Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2)(12)

In the air.

As a gas.

“Go!” I scream at Tzain and Amari, clawing myself onto the wooden platform. Fear strikes my core like a battering ram. My feet go numb as I climb.

The majacite cloud moves through the dome, its thick mass expanding like a storm. Shouts and panic fill the air as maji scatter, trampling over one another in their dash for the far exits.

“Don’t let one rebel escape!” Nehanda thunders above the masses. “Or?sha must be protected from their madness!”

“Mother, please!” Amari yells, but Tzain yanks her off the stage. He grabs my arm as he charges through the people in our way, pulling us through the hysteria.

The queen’s personal guard closes in from all sides, golden armor flashing as they run. Like Nehanda, their forearms gleam with matching gauntlets. Golden masks sit over their noses.

“Attack!” Nehanda orders, and I wait to see more majacite blades or glass orbs. But when the guards’ hands glow green with ashê, I realize the reason behind their special rank.

They aren’t just her personal guard.

They’re her own legion of t?táns.

Horror consumes me as the t?táns’ powers break free and they target a group of fleeing maji. Circles of sand harden around maji’s feet like cement. Sand pillars shoot from the ground, striking my people in the back.

I scream with rage as Nehanda’s t?táns desecrate the magic of Grounders before my eyes. How dare they wield our own gifts against us? But when one t?tán soldier bares his teeth in pain, I realize that they don’t understand the fragile magic they now have.

“Help me!” he cries.

People flee the space as the t?tán screams. The sand around him quakes with incredible force. His skin corrodes as the magic surges beyond his control.

In a flash, the green light explodes in his chest. The life fades from his brown eyes.

The t?tán falls into the sand, his corpse trampled in the fray.

“Zél, come on!” Tzain pulls me along, but I struggle to stay upright. The way that t?tán screamed, the way he lost control—I’ve felt that strain myself.

It’s the power maji are forbidden to use. A power so great it consumes all who wield it.

It’s the power of blood magic.

And somehow the t?táns have it.

“Murderer!”

Amari screams as a noble grabs her braid and drags her back. Tzain dives after them, smashing his fist into the noble’s chin.

“Tzain!” I try to stay close, but within moments they’re lost in the crowd. Without my brother, the bodies in front of me become an unbreakable wall.

“Tzain, I need you!” I claw at those in my way, heart pounding in my chest. T?tán soldiers charge from the front. The black cloud approaches from the back.

I try to forge ahead, but when the first tendril of majacite hits my neck, I can only scream.





CHAPTER NINE


ZéLIE


FOR THE LOVE of Oya.

The airborne majacite attacks from all sides. My eyes sting inside the cloud of toxic gas. Smoke burns my skin like a branding iron.

The poison sears the skin of my calf. Another cloud hits the scars on my back. As the majacite burns my lungs, I can almost feel Saran’s knife carving through my flesh.

“Don’t let the traitor escape!”

Nehanda’s shouts continue to fill the dome. My vision blurs in and out of focus as she marches forward, shaking the curls loose from her golden helmet. I don’t believe my eyes when a single streak of white falls along Nehanda’s cheek. It can’t be.…

The Queen of Or?sha is a t?tán.

The air shifts as Nehanda summons her newly awakened magic. The green light of her ashê spreads around her hands, but it doesn’t stop there. Her magic glows inside her chest, so bright it casts her ribs in black silhouettes.

Emerald light crackles around the queen’s body like lightning as she calls on a power I don’t understand. She stretches out her hands and her legion of t?táns freezes in place. My body shakes as Nehanda sucks the ashê from her soldiers’ veins.

How is this possible? I try to make sense of the sight. Green wisps of ashê break through the t?táns’ skin like smoke, traveling into Nehanda’s palms. The feat brings Nehanda’s men to their knees. She sucks the very life from their trembling bodies. One soldier seizes in the sand before going completely still.

“You will pay for your crimes!” Nehanda marches forward despite the pain she causes her own people. She lifts her palms and her eyes glow with emerald light. With another shout, Nehanda punches her fists into the ground.

The earth splits open at her touch.

“Get back!”

Screams fill the dome as Nehanda’s fracture cuts across the sand. People fall to their knees, unable to stand on top of the quaking earth.

Nehanda’s attack slows the fleeing maji down, but her eyes widen as she loses control. The shaking builds with incredible force.

Then I hear the crack.

No.

My stomach clenches when I look up. The crack cuts through the dome’s walls, spreading through the sandstone like a spiderweb.

Get up, I scream at myself as sunlight filters through the widening cracks. But despair freezes my legs in place. I can’t believe it’s come to this.