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Kyan had already turned one of these villages to ash.
Lucia stood with Kyan in the midst of the flames that continued to burn. In front of them was an old witch whom Kyan interrogated, believing her to know more than she was telling them.
“You’re evil,” the witch snarled. “And you need to be destroyed. You are bound for the darklands, both of you!”
Kyan regarded her with disdain. “If it weren’t for the misplaced lusts of the immortals, you witches, with your weak, tainted magic, wouldn’t even exist.”
“Enough,” Lucia growled. “She knows nothing that can help us.”
It had been a long, disappointing day, and all she wanted to do was try to get some sleep.
“Make her talk, little sorceress,” Kyan said. “Or she will die.”
Lucia had grown tired of witnessing so much suffering. She didn’t want anyone else to die tonight; just the thought made her ill. So she did what Kyan asked.
“Look at me,” Lucia commanded with as much strength as she could summon.
When the witch finally met her gaze, Lucia focused all of her magic into making her tell the truth.
“Where is the stone wheel that still possesses its magical link to the Sanctuary?”
Unlike all the others who’d fallen under Lucia’s spell, the witch neither flinched nor gasped. Instead, she cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “I told you, girl. I don’t know. And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Lucia hissed out a breath and tried again, now clenching her fists.
Again, the witch deflected the questions as easily as if Lucia were speaking a foreign language.
Her magic wasn’t working—only more proof that she needed to rest.
“Try a simpler question,” Kyan hissed.
Lucia nodded assent. The sooner she got him a satisfying answer, the sooner they could leave this horrible place. “What is your name, witch?”
The witch spat directly in Lucia’s face. “My name will die with me before it leaves my lips tonight.”
Lucia felt the heat of Kyan’s fire. She turned to him angrily as the flames rippled down his arms. “There’s no reason to kill her.”
He extinguished his fire, now showing that his hands were curled into tight fists. “She’s useless!”
“So we’ll find someone else. Tomorrow, the next day. What does it matter?”
“It matters more than you realize,” he snarled at her, then turned and stormed away from them, trailing fire in his wake.
Lucia drew in a shaky breath, then turned back to the woman. “I didn’t mean for this to happen tonight. Your village—”
“Leave here,” the witch said through clenched teeth. “And never return.”
Lucia straightened her shoulders. “I spared your life.”
“Do you really think you can ever be forgiven for the death and devastation you’ve caused here tonight?”
“I would never ask for—”
“Leave,” the woman snarled, her eyes brimming with tears.
Flinching, Lucia finally turned away from the woman and then trudged out through the flames and destruction Kyan had caused behind her.
Kyan was waiting for her at the top of a nearby hill, looking down at the village he’d crushed so easily, as if it were an ant hill he’d decided to step on.
