Chapter Fifty
CHAPTER FIFTY
Scarlett
After checking Mira’s pulse – strong and steady – I approached Danica’s body. The stench alone should have repulsed me, but I breathed past it, not thinking of fried hair and sizzling skin. I needed to make sure she was dead.
Not that I expected otherwise. No one could have survived that, and those screams . . .
I shuddered, recalling what Mira had done. Her mother was powerful, but if Zandri was correct, Mira had the potential to become even more so. I suspected that was why Zandri was being so cautious with Mira’s training. She didn’t want to make the same mistake she’d made with Adalyn, turning her into both a weapon and a threat.
From what I’d seen tonight, it was already too late for that.
Crouching at Danica’s side, I took in her charred fighting leathers and shrivelled hair. What little I could see of her face was blistered, her mouth open in a silent scream. At least she was no longer a problem.
But no – that wasn’t quite true. Soon Danica’s body would be discovered. I needed to make sure her death couldn’t be tied to us.
Which meant the mask had to go.
I gagged as I prised it free, along with strips of skin and a hot layer of fat. Danica’s face – I couldn’t look at what was left of her face. But the instant my hand brushed her skin, black veins started to wind up my arms.
I stared at them with a mixture of shock and fascination.
With every second that I maintained the connection between us, my skin grew colder and darker. As if ice was flowing through Danica and into me. Ice, in the place of blood.
No, I thought dimly to myself, my eyes fluttering shut. Not ice. Death.
It flooded into me, and even though it was cold, I welcomed it like an old friend.
I thought of the girl I had seen when Roran had drowned me, with her snow-white skin and glacial eyes. Even though I resembled her now, I knew what she truly was. Death and rebirth wrapped into one.
And every time I embraced her, I came closer to unlocking my true potential. To becoming strong enough to defeat my brothers, kill my father, and claim my place as empress.
When I finally severed the connection, Danica’s eyes were empty husks and I was smiling.
I felt no fear when the soldier burst into view, his sword already drawn. I watched him take in Danica’s body, the debris and destruction around us. And I watched him open his mouth, preparing to call out for assistance—
I moved to meet him, unable to risk him bringing a whole platoon down on us. His first strike was easy enough to evade, but I didn’t even try to avoid his second.
Instinct drove me to grasp his sword with both hands, stopping the metal a few inches from my heart.
‘Surrender,’ he told me. ‘Surrender, or I’ll run you through.’
The black veins surged in response, moving through me and into the sword. Darkening the silver to black.
The man’s grip loosened and his face contorted – the first vestiges of pain and cold infecting him.
But he hadn’t noticed the veins crawling up his arms. Not yet.
‘What are you?’ he asked, staring into my face – into my eyes.
‘What are you?’
I had no answer. Even I wasn’t sure what this power made me – but I didn’t care. All I felt was a cold certainty, the knowledge that soon, those black veins would reach his heart.
When he finally saw them, he reached in panic for another weapon. But not to attack me.
To attack himself .
When his screaming finally stopped and his chest went still, I became aware of a presence behind me.
I turned slowly, already knowing who it would be.
‘Your eyes,’ Mira whispered, backing away. She stumbled, tripping over the uneven ground.
I raised a hand to my face, only to pause. Admiring the black veins.
‘It’s alright,’ I murmured, approaching Mira like I might a skittish animal. As I did, I wrapped an illusion around myself: covering the veins with normal skin, and transforming my eyes back to their usual blue.
Mira stared up at me, her lips parted, her skin white as paper. And then she turned and fled.
Running – from me .
I tracked her through the Lower Districts, my steps slow and unhurried. No one tried to stop me, and even the few animals I saw – two dogs and a cat – bolted at my approach.
Animals weren’t so easily deceived. And I suspected they could see the truth my illusions concealed.
Because my eyes were identical to the corpse I had left behind. Two inky black husks—
Filled with death.