The gold hardware on our ears floated upward and separated into shards of a crown.
Unlike last time, the kings’ eyes didn’t darken.
Ice talons exploded from my fingers. Scorpius’s and Orion’s talons looked the same, but Malum’s had changed.
They were made of fire.
Malum tipped his head back and said, “As the Ignis from the illustrious House of Malum, I invoke the power of my mates.” He pulled the wickedly sharp dagger from his neck. He stared at me as he said, “As the crowned King of the Sun God, I invoke the power of my mates.”
My skin prickled with power.
It was intoxicating.
“Venimus!” Orion sang. “We came.”
I braced myself for the trancelike state—it never came.
Scorpius grinned as he realized and bellowed, “Vidimus! We saw.” The eye tattoo on his neck looked around and his milky blind eyes glowed brightly.
It was Malum’s turn to speak, but I tipped my head back, and sheer power ripped through my chest.
On instinct, I yelled, “Interfecimus! We slaughtered.”
Ice shot from my fingers and formed into a staff. It touched the ground and towered high above my head. A skull sat on the end, and Horse settled onto it. His feathers gleamed with shades of red and gold.
He was corporeal.
I gasped with delight.
Horse opened his long beak and cawed, the sound toe-curling and vicious.
Malum shouted, “Vicimus! We conquered.” He held the dagger above his head, and flames poured off him, filling the air.
Ice burst from my fingers and rose to greet his heat.
The lavender sunlight disappeared. Gray clouds rolled in and snow whipped furiously.
The blizzard had arrived.
“The day of wrath is here,” Orion sang loudly in his sweet, poisoned voice. White-blond hair floated alongside cherry blossoms. He winked over at me. “The day of wrath is upon us.”
Doors slammed open, and hundreds of infected poured out of the structures into the unforgiving snow.
Scorpius tipped his head back to the sky and bright light shot out from all three of his eyes.
The white flames above the infecteds’ heads flickered green, then midnight black.
Orion sang, “Your souls have been found lacking. You have committed a heinous crime against bodily autonomy. Redemption is not possible. You will be exterminated.”
I raised my ice staff.
Slammed it down onto the rocks.
CRACK.
Horse raised his wings wide and screamed into the storm.
Temperatures plummeted. Lower. Lower. Lower. Lower. Winds intensified.
Visibility was nonexistent, but I didn’t need my eyes to see.
I could feel the location of every infected person. Their souls were corrupted by the foul ungodly.
Scarlet flames leaped and rose higher off Malum, and his warmth cut through the ice storm. The twins stepped forward and stood beside the flaming king.
Malum spread his arms wide, and his heat sheltered all of us from my cold.
The ungodly weren’t so lucky.
The blizzard was merciless.
My limbs tingled with awareness—I could feel every flake of snow that covered the mountain plateau. It was rapturous. I was free.
I tipped my head back and laughed as the weather raged.
I was the storm.
The power was intoxicating.
I felt like a god.
The temperatures kept plummeting. The infected died from the un-survivable cold, then ungodly ripped from their carcasses. The monsters flailed helplessly as snow piled around them.
Colder. Colder. Colder.
Crack. I slammed my staff down on the rocks.
Just like the claws adorning my hands, the snowbanks covering the plateau turned razor-sharp.
Every snowflake transformed into a serrated blade.
Crack.
Hundreds of ungodly were sawed into pieces.
Instant death.
Horse shrieked into the wind as he flapped his majestic golden-red wings. I tipped my head back and yelled with him.
The blizzard raged.
I needed to test every living person’s soul; I needed to cleanse all the realms of darkness; I was reckoning incarnate; I was here.
Someone yelled something at me, but I couldn’t hear them above the wind.
Turning, I faced the angels who were frozen in place.
I’d start with them.
Almost black flames flickered weakly above the angels’ heads. They weren’t fully corrupt, but they were close. Far away, down the side of the mountain, eight warm bodies were frozen still, and three of the souls were also nearly irredeemable.
A smirk twisted my frozen lips.
I didn’t believe in redeeming the impure. I would execute them to save the pure.
“Stop! You don’t want to hurt them,” Jinx’s voice screamed inside my brain. I smiled because she was wrong.
I did.
Horse flew off my staff and settled onto my shoulder.
Someone bellowed something in my face and shook me, but I barely noticed.
I lifted my staff and—flames slammed against me.
The world burned.
Scarlet fire.
Everywhere.
I staggered back as the numbing cold retreated from my limbs. I slowly came back to awareness. Tiredness hit me like a hammer, and my knees gave out.
Two people caught me.
“You’re okay, sweetheart.” Orion knelt in front of me, and his lyrical voice washed over me like honey. “You did amazing.”
Scorpius knelt beside him. A tattooed eye was wide with worry as it stared at me.
“Good girl,” Luka whispered in my ear, and I realized the twins were holding me upright.
Flames danced around all of us.
The warmth intensified as Malum stepped closer. Fire poured off his hands onto me.
“I conquered,” he said. “I conquered you, my Arabella.”
Malum’s eyes widened. “That’s why you fell asleep each time we practiced. You were never meant to stop me. I was born to stop you. You’re the powerful one. It has always been you.
Scorpius tipped his head back and laughed. “This entire time, she’s been the blizzard—that’s my killer.”
I tried to smile back, but my lips were numb with cold.
Sheer power strummed through my veins.
I was frozen.
“Go to sleep,” Malum whispered, his flames surrounding me in a cocoon of peace. “We’ll take care of you. You did so well.”
Sleepiness dragged my eyes lower and made my limbs heavy.
Horse shifted on my shoulders.
He was also on fire.
He nuzzled his cheek feathers against the side of my face, then pecked like he was giving me kisses. He chirped three times, and it felt like he was saying “I love you.”
I kissed his feathered head gently.
He looked at me with adoration.
Scarlet flames trailed across his feathers, and he disintegrated into ash. The storm carried him away.
I blinked frozen lashes in horror.
A tear froze as it streaked down my cheek.
“A phoenix,” John whispered with wonder.
It hit me.
I understood.
Mother had set me on fire until I was incoherent. The High Court had mutilated my soul and I’d lived a colorless life—but suffering didn’t define my existence.
I didn’t struggle to control my power.
I was power.
Horse and I would rise from the ashes.
We would survive.
I yawned, and in the space between consciousness and sleep, the meaning behind Lyla’s warning, “You must embrace the dragon,” became clear.