Page 104 of By the Flames of Her Fury

Everett rushed to him, but another wraith extended solid claws toward Everett. I summoned my Strider magic, tensing my muscles as they compacted into thin air to transport me to his side. But something lunged from the shadows and gripped me mid-stride.

A wraith plunged into my skin. Icy fire spread down every inch of me, coiling through my veins and turning my muscles to stone.

The world shattered.

Screams pierced the air around me. Smoke scraped down my throat with every breath, and fire rained from the sky. But when I blinked, I realized the flames weren’t coming from above—they were coming from me. They poured from my skin, burning everything in its path.

All I could see was death.

There was Nox, his navy dragon wings ripped and burnt to a crisp at my feet. My mother crawled toward me through the ash, her body shifting between human and raven in the blink of an eye. All the Ashen Order, Starke, Odessa, Karye—scattered among my flames like debris.

And ahead of me, on his back with blood soaking through his clothes, was Everett.

I choked and stepped forward, only for my boots to crunch on something hard. I looked down and let out a scream. I stood on piles and piles of gleaming white bones, cracked and jagged beneath my steps.

“Your future,” the darkness rumbled, echoing around me. Flames rose higher against golden buildings on either side of me. “This is what you bring to everything you touch. This is what you forge the world into.”

The buildings—the golden buildings. This was Pyraeth. And the bones at my feet…

All the Pyraethis. The people I was destined to save.

Bile crept up my throat, forcing the breath from my lungs. My knees hit the ground, but I could barely feel the sharp bones prodding me. “You’re wrong,” I rasped to the disembodied voices. “This isn’t my future. I—I won’t let that happen.”

“Who are you to think you can change your fate?” they hissed back.

They were right. Who was I to think I could help these people? A damaged girl with a blood-stained past, trying to rise from the ashes as some glorified savior. My hands curled around the shards of bones, fingers trembling. It would be so easy to stop fighting, to disappear before I hurt anyone else.

But then another voice filtered in among the rubble. Not the voice of the wraiths, but a husky, heated whisper from my memories.

“Don’t let your fear make you unable to fight.”

I tried to act like nothing bothered me, but I was always afraid. Afraid of my past, afraid of what I left behind, afraid of what I was running from. I thought as long as I kept moving, it would never catch me.

Everett was right. That wasn’t trying. That was running. Was that the kind of person I wanted to be?

I grunted and put my hands on the bones, mustering all my strength to rise. I staggered forward as flames and wind whipped around me. “Let me out of here!” I called. I had to get back to the others. I couldn’t let the wraith mess around in my head. I needed⁠—

A hand gripped my shoulder from behind, and I whirled. Arcadia’s hazy form stood before me. “Take my hand, daughter,” he urged. “You can fight this.”

He held out his hand, and I took it. Flames erupted around us, engulfing every inch of space until the light exploded outward. I careened back into my body and fell to my knees before the mausoleum. Air flooded my lungs so fast, it made me cough.

I glanced around in a panic to see all my friends stuck in the shadow wraiths' hold. Arcadia knelt at my side and pointed to the sealed mausoleum door. “We must open it to send the wraiths away,” he said. I nodded in response, chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath.

“Together,” he said firmly. With a single nod, we both thrust our arms at the door, sending my flames and his shadows forward. The marble fractured with a resounding crack, and the solid door burst open.

49

Everett

The wraith’s hold over me shattered the moment Vera and Arcadia opened the crypt. One second, I was standing inside the nightmare, with stone walls closing in and chains biting my skin. And the next, cold air rushed in as the world snapped back into place.

I tried to get my bearings through the dust and debris hanging thick in the air. I helped Kieran to his feet, and his arm trembled in my grip.

He cleared his throat. “Are you⁠—”

“I’m fine. You?”

His eyes shuddered, but he nodded curtly. He didn’t have to say anything. I knew if he experienced anything like what I had, we’d be seeing it every time we closed our eyes for the foreseeable future.