Page 236 of Harbinger

“The cycle must be released,” he says, as if this justifies it all. “You have to feel it. We all do.”

I don’t care about the cycle. Or what he thinks we’re meant to become. Her blood is still drying on my fingers. He can preach to the Stars themselves.

I slam him into the rail, and stone cracks behind his shoulder. Our blades grind together over our heads.

“Why are you so afraid?” he grits out. His free hand finds my shoulder.

Bright blue flame echoes from his palm, searing through leather into flesh. My skin peels back in black sheets.

Pain fractures my control, the scent of charred flesh fills my nose and mouth, and I shove away from him.

I stagger back, blade still raised. The power inside me roils, and I reach for it. Just a little. Still trying to hold it in check.

“That’s what you’re running away from, brother.” Cassiel grins. “All that power. Locked in a box because you’re too good to use it.”

“I chose a different path.”

“Always the noble son.” Cassiel sighs. “Aren’t you tired of pretending?”

I lunge. He meets me. Steel sings.

“You should be thanking me,” he says, blade locked against mine. “You’d have kept protecting her until she was old and frail and your love for her became a fucking joke.”

“You’re not walking away from this.”

“I’m not?” He pushes off. “Honestly, brother, I didn’t come for you. I came for an answer. Not your head.”

I drive forward, snarling through clenched teeth. “What … answer …” I bite out each word as I swing again and again. Steel meeting steel.

“One only she could give me.” His eyes flick past me to where she lies in the dark. “I had a theory. That’s all this was. A theory about a girl whose star split the Night’s Scar at her Kindling. About a brother who fell for the harbinger and didn’t have the nerve to tell her what she might really be. What a new star in the sky means, according to the Ars Astra.”

For a half second, something leaps in my chest, but I crush it. I will not bargain with her death.

“Are you done punishing me yet?” he demands, a wild glint in his eyes.

“I will make you pay for this with your last breath,” I vow, “and then I’ll let you wake up so I can kill you again.”

Cassiel lifts a brow, snorting. “You have it bad for her.”

“Don’t talk about her,” I roar and come at him. “Don’t even think about her.”

He meets me, but he’s slower now. The fire took something out of him. I see it—shoulders heaving, jaw set, sweat at his temple. He’s wearing down.

That’s all I need.

I press. Drive. Force him toward the corner where the rail meets the wall. Our blades catch. I twist, nearly pinning him, but his free hand lashes out and seizes my blade. Blood gushes down it. Blue flame races after, searing through my palm, and I drop my sword.

I leap back, but he has his sword at my throat before I can recover mine.

“If she wakes up, I’ll take good care of her,” he murmurs, breath ragged. “Let her ride my cock if she behaves. But after I have what I want from her, I’ll bury her heart next to yours.”

The threat lands, and something inside answers for me. Something that won’t allow him to take her. That doesn’t care about paths or oaths.

Something that wants blood.

The power roars within me—the real power, the one I’ve kept caged since I came back from the dead—and for one terrible breath, I let it free.

Cassiel leaps back, dropping his sword to the ground. It melts, pooling into nothing more than molten metal. We both stare as the puddle shrinks, consuming itself, then disappears entirely. Like its very existence has been sucked away.