The Silver Siren (Iron Butterfly, #3)(83)

“You dare call that peaceful!” I yelled, pointing to Sinnendor’s castle up in flames. My heart raced powerfully fast as I tried to not think about my father, about Siobhan, Joss, Kael, and all of the innocent lives that were at risk—or already lost. “You call using mind control and drugs to force them to fight for you peaceful? They are people with their own free will.” I took another step toward the young queen. Her hands were hidden within the fold of her red dress, her face expressionless.

“No, I call them a necessary expense.” Her lip rose in a smile of disdain.

“No lives are ever expendable.” I roared and felt power begin gather as my fury rose. “I’ll have you know—”

Snarling erupted behind me, and I turned to see a pack of hybrid dogs, with blood-red eyes. Cirrus made a single motion and the pack raced to attack me.

This time, I knew what to expect as five furious canines barreled down on me. Without even a glance, I flung out my hand and sent them spiraling into the air and crashing back through the underbrush. Yelps of fear littered the darkened forest, though I could hear some of them gathering for another attack.

Cirrus attacked me head on—a blast to the chest and I flew back into a tree. My head exploded in pain as it slammed into the trunk. Every Denai trait was mine to command—earth, air, water, and fire—as well as the Sirens’ gift of death and destruction. If only my will were strong enough to wield them.

I got up and lashed out at Cirrus with a bolt of ice. He blocked it before it touched him. I was at a slight disadvantage, because I didn’t know what I was doing, but he did. It became difficult to breathe again as Cirrus wrapped a thread of power around my throat. I fought against it and fell to my knees. I tried to reach for him, tried to stop him, when I heard another growl to my right. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the huge rabid dog growling and preparing to attack.

He barked twice, flexed his muscles, and lunged for my face.





Chapter 35



I closed my eyes, expecting teeth to rip through my throat.

Instead, something darted in front of me impacting the dog and knocking him down. I opened my eyes to see a large grey wolf in front of me, biting, clawing, and going for the dog’s jugular. I felt a touch of worry in my mind and knew it was my wolf. He’d come back when I needed him most.

My lungs still burned, and I fought against the lack of oxygen, trying to gasp for air. But with every breath it seemed to squeeze tighter. Cirrus sent another wave, this time encasing me in a ball of fire. Heat engulfed me, flames flickered against my skin, barely touching me.

But when they did pain followed. He was toying with me.

“You see, I’m the teacher,” Cirrus taunted. “You’re still the student.” The ground shook, and I felt myself running as the ground began to collapse below me. I wished for a bow and arrow, for its familiarity. These new powers were still foreign to me. I saw a large stick on the ground and thought of it flying through the air. It did—and sliced Cirrus across the cheek.

The pressure around my throat released and I could breathe again. But only until he attacked me again. I dodged another large fireball, which grazed my leg and instantly blistered my bare foot. I flicked my wrist and wrapped it with a bandage of frost. The coolness cancelled out the pain.

His next attack throttled toward me, but I froze the fireball midair and directed it back at him. Cirrus’s eyes widened and he dove to the side as the giant ice snowball crashed into the tree, shattering behind him. It took him a moment to crawl back up.

I continued my assault, focusing on the tree next to him.

It grew rapidly, and branches wrapped around him, imprisoning him in vines. Cirrus grunted and the branches began to whither and burn. When they fell from him in ashes, he gave me an impressed nod.

I just smirked.

A realization struck me. To my knowledge, Cirrus hadn’t had this many Denai gifts. He must’ve been helping himself to a few of the injections. He was now stronger than a Master Denai. And he was fighting without showing any signs of tiring.

But then I saw them—the threads of power flowing through the camp to the battlefield. I could see them all tied to Cirrus. Which meant that if he was fighting me, there was a good chance that he wasn’t controlling Joss and the others. I had to save them.

Cirrus closed his eyes, and large ice crystals formed above him. Seconds later, they spun at me.

I flung up a wall of power and they crashed into it and shattered, littering the ground with flecks of snow. I started to feel myself weakening already. I was draining myself after I had gone through an intense life-altering change. Even though I hated myself for doing it, I reached out to the nearest people and started take their energy to resupply my own.

My breathing slowed and I stood straighter. I crossed my arms and flung them out with blasts of fiery darts, but I soon felt myself drained again. I reached farther, took more from more people. More Septori. I could actually feel them start to collapse to the ground as I took everything they had to offer.

You shouldn’t take from them. Wolf nudged my mind. I could see that he was still circling the edge of the clearing, keeping the attack dogs at bay.

They are not innocent!

They are all innocent in the eyes of the one who loves them.

They hurt me! I tried to justify myself. They hurt my family.

Ja, so did Sinnendor. You forgave them so easily. Why not show these people mercy?