“I can see your heart, too, Ruby,” she said with a flare of cold purpose in her eyes. “And I can read your every thought. The Minax is in control, which means you aren’t.”
Imitating my previous move, she lashed me with an icy whip. I spun to avoid the brunt of it, and it shattered against my shoulder. “My gift is stronger now,” she said, loosing a current of frigid air filled with stinging needles of ice. Several landed on my cheek, slicing the skin.
“So is mine,” I replied with arrows of fire.
She blocked, batting them down with her forearms. “But you’re tired. You’re not yourself.”
She was right. I was something far, far more dangerous. I wasn’t the girl I’d been a year ago: Ruby, the helpless Fireblood peasant, victim of the Frost King’s soldiers. I was Princess Ruby, heir to the Sudesian throne, Nightblood daughter of a twisted and bloodthirsty god. Nothing could or would stop me.
My chest expanded with a surge of fire, the Minax’s possession refilling the well of heat I’d depleted. My mind sharpened, sped up, everything laid out in excruciating detail. I could use the one gift that only the queen and I had. The power to control lava.
Reaching deep for a final burst of energy, I called up the lava from the corners of the room, the bubbling remains of the throne, and I drew the strands together, pulling the gathered mass of liquid up behind Marella in a wave. The heat was blistering. The lava unstoppable. Killing her would be the easiest thing I’d ever done.
My hands hovered, ready to bring molten death down on her. Time stilled.
Images flashed.
The arena.
Gravnach—the Frostblood champion who’d regularly engaged in torture before he killed his opponents. First, an image of him sawing at my little finger as I screamed, then him convulsing on the ground, his blue blood leaking from his mouth.
Captain Drake, his blade poised over me. Then his lifeless body. His wife and daughter watching.
Rasmus, murderous, trying to suffocate me with his ice in his throne room. Then a later version of Rasmus, his eyes wide with surprise as the Minax filled him one last time, using up the last of his energy, severing the connection between spirit and body.
Arcus facing me in the arena as Kane, when I’d almost killed him. Arcus in the Frost King’s throne room, shaking in my arms as I held him, muttering his brother’s name.
Kai shoving me against the brick wall of the alley outside the tavern, demanding to know why I’d almost killed a man for no reason. The school courtyard. Kai holding me gently, telling me not to fight my emotions.
Then I saw Sage, clear as if she stood in front of me, her gold eyes burning into mine, beaming a message straight into my mind. Not her.
And somehow, I immediately understood. I was fighting the wrong opponent. This wasn’t the arena. Marella was not my enemy. If I killed her, I would have lost myself to the Minax. And I would never, never fully come back from that.
Be, Sage said. Be you.
Clarity was instant and cataclysmic. I was Eurus’s creation. The Minax had known it almost from the time I’d first seen the frost throne. It had recognized a kindred spirit and known I belonged with it. I was a Nightblood.
I was also a Fireblood. Kai had tried to explain that I fought my emotions too much, that my internal struggle diminished my power. My fear of losing control held me back from realizing my full potential.
I had to trust that some basic part of me was good, and let myself be fully Nightblood, fully Fireblood—just for this moment—both merciless and passionate, and know that my mother’s love had provided a foundation that would never let me stray too far from my true self.
I threw the lava back, watching the bright glow of it slosh against the wall, making sure it settled once again.
Then I focused on the Minax inside of me, concentrating on my connection to it, letting it merge with me, putting up no resistance. When my mind synced completely with its darkness, I expelled it from my body with the force of my will. Pain cleaved my head and I lost my vision, but I didn’t allow myself to lose focus.
For a moment, both Minax seemed startled. I knew everything they felt and heard their every thought. They had longed to be together for an eternity, trapped and separated from each other and from their kind. But they were used to being in control, not being controlled.
I forced the fire Minax to pull the frost Minax from the shell of Marella’s body, its shadow arms wrapping around the essence of its twin and yanking it out. I heard Marella’s gasp and cry. I heard her body hit the floor. Dimly, I listened to another fight nearby. Arcus’s grunt of pain, and Eurus’s malevolent laughter.
I bent every fragment of awareness on the fire Minax, controlling its movements, forcing it to drain energy from the other Minax, to turn its vast hunger on its twin. The frost Minax screamed and fought back, threatening and begging. I showed no mercy. The frost Minax had caused war, genocide, and murder in Tempesia. Never again. Its time was over.
It spat a torrent of ancient words I didn’t understand, though I sensed the general meaning. A curse, a vow of revenge, a wish for my suffering. As the frost Minax spouted invective, I forced the fire Minax to snuff out its last spark of life.
As the echoes faded, the fire Minax hovered there, confused, filled with extra energy stolen from its twin. It struggled with something deep and irrevocable, something unfamiliar that confused it. The confusion turned to anger. I called it back to me before it could take its anger out on anyone else.
Return to me.
I staggered as the Minax, doubled in power, slammed through the barrier of skin.
Be silent, I told it. Sleep.
It railed and fought. I repeated the order. It whimpered, an inhuman keening, and finally, reluctantly, curled up in a corner of my mind and went silent.
The room pulsed with quiet.
The pounding in my head eased. Blood prickled behind my eyes, and I opened them. The room came into focus.
Arcus was covered in rivulets of shining blue blood, still standing, tense and angry. With surprise, I noticed Kai, breathing hard but alert next to him, his hair mussed, his robes burnt, his hands raised to defend.
They faced Eurus, who stood some yards away near the spinning portal.
For a moment, I wondered why they’d all stopped fighting. Then I noticed that Eurus held Marella in his arms. A human shield. Her white gown trailed to the floor like a sparkling waterfall, one limp arm also hanging down. Her honey-rich hair had come loose from its pins and spilled over his arms. Her face was bone white, her eyes closed.
My heart lurched to see her so still. “Is she dead?”
Eurus’s gaze shifted to me, then back to Arcus. “Make any sudden moves, and she will be.”
“Leave her,” said Arcus roughly. “You don’t need her.”
“I do need her. To make sure you don’t attack again. The death of my Minax has weakened my bond with this frail mortal body. If I had my own powers, our battle would have turned out very differently.”
“If you weren’t hiding behind an unconscious girl,” Kai chimed in, his roughened voice lacking its usual verve, “things would end very quickly.”
“Hence my reluctance to put her down,” Eurus conceded. He kept his eyes on Arcus, but turned his head to me. “Ruby, you’ll come with us.”
I clenched my fists. “No.”
“Then I’ll kill this Frostblood girl,” he threatened. “Snapping her neck will be like breaking the stem of a flower.” He glanced down at Marella, then refocused on me. “I’ll leave her here if you come with me.”
I started forward. Arcus’s arm snaked around my waist, hauling me back against him.
“Ruby won’t trade her life for Marella’s.” He bent to whisper in my ear. “Don’t trust him. He could just take you both—kill you both.”
“Put Marella down and then I’ll consider it,” I said firmly.