Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(48)

“What are you doing?” Míra hissed in the dim light of the hallway, obviously intent on keeping her voice down. “We need to get there. We don’t have time for this, Jaromir. We have to hurry.”

“No,” I gasped, my voice strangled. I sounded scared. I was scared. I hadn’t realized how scared I was. “We can’t.”

“What?” For as scared as I was, Míra was angry.

I tensed, my shoulders pulling up to my ears, expecting her to hit me. I didn’t look at her. I stayed hunched on the floor, staring at the footprints on the floor, listening to the boom of explosions overhead.

“Get up, Jaromir.”

“Do you remember Momma’s cookies?” I asked, focused still on the floor. “Do you remember what she said about them?” When I finally looked at her, at the anger and confusion that didn’t belong on her face, at the alien who looked back at me, everything broke, my heart screaming at me to run away from this stranger.

“You mean that we couldn’t eat the sweet bread ones because they were her favorite?”

“No, I mean—”

“We don’t have time for this,” Míra snapped as she stepped toward me. The sound of her tread was as loud as my heart beat, each drum pressing against me until I wanted to scream.

I wanted to escape. I wanted to escape into the stone and never have to look at the monster my sister had become again. I didn’t want to face it.

Even I knew I couldn’t run away from it.

Just like the Vil?s, you had to face it.

“Get up, Jaromir,” she sneered, and my spine curled in fear of what was coming. “We need to go.”

“No.” I tried to make my voice as powerful as possible, but it fell flat, the sound shaking in the panic that was growing by the second.

“We don’t have time, Jaromir. You said you would help me.”

“I … I said … n-no.” I could barely get the words out of my mouth. I couldn’t even get up. I couldn’t look at her.

“No?” She barked, grabbing my elbow and pulling one of my arms out from under me, sending me rotating through the air before slamming into the ground.

I screamed from the impact, the sound lost in the cacophony of the planes, the hallways shaking around us. A ripple of pain moved up my spine, leaving me motionless as Míra stepped over me, her long hair falling around us like the leaves of the honeysuckle bush we used to hide in.

“You don’t get to change your mind. You have to help me!”

“No.” My voice was stronger now as I lay below her, helpless and afraid. That emotion was leaving, though. “I can’t let you do this anymore. Just like cookies.”

Míra looked like she had been slapped, surprise showing before her eyes narrowed at me.

“I removed a woman’s spine, you know.”

I jerked visibly, fear twisting inside of me so much that I could barely move. I gasped, trying to twist away from her.

“Edmund taught me how.” She smiled, her body folding as she sat on my hips the same way she had done when we used to wrestle before dinner. “You say he is bad, and you are right. You say I am good, but I can never be. Not anymore… because he made me bad. He taught me how to cut the skin, how to sever the nerves, how to mutate the bones. And then he taught me how to put it back. He taught me how to hurt. And I did. I hurt someone whether I wanted to or not.”

Tears began to drip from my eyes, falling over my cheeks as I lay there, trapped beneath her, unable to move.

“I don’t want to be bad, but he made me that way. And I won’t let him do that to you. Not to them. You are all too good. I have to save you. I have to save you, Jaromir. I’m the only one who can.”

I remained still, crying as her own tears fell down her cheeks, her own prison clear.

“I need you to help me, Jaromir. Tell me where he is.”

We stared at each other, her sitting on my hips, trapping me in place, our tears dripping together, mine down my cheeks, burning my skin before they dripped onto the stone below me.

“Please. I have to stop him.”

“You can’t, Míra. I can’t let you kill him!” My heart hurt like I had been stabbed, knowing what was coming, but I couldn’t stop.

Not now.

Not anymore.

Bright green shot from my hand, shooting into Míra’s chest with a jolt that sent her flying through the air away from me. Her arms flailed like a spider before she slammed into the wall with a thud. The crack from my magic echoed down the hall, stones rattling and falling from the ceiling. Her scream chased the blast, her pain breaking into me as I scuttled after her, desperate to help, to stop …

“Míra! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean—”

A blast ricocheted through the hall, hitting me in the chest. Her magic moved into me, burning me as I flew through the air. With a snap, my body broke against the ceiling, bones cracking against stones before my stomach plummeted back down to the ground, my body following along.

“Míra!” I tried to shout her name while I lay on the floor, but all I did was cry, whimper, and groan.

I tried to pull myself to my feet, but nothing was moving. All I did was hurt, fire moving within me, burning me. All I did was cry.

“I’m sorry …”