“Ethalyn?” Ashley was the first to gasp out.
“She—she’s alive!?” a broken voice I recognized as Lionel’s continued.
The King paused mid-step, amusement fading from his face.
As I thought, Malakai and the rest of my friends had made him bleed enough to taste fear once more.
I felt the fire coil tighter, brighter, no longer the gentle warmth Malakai had known, but something sharp, absolute. My heart pounded, each beat feeding the flame until it became its own being, breathing with me.
“You hurt my friends. You hurt him,” I said, and my voice broke on the edges of a sob. “I’ll takeeverythingfrom you.”
The words tore the air apart.
Flame erupted, not the clean flames I had once commanded, but something deeper, streaked with crimson veins that pulsed like arteries.
Malakai’s power bled through mine, threads of blood twisting inside the inferno until it roared like a storm given flesh. The air itself made way for my frenzy.
I was stronger than ever, but my heart was breaking seeing the swirls of blood obeying my command.
The Demon King raised a hand, red shadows forming into a vast shield that swallowed the light.
“Come on, don’t let her fight on her own!” Eve hissed in pain as she lifted her rifle despite her wounds, taking aim at the Demon King.
“We’re right here with you!” Lionel shouted, his voice still trembling.
The Demon King snapped his teeth together angrily and sent a shadow tendril my way. The ground erupted, stone forming like a wall, stopping the attack before it slowly lowered itself again.
Jaden had saved me. “We’ve got you!”
My first wave of power struck the Demon King and shattered his shield, sparks raining across the marble. He smiled, cruel and patient. “You think his remnants will save you?”
I didn’t answer. Iwasn’tthinking anymore.
The fire inside me surged again, spiraling higher, fed by the echo of Malakai’s heartbeat still drumming faintly inside my chest. I stilled, dragging air into my lungs until it burned.
Lionel shouted something, my name, maybe, before he pulled out two guns and let loose against the Demon King, a sizzling sound burning against his flesh.
Quartz.
Ashley joined him, throwing bombs at the Demon King’s feet and once they went off, pink shrapnel shot in all directions, tiny pieces of the precious gem embedding within him.
Together, they drove the King back a step, enough for me to move.
I reached for the flame and felt the pulse of blood that wasn’t mine respond, coiling up my arms.
“He gave this to me,” I said, voice shaking. “So you’ll face both of us.”
The next blast tore free, a torrent of fire threaded with scarlet blood. It crashed into the King’s new shield and didn’t stop. The blood-fire crawled across it, eating through like acid. He staggered, eyes narrowing, the calm cracking at last.
He struck back, darkness slamming into me, a crushing weight of shadow and will. Pain flared through every nerve, and for a heartbeat, my fire dimmed.
I felt Malakai again, the warmth of him curled against me, steady like an embrace, the blood threads flaring brighter, defiant.
“Now!” Ashley roared, lobbing another bomb filled with quartz. Nate and Lionel followed, reloading their guns with more quartz and pushing against the King’s flank.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit!” Eve hissed as she tried to reload her rifle with one hand, fumbling with the magazine.
The Demon King snarled, turning towards them, and that’s when I gathered everything that was left, grief, fury, love…
