.

My second eyelid slid open, and my body unraveled into fire.

Chapter Seventy-Four

Tisaanah

Iwas falling so fast that the world smeared around me. I reached for control and groped at nothing but darkness and shadow.

I had no control over my body as I strode down the hall, to the ballroom.

The ballroom where hundreds of people, including many of my dearest friends, awaited.

I was so afraid.

It’s alright,I whispered to Reshaye, as soothing as I could manage through my rising panic.It’s alright.

{I have told you so many times. You cannot lie.}

Even its voice sounded different, warped with strange, flickering power. Cold light that resembled flames surrounded me, clawing across the floor and up the walls with every step I took.

{You betrayed me,}it snarled.{They all have. They always do.}

The image of Max’s fingers over my stomach flashed through my head again, two seconds repeated at a dizzying frequency.

Dread closed my throat. Max. Max who had believed in me so strongly. Where was he? Was he dead? Were they all dead?

I had failed them. Gods, they had followed me, and I had so deeply, utterly failed them.

Please,I begged.

{Silence.}

I turned a corner, and I was in the ballroom. The music overwhelmed my ears, throbbing into my head. The room was still packed full of finely dressed guests, though many of them had turned to filter from the room, whispering to each other in hushed voices and no-doubt gossiping about what they had witnessed.

At least, they were, until I entered.

The corners of the room dimmed. Flames and rot spread spidering fingers across the floor. The guests froze and turned to look at me, eyes wide with shock or narrowed in confused disgust.

Reshaye turned my head and skimmed our vision by the slaves, too — guards lined up against the wall and maids who sank into the corners, terrified.

{Look at the way they look at us.}

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