Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3)(117)

Wax melts as we pass. The walls and ceilings drip and sizzle. We make our way to the Queen’s chamber as the hive dissolves around us. Carrick carries me to the Queen and lays me down beside her. In death I will become the bomb that was denied me.

I think of Rowan. I’m grateful that my final thought is of love.

Time to die.

Half of Lily ended. The other half took refuge in her coven.

She saw Toshi. The fireball of Lillian’s passing was heading right for him. It emerged from the hive and roared toward him. Lily jumped Toshi away before the fire could consume him.

She saw Rowan. He staggered, his heart skipping, when he heard the explosion. He knew Lillian was dead. He looked up into the sky and saw the Hive break ranks just when it was about to be victorious.

She saw Tristan. He wheeled his raptor and aimed his crossbow at a dark clump of Workers, but the tight swarm suddenly dispersed and flew off in every direction before he could fire.

She saw Una. Una felt her lion slow. She cut off one more Warrior Sister’s head, and then turned to see what her lion was looking at. The enemy was running away.

She saw Caleb and Alpha. They stood back to back, fighting a ring of Warrior Sisters who surrounded them. Without warning, the Warrior Sisters dropped their whips and leapt into the sky.

She saw Leto. His left leg was broken. It stuck out awkwardly. He hauled himself up onto his right knee as he watched the retreat, unable to rejoice. Too many dead Walltop soldiers were scattered around him for this win to feel like victory.

She saw Breakfast. He swung his ax and blinked the sweat and soot from his eyes. He saw a flash overhead and paused to look up. The Hive was flying away.

Again, she saw Rowan. Alaric raced past him. He was running toward the main gate of Bower City—and to the pyre that was still ablaze on the ramparts.

Toshi dropped the arm he’d raised to cover his face against the oncoming fireball, and found himself on top of the Governor’s Villa, standing next to the speaking stone.

He allowed himself one moment of utter confusion before he wrangled his wits back in order. Ivan, he thought, and raced down the stairs of the villa, through the maze of passages, and into the lab.

Toshi found Ivan, still furiously making pesticide as fast as he could, and pulled him away from the vats.

“It’s over,” Toshi told his old friend. “The Queen is dead.”

Ivan’s eyes drifted off to the side, the barest hint of a smile turning up the corners of his lips. His face suddenly darkened.

“Grace,” he whispered. “Is she—?”

“Still on the pyre,” Toshi answered before Ivan could finish asking. The two of them turned immediately and ran through the city to the wall.

Lily heard the hissing and tasted the wet smoke before she realized what was happening. Bucket after bucket of water was being shuttled to her and dumped over the last flames. Her pyre extinguished, Lily cut off the loop of power flowing between her and her claimed. She could hear voices all around as her claimed dug to get her out of the remnants of her colossal pyre.

Relief gushed through her, thick and sweet as honey, but a mountain of burnt and half-collapsed logs both surrounded and covered her.

“Hold on, Lily. I’m almost to you,” Rowan said, his voice sounding muffled and far away.

“I’m here,” she called out.

Water started dripping down through the collapsed tinder above her, black and greasy with charcoal. She heard the thunking of an ax as Rowan got closer and closer to her, and felt the half-joyful, half-frightened thrill thumping inside him.

It’s over. We won, he kept whispering inside his mind, repeating it over and over, trying to convince himself it was true.

“There she is—I see her!” he shouted to the crew behind him. Lily saw Rowan throw aside his ax and start wrenching logs away with his hands.

Lily pulled her chains free from the crumbling stake, and reached up to him as he threw the last log aside and gathered her to him.

“We did it,” he whispered, his voice breaking.

“We really did,” she replied, smiling through tears as she clutched at him.

She couldn’t seem to get close enough to him as they kissed and held each other. She pressed herself against him, laughing and crying and babbling all at once. They held each other in the center of the scorched pile while the rest of the timber crew cleared a path, wanting nothing but to stay exactly where they were.

Toshi and Ivan passed teams of rebels still combing the streets for swarms, their expressions cautiously hopeful that the battle was over. Bodies were already being collected and taken off the streets on stretchers. The injured were rushed to healers, who had set up triage centers every few blocks. Toshi noticed that not everyone getting help was a citizen. The restricted zone must have emptied into the city proper at some point during the battle, and Toshi held out hope that his family had made it across.

When they reached the wall they found that the stairs that zigzagged up to the top were cleared of the Warrior Sisters who usually guarded them. Toshi and Ivan took the stairs two at time. When they reached the top they heard voices. Someone had beaten them to Grace.

Grace’s pyre steamed under her knees. She crouched atop the pile of doused logs, facing an Outlander with a fierce face. He threw the empty bucket he was holding aside and strode toward her.

“Grace Bendingtree. I am Alaric Windrider, sachem of the last tribe. I find you guilty of genocide,” he declared.