Page 58 of By the Flames of Her Fury

My blood froze. The walls of my cell dissolved, sending me flying back through the gray corridor. Memories fractured around me. Swift’s stories, my songs, peanuts launched through a hole in the wall. Falling asleep with my head leaning toward him. Fingers pressed into the stone. Gray and green eyes.

I crashed into the ground.

“You have tried my patience, little bird. But do you know what I see?” Mortep hummed. Dread caught in my throat.

“Weakness.”

The walls exploded. I was thrown back into my body in the lab, choking on air. My restraints rattled as I thrashed. “What are you doing?” I bit out as Mortep released the chains from the chair, then dragged me to the door.

My temples beat like a drum as he marched me down the hall and to my cell. Ignoring my cries, he shoved me inside, attached my chains to the wall, and left without a word.

I spat out the piece of metal, then paced the floor with ragged breaths, trying to get a glimpse of Mortep as he retreated. What was going on? What was he planning?

“You okay, Songbird?” Swift’s voice came from the left.

I drew closer to the wall, thoughts spiraling. “Swift?”

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “What happened?”

I swallowed hard. How could I be sure this was real this time? “I don’t know. I don’t⁠—”

Heavy footsteps clunked down the hall, echoing closer and closer until shadows appeared outside my cell. I sucked in a breath. They were coming back for my punishment.

But…the silhouettes didn’t stop at my cell.

Swift whispered through the wall. “Songbird? Are you—” Cell doors groaned open, but not mine. His.

“What are you doing?” Swift exclaimed. “Get that away from—” His voice cut off, followed by a loud thud. Hot, blazing terror curdled in my stomach. I threw myself against the wall, eye pressed to the hole to try and see what was going on.

A voice sounded from the front of my cell. “Curious thing, the mind,” Mortep said. I froze, then slowly turned to face him. “So very enlightening.”

“Please, just—just stop!” I begged. “He hasn’t done anything!”

“I may not have found the rest of your magic yet, but it wasn’t a complete loss,” Mortep said. My body went cold as I met his white, soulless eyes. “Now I know how to make the little bird sing.”

The spine-tingling sound of steel sparking against steel squealed in the air, then the screams began. They ripped out of Swift, raw and guttural. My heart hammered against my ribs as if it was trying to burst out of my chest. I was on my knees before I even realized I’d moved, crawling toward him to press my forehead against the stone.

“Please, stop!” I cried. “Don’t hurt him!”

This is your fault.

They’re doing this because of you. Because you wouldn’t give him what he wants.

Sobs wracked my chest as more screams echoed around me. I called on my magic, ignoring the searing pain that sparked from the cuffs. With a shriek of my own, I forced my Shifter half to the surface, my entire body trembling from the agony.

Phoenix flames erupted in the palms of my hands. They licked up my skin, burning a path up my arms and to my back. The cell lit with a blast of golden light. My wings shifted and stretched at my shoulder blades, the sharp, fiery tips coming into view as they wrapped around me.

I tried to incinerate the cuffs, but the stronger my magic got, the more crippling the pain became. Staggering to my knees, I gritted my teeth and fought through it, my vision going black at the edges.

“Let—him—go!” I shrieked, balls of shadows shooting from my fingertips. They darted straight for Mortep, who merely cocked his head with a smile. My shadows hit some invisible force field and ricocheted back to me, sending me flying into the wall. My phoenix fire went out, and I crumpled to the floor.

My own scream faded, only to be replaced with Swift’s. There was a rattling noise, and then his cry morphed into a strangle that sounded like him gasping for breath.

That was what broke me.

Tears steamed down my face. “Stop,” I pleaded. I dragged myself toward Mortep. “Please, stop. Please. Take—take me instead.”

He crouched on the other side of the bars to peer at me. “You know how to make it stop.”