Trial by Fire

She smelled the smoke first. It billowed up from underneath, choking her. Lily coughed so hard she doubled over until the chains stopped her, and saw the flames flickering below. Then she felt the heat.

Her feet were suddenly burning. An animal need to get away from the flames possessed her, and Lily tugged violently on the chains. The flames rose quickly. There was no way to escape them, no matter how she twisted or turned, and she began to burn. Screams tore out of her, horrible shrieking sounds that she’d never made before.

Lily. Take the heat. Change it into force. Give it to me, or you’ll die.

Writhing in agony, Lily took the heat in and found that as she did so, the flames felt cooler. She pulled in more and more heat until she thought she would burst with it, then turned the gathered heat into force. The roar of the flames silenced for one brief moment. Lily looked up and saw a bright column of light beaming straight up from where she stood, hundreds of feet into the sky. A witch wind howled high up in the atmosphere, spinning the clouds above like a hurricane. It made an eerie sound, like the sky were moaning. Across the battlefield, Lillian’s hurricane spun above the Citadel, a twin to Lily’s.

Give it to us, Lily.

Lily recalled the patterns of every willstone she’d ever claimed. Thousands of different rhythms flashed across her mind, forming a complicated series of vibrations that she experienced like a song of buzzes and hums in her body. There were so many, but the pain helped her focus on each and every one. Lily unlocked all the stones in her army and filled them with power.

Thousands of bodies arched with euphoria and thousands of minds reached for Lily, sharing the experience with her. At the front of all the minds, strong and clear, was Rowan’s. Near to him in strength and familiarity were Tristan and Caleb, and close behind, Dana. Lily poured the lion’s share of power into their stones and connected each of them with the minds of the soldiers she sensed around them. Lily’s newly appointed generals led her army out onto the battlefield at a run.

Her body hanging limply from her chains, Lily’s mind thundered with them toward the oncoming army in her mind. She felt her fighters clashing with Lillian’s, felt the front lines charge through each other and pass in a blur of bodies and steel. She was there with Rowan when he cut off Gideon’s head in the first second of battle.

Lily shared in the experience of battle with her soldiers. She thrilled with them at the feeling of invincibility that so many of them had never experienced before. She also felt it when they died. A one-of-a-kind rhythm would suddenly stop, and that unique part of the symphony would be lost forever. Every time it was a shock to her. Every time, she gasped at the loss. But feeling the loss drove her even harder. The flames bent toward Lily as she greedily pulled their heat into her core and changed it into force in an ever-increasing loop. When she felt one of her soldier’s strength fail, she would flood his or her stone with power.

The two bewitched armies were evenly matched, and the fighting went on and on. The pyre began to collapse as the wood was consumed. A firestorm whirled around Lily in a tornado of sparks and ashes. Lily had to fight to breathe among the oxygen-hungry flames. The stake she was chained to crumbled, and Lily easily pulled her shackles free of it. She was so tired. Her skin began to burn as she fell to her knees, struggling to stay conscious. She heard Lillian’s voice in her head.

You can’t win. And I don’t want you to die. I’ll pull my army back if you get off the pyre, Lily.

Why, Lillian? I would think you’d want me dead at this point.

Not at all. You are everything I hoped you would be. I need you. That’s why I brought you here to begin with.

There are an infinite number of us, Lillian. Why not get another one?

No. You’re perfect. And I’d never get Rowan to train a third.