Chapter 23 #3
Valerius's Shadowflame roars higher. My father clutches the case. "You said you needed it to keep her contained," he says to Voss.
The betrayal hits so hard I can't breathe. Valerius turns his head slightly. His rage enters the bond like a storm. My father flinches at whatever he sees in my face. "Valentina—"
"You were going to give her the key?" I say in disbelief.
"I was trying to protect you." He tries to save himself.. The words are ruined now. Destroyed beyond repair.
Voss sighs. "Parents so often confuse sentiment for strategy. The key, Alaric."
He hesitates. That hesitation is the only reason I don't break completely. He doesn't trust her fully. Maybe seeing me collapse in the chamber did something. Maybe hearing me ask if he hated me did. Maybe too late is still not never.
Voss's expression cools. "Do not make me take it."
The guards step forward. Professor Thorne lifts a ward.
Valerius's Shadowflame spreads. The archive erupts.
Council guards rush from three sides. Thorne's wards slam into theirs, blue-white sparks exploding between shelves.
Books shriek in their chains. Seren throws Veil magic at the nearest guard, green light tangling around his ankles like roots and yanking him face-first to the floor.
"Sorry!" she shouts, then kicks his wand away. "Not sorry!"
Valerius pulls me behind him, one hand gripping mine, the other casting Shadowflame in a precise arc. Black fire blocks two guards, forcing them back into a shelf of forbidden branch histories. Voss doesn't move. Her eyes remain on me. On my wrist. On the way my Starfire stirs beneath my sleeve.
"Remarkable," she says.
I hate that word in her mouth. My father backs toward the vault door, case clutched to his chest. Voss sees. Her stones flare. A black chain of magic snaps from her necklace toward him.
"No!" I scream.
The chain wraps around the silver case. My father cries out, pulled forward.
Valerius moves to cut it, but a guard throws a containment cuff at him.
It opens in midair, black stone jaws snapping toward his wrist.
My blood turns cold. The queen's warning slams through me.
Sacrifice the boy. The cuff isn't for his hand.
It's for his Shadowflame. It will bind him.
Take him. Use him. Starfire ignites beneath my skin.
I lunge toward him. Valerius sees the cuff.
He also sees me moving. His choice happens in a heartbeat.
He could protect himself but he protects me.
He shoves me behind him. The cuff closes around his wrist.
Black stone locks. Valerius's Shadowflame dies.
The silence is violent. The bond convulses.
I gasp, clutching my chest.
Valerius drops to one knee. "Valerius!" I scream. His face twists, not with pain exactly, but with something worse. Emptiness. The cuff is smothering his magic. My Starfire flares in panic.
Voss smiles. "There," she whispers. "Much better."
The guards stop. The archive stops. Every chain stills.
Valerius grips the cuff with his free hand, teeth clenched, trying to summon flame that doesn't come.
His eyes meet mine. For the first time since I have known him, I feel no Shadowflame through the bond.
Only him. Raw, furious and hurting. Still reaching for me anyway.
Voss lifts one hand toward him. "Bring Mr. Draven to me."
A guard grabs Valerius's shoulder. Something inside me snaps. "No."
The Starfire that erupts from me isn't wild. It's focused. It hits the guard, throwing him backward into the stone floor. The cuff on Valerius's wrist flashes, and I see it clearly for one impossible moment. The same black-star symbol hidden inside the Remnant's mouth.
My breath stops. "Valerius," I whisper. "The cuff is marked." His eyes flash. Voss's smile disappears.
Professor Thorne turns sharply. "What?"
Voss lifts her hand. "Restrain her."
Seren screams, "Don't touch her!"
Another guard rushes me. Valerius rises despite the cuff, stepping in front of me with no magic at all.
No Shadowflame. No fire. No weapon. Only his body.
My heart shatters. The guard swings a warded blade.
Valerius catches his wrist with one hand and drives his knee into the guard's ribs hard enough that the man collapses.
Magic or no magic, Valerius Draven is still dangerous.
The cuff is hurting him. I feel it. A hollow ache at the edge of the bond, sucking at his strength.
Voss sees too. "Take him," she says coldly.
Three guards move. I step in front of Valerius. He grabs my arm. "Valentina."
"No." I stand my ground.
"Move." He warns.
"No." The bond burns. He can't force me. He would never.
Voss's eyes gleam. "Touching."
I look at her. "You used the Remnant's mark," I say. The archive stills again. Voss's face goes blank. "You put old law on that cuff."
Professor Thorne's face goes lethal. "Magistra Voss," he says quietly, "explain."
Voss's smile returns, slower this time. "Old law predates council law. It remains binding."
"On whom?" Thorne asks.
Her eyes lock on me. "On what should have stayed buried." The words hit like a confession.
My father makes a broken sound. He finally understands.
Voss was never trying to protect anyone.
She was hunting. The Starfire beneath my skin rises.
The archive answers. Books rip against their chains, pages fluttering wildly.
The shelves groan. The freestanding vault door behind my father glows white-gold at the edges.
Voss's gaze flicks to it. Then to the case. She yanks her black chain. The silver case tears from my father's hands and flies toward her. Everything slows. The case spins through the air. The seal key inside calls to my wrist, cold and bright.
If she gets it, she gets the deepest layer. If she gets it, she gets me.
Valerius lunges despite the cuff. Too slow. Professor Thorne casts a ward. Voss breaks it with a flick of her fingers. Seren sends Veil roots upward. The chain cuts through them. My father reaches too late.
The case flies into Voss's hand. She smiles.
My world narrows. I reach for Starfire on purpose.
The white-gold flame answers. It rushes through my arm, down my fingers, and across the archive in a single blazing thread.
It strikes the silver case in Voss's hand.
The case opens. Light explodes. Inside isn't a key like metal.
It's a small crystal shaped like a star, suspended in a ring of silver thorns.
At its center burns a tiny piece of white-gold flame.
My flame. My stolen flame. The sight breaks me.
The crystal answers. It shatters the silver thorns from within.
Voss screams as white-gold fire sears across her palm.