I shiver all the way to my toes, pretty sure that would be the perfect“fuck you, Raeve”to really top off my dae. Being hackled with messages from everyone I’ve shivved or sliced.
Kaan checks the sky again before he flicks back the lid on his weald. A small bulb of flame erupts.
Roan pinches the return fold on Kaan’s lark, then holds it against the flame. Something I struggle to watch for numerous reasons, picturing the poor lark as my beautiful little Nee.
It takes a while for the anti-flame runes to burn through, and the lark finally catches light.
Lips pinched, I nudge my iron ring into my pocket, braced for Clode’s ear-splitting chaos … surprised to find she’s already preening with a pretty song. Perhaps aware I was about to give her some much-needed love in this starched cell of corruption and control.
Roan releases the lark, which flutters around in a confused circle, wings alight. I forge a soft, playful melody so unlike this heavy feeling in my chest as I watch the poor thing burn.
“Sheil ath too … aloo ail ah. Preesh, ah, preesh!”
Clode giggles, then gently nudges the flaming lark toward the wall, batting it with airy hands. With each giddy gust, the flames burn with newfound ferocity. Like Ignos isenjoyingClode’s attention, even if she’s dashing him around like a plaything.
Tension thickens between us, my gaze drifting between the back of Kaan’s head and the flaming lark.
“Preesh, ahh Clode. Preesh eehla!”
She gives it one last playful bat, squealing in delight as the lark collides with the scrawl of blood, then turns to ash on the wind.
The rune shimmers, looking almost beautiful before it morphs into something …ugly.
It sucks into itself like puckering lips—
BANG!
The rune explodes with such gusto the sound punches my eardrums, making bells ring in my head while liquid ore spews skyward with volcanic force … then swiftly plummets. Globs of ore pelt the pavement like white splats of dragon shit.
The entire wall seems to shudder as the last of the melted remnants assault the ground, leaving messy puddles everywhere. Then, stillness.
Time stretches.
I take in the gaping hole in the wall, almost as big and wide as the gates on the other side—not a Kaan-sized hole. Andcertainlynot an easily overshadowedbang.
Liquid ore continues to drip from the molten edges, falling in rhythm with my hammering heart while two words blare in my head:
We’re fucked.
I’m just about to shove everyone forward when Kaan drops like a felled dragon shot from the sky.
Imanage to get my hands beneath Kaan’s head before it strikes the ground.
Time stretches as Pyrok shakes him, hollering at a pale-faced Roan, who looks like he’s void of blood. As I take in Kaan’s hauntingly lax face …
That icy rage inside me shifts with such force I jolt.
“We have to go,” I hear myself say, though barely feel my mouth move. Barely feelanythingother than ice threading through my veins, slicing me down to the sturdy bones of something much bigger than me.
Something brutal and …bloodthirsty.
“PICK HIM UP AND RUN,” I roar at the others. “NOW!”
Pyrok belts orders at Roan before Kaan is lifted, his big arms bound around their necks. His head flops forward in a way that makes me want to shred the sky.
They clamber for the hole in the wall, too slow; Roan’s steps staggered and strained, Kaan’s feet dragging across the ground—
The hairs on the back of my neck lift.
