Before She Ignites (Fallen Isles Trilogy #1)(104)

“Aaru!”

His mouth dropped open and tendons stood out on his neck, but no sound emerged. His knees hit the ground as he grasped at his shoulder.

The screaming man stepped from his cell, over Aaru’s crumpled form, and looked straight at me. “I’ve waited a year for this moment.”

And killing me was more important than getting out of here?

Before I could say anything, Altan hurled his baton at Chenda. She collapsed to the floor in a heap of dirty copper silk. Her shadow vanished back into her, normal once more.

My heart raced at the chaos, at the flood of warriors, at the assassin come to end my life once again. We were going to lose. No matter how hard we fought, there was no way we could win. Our warrior was down. Ilina’s quiver was empty. The shadow assassin was gone. Even my silent neighbor was hurt, trying in vain to put his shoulder back into place.

Kelsine roared and threw herself at one of the warriors, but he shoved her into a cell and threw the bars closed, trapping her.

Panic pinned me into place, rooting my feet to the ground. I couldn’t lower the noorestones without dropping them—the pain in my own shoulder wouldn’t allow that kind of movement. I couldn’t fight. I couldn’t help. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. Everything was fading, flickering, except this giant truth that boiled up from a chasm in my chest.

We were going to lose.

Still, Hurrok strode toward me.

Hristo had fought his way through to Altan, slamming him against the bars of a cell. Blood trickled from Altan’s temple, but it was too late. One of the new warriors drew a sword, forcing Hristo to back away or be cut to ribbons.

There was no way.

Gerel and Chenda were unconscious. Ilina was weaponless. Hristo was fighting for his life. Kelsine was trapped. Aaru had pulled himself up and was running, but he would be too late.

There was only me, with Hurrok right there, with Altan raising his baton at me, and with twenty-six warriors thundering through the cellblock.

I hated my panic. I hated the way it captured my body and stole my thoughts. I was going to die because I couldn’t make myself move.

But the thunder wasn’t just coming from warriors. Slowly, I became aware of the ground shifting again.

Swirling.

An aftershock.

Not as violent as before, but it threw everyone off-balance.

Altan fell away.

The screaming man stumbled back.

I jerked free of panic’s paralysis as the aftershock ended.

That’s when I felt it: power pulsing into me, making my skin buzz with energy. The noorestones dimmed in my hands, and ripples of fire danced between the crystals.

A foreign-feeling smile pulled at me.

Hurrok swore and abruptly abandoned his quest to kill me. He turned and ran, knocking into Aaru on his way out of the cellblock. The keys clattered to the floor.

Altan dived for me, as though to pry the stones from my fists, but then all the noorestones in the hall dimmed, and the only light in the hall came from me. Altan moved back, eyes round. “What are you?”

Fire poured through my body, all heat and power bursting to escape. I adjusted my footing, hyperaware of warriors staring at me, my friends watching, and the earth beginning to tremble once more.

“Ilina.” My voice sounded hollow as the whole cellblock went dark, save the nimbus of flame flickering over my skin. I was burning with the power of thirty-four noorestones, and it was too much. Too overwhelming. My chest pinched, making breath squeeze from my lungs in tiny gasps, until I felt as though I were collapsing, condensing into a singular point. And soon I would explode. “Get everyone out of here.”

There was a scuffle. A cacophony of voices. The clatter of iron. And screeching.

I held on for five seconds.

Someone shouted that they would not leave me, but I couldn’t tell who. The rumble and rush in my ears was overwhelming.

Ten seconds.

I was going to die like this. I was certain of it.

Twenty seconds.

If everyone didn’t evacuate, they’d die, too.

Thirty.

Forty.

Forty-one.

Forty-two.

Please, Darina, I prayed. Please, Damyan.

Forty-three.

I had to hold on.

Forty-four.

Forty-five.

I held on as long as I could, but my vision blackened into the deepest night, and my ears became deaf to all but the roaring demand for release.

And then I burst into a thousand stars.





CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE




IT WAS EXHILARATING, REALLY.

Exploding.

Being shred asunder.

Burning like a hundred thousand galaxies.

Fire rippled over my skin. When I screamed, strange muscles stretched and flexed until I reached every end of this prison, and finally I tore myself free.

Of the tight stone walls.

Of aching hunger.

Of desperate uncertainty.

I was bigger than all that now. Stronger. Brighter. I was awake.

My roar could shatter mountains, and my wings could black out the sun. Once I’d been a girl, but now I was more. The sparks ignited. Ashes swarmed around me. And this was only the beginning.

Fire blazed from my heart, rushing across my skin and pulling my eyes wide until I could see through the shuddering earth, up to the sky, and into the cores of the stars themselves. They were so very hot, and bright, and lonely. I wanted to pluck them out of the sky and wear them as jewels around my throat, but then I was larger and hotter, expanding into the farthest stretches of the night. A thousand trails of radiance burned in my wake, spanning centuries.