Page 147 of The Princesses of Ruin
“Save me,” she says on a laugh. “I don’t need saving.”
She reaches into the black and her fist grasps something.
“You do,” I urge. “Please.”
She pulls, and a neck emerges from wispy darkness, then a face and chest. Zephrom is grasping Scarlett’s hand, kicking her legs furiously as she claws her flesh. Her nails leave red marks on Scarlett’s skin, and I know that those scraps would flay me open.
“The gods ruled us like children with playthings,” Scarlett says, glaring at the struggling Zephrom. “They pull the strings of fate at their whim, drowning our crops, or sending drought. They care not for anything but their entertainment, and our prayers. You would be better without them.”
I push my flames closer, burning the reaching vines of Ashai’s power before they touch me. Scarlett’s black gaze snaps to my face in a challenge, but it softens when she sees me.
“Little Sunbeam, can’t you see I’m trying to give you a future?”
Black veins snake through Zephrom’s face, eating her magic from the inside out. My goddess is dying.
“I’m scared that once you’ve taken Zephrom, you’ll grow sick with hunger. I feel it even now, sister, the desire for more,” I say, placing my hand against my gut where the aspiration for greatness lies. “I want you to keep yourself.”
“I am myself,” she booms, and the world trembles.
She lifts her chin and gold sparkles in her black eyes.
“My true self.”
Zephrom gasps for air and beats her fist on Scarlett’s elbow to no effect.
The power in her swells. She’s beyond my strength—she always was—but there’s no way down for her except of her own volition.
“Scarlett, please. Don’t become like them.”
“You would call me a monster?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
Her nostrils flare and her gaze darts away from me.
“I’ve behaved like one, it’s true, but when it comes to human lives, suffering, I have always been kinder. I didn’t kill unless it was necessary. I didn’t maim if it could be avoided. I havealwaysbeen more just thanher,” she growls, bearing down on Zephrom.
And then, something cracks. The foundation of the earth, my skull, Scarlett’s chest. It all splits open and power spills out. Scarlett lurches forward, gasping as she presses her hands to her vomiting heart.
Zephrom disappears in a burst of black. Her presence flees entirely, abandoning the stronghold she’s been cultivating for centuries. The Nest is empty, the urictsa gone…
Scarlett screams as liquid heat pours out of her. I dive forward, reaching for the essence spilling from her chest. It’s like lava, searing me before I can even get close. I want to scoop it up and shove it back inside her, but it’s so hot it feels like my fingers are melting off the bones.
“Zane,” she gasps, color draining from her face. “MySp…der Lord.”
“I’ll tell him,” I say, touching her arms briefly. She’s so hot, it’s unbearable.
The lava pouring out of her doesn’t stop, swelling in size until the pool is pushing me back. It melts the stones, and every one that disappears into the heat, consumed by the fire of power, becomes more power. As if she’s eating Gaien itself and transforming it.
Ashai will scorch the earth.
Is this what Zephrom meant? Is this what she wanted? Why else would she put herself in such danger? Why allow Scarlett to pull so much power from her before disappearing?
She used us.
“What do I do?” I ask, hitting the ground beside her.
She reaches for the essence, dragging her fingers through the burning stone and pulling it onto her lap. Some of it is absorbed back into her, but it doesn’t stop burning. Her skin glows orange from underneath, the semi-immortal body overburdened by too much arcane power.
