Page 172 of By the Flames of Her Fury

“And you?” I snapped. “What are you driven by? What could possibly be worth everything you put me through?”

“Answers,” he hissed. “Knowledge is power, little bird. Don’t you see? It’s not enough to simply have it if you don’t understand it. What good is it if you cannot replicate it, mold it, create infinite from the finite? And you,” he chuckled darkly, “you are infinite. You have always been the answer.”

“I wasn’t even a human to you, was I?” I cried. “I was nothing but an object.”

“Ah, but you were mine.” His lips split into a manic grin. “Anyone else paled in comparison. Scarven wanted you for his little missions, but he always handed you back to me. After you sated his desire for bloodshed, you were mine. My perfect answer to the magic in our veins. My solution to life beyond death. Once again, you have delivered it to me, little bird.” His gaze fell to the amulet around my neck, and his eyes gleamed.

My flames blazed higher around us, causing sweat to bead at his temples. I expected to feel rage coursing through me. I expected the familiar crave of retribution. And it was there, yes, as sure as the blood pumping to my heart. But it wasn’t just my own. It was the pain of all who had been unjustly sacrificed, the fury of innocents who had been in my place, who had suffered at the hands of those who only saw power when they should have seen a person.

My vengeance had been a brand for as long as I could remember, just like the number on my arm. It was proof of his possession of me, even after I’d escaped the chains. Every moment I spent dwelling on his demise was another moment of my life he stole. But I would never let someone like him take a piece of me—a piece of anyone—ever again.

Mortep raised his two amulets in the air, and they shot a bright beam of light at me. It merely collided with the amulet hanging from my neck, and I batted the spell away with ease. Resolve burned through me, chasing any fear.

“Phyxie!” he cried. With barely a thought, I raised a shield charm. I prowled closer, and a dark smile pulled my lips. He scrambled back, stumbling off the platform. Lifting an arm, he muttered another spell, and vines appeared at my feet. They slithered up my body like snakes, rooting me to the ground. I set the vines on fire with a wave of my hand, and they fell to the floor in charred clumps.

“No matter how strong you are, don’t forget, little bird,” he panted, “I always know how to cage you.”

“You’re right,” I said simply. “You took my freedom. My choices. My safety in my own skin.” I stepped closer, shadows rising with my flames. “You chained my magic and broke my mind, and you called it progress. But I was never yours to take.” Before he could blink, shadows whipped from me and shoved down his throat. He choked and thrashed against my hold.

“I’m not afraid of you anymore.” I took one more step. “You don’t get my power. You don’t get my silence. You get nothing.”

Flames blossomed at my words, licking both of our heels. His eyes flashed. For the first time in all the years I’d known his face, I saw true fear. He tried to summon his magic, but my shadows blocked him, the way I’d been stifled so many times beneath his needles.

He looked at the amulet swinging against my chest, and I saw the moment he made the decision. He lunged for the final amulet. His fingers closed around the chain, and for one moment, the Sacred Three were in his grasp.

The power surged instantly, wild and hungry, flooding from the metal and into his hands. His eyes went wide—not in triumph, but in realization. This magic wasn’t meant for him. It would never answer to someone like him, who took and took with nothing to give.

My phoenix flames trapped him as the magical light glowed beneath his skin. It spread from his hands up his arms, branching and splitting until it consumed his veins and he was nothing but pale flesh and rivulets of white light. His mouth opened with an ear-splitting scream, amulets still clutched in his fingers. His body began to smoke at the edges from the force of it.

“You wanted the answer to my magic so badly.” I leaned in, my voice a growl as I met his horrified stare. “I hope it’s everything you imagined.”

The magic ignited his body in a brilliant white light. Another scream rang through the chamber as the power swelled brighter, hotter, higher, until I had to shield my eyes. When I finally looked back, a white haze filled the entire cavern, swallowing him whole. On its surface, I saw the reflection of my wings. Gold against white. His ending to my beginning.

When the light retreated, there was nothing left of him at all. The three amulets clattered to the ground, and I bent to retrieve them, still warm and buzzing with energy.

It was over.

I stood there, waiting to feel something definitive. Something like relief or triumph, or perhaps my volcanic rage finally being spent. Something that matched the weight of seven years.

But there was only silence. Quiet washed over me, blanketing the crackle of flames and echoes of his cries—cries of his own doing, his own desperation, his own pride. This was the silence of something finished.

The silence that meant I had survived him.

Shadows flickered in the corner of my eye. Banishing my wings, I turned to find the shadow wraith still against the wall, struggling to float. I rushed to it and sank to my knees. “You protected me,” I murmured. “Are you hurt?”

It didn’t respond. But shadows in the shape of long, thin fingers slowly rose. Swallowing hard, I mirrored it, pressing my palm to the cold cloud of smoke.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” My breath caught in my throat. “You’re still inside there.”

Shadows lapped at my knees, and my chest squeezed. If this truly was Everett, if he had survived the water and succumbed to the infection, I had to get him back. I had to fix this.

I had to raise the kingdom.

Looking down at the Sacred Three in my possession, the memory of the original demithes’ scroll flickered to life.

When the amulets are made one,

the power of the Fates shall answer once more,