Page 43 of Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Shattered glass rings as their orbs break. Someone forces a golden mask over my face. My head spins as the poisonous gas coats the battlefield, making it impossible to see the action.

“Mother!” My scar burns as I wait for the blackness to clear. When the smoke thins, I break free, praying the bodies on the ground aren’t any of my soldiers.

“Is everyone alright?” My voice cracks as I approach the maji lying in the scorched earth. The rebels are burned beyond recognition. Their skin sizzles as the majacite lingers over their corpses.

Though some of my soldiers sport new scrapes and bruises, all of my men and women still stand. Mother wipes a line of blood from her lips and spits.

“Filthy maggots.”

“I’m sorry.” I stumble back, struggling to stay on my feet. My body starts to shake as everything that just happened hits me. I thought I was taking the first step toward peace. I risked everything to be a different kind of king. But theIyikadidn’t even make it into the city before they staged their attack.

Ojore was right; the maji don’t want peace.

They want victory no matter the cost.

Mother’s brows soften as she takes in my despair. She sighs and takes me by the hand. “You were leading with your heart, but you must realize that not every person in Orïsha deserves it.”

I force myself to nod, squeezing the bronze piece to quell the tremor in my hand. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Wait.” We look up as Ojore walks among the corpses on the ground. “There are only six bodies here. I counted seven on top of that hill.”

I jog forward, stomach dropping when I realize which face is missing.

“Where’s the girl?” I shout. “Where is Raifa?”

Confusion spreads as people search the woods, but I catch her lanky silhouette behind the broken ruin walls. She whips around when she hears her name, a golden mask fixed over her face.

Panic fills her large brown eyes and she looks to the single path leading back to the marketplace. It’s then I understand her true target.

The others were just a distraction.

“Stop her!” I command.

Raifa rips off her mask, sprinting as fast as her thin legs will allow. Her white hair bounces along her back as she races past the divîner dwellings, reaching the ruins of the merchant quarter.

Soldiers defending the ration carts move into her path, but Raifa stretches out her hand. Sparks fly from her fingers as she shouts.

“Iná òrìsà, gbó ìpè mi!”

A tîtán tackles her to the ground, but her embers still take to the air. They grow brighter as they fly through the sky. Horror floods me when the flames reach their full size.

Five comets race toward the ration carts. People dive out of the way. My heart seizes when they strike.

In a flash, the rations go up in flames.

“No!” I fall to my knees and clutch my chest, struggling to breathe as our food burns. A rage that doesn’t feel like my own floods me from my core.

Half of our rations.

Destroyed in seconds.

“This is only the beginning!” Raifa shouts, thrashing as more soldiers hold her down. She trembles when Ojore stomps toward her, but she continues to yell. “Your time is over! All of Lagos will burn! The Soldier of Death is coming—”

I flinch as Ojore silences her with his sword.

The Soldier of Death is coming.

I don’t need to see a face to know who the title describes. Zélie swore she’d be my end. I just didn’t expect her to attack so fast. I underestimated the resources and soldiers she had at her command.

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