“You just woke up. Your parents and Maharaja Naupure are taking care of the air. Jatin is already there. We need to evaluate and help guide the survivors to safety.”
Jatin is already there? Survivors?I freeze, my stomach coiling. “Are you saying Jatin isonMount Gandhak?”
The earth rumbles again. All four of us stumble, holding out our arms to steady ourselves. Zara clutches the nearest archway, praying silently, her head bent.
“No one made him go. They tried to stop him,” Riya says, sounding desperate.
I don’t hear anything but the confirmation. Jatin is on the volcano. He will be trying to stop Mount Gandhak like it’s a normal natural disaster, like it’s a mere avalanche. He won’t know it’s fueled by my firelight. Oh Gods.
“Riya, I will explain everything to you later. But right now, give me my skyglider or I will take it from you.”
She steps away from me, shaking her head and sliding the skyglider behind her. “How are you so willing to die? If you fly to Mount Gandhak, you probably won’t come back. You realize that, right?”
She’s right. Of course she’s right. But Erif is right too. I’m the only one who can possibly stop it. It’s my spell. It’s my magic. I died to learn that truth. I can’t concede. “I know.”
“You know,” she whispers, almost to herself. “Maybe my father was right about you helping people, about what a true rani is.” Slowly she brings Hubris around and holds it out to me. “I have to get him, and the rest of the clinic, to safety.”
I grab Hubris the Third tightly. “Thank you.”
Prisha runs into my arms. “Please, come with us.”
“I have to do this.” I squeeze her tight. “I love you.” The earth rocks again and I hold on tighter.
My eyes find Riya’s over Prisha’s shoulder. “You’ll get them out safely?”
“Yes.” Riya presses two fingers to her throat, the message clear.
I grasp Prisha’s shoulders, peeling her off me. “Hey, I just came back from the dead. I can do it again.”
“You better,” Riya whispers.
“Be safe,” Zara calls. “And take these.” She holds out the two bubble masks for flying at high altitude and ventilation that I bargained off Mittal. I probably won’t need them. If my parents’ magic fails we are all dead. But I take them and thank her all the same.
“No, please, Adraa,” Prisha whines.
“I have to do this.” And gently I pull away from my sister. “Goodbye.”
With a nod to all three of them, I mount my skyglider. For once, frostlight petals seem to have deserted the training field and only dirt springs upward as I launch into the air.
I balance on my skyglider, not fully able to process the destruction I’m witnessing. My world is cast in firelight. The sky is one large glob of darkness painted in bleeding red. Mount Gandhak is breaking apart, lava running down its slopes like angry scars.Its top fumes in a gray mass of clouds as big as my entire city. Instead of up and out, the clouds are rotating like a slow twister. Wrapped around the ash and smoke are coils of color: pink, orange, and blue swarming and shifting together. Maharaja Naupure and my parents are controlling the gas, keeping its heat and poison away from both cities. They’re saving us from death, but they can’t hold it back forever.
I fly through ash, weaving and bobbing around other witches and wizards desperately fleeing. They yell out at me as I pass. Am I lost, am I confused, am I stupid? They’re probably all right.
Soon it’s not other Touched I’m avoiding, but flying rocks. I swerve and veer, Hubris shaking with the amount of magic I’m pumping into its wood. Ash cascades down like thick rain. Then I hear it—a boulder has crashed into one of the flying stations suspended above the city. Yellow magic spinning underneath a block of lofted earth unravels. Rock and stone groan as the thing tears in half and crashes onto the city below.Oh my Gods.I squeeze my eyes closed. If this goes on another hour, let alone two months, we will all be destroyed. I have to stop this.
“Simaraw!”I cry out. The shield is of little help. I drop lower, blasting up and over the side of the volcano. On this side, part of the mountain gave way, a mudslide of trees and earth washed toward the sea.Oh my Gods…
Jatin is down there…somewhere. I keep flying, searching. Along the side closest to Naupure I make out a long white streak.“Vardrenni!”I yell. My eyes zoom in through the wall of gray and I’m finally able to make out what it is. Ice, a stream of ice.Yes! Thank Gods.
“Pavria,”I cast, and I hurtle through the air.
My feet skid on ash-coated slush as I land and buckle Hubris to my belt. Jatin stands ahead, freezing the lava as it flows and spews near him. The ground turns from hot red to cooled black to frozen white. He’s trying to get to the top, infuse the thing with chilling ice. If I perform my own extinguishing spell we might be able to do this.
“Jatin!” I scream.
He doesn’t hear me. I can barely hear myself.
A blast of heat and pressure rises up on Jatin’s right.“Chiduraerif!”I cry. My magic swarms the emerging lava and dives into the rock. The earth bursts with a burp instead of a vomit of fire.
