Chapter 18 Livid
Livid
|THE DAY OF THE WEDDING|
I am offended by the shock on Mance’s face. Did she forget about me entirely?
Well, I’m still here.
I kick over a lantern and it careens to the ground, shattering on impact and igniting the dry forest floor. People cry out and run into their houses, coming back out with water or blankets to use to suffocate the blaze.
But I’m not nearly done yet.
I leap from the trees, the wolf and my larger cats springing after me, fangs bared. I summon the grizzly into the middle of the square and watch it roar.
Meanwhile, from my hips I draw two bottled explosions.
“Don’t!” Mance cries, but I’m all done listening to her.
I uncork them both simultaneously with my thumbs and chuck them at each side of the clearing, the coal-black substance hanging in the air for a moment, suspended just before the point of destruction.
Now the onlookers scatter, climbing, swinging, jumping, running away from what I’ve just dropped in front of them.
And then it all explodes.
I’m not afraid of death. I’ve been watching, and it sounds like if I die I’ll just go back into Mance anyway. And then she’d have to understand what she’s put me through the last few months. There are worse outcomes.
So I throw myself down into the square with reckless abandon, getting burned by hot orange flames and cold black ones alike. I don’t care about the pain. I barely even feel it.
Reltas is hauling Mance and the white-haired girl to the back of the square, but I drop in front of them.
“I said let her go.”
To my surprise, he gives me a smirk, his poison-green eyes flashing. “Nice to see you again.”
“Wish I could say the same,” I sneer, making a swipe at him with my knife.
“Don’t touch him!” Kiar cries. She lashes out with her own knife. I dodge, but a bright red slash blooms on my cheek where Kiar caught me with the edge of her blade. I bare my teeth at her in a grin, even as I feel the blood soak my lips.
“Stop it, both of you!” Mance cries.
“No. We’re doing this my way now.” I press my last bottled explosion to Reltas’s forehead, thumb on the cork, ready to flick it away, and everyone in our little circle freezes.
Around us, the citizens are still scattering, and the black and orange flames continue to rage, but their eyes are only on me.
Finally.
“If you uncork that bottle, you’ll kill yourself, too,” Reltas says calmly.
I only shrug and dig my nail deeper into the cork, easing it out.
“No, please.” Something vulnerable flashes across Kiar’s face. Something that changes it completely.
Good.
My glare turns to her. “Tell me where you sent Silver in that wagon and I’ll let you both leave.”
Her face flushes, but Reltas and—infuriatingly—Mance only look confused.
“Silver left because he couldn’t bear to see me marry someone else,” Mance says, in the tone of a person trying to calm a wild animal. “Kiar had nothing to do with it.”
I curl my lip at her. “As usual, you don’t seem to have any idea what’s really going on.”
“Kiar?” Reltas asks.
Her expression hardens. “He knew too much. I took care of him.”
I press the glass into Reltas’s forehead. “What does that mean?”
Her eyes are defensive, but her voice is steely. “I sent him into the Citadel.”
“What?!” Mance looks horrified by this news. Sick.
But it is nothing compared to how I feel.
With a scream, I fling the explosion at Kiar instead, and it shatters on her forehead. Inky magic blooms around her face as her expression resolves into one of dawning horror.
Then many things happen at once.
In the seconds before the magic ignites, Reltas cries out, throwing himself at Kiar to push her backward and out of the range of the blast.
Mance grabs me, yanking me away and hissing in my ear. “This—this—is exactly why I locked you up. You’re a monster!”
Then the second blast goes off and we are flung backward, Reltas and Kiar on the other side of the explosion.
We slam into a tree, but somehow Mance maintains a death grip on my arm. I rip it away savagely, snarling at her. “I’m a monster? You haven’t seen anything yet.”
She coughs, dirt on her face and ash on her dress. She puts her head in her hands, her nails digging into her own face. “What do I have to do to make you stop all of this?” she moans.
“Try listening,” I snap.
She whips her hands aside and fixes me with a glare I’m almost proud of. “There’s nothing you have to say that’s worth listening to! You’re just thoughtless rage!”
A burning branch falls between us, crashing to the ground and sending sparks flying. Some of them singe me. I’ve lost count of how many parts of me hurt.
I look at her through the crackling flames and decide it’s time for me to take my leave. The wedding is off, like I wanted. I got my answers about Silver, and now I need to find him. To fight for him the way Mance will not.
But I can’t help making one more comment before I go.
“You know,” I say. “Father never listened to me either. You’re a lot more like him than you realize.”
I have just enough time to take in her stricken expression before I kick the branch toward her and run, blending into the burning forest like I’m just another flame.
Leaving nothing but chaos and destruction in my wake.