Page 179 of Emylia

She hadn’t just grown up.

She’d become dangerous.

There was an intelligence in her eyes now that gleamed like a blade. Quiet. Sharp. Lethal. She didn’t have my magik, or my ability to kill without blinking—but Evie was something else entirely.

A weapon no one had seen coming.

At least, not yet.

And I was beginning to think she might be the most dangerous one of us all.

Because knowledge is power—and she had been watching. Learning. Calculating. Sharpening her mind while we sharpened steel.

And now?

Now all I had to do was show her how to deliver the final blow.

And then she’d be an unstoppable force.

* * *

ChapterThirty-Eight

Abreath of air whooshed from me as I forced myself to take a step forward. For some reason, this felt more nerve-wracking than when I’d first attempted to wield magik—like this time, something real was expected of me.

If I fell short now, what then?

Could I live with being a failure?

My breath came too fast—too deep, too heavy, coated in too much expectation. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was so scared of. I’d already commanded water magik before—in the clouds, in the rain. That’s why I’d chosen it first.

Because it felt familiar.

Safe.

But today, it didn’t feel like safety. It felt like pressure.

Sebastian’s hand found mine, his fingers sliding between mine until they couldn’t go any further—imprisoning them in the warmth of everything that was uniquely him. Grounding me. Steadying me.

And still, the fear of failing wrapped around my ribs like a vice.

If I couldn’t hone this power—if I couldn’t bend it to my will and forge it into something useful—then what was the point of any of this?

I wouldn’t be able to protect Ophelia from the Warlord. Everyone I loved would be in danger. And all this pain, all the impossible choices—between Maalikai and Sebastian—would be for nothing.

So I had to be stronger than my fear.

I had to be more than the swirling mess inside me.

I had to be unapologetically me.

Sebastian squeezed my hand. “You okay?”

That quick, easy smirk sent my heart stuttering. It pulled me straight back to the other night—to the way his lips had branded mine, tasting and teasing until I couldn’t think anymore.

The boy I’d loved my whole life had taken my virginity.

No—that wasn’t right.

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