I couldn’t find any words for him. Nothing clever. Certainly no begging or pleading. I gave him my silence instead, my gaze drifting to the almost empty sky. Dark clouds loomed on the horizon. If it rained, would that be better, or worse? Would it put out the flames and delay my death, giving my allies another day to find me? Or would it simply make the fire burn slower, dragging out my suffering?
“Unless, of course, you’ve reconsidered?”
My eyes snapped back to the king, and at last, anger ignited in my chest. It burnt as violently as I soon would. Maybe it was stupid of me, maybe I should have lied, but I spat, “Light me up, bitch.”
Maelgwyn raised a bald eyebrow. “Very well, but know this. I will enjoy hearing you scream. And when your ashes have been swept away, I will hunt down your prince. There will be no mercy this time. I will make him scream too.”
He meant Anwir, but my mind went straight to Idris, and my heart stalled at the thought of him in danger. I couldn’t even pretend to believe that he would fight back. That pain that had flowed between us… he’d already given up. He would let them take him. Maybe it would have been better for everyone if I’d left the princes sleeping.
“Is this the only way you can make a woman scream, you ugly old cunt?”
Mum would have had my head if she heard such filth coming from my lips, but given the circumstances, she would understand. At the thought of her, a new wave of tears poured down my cheeks, but I held my glare level. My letter had never been sent. She thought her daughter was dead at the bottom of some underground canyon. She would never know the truth. This truth. It was a mercy. I couldn’t stand for her to know this.
Maelgwyn’s pallid face paled at my words, the last hint of colour draining from his thin lips. I expected a retort, but none came. The king turned his back on me, strolling away from me as though he was enjoying a walk in the park.
My heart racketed around my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I was going to vomit. If the rope around my middle hadn’t been tied so tight, my legs wouldn’t have held my weight.
A glimmer of orange caught my eye.
Fire.
A flaming torch, approaching, held aloft by a guard.
No.
This was it. It was actually happening. I clenched my teeth together, determined not to give that bastard king the satisfaction of hearing the screams he coveted. A fool’s hope, but I ground my teeth together all the same.
As the guard drew near, my body succumbed to violent shaking. The rope cut into my belly as my knees buckled from under me. I fixed my eyes on the sky, but the rapidly approaching steel grey clouds weren’t enough to distract me from the glimmer of firelight in my peripheral vision.
A whimpering sob hummed against the back of my clenched teeth, my quivering lips. Once the wobbling sound started, I was powerless to stop it.
With a hideous crackle, the flames caught my pyre. The glow flared brighter. Heat blared against my bare legs, and a moment later, the stench of smoke sucked into my panting lungs.
God, let it be quick. Please let it be quick.
The sky. I had to look at the sky. It was half blue, half grey, nothing like the orange dancing closer to my feet. The sky was beautiful. I’d take a picture, if I could.
Smoke billowed, all but obliterating my view. The crackle grew to a roar. The scorching heat intensified. I tried to draw my legs away, but the flames closed in on all sides. I clenched my teeth hard enough to crack them as my skin began to bubble and split.
Despite my hopeless determination, my whimpers turned to a scream.
Heat. Terror. Agony. Scorching, unimaginable agony.
Smoke clogged my lungs.
I screamed.
41No, No, No
Idris
The thunderclouds followed me, raging like the storm inside me.
Most of my life, I’d kept my power hidden, but at the sight of the crowded courtyard, at the smoke billowing skyward, I couldn’t remember why it had ever seemed important. Electricity surged beneath my skin, burning through my veins in pulses, lighting them beneath my skin in a blue-white glare. Not exactly subtle, but I didn’t care who saw. Didn’t bother to suppress it.
I vaulted to my feet atop Saeth’s back, crouching low to avoid the riptide of wind.
“Bank!”
The horse veered sideways as I leapt into the sky. With an ear-shattering crack, lightning erupted from me, lighting up the dark clouds.
I began to fall, plummeting towards the courtyard far below. I twisted through space, reappearing a moment later, barely a leg-length from the floor. Upon my landing, a second whip of lightning shattered over the ground. Several armoured guards blasted off their feet and lay in lifeless heaps.
Screaming.
At my appearance, the crowd began screaming, shoving and surging towards the exit, but one drawn-out, high-pitched wail cut through them all, right into my soul.
Aliza.
I reached over my shoulders, drawing both swords as I rose from my crouch and turned to face the coming onslaught of guards. I sent my power surging down the blades, lighting them with a skittering, blue-white gleam.
“The king!” somebody cried. “The king has come!”
Unimportant.
Crackling blades poised, I charged.
I pivoted as I drew level, swinging one arm out wide. The sword cut through flesh and bone and sinew. Several heads, I didn’t stop to count how many, rolled. Onwards. A fool met my blade with his own. The swords connected, and lightning plunged into his body with a crack, launching him off his feet.
