Chapter 32
Elianne held the lava in her magical fists, the rivers of it her son had called forth, from which he’d built a mountain that would stand long after they were gone. She knew, as she strode down its incline, Nik exhausted behind her, that he would prevail today.
Nothing would stop her son from doing what the Giver had created him to do. He would help forge a new Fjordlandi from its molten heart. He would love the Ice Queen and build with her what Isidor had tried to force Elianne into giving him. He would be a king. Wear a crown of fire.
And the wretch gliding her way would not stop him.
The fury inside her burned, yes, but it wasn’t like the other day in the Ice Prison. It wasn’t a boundless, reckless thing, set on her own destruction if she couldn’t just have his. Today, it wasn’t enough that she die and maybe take him with her.
Today, she wanted victory. The real kind, the kind that wasn’t about taking from someone else, but about building what was good.
Isidor would stop her, stop Nik, stop Kyrja if he could. She could feel his ice lashing out against their lava, could sense him trying to control the mountain her son had built as he’d always boasted he could Helviti, Radsla, and all the others in the Ring of Flames.
But he’d never actually had to do that, had he? King Axel had put Daemon in charge of the volcanoes—all Isidor had ever had to do was control him. Them. His ice had never actually stemmed the lava.
And it wouldn’t succeed today.
Giver, she prayed, as she hadn’t dared to do in so long.
Giver, you have made your will known. Now help us to achieve it.
Help me to do this thing for my son, to help make a way for him to step into the future you want for him.
Help me to stop this man who hates all you stand for.
Help me to save the woman my son loves, and all Fjordlandi with her.
She called the lava up in a surge around her, riding onto the plain that now looked like a field of ice cubes spilled from a glass, melting it as she went.
An hour ago, there’d been only ice here, and sea beneath it. Now, new land stretched and met the old, growing still outward, literally expanding the borders of the kingdom.
“My flame.” Isidor’s voice carried over the melting distance between them.
She sent a ball of lava at him, even knowing he’d freeze it over. “I am not your anything, Isidor. I never was. I most assuredly never will be.”
Lightning flashed in his eyes. A reflection of what came from the ash cloud, no doubt, but no less chilling for having an explanation. He lifted a hand, clenched a fist, and she could hear his ice mountain shifting, reforming off to the side. “This is no way to speak to your king.”
“You are not my king. You are no one’s king.”
He shot out a wall of ice to encircle them, a miniature arena. “Your son is going to destroy the entire kingdom. We can stop him, if we work together. Save Fjordlandi.”
She sent her lava out over his ice, turning the wall into one of flames. “You don’t care about Fjordlandi—you care about your own power. Nik will not destroy—he’ll build. Something you know nothing about.”
“He’s destabilizing the entire continent—”
“You really think we’d let him rock our foundations?
” She called to the flows beneath their feet, brought them up enough to rumble, to shake the ground, to melt the ice.
And smirked at how Isidor flailed to maintain his balance.
“Here’s the difference you need to understand, Isidor.
Nik is part of a family. While he fights you here, Dae and the others are stabilizing the rest of the continent, each volcano.
We work together. A unit. Not fighting for supremacy with your stupid Proving.
Not trying to earn a title or a rank or a seat with those Challenges—just trying to be better, to grow, to learn, to strengthen each other and ourselves. ”
He scoffed. “You are thanes. You will never be better than what you are at birth, with dirt for blood. We are the only way you can lift yourselves up, escape the mire. And our children could do that, could—”
“Enough! I don’t want to hear those words from you ever again.” She slashed a hand through the air, letting fire lick over her arm.
He dropped to a knee, cold rage on his face, and pressed both hands to the ground.
Ice formed anew beneath his palms, and then the rumbling began again.
Rumbling that she could feel through her feet as well as her lava-sense.
The mountains, both ice and volcanic, were alive, erupting.
Shaking the ground beneath her feet, the tremors growing, building.
No. Giver? Protect the dome. She had no idea what kind of earthquake Harroby could withstand, but instinct said they’d soon find out if they didn’t stop this elemental battle.
She felt for the volcano behind her, but Nik was awake again, his magic fisted around it.
So then. She would leave one mountain to subdue the other. She would focus on the master of the ice. Stop him, and she’d stop it all. Stop him, and his supporters would cut loose and flee. Stop him, and they’d truly win.
She heard ice breaking free from the mountain, saw its shadow as it soared through the air, but she paid no attention. Lava flowing up over her, dripping down her arms like wings, she set a roar loose from her lips and flew at Isidor.
They were about to see how long his ice could really withstand the Aflame.