Chapter 23
23
“ S affron. Go. Now,” Tristen growled at me as he parried and fought with the ice wielder. His movements were swift, lethal, but I saw the slightest twinge of pain as the blood gushed from his torn side.
That thrumming in my veins pounded louder. I took a step toward the clearing. Toward the fight.
No more, something said softly inside of me. No more of this.
Across the fight in front of them, I could see Ajax watching me. Waiting. Seeing what I would do as his final remaining fighter ripped and tore into the Shadowfire Assassin, still so strong even when he was powerless.
Even though he was my enemy… or, whatever he was to me, he didn’t deserve this. Even though he had ruined my past, he had guarded my future. I wouldn’t forgive him, maybe not ever, but I would give him something in this clearing.
My blood sang as I took another step closer, Tristen’s eyes flickering to me in wariness, in fear—not for himself, but for me.
No more. No. More. NO MORE!
The soft voice broke into a scream, and then I was screaming, my blood boiling, overheating, and I let my yell coat the clearing, coat it in fire ?—
—because I was fire, cold and cruel, yet flickering brightly all the same. All at once I burned from the inside out. Burned at the nothingness. Burned at the void. Burned at the injustice, the unfairness of it all. Burned at the secrets. Burned at the pain. Burned at my human weaknesses.
And I became the burning. Willed it as it seared the ice wielder where he stood, anguish stolen from his lips as I burned him from the inside out until he was a pile of frozen ash. Even as several of Ajax’s other cronies ran from the forest as well, I burned them, too. I burned the injured one who still had bloodlust in his eyes, his mouth agape in shock as he fell to glittering dust beside their comrade. The shadowfire built and tore at them like real fire, but the way it burned with an intense cold that seemed to freeze as it eviscerated was captivating to watch.
Tristen slowly turned to me, his eyes wide in awe as he beheld me. That’s when I realized that I was burning, too. Such a roaring fire surrounded me, consumed me, and it was so cold. So heavy. As suffocating as the darkness, but in a different way. It was so immense—that cold, that burning.
I let out a gasp, and the strange cold disappeared along with all of the strength in my body. My muscles could not hold me up any longer, and I stumbled, but Tristen had already moved to me, had already caught my heaving body. I caught eyes with Ajax’s double across the clearing. He—no, it —pinned me with a hard glare, and then turned transparent, disappearing before my eyes.
I felt my body go boneless, and Tristen laid me down on the moss, so gently. “Rest,” he whispered, and the darkness claimed me. “I’ve got you.”