Page 127 of Ashes of Gold
But the Chancellor can hardly answer; the curse is working its way through him and he’s in the fetal position on the ground. I plant my feet firm and lift my hands, sitting in the sinking feeling in my feet, wondering just how capable I could be. Lift. Air gusts under my feet and I rise, floating above everything else. Up, up, in the air. Trees snap at the direction of my fingertips. I shove them at Loyalists in every direction. They topple over and those that don’t fall, run. The Chancellor’s taken root in the ground.
“Get off this island!” My voice thunders from the clouds and lightning zigzags through the sky.
Levitating above the trees, I catch a glimpse of the Chancellor’s ivory tower in the Central District, far in the distance. I fill my lungs, and then I blow. The forest bends, their leaves grazing the ground under my breath. The rains fall sideways. The tower’s windows shatter in a melodious chorus of chimes.
I rotate my wrist up and his entire tower detaches from the ground and lifts in the air. Faint cries from the Chancellor wailing below me scratch my ears. I shove and the block of concrete flies through the air, its shadow shading the City, before splashing in the ocean. It bobs, then sinks.
Down.
Drowned.
To be forgotten at the bottom of nowhere.
I lower myself to the ground, the world a blur of color. Bri and Julius have returned from the grave site to an army of hugs. My wrists glow like they’ve never glowed before when I approach the Chancellor, who’s hunched over, skin wrinkling, wincing in pain. Mypeople stand around, some staring in shock, others pulling at onyx in the perpetrators’ arms. More sprouting magic, more wielding it with smiles. Their unbridled joy is palpable.
But I’m not done.
“Make him stand.”
Shaun holds the Chancellor up with a single hand. I aim at his wrists. Magic streams to them and his onyx glows. He wails in pain and I urge my magic harder.
“Ah!” He squirms. I press.
The onyx on his wrists pops out. Then another oozes out from under his sleeve. Shaun’s brows meet and he rips his shirt off. I gasp. The Chancellor’s a grid of black beads, onyx burrowed into every part of his skin. I draw my hands together and pull. Black siphons from him to my hands like ebony rain. My arms ache, but I lock my elbows. His whole body glows, his skin a matrix of red scars. He collapses once it’s done, and a pile of stones sits at my feet. Enough to bind a small army.
“We’re the same, you and I, you know that,” he says to me, trying to sit up. “Both strong leaders. I’m sure we could reach some sort of…”
“Strong? You think fighting and leading are the same thing. And you’re right, sort of. But you think one guarantees the other. And it doesn’t. A true leader fights for others. You fight for yourself. For power. You kill anything that gets close to you because you believe love is weakness, a liability. But I see through you, Xire. You try to exploit love in others, which says you understand it, personally.” I squat to his level and make him look me in the eyes. “To let yourself love someone requires courage. And at your core, Xire, you’re a coward.”
I push him upright, he twitches in pain. Still, I’m not done. “Taavi, come here.”
Taavi is huddled in a ball, weeping over her mother’s body. She pulls herself up and walks over.
“Look at her!” I hold her in front of the Chancellor. “This is your daughter.”
His eyes flicker with recognition.
“You knew,” I say.
“I-I heard the rumors.”
Taavi sucks in a breath.
“How could you hate her? She’s done nothing to you.”
He pants, haggard. The poison has sunken in his cheeks and shrouded his eyes in red. He’s wasting away by the second. A tear streams his cheek. “Hate her? I’ve done many things I regret. But I could never hate you, Taavi.”
I see through him. My anger burns hotter.
He opens his arms and Taavi looks at me for permission.
“Go ahead.” I hold on to the rest of my words.
Taavi steps into the hug and the Chancellor wraps his arms around her. She sobs harder.
“That’a girl,” he says. “That’a girl.” He whips her around and holds her to himself like a shield, shoving a blade into her side. She screams.
“Her lung is a millimeter from my blade. I press it in deeper, she dies. I do nothing soon and she bleeds out. Let me go and…”
