Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(127)

He roared like the animal he was, gripping the air with his hands as he countered without looking, a ribbon of flame soaring toward the two of us.

I dodged as Míra did, his pointless attack streaming through the smoke-filled air and right into the fire that was already engulfing the room. It impacted with an explosion that sent sparks over us, fire dripping from the air as it, too, began to burn.

“You should be dead!” Míra suddenly screamed as she rushed the man who looked like a giant compared to the child. “You deserve to die!”

Edmund moved to attack, but I was faster. His focus was so intent on Míra that he didn’t even see me send a single spark toward him.

His attack froze as his hand was covered in an ice that quickly spread up his arm.

“I killed my brother because of what you did to me!” she continued to scream, attack after attack ripping into the man in her anger. “He was all I had left! And now he’s gone. It was all for nothing!”

“You think I made you do that?” He laughed as he finally fought back, sending Míra away from him, her magic barely catching her before she slammed into the inflamed wall.

“I didn’t make you do anything. I don’t make anyone do anything. You chose to do it. You failed,” he said, throwing his head back as his twisted laugh cut through the damning smoke that danced around us.

“I didn’t fail!” she screamed, tears seeping from her eyes as I saw the first real emotion from the girl.

A child.

Just like I once was, forced to do things I never wanted to. Forced to destroy my own heart, just as she had. I wasn’t the only one who had lost with Jaromir’s demise, with Risha’s murder.

I saw myself in her as she screamed, as she cried, as she confronted him in a way I never thought I could.

“Don’t listen to him, Míra.” The anger that had fueled me redirected itself onto the despot. “It’s all lies. He may not force your hand, but you know as well as I do that you had no choice.”

Míra looked at me in shock, her eyes wide as tears continued to pour from them. A silent exchange moved between us before she turned back to the towering man, blood still pouring from his chest as he stepped back, an odd fear I had never seen in him clouding his eyes.

“Jaromir was my brother!”

“And you killed him!” Edmund shouted back at her, the fear leaving briefly as he stepped toward Míra, posturing to her.

Míra began to cower, her shoulders hunching as I started to push myself up, my bones cracking painfully as the newly healed breaks threatened to snap. I ignored them. A few broken bones could heal.

This, I needed to end.

“Just like I killed my mother, and Ovailia killed Rosaline. Just like Cail killed Talon, and Wyn killed the Drak,” I growled out the painful truth as I limped toward my father.

The bulk of a man I had always feared did not seem quite so frightening anymore.

“I should have killed you, instead,” Míra added as she came to stand beside me, the two of us facing the man who had destroyed our lives in such similar ways, who had destroyed our hopes of a future.

“You still can,” I said while, as one, we attacked with two powerful jolts of magic that slammed into my father’s chest, pushing him through the air and right into the burning rubble that surrounded us.

Wood and flame smothered him, his scream swallowed by the crackle of the blaze as ash from the impact plumed throughout the room, covering us in a layer of grey.

And then there was nothing.

No screams.

No haunted laugh echoing inside of my head.

No tortured voice.

Just the sound of the sizzling fire and the silent tears of the girl standing next to me.

“I didn’t want to kill him,” she sobbed out, her tiny body falling to the ground beside me. “I didn’t want to kill Risha. I didn’t want to kill any of you. But I had to. I had to kill that man with the dreads and go back to Edmund, tell him I succeeded. It would keep you all safe. It’s all I wanted. I wanted to keep him safe. I didn’t want to kill him. I didn’t mean to. I wanted you to—”

“Stop,” I whispered as I fell down beside her, my bones twisting from the impact.

Sitting there beside her as she cried, I hovered my hand above her back as I fought the need to comfort her with the need to toss her around a bit.

In the end, I pushed my anger out through my magic, a stream of ice pouring from me as I quickly extinguished the fire that surrounded us, leaving us sitting in a cloud of smoke and soot that fell to the ground like snow.

“Can you forgive me?” Míra asked after the silence became too much.

Focused on the pile of rubble we had pushed Edmund into, I only vaguely noticed that no remains were there.

Normally, I would worry that he had somehow survived. But I knew better. He was gone. He had been for some time. I wasn’t even sure if it was him we had fought, anyway.

“I can try,” I finally said, my voice breaking as my heart attempted to cleave itself in two again. “He was my family, too, after all.”

Her sobs increased at that, her wide eyes staring at me with all the plea and want of a lost dog before she threw herself into my lap, her hands tight around my waist as I sat there, hands in the air, unsure of what to do.

“He was all I had,” she sobbed as she clung to me, pulling my shirt.