Page 141 of The Curse of Golden Blood
"Poor little Ylvena. All dressed up in mother's crown, playing queen of the ashes. No wonder you had to invent a dead sister for me to mourn. You can't even imagine what real love looks like."
That's when she snapped.
Power lashed out like a whip, caught me across the chest, sent me flying backward into a marble pillar. Pain exploded through my ribs. Something cracked. Maybe broke.
"You want to know about love?" Ylvena stalked toward me, light bleeding from her skin like wounds. "Let me show you love."
She gestured toward the guards holding Pelbie. They dragged my friend forward, forcing her to her knees in front of the cracked throne. The blade at her throat drew a thin line of blood.
"This is what love gets you," Ylvena snarled. "This is what caring about weakness brings. Watch closely, dear sister. Watch what happens to the things you try to protect."
Pelbie's eyes found mine across the ruined throne room. In them, I saw fear. But also something else. Determination. The same stubborn courage that had carried her through every hardship we'd faced together.
"Don't," she said quietly. Not to Ylvena. To me. "Don't give her what she wants."
"How touching." Ylvena's smile was all sharp edges and winter cold. "She's trying to save you even now. Trying to spare you the pain of watching her die."
The blade pressed deeper. More blood flowed.
"But you know what the beautiful part is, Miralyte? This won't be an illusion. This won't be some carefully crafted memory I can take back later. When I kill her, she'll stay dead. Forever."
She nodded to the guard. The blade began to move.
Then the world exploded.
Stone and mortar burst inward like a dam giving way, ancient masonry reduced to rubble in seconds. Through the smoking breach came the emberhart.
But not as I'd seen it before. This wasn't the sleek, graceful creature that had stalked Thunder Court's corridors. This was something primal. Transformed. Its body had grown massive, easily twice the height of a man. Three heads emerged from a torso wreathed in living flame. Lion. Goat. Serpent.
The emberhart had become a chimera.
Each mouth opened in a roar that shattered the remaining windows. The guard holding Pelbie froze, blade forgotten as terror replaced duty. The chimera's lion head moved faster than thought. Jaws clamped around the guard's throat with a wet crunch. Blood sprayed across marble as the body hit the ground, twitching.
The second tried to run, dragging Pelbie with him. Lightning-charged horns punched through his chest, lifted him off his feet. The serpent head struck clean, fangs finding the gap in his helmet.
Both guards hit marble within heartbeats. Dead. Smoking.
"Impossible." Ylvena's voice cracked. "Emberharts are extinct."
The creature's three heads turned toward her in unison. Fire dripped from the lion's mane. Lightning crackled between the goat's horns. The serpent's scales gleamed like molten copper, each one sharp enough to cut stone.
Pelbie rolled away from the chaos, smart enough to stay low while death prowled overhead. The remaining guards scattered, their formation breaking as primal terror overrode training.
That left just me and Ylvena.
And the creature that had just leveled the playing field.
"So be it." Power erupted from Ylvena like a solar flare, turning her robes to liquid light. "If Thunder Court wants to send their pets, I'll put them down like the rabid animals they are."
She gestured toward the chimera. Golden chains materialized around its necks, binding all three heads. The creature struggled, roared defiance, but the bonds held firm.
"Did you think I ruled the Sun Court for centuries without learning how to deal with mythical beasts?" She turned that terrible smile on me. "Every creature has a leash, sister. You just have to know where to grab it."
I couldn't let her kill it. I couldn't watch anything else suffer. I refused to become everything she wanted me to be.
Sunfire blazed around me as I charged. No time for anger. No space for fear. If I failed, I died. If I succeeded, I still might die.
This was nothing but a leap of faith.
