A Fire in the Flesh (Flesh and Fire, #3)

Kolis froze against me.

The burst of power rippled out from me in every direction, throwing the false King off me. I heard him hit the bars this time, his grunt of surprise giving way to a sound of pain.

Energy and essence pumped through my muscles, lighting up every cell in my being, and I knew then that I was truly more than just a few embers.

I was them.

They were me.

What I wanted. What I thought.

It became reality.

In the blink of an eye, I was on my feet, but I didn’t run for the door. Slowly, I turned to where Kolis now stood. He was more bones than flesh.

Death stood before me.

But I was Life.

“Us?” he whispered.

Eather roared to the surface of my skin, spinning down my arms. Screaming, I threw my hands out to either side. Another blast of energy left me, evaporating the divan and the table. The bed rose as an area rug and stacks of untouched books crumbled. The privacy screen collapsed as everything not bolted down in the bathing chamber took to the air. I caught sight of the damn key I’d hidden away but never had a chance to use. It disintegrated. The gilded bars exploded, sending shards flying outward.

“I am done with this,” I whispered—or screamed, I couldn’t be sure. However loud it was, eather filled my voice, and it sounded like air that carried the winds of time, rushing beyond the half-destroyed cage and speeding into the chamber beyond. The throne Kolis had sat upon shattered into dust as the essence—as my will—poured from the narrow windows along the ceiling.

Kolis stumbled, the abyss of his eyes sparking gold and silver, but I didn’t see him. He wasn’t important as I held on to my will, picturing the silvery strands of eather stretching above the sanctuary and whipping outward, racing through the empty streets and between the sparkling buildings, past Cor Palace and the glittering wall of diamond and marble. I saw the winged statues guarding Dalos, and because I was feeling petty, I turned them to dust. Then I saw the mountains I’d looked upon earlier. I focused on the spots of darkness—the shadowstone—as I summoned the tendrils of throbbing power. They blanketed the foot of the Carcers like a silvery web before spreading up the sides of the mountain and winding their way through the maze of trees, finding the targets of shadowstone and blowing straight through them—through all the walls, floors, ceilings, and the chains within them.

At the end of the tendrils of eather I sent out, I saw eather-streaked silver eyes snap open.

And I smiled.

Kolis’s head jerked to the right, his jaw clenching as if he sensed what I’d done.

Who I’d freed.

His stare whipped back to me, and, yeah, he knew who was coming. Kolis had to feel the ice-drenched rage hit the air high above Dalos, fueling an unthinkable power, because I could.

A drop of blood hit the bodice of my gown as I shifted my focus to Kolis. The back of my skull tingled as the essence throbbed through what remained of the cage. Chests toppled. Gauzy gowns of white and gold lifted into the air, whirling around us like dancing spirits.

Kolis’s flesh reappeared as he returned to his mortal form. “Us?” he repeated.

“Shut up.” Eather surged, and I latched on to the power—my power. Crackling and spitting eather erupted from my fingertips, taking shape in my hand, stretching and lengthening into the thunderbolt I’d created before. My fingers closed around the humming mass of energy.

Kolis’s eyes widened. “Don’t.”

“Fuck you.” I threw the bolt as if it were a dagger.

And I rarely missed when I threw a blade.

I didn’t this time, either.

The lightning bolt struck true, knocking him off his feet and throwing him through the hole in the cage behind him. He hit the floor and rolled several feet.

I walked forward, lifting my hands. What remained of the gilded bones rose into the air all around me, mostly just tiny shards with a few the length of my hand or slightly longer.

Kolis shot to his feet, the skin of his chest charred and smoking. His lip curled as his chin dipped. “You don’t want to do this.”

I glanced to my left. “But I do.”

His gaze followed mine to the shards. “Fuck.”

He darted to the side, escaping the full brunt of what I sent at him, but several embedded themselves in his stomach and thighs. His head lifted as he grabbed one in his stomach, his face grimacing from the pain. “Stop this now.”

“Stop?” I laughed as a draken’s roar ended in a yelp in the distance.

“Yes. It’s not too late—”

“Do you swear that to me? That you can forgive me?” As I stepped out of the cage, silky material swirled around me, snagging on the shredded bones. “That we can start anew?”

Confusion flickered across Kolis’s features as he blinked. “Yes.”

I laughed as a thunderous roar of rage neared. “Come now, you speak as if you’re capable of still looking upon me as…her,” I said, changing only that in what he’d said to Eythos. “You’re not as good of a liar as I am.”

Kolis went still.

“You never were.” I walked through the spinning gowns. “There’s no coming back from this—any of this.”

Disbelief gave way to a mess of emotions I’d never seen on his handsome face before. Horror. Sorrow. Regret. “You saw…”

A longer piece of bone flew forward. Kolis lurched to the left, but his shock cost him. It got him in the shoulder, dragging him down to the floor.

My hand snapped out, catching one of the bones. The contact burned my hand as I prowled toward him, but I held on. The pain was worth it. “You didn’t believe Eythos when he said he loved you.”

Kolis struggled with the bone jutting from his skin, his wild gaze darting to the one in my hand.

“That is why you stabbed him. You didn’t think it would kill him. A wound to the heart wouldn’t have done that—not even with one of these.” I kicked his hand away, then slammed my foot onto his arm, pinning it down. “But he was weakened, wasn’t he?”

Kolis stared up at me as if I was a spirit he’d known had been haunting him but hadn’t been able to see until now. “I…I didn’t know he had removed the last embers from himself. If I had—”

“If you had, you wouldn’t have…what? Killed him by accident?”

A heavy breath shuddered from Kolis. “I…I didn’t mean to.” His eyes were so wide, so full of gold, that for a moment he didn’t look like the false King of Gods, but a man who had made many mistakes. “Because how could he love me?”

“Good question. I suppose your brother was a much more forgiving being than the rest of us. Definitely better than me,” I said, kneeling so I hovered over him but kept his arm pinned. “I want you to remember one thing, Kolis.”

Understanding dawned in his features, his gaze going to the bone I held.