Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(13)

I closed my eyes, needing to see it again. The weakened strains of my sight pulsed over me in the usual prompt, the powerful ebbs and flows of the ability weaker than normal, thanks in part to the Zámek I had placed around us. Regardless, they moved through me like a wave of steam, rumbling within my blood until I let it take me, let it pull my mind right back to the same sight I’d had before.

Instead, it was black.

Black silence that was broken with a voice that clenched my heart like a vice.

“Be prepared, for fire will come, and fire will be needed. Water will do.”

That woman who had haunted me for so long, who had infected my sights for the past few months. It was her voice in the dark, her voice that controlled me before my sight pulled me back to that horrifying night at the cathedral.

The eagerness of my heart turned to stone filled fear as the words of the prophecy filled my mind. I waited, scared of what more would come, but it was merely silence, silence broken by the ember glow as my sight left, my magic retreating back into me, leaving me standing once again in the dark storeroom. The sound of the gathering crowds buzzing in my ears.

Tension knitted itself into my muscles, a misplaced doubt winding inside of me. A doubt I needn’t have. Pure Drak magic led to truth. It showed what was to be; and I had already seen what I needed to know.

“I need answers, not riddles, woman. You can’t hide from me forever.” I said, the same promise I always made to the faceless entity who haunted my sights angry on my lips.

My irritation twisted through me, making me more dangerous than I would be otherwise.

At least I had an outlet beyond the door.

As if on cue, the door opened, the murmurs of the crowd bathing the silence as Ovailia slipped her way in, light and sounds dissipating as the door closed behind her.

“They are primed and ready,” Ovailia said without hesitation. “Half are expecting the war to start. And half are expecting Edmund to present Ilyan’s head on a pike.”

“That man …? Damek, was it? He did his job?” My questions were coarse in the dark, the residual stress from the sight leaving and desire taking its place. Even the tension in my shoulders left, slipping down my back and dripping into the thick pools of blood and ash I stood in.

“Yes.” She smiled, her eyes gleaming in the dark as she stepped closer, stopping right before her father’s corpse, as though she were somehow afraid to disturb him. “No one has any idea what is coming.”

“This should be fun.” The hiss of my voice slithered across the dark as my magic flared, the penetrating green orb filling the tiny space with ominous shadows.

Ovailia looked at them as though they were emeralds, eagerness clear in her eyes as she fixed me with a dark and menacing smile. “It will be a true bloodbath, as you saw.”

“As I want.”

I could feel her magic in the air, winding around her, winding around me, taunting in the dark, trying to lure me in.

I ignored it. Now was not the time for me to give her what she wanted. To give in to the weakness I was positive she knew I had.

“As we want,” she corrected.

With those few words, my blood turned to fire and ice. Pride and anger swirled together as my eyes narrowed, the danger and warning clear in my eyes.

I knew she saw it. I could tell by the way she sighed, lifting her hands to her hips, an ugly disparaging look twisting her features.

“I didn’t know there was a we in this,” I said with steel, the warning clear as I stepped toward her, ignoring the corpse that sat between us.

With one firm foot on his shoulder, I stepped onto his body, a crack echoing in the dark as I balanced on bones and skin.

This time, she grimaced. This time, the sharp inhale between her teeth was based on an emotion I hadn’t thought it possible for her to hold.

The defiance faded from her face as her eyes widened, her jaw tensing and teeth clenched together.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I gasped, false sympathy dripping from my tongue so heavily it aggravated her more. “Do you not like this?”

She said nothing, just watched me, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

“Do you want me to stop?” I asked, laughing this time.

Still, she glowered at me, her eyes hard with anger as she began to chew on her cheek.

I dug my heels in, twisting my body to and fro as I mutilated the already broken shards of a man, pushing the beautiful woman before me to her limit.

Still, she stood.

Still, she glowered.

My dance continued until it became clear she wasn’t going to participate in my little game.

It angered me. I could feel my temper rising alongside my magic, the powerful torrent ready to attack, almost desperate for it.

Even with the battle waiting for me on the other side of the door, a little warm up wouldn’t be too terrible.

“Do you want me to stop?” I broke each word up into syllables, staccato sounds that stabbed into the dark like daggers.

Ovailia narrowed her eyes further, the tension in her jaw leaving as her long, graceful fingers pushed the hair behind her ear again. The tiniest of wicked smiles then played around the corners of her lips.

“No.” She took a step forward, planting her heel firmly beside my own foot before she lifted herself onto her father’s body, joining me on the corpse that, in a way, would become a frightening cornerstone for my reign.