The Silver Siren (Iron Butterfly, #3)(7)

Let me guess. You’re not allowed to tell me? By this time, tears poured down my face.

Is it almost over? I screamed mentally to him.

No, it will get worse before it’s over. Faraway sounded miserable. He didn’t want to be the one to tell me.

And for an instant, I saw it all in my mind. I wasn’t trying to scan, but I could see what was happening, and I wasn’t in any kind of condition to do anything.

“FIRE!” I screamed loudly. Opening my eyes wide in pain, I saw the shocked faces of Fanny and Joss. “Fire!” I shouted again.

They just looked at me confused.

Desperate, I searched for Kael and saw him farther back, watching me with a helpless expression.

“Save them—fire.” I mouthed to him. And I saw my warning register on his face. Kael believed me. Running outside, he saw what I had seen in my mind.

The farmer’s house was on fire.





Chapter 5



A high-pitched feminine scream erupted from inside the house. Glass shattered as someone threw a chair through an upstairs window. Smoke billowed out in waves.

Everyone rushed from the barn to try and help, leaving me alone in the stall on the floor with Mona nearby chained to a support beam. Darren was smart enough to release the horses, because the smell of smoke would drive them crazy. Hopefully they would find a place to graze out of the way and we’d find them again come morning.

GO! I commanded Faraway. He paced nervously in his stall, wanting to stay but needing to run.

I’ll be fine, I lied. He ran outside.

I tried to crawl out of the stall to see out the open barn doors, but deep down I knew it was too late. Too late for the farmer and his wife and too late for me. In that miraculous instant, I had seen what was coming and had to make a decision to save myself or try to save the farmer and his wife.

I chose them.

The fire was too far gone, the blaze too hot to have been caused by something as simple as a candle or lantern. The house had been purposely set on fire as a distraction. I saw Kael burst through the front doors of the farmhouse and heard the clash of steel as he met a group of hidden attackers.

Darren and Hemi followed suit, dashing in with sword and axe drawn. Joss stayed outside and tried to smother the fire with magic. Slowly the flames were dying down. If only the screams would die down as well.

My vision became blurry as smoke started to billow into the barn. Tears poured out of my eyes. I collapsed on the floor in pain and let the burning of my body mirror the burning of the house. How I wished I could have stopped it.

And stop what I was about to have to do.

A rough hand grabbed the back of my hair and lifted my throbbing head off of the floor.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Thalia?” A large grungy man scowled down at me, his clothes covered with dirt. It looked like he had been on the run. It was Talbot—Xiven and Mona’s fake father, and one of the Raven’s apprentices it seemed. But I had known he was coming. I had seen it.

He pulled me up by my hair and I had little choice but to follow him or have my hair pulled out of my scalp.

“You are coming with me,” he snarled.

A man in a red robe appeared next to Talbot and grabbed me around the hands. He began tying them together.

“Wait, what about me?” Mona yelled, kicking her feet angrily against the floor.

“What about you?” Talbot looked at her, his eyebrow raised.

“You can’t leave me here!” She fumed.

“I have no orders regarding you,” he laughed cruelly. “Only her.” He motioned to me.

Too bad, I thought to myself. I waited in pain until more Septori filtered in through the back door of the barn. By the noises coming from outside, I knew my friends were facing their own battle. So I blocked Faraway from my thoughts and hoped that Kael was distracted.

And just as I had known what was about to happen, I knew what I was supposed to do. I let the pain consume me, let my anger rise to the surface, and I gave in to it. Gave in to the burning. Throwing my head back, I screamed painfully and released all of the built up, barely-contained power I had been holding in. I let the fire out. I let the monster out, and once I did, the pain consuming me stopped.

The barn burst into flames, the Septori burst into flames, and Talbot screamed as he beat at his clothes to stop the fire. The fire shot across the beams of the barn.

The Septori in a panic, tried to drag me out of the barn.

The shriek of a horse made me glance to Faraway, and I saw him outside of the barn screaming in terror.

He was going to try and run in to save me. With a wave of power, I slammed the barn door closed on him, keeping him out. I was going to end this once and for all. I had a glimpse of what I was becoming and I didn’t like it.

“Burn,” I whispered and watched as the flames licked higher. Energy flowed through my body, and I could hear something just beyond my consciousness. Like a sigh being released. My body became warm, tingling. And then more pain.

“Her eyes. Look at her eyes!” One of my captors backed away from me and ran out the side door.

“Don’t look at her, just grab her!” Talbot screamed.

I felt more hands grasp me and I hated it. I hated them. Looking up along the beams of the barn, I saw the main support beam.

It was time to end this for everyone.. I gave in to the pain and anger, reached for a smaller support beam, and pulled at it. Half of the burning roof came down on a large group of the Septori. They screamed and tried to cover their heads as it fell. Too late.