Page 40 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

I don’t have time to wait, dragging myself forward through the cold sand, my damaged leg gouging a turret at my side.

The air is now thick with snowflakes.

Stopping on a patch of sand, the granules caving slightly beneath my weight, I extend my arms and tell myself to breathe despite the wave of snow coming for me.

This storm wants to destroy me.

I can feel it in my bones.

The roaring vibration may be gone, but a brutal song has taken its place, a melody, a whisper, maybe even a shout—who can fucking tell—but I can hear it, and the message is clear: my death is imminent.

As I reach for the hottest flames within my heart, I pray that Kaiba and my aunt and Aeliana and even Riven are safe.

The wave of ice rises up and up, far above me, and my heart pounds and my heat flows as I hold on for another heartbeat.

Another breath.

Wait for it…

The wave reaches its pinnacle and the brutal song in the air wrenches at my body, trying to shatter me as the avalanche descends.

I let go of my control again, knowing my only chance is to cut through the wave before it reaches me.

Flames explode around me. Fire spears along my arms into my outstretched hands, forming twin plumes that blaze forward, driving into the avalanche, my beams of fire widening as I draw upon every shred of rage in my soul.

I’m roaring with effort as my fire cuts through chunks of stone and rips across the body of the oncoming wave, its core collapsing, snow melting into rivers of ice mingling with the lava swirling around my feet.

It isn’t enough.

A second later, I’m smashed within the blizzard’s currents, fighting to draw my arms and legs inward, balling up to try to prevent the force ripping off my limbs.

At some point, I start holding my breath and now, I hold it even longer.

Closing my eyes, I let my heat build, drawing on it as slowly as I dare, even though I’m tumbling wildly within the blizzard and my instincts are yelling at me to fight back. Now.

The snow and debris grow even icier, a mind-numbing, flesh-shattering freeze. The sounds within the avalanche become louder, that faint song of destruction intensifying until it’s a command in my ears: die.

Fuck that.

Fire explodes from my body.

Flames rage outward, ripping through the snow, swirling in the wind, surrounding me in amber light that gleams and sparkles and rushes in a whirlwind.

My feet hit the ground. My boots and clothing have already burned away and my toes crunch in the frozen sand, a strange sensation of ice where the gritty granules would normally turn to lava.

The air above me clears momentarily, revealing a startlingly clear patch of sky.

I make out the circular sun in the sky.

Well. Fuck me.

Rays of icy-blue sunlight gleam across my body, glinting like diamonds.

Finally, the sun is cold.

Bitterly cold, just like the Oracle said, because it’s too. Fucking. Late.

That song in the air wants me dead, and it won’t stop.