It was right in front of me.
And suddenly, crushing his heart just wasn’t enough. I wanted him to die screaming.
So I gripped his face and met his eyes.
The heat that surged from me wasn’t fire. It didn’t burn like flames—it simmered, low and relentless, more like a fever rising through me as his pupils began to shrink. The veins around them darkened, bursting beneath the surface, until crimson tears welled and spilled down his cheeks. His skin blistered next, swelling as waves of heat rolled through him. Then the flesh started to twist and sag, sliding from his cheekbones in slow, molten ribbons.
I didn’t blink. Didn’t look away. I watched as his eyes melted, dripping down his face in black, smoking trails. The flesh around them split open, glowing red at the edges like embers breaking through. And the sound that left him wasn’t a scream of words. There was noplease, nomercy. It was just a raw, guttural noise tearing itself from his throat. Then his body tipped over the railing and disappeared into thefirebelow.
Fuck.
The fire—my fire, had spread outside, and I had no clue how to stop it. It wasn’t anything I’d ever tried to do before, I didn’t even know if I could. So I stood there, frozen.
“We have to go,” I gasped finally, my voice shredded and raw. I reached for Licia as the heat rose fast, and smoke thickened the air.
Licia looked up, her eyes wide and wild, but she didn’t take my hand. She turned away instead and retched violently. Terror gripped me, not from the fire, but from the look on her face.
She was afraid of me. Of course she was, how could she not?
“Licia, please,” I begged, my voice breaking. “Come on.”
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, blinking through smoke and tears.
“I’m okay,” she said. Then she lurched forward, coughing as she followed me through the burning building. Fire spread beneath my feet, with my touch, with my breath. I was a living, breathing ember; everything I touched turned to ash.
“I'm sorry,” I whispered. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”
But it didn’t matter. The fire didn’t care. “KERA!”
The shout cut through the roar, and I spun around.
Will and Aran stumbled into view, coughing, bloodied. Will’s eyes locked on me and his face changed.
I looked down.
I was glowing. The golden light around my skin flickered and pulsed, and the heat radiating off my body was enough to make the air shimmer.
“Stop!” Will shouted. “Kera, you have to calm down!”
“Get away from me!” I shouted, backing away. “Please, just go. And take her," I said, pointing at Licia. "Get her out. Now.”
Aran didn’t argue. He grabbed her and helped her toward the stairs.
But Will didn’t move, that stubborn idiot.
“Leave!” I begged.
“No.”
“You have to. I’m making it worse. I can’t control it.”
The flames roared louder, a deafening bellow that filled every inch of the building. The fire licked up the walls beside me, surged across the floor, curled its fingers around the beams above my head. Every time I turned, the fire was there, taunting me, chasing me, swallowing every escape.
“I’m not leaving you.” Will said.
It infuriated me how stupid he was.Ihad survived fire before.
I was a monster.
