Page 124 of Born of Starlight
None of it really fucking mattered anymore.It could all burn.
My Source Match was dead—it had never been clearer what she had been to me. There would be an eternity to grieve. There was only this moment for vengeance.
“You’re are dead, Firose.” I spat the words at the woman who had taken so much from me.
My wrath burned toward her. Renewed fire whipped from my form, licking the air and threatening to ignite anything that came near.
Don’t burn the city. Asterie would want it standing.
Don’t burn the boy. Asterie cared for him.
Emmerick did not step back. I could see the flames licking his skin, singeing his facial hair. His shoulders were slumped, and his eyes filled with tears.
“Fenris, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Shemademe, she made me.” He was breathless and groveling. “I couldn’t stop—”
I raised a flaming palm to silence him. My anger wasn’t for the boy.
No,there was a singular focus for that rage. Firose had snuffed out the light that Asterie offered the world. She controlled, manipulated and caged her in a tower. She had raised her to be a weapon, and when her weapon fought back, she discarded her like nothing more than a dull dagger.
“You killed her!” I shrieked through the flames.
I was ready to fight fire with fire.
Though my fire couldn’t burn her.Damned Source magic never harming like Source magic. There were plenty of other ways I could end her with my bare hands.Or sword—I pulled my broadsword from my back.
“No, I wouldn’t have killed her—that plan was her own.” Firose’s voice sounded numb. She stilled as if listening to something in the wind. Her brow furrowed.
I bent and grabbed the chains around Emmerick’s ankles—it took only moments to melt through the metal and release him. The molten shackles pooled in my hands for a moment before the liquid steel dripped from my fingers. I flicked it away.
“Take her. Run as far as you can,” I commanded him.
I couldn’t look at her lifeless on the ground any longer.
Firose turned to Emmerick with a tilt of her head as though still dazed.
“Let those two go. He’ll be back for you, heir.” Her haunted words made my blood run cold—they were so similar to the night I found her on that roof in Phynx.
Emmerick didn’t hesitate—he lifted Asterie gently. I strangled a sob as the boy began to run toward the bailey. Reaching an arm out, I created a wall of fire between him and the approaching northern soldiers.
Firose seemed to return to herself, her arms crossed over her chest. A dozen Wasteland defectors flanked her, along with at least a dozen Lynx, who stalked me from all angles. The magic-wielders were growing orbs of amber darkness in their palms—shadow magic.
“Do you plan to burn me, Fenris? You will only stoke my embers, old flame. Have you forgotten how that feels?”
A ring of fire roared to life around me—anyone who dared approach would be set aflame. The guards threw orbs of darkness at me.
I blocked most, but one hit my shoulder, tearing at my skin. “Fuck!” I didn’t let it stop me and kept stepping toward her.
She was gravely mistaken if she thought it would be easy to cast me aside. The guards that met the flaming ring screamed and writhed on the ground. The smell of singed Lynx fur and skin only heightened my appetite for bloodshed.
Firose began to walk away, toward the palace entry—as though unworried.
“I will kill anyone who stands between us. Stand down!” I barked at the guards and Lynx that trailed her, allowing flames to engulf more of them as I approached.
The fleeting satisfaction of revenge was so close to being within my grasp.
Lynx prowled around the ring of fire, skeptically assessing it for weakness after watching members of their pride fall.
Guards still surrounded her.Idiots.
