Page 146 of The Princesses of Ruin
The oily black of Ashai slithers around my fire and chokes the thread of Alyse. If I don’t do something, it’s going to win out. Jasper murmurs my name, and I feel his touch on my shoulder like a distant call home. I can’t return yet. Imusthelp her fight this. Without Alyse’s power, Scarlett will fall. The only way to save her is to burn Ashai.
I tap into my connection to the essence inside my sister. Some of it is still part of me, and it senses my command.
Chase and hunt.
Burnthe invader.
Wind rushes past me and jerks my attention to my body. Scarlett flies over us on the Wall, held aloft by strings of dark power and pushed by the wind. Zane calls out to her, as does Lily, but she doesn’t respond. She’s so fast. Too fast.
I reach out, trying to command the bit of fire in her to burn brighter, to give her control. Scarlett drops from the sky into the streets of the Underbelly.
“What’s happening to her?” Zane asks.
Alyse sends thoughts and images to us in a way that transcends conversation. All at once everyone knows that Scarlett is battling the insidious desires of Ashai, and that my flames are coursing through her…
Killing her.
She’s too interwoven with the darkness. She believes there is no way to save Scarlett and kill Ashai. The knowledge hits me like a slap to the face. She knew. Scarlett and Alysebothknew that she would die for us.
But did they know that Ashai would continue to rule in her magic, controlling Scarlett’s desires, changing her personality? Did they know she wouldn’t be herself after the fact, and that I would be left to clean up the aftermath?
“I’m sorry, sister.”Alyse’s voice is little comfort, only confirmation.
She knew my role in this, just like Scarlett knew hers.
Well, fuck that.
I’m undoing the threads of fate.
I reach into my hip pouch and remove the special cocktail Adrik created for this battle. There’s a fleeting worry for him and Captain Alejandra, but their deaths will be confirmed and mourned later,ifthey’re gone.
I snap the cork off and throw my head back, downing the contents of the vial. The potion burns through my body like flame eats parchment. Not an ounce of weakness is left in the wake of this powerful concoction. I clench my fists and flex my arms. They don’t tremble like they used to, and I know I can fly.
“Rei, no!” Jasper yells, but I’m already jumping.
I’ll find her.
I’ll fix this.
Flame shoots from my hands and slows my descent. I position my arms behind me and make my body ramrod straight. I shoot through the air toward where Scarlett fell. People scream below me, fleeing from an evil that’s already penetrated the city.
Scarlett doesn’t know what she’s doing, but she’ll bring about the end if I don’t stop her. I can sense her hunger. Her desire for vengeance and power. Her thirst stokes the yearning within me, too. I want to feast with her on the bones of the gods. I wonder if Alyse feels it too.
“More than you know.”
I put the gnawing appetite out of my mind as I hunt her, following the scent of my fire within her. Blood calls to blood and I sense her moving toward the Nest. I burn over the terra-cotta roofs. The snow melts in my wake and drips through the streets, washing the fearful.
This will soon be over, and they won’t have to fear anymore.
Faster now, I follow into the darkness that consumes her, praying I’m not too late before it consumes us, too.
The Nest comes into view. There’s a blazing hole carved through the rooftop that could only be my power. I drop into the burning building and call the fire into me as I go, extinguishing the flames. The stones of the basement have been peeled away like flower petals,as if Lily’s magic was used to push the material that couldn’t be burned.
Down, down, down I plummet until I land beside her in the darkness. Blue ripples off me and lights the walls, silhouetting Scarlett.
“You can’t stop me,” she says, her voice modulated with an otherworldly hum.
“I don’t mean to,” I say. “I just want to save you.”
