Page 159 of By the Flames of Her Fury

“So come back to me.” His fingers dug into my waist. “That’s all I’m asking. Don’t let this take you.”

I nodded, swallowing hard. “I love you,” I whispered.

He reached up and pressed his palm to my cheek. His lips moved, but no sound came out. I love you.

With a final breath, I stepped out of his hold and turned back to the platform. The altar pulsed as I drew nearer. Instinct guided my arm, and without thinking, I placed my hand in the center of the stone.

77

Vera

Something sharp poked my hand, and I yanked it back with a wince. Blood beaded along the cut, forming a crimson pool that dripped, dripped, dripped, straight onto the altar. The second my blood touched the stone, a beam of gold light shot into the air. As if someone invisible were shoving me forward, a force slammed my hand back on top.

I couldn’t move. I was frozen in place, a prisoner to the light and stone. And everything burned.

The heat didn’t stay in my palm. It spread up my arm, through my chest, in between my ribs like lava. I gasped, trying to pull away, but it held me there. Unyielding. Absolute.

“Vera!” Everett’s voice broke through the haze. “Let go!” he shouted. “Let go of it!”

“I—I can’t⁠—”

The light intensified, swallowing the altar, the platform, the cavern, until there was nothing left but fire. It roared through my veins, and I braced for the kind of pain I was used to—the kind that burned, blazing everything in its path.

But this was different.

The fire moved through me like water moved through cracks in stone. It wasn’t forcing its way, it wasn’t breaking, it was just…searching. Spreading through fractures in my soul and mind I’d long since buried.

I felt it graze against the well of magic inside of me. My phoenix flames stuttered, and my shadows shied away, wincing at its presence. I cried out into the abyss, expecting it to latch on and take my magic until there was nothing left. That was what had happened to the originals.

But then it moved.

It wrapped around my heart, weaving through my ribs like threads. This must be it. I waited for it to take my life, to suck the breath from my lungs and the blood from my veins. I waited for it to destroy me.

But that wasn’t it, either. It kept moving. Kept searching, up my spine and into my mind.

And then it began to pull.

I didn’t understand what it wanted at first. I heard my mother’s voice, humming the familiar lullaby she would sing to put me to sleep. Her voice was so rich, so clear and beautiful, as if she was here with me. But when I reached for it, the sound grew distant. Muffled and weak.

No. I tried to pull it back, tried to hold on, but it slipped through my mind. I felt the fire tugging the memory of her song away from me until it was gone.

The next wave went deeper. There was a memory of the fountain at Scarven’s mansion where Mama, Nox, and I would read stories and play games. I felt Nox’s arms around my waist, lifting me into the air with his deep rumble of laughter.

But then the weight of his arms felt faint. His laughter faded, and the vision went blurry. I couldn’t see them anymore. I couldn’t remember where it was. Where I was. What was happening to me?

“They poured what was most vital to them into the amulets. It took, and took, and took the deepest parts of their soul.”

Julius’s words came back to me in a rush. I understood now what had destroyed the originals. Their magic had been everything they were—what was most vital to them. When the forging took it, there was nothing left underneath. But my magic wasn’t what mattered most to me. My power, my life…those weren’t the deepest parts of my soul.

Dual-toned eyes appeared through the cracks. That warm, raspy voice. The quirk of his lips. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Songbird.”

Panic engulfed me. I grasped at the memory with all my might, tugging it to my chest. But the tighter I held, the more it receded. The moment we first met, the moment I heard his voice through the wall—it was dissolving, like ink fading into old parchment.

The fire wanted more. It reached for moments tucked in bed between Mama and Nox. For cell bars and peanuts tossed through a hole. For the first time Everett told me he loved me, the way he said my nickname, the sound of his voice crying out in pain.

I tried to hold on, but I was losing.

My knees buckled. I could feel the fire pulling, searching, and my magic grew numb in response. I understood with cold clarity that it truly would take everything if I let it. That I’d end up like the originals, with nothing left to give.