Page 47 of Queen of Fire

Maeteo was still roaring at me, his face getting closer and closer to mine as he did so. I knew he was angry. I knew he did not understand, and I knew it was my fault for not letting him in on what I had been planning from the start, but if I had known this is where we would have ended up… maybe I would have done some things differently.

Maybe I would have let Maeteo in on the plan, rather than going about things the way I did. Maybe he would have been able to help me, make the whole thing more foolproof rather than leaving me to face this fully unprepared and vulnerable.

Maybe I would not have these growing feelings towards Cyrus, that made me question everything every single day.

Maeteo tried to step towards me again, but I took a step back, letting my eyes close as the edges of my vision started to turn black. My heart was hammering in my chest, fast enough that I wondered briefly if it was trying to find a way out, away from the fire that was burning its way through my body. My throat had begun to dry out, and while Maeteo’s words were muted and far away, they punched through the veil of red-hot steam.

“You should have never been Queen.”

“Your parents would be ashamed.”

“You are a disgrace to your Kingdom.”

I choked on a sob, my head spinning with the words he was shouting. Vaguely, I could hear Cyrus’s calls for me, his soothing tone turning more and more panicked, and behind his, Tarian’s soft voice, calling out to me as though he was in another room, another space, entirely.

My nails were digging into my palm, and I felt the molten heat of my own blood start to trickle down the spaces between my fingers. The rhythmic thrum of my heart picked up its pace even more, and I struggled to pull a breath in through my teeth. The golden glow from my skin had gotten bright enough that, even with my eyes closed, it was burning behind my eyelids.

Even Maeteo’s voice had fallen away, now, silenced by the screaming fire inside my body. I did not know forsure if I was still standing, or if I had crumpled into a ball on the floor like I so badly wanted to. Every inch of my skin felt as though it was burning from the inside out, and my blood was dripping from my hands onto the cobblestones beneath me.

A hand on my shoulder sent a shock through my body, and I gasped, my eyes flying open and my arms throwing themselves upwards, an explosion of raging fire driving it’s way out my body with a bloody scream. The release was instant, and I sagged, finding myself face down on the cobblestones, choking as I rushed to get as much air into my body as I could.

Voices screamed around me, and I pushed myself up on shaky arms, looking down at my hands. Fire licked its way around my skin, but it did not burn me. It singed the cobblestones and disintegrated the weeds in the dirt between them, but my skin was unmarked. Boots rushed past me, and I lifted my still spinning head. The burning rage from inside of me had disappeared and was replaced by an eerie sense of calm.

Cyrus knelt in front of me, his face a picture of pure panic, and his mouth was moving but the words were silent. Past him, on the other side of the Zalas Street, screaming in pain with five guards pulling at his burning shirt, was Maeteo.

26

Maeteo

Blinking, I stared up at the trees above me.

I had no recollection of how I got into the forest, but as I regained feeling in my limbs, I took note of the dull, burning pain across my chest. A twig had lodged itself into the base of my spine, and my hands seized as I tried to curl my fingers into a fist. Sliding my arms up so I could push myself up onto my elbows, I grunted, and choked on air as the noise left my dry throat.

Leaves flitted around me on the comfortable breeze, and the moon shone through the gaps in the trees, lighting the ground in a pattern of chaotic beauty. I rolled my neck, groaning as the sharp pain shot through the back of my head; Was I bleeding?

Lifting a hand, I ran it along the back of my head, expecting to find blood, but instead finding black,smoldering ash. I frowned, wiping my hand on my shirt, and pushing myself up shakily into a standing position. It took a minute for my body to get over the vertigo, but when it did, I blinked at the leaves falling around me, noting their strange shape and ashy colour.

The forest around my felt familiar, and as I stumbled forward, bracing myself on the trees around me, I tried to figure out why. I recognised the fallen logs, the small circle of mushrooms, the break in the path that lead in two different directions — one towards the castle, one towards the mountains.

My eyes widened as where I was came flooding to the front of my memory.

I was in the forest behind the Earth royal castle.

I was home.

Turning on the spot, I looked to the sky. The orange glow of fire and the rising smoke was starting to engulf the stars. My ears, which had been ringing since I woke, had begun to clear, and the sounds of people screaming were filtering through the trees. Sheer, unfiltered terror burst into my chest.

The leaves falling around me were not leaves at all — it was embers.

No.

I tripped over my feet as I backtracked on myself andbegan to run in the direction of the barracks, my breaths coming fast and heavy and my chest burning with the force of them. Sweat had started to form on the back of my neck, and as I reached a fallen log that I had jumped over hundreds of times as a child, a strangled noise left my throat.

This was not happening again.

Leaping over the log, I threw myself down the path towards the barracks, my legs going numb with the speed I was moving them. The sounds of horse-hooves battering on the forest floor was coming from behind me, and I could see the figure of a woman making her way through the trees.

In my memory, she had been running, but as she moved in front of me now, she did not seem to be rushing.

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