Page 80 of By the Flames of Her Fury

“Coward!” Vera cried at Mortep, her three opponents now unconscious at her feet. “You’ve never been able to face me yourself, have you?” She thrust a ball of shadows at him, which dissipated at his invisible shield. “Always hiding behind your tests”—another wave of fire—“and potions”—a slash of lightning—“and puppets.”

Her wings extended at her side. Abandoning her magic, she shot forward and wrapped a hand around his throat, raising them both into the air. Mortep’s legs dangled, but his smile only widened. “So—predictable,” he choked out. “Leading me straight—here.”

The sand suddenly lurched at my feet. I thought it was the earth shaking as it had done in the cave, but then my foot sank. Then my ankle. My calf.

Quicksand.

“Move!” I shouted, reaching for Vera as the sand shuddered. “The sand⁠—”

It was too late. The beach liquefied, swallowing several of Mortep’s men whole. Their faces were hauntingly blank as they were dragged under, weapons disappearing beneath the churning waves of sand. Tessa sank just as quickly. She struggled to keep her head above ground, but little by little, it consumed us both.

I fought as hard as I could. My injured arm screamed as I clawed the slick surface. The ground slipped even farther, and I was left with nothing solid to stand on, nothing to grab on to.

Sand closed around my knees, then my waist. Panic burned in my throat. “Vera!” I shouted, watching her and Mortep hover above the ground, him still locked in her chokehold.

I tried to wiggle my way out of the earth’s clutches, but that only made the sand pour in faster. I freed my good arm and waved it in the air, sending sand down my throat. Vera’s neck pivoted in slow motion, her gaze briefly dropping to mine.

I saw it then. The unleashed rage, the vengeance, the devastating hatred. Everything she had wanted for seven years lay in the palm of her hand.

And then, there was me.

As the sand dragged me under, I wasn’t sure which one she would choose.

38

Vera

“You took everything from me!” I cried, tugging Mortep closer. Fire trailed down my arms to the fingers that clutched him tight. They licked his flesh, just as hungry for blood as I was.

I was so close. Every heartbeat screamed to end him. Every breath could taste his death. Fire burned beneath my ribs, and more shadows coiled around my wrists. My magic remembered. All the experiments, all the needles, all the terrible things he and Scarven made me do.

I dreamed of this moment. Of how his blood would look when it slicked off my blade, how his flesh would char beneath my flames, how he would beg for mercy—mercy I had begged for. Mercy I had always been denied.

I shifted my hands into talons and pierced his skin. Red blotches appeared on his pale face as he struggled to draw breath. “Are you going to kill me, little bird?” he rasped, a manic smile on his face.

“Worse,” I snarled. “I’m going to make you fear me.” I squeezed, sending my flames over his body in a slow, torturous dance. “And then I’ll kill you, like I killed your master.”

I watched as his face turned purple. Blood leaked from beneath my talons the tighter I squeezed, the way his needles used to prick my skin. Flames consumed him from the neck down. His body began to shake in my grip as smoke rose from his flesh.

His cracked lips split open in a twisted, strangled laugh. “Death…” he choked out, “is only the beginning.”

My eyes narrowed, but Everett’s frantic voice cut through the pounding of my heart. “Vera!”

I blinked, dragging my eyes from Mortep’s face. I found Everett in the quicksand, eyes wide in desperation, buried to the waist in sand.

Something flickered in the back of my mind. You love him.

My gaze snapped back to Mortep. I was so close. If I stopped now, he could heal himself.

You love him, and he’s dying.

But I needed this. I needed to kill Mortep.

You need Swift.

Slowly, I turned to face Everett again, watching his hand twitch above the ground as the sand covered his nose. I could still hear his heartbeat, erratic and uncontrolled beneath the earth. His breaths were choked as sand filled his throat. But his eyes…his eyes held mine until the last moment.

Something inside me cracked.