I spun to face her just as she convulsed and toppled sideways.
“Rook!”Racing forward, I caught her before she cracked her head on the marble.
Her face gleamed a ghostly grey, the bond flickering like a wick about to blow out.
Her eyes rolled back as another bolt of silver lightning shot from her to me, giving me the last dregs of her existence.
I shuddered as the flames grew stronger, taking what she gave and flashing toward the remaining men on the wall.
They screamed as they caught fire.
Their flesh bubbled as they burned.
And Rook collapsed in my arms like a broken doll.
Panic and guilt crushed me, but my power kept burning, burning, tearing through me as if it wanted to devour me just like it’d devoured my enemies.
The sensation of the leader’s heartbeat appeared like a rotten string in my mind, throbbing with invitation to snap it.
I reached for him—
PAIN.
My heart gave out as the fire boomeranged back into me.
Rook groaned as ice flared out of her, painting a huge frosty rune on the marble. With an arctic howl, her power ricocheted free, flash-freezing the potted bamboo and turning everything into glittering winter. Her eyes glazed over as if death came for her, but then she screamed as her back contorted.
Her pain slammed into me.
She coughed up a spray of inky black blood.
“Rook.” I gathered her close as her ashy skin fractured with hairline cracks. Her hands flickered as if she became more snow than flesh.
No...
Not again. NO!
Dropping to my knees, I cupped her cheeks. “Open your eyes.” Her head lolled, her entire body floppy. Tiny snowflakes danced off her throat, dissolving her, just like before. “Don’t you fucking dare!”
Fuck,I’ddone this.
I’d caused this.
My vision tunnelled red as the flames snarled, hunting for more firewood to burn.
I couldn’t control it.
Couldn’t stop it.
Flecks of ash rose from my arm as the power broke me—
A high-pitched whine cut through the air.
A bone-shredding frequency hit me like a sledgehammer to the skull.
Every nerve blacked out. Every muscle seized. And the power I’d stolen turned on me, delivering a backlash that destroyed everything.
I tried to stay awake, to fight—
