Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2)(43)

“You see that?” Ramaya laughs as I thrash, a malicious cackle that echoes through the mountains. “I strike with magic, and the t?tán reaches for her sword!”

The pain intensifies with her words, each one like another bomb exploding in my skull. It feels like an eternity passes before the white spots leave my vision and I can finally look up.

“Ready to concede?” Ramaya stares at me from a distance, a smug smile on her lips. I can barely finish a thought. She hasn’t even broken a sweat.

The look on her face says it all. For her, this isn’t about staying clan elder. She doesn’t just want me to concede.

She wants to see me crawl.

Strike, Amari.

Beads of perspiration drip down my temples as I push myself onto my knees. Though my limbs shake, I grit my teeth and rise to my feet. My heart pounds like thunder in my chest. My skin begins to heat. Blue wisps spark from my fingertips as I launch another attack.

“Ya èmí, ya ara!”

I lunge forward, arm outstretched. My fingers come within a breath of Ramaya’s neck before she spins out of my range.

“Ya èmí, ya ara!” I try again, but she ducks and slams another fist into my cheek. My jaw erupts as I fall to the ground.

Ramaya laughs before a new incantation spills from her lips. “Idá a ti okàn—”

This time her cobalt blaze hits me square in the chest. Within seconds, I’m on the ground writhing beneath the painful stabs erupting through my sternum.

It’s like my body’s being crushed between battering rams; like my fingernails are being ripped from my hands. I cannot breathe under the agony she brings. I cannot even scream.

“Get up, Amari!” Tzain shouts from afar, but sound is muffled in my ears. I can hardly hear anything above the blinding pain.

All the while Ramaya stands back, watching the torture she inflicts. She doesn’t feel the need to bring this fight to an end.

A snow leopanaire playing with her food.

“For my father.” Ramaya’s next blast hits without warning. “For my mother!” Another cloud strikes my limbs. “For my sister!” This time her magic feels like thousands of nails drilling through my bones.

“Ramaya! Nìsó!” someone cheers from above, and others join in. Her torment isn’t enough for these people. Not when they want to see my blood spill.

“I don’t care what you’ve done.” Ramaya’s attacks subside, a brief reprieve as she catches her breath. “If you want to help the maji, kill your vile family. Kill yourself.”

She bends down so low her white hair brushes against my cheek.

“The maji will be better off without you. Or?sha will, too.”

Somehow her words cut deeper than her magic. It’s Father’s blade ripping through my back. Mother using my rally of peace to attack.

“Idá a ti okàn—”

My heart beats so loudly in my head it blocks the rest of her incantation out. I feel Ramaya’s hatred like the pain within me. A rage that will burn my kingdom to the ground.

I reach for the power in my blood, pushing though I don’t understand. The gods gave me this magic for a reason. I will use it to save Or?sha, even if the maji hate me for it.

I scream as I dig my hand into Ramaya’s hair and pull, driving my elbow into her temple. She stumbles back from the blow. I take advantage of the opening and knock her down.

I straddle her body as a cobalt blaze ignites in my hands.

The needle isn’t working.

So I release the hammer.

“RAH!”

Ramaya’s ear-splitting scream shakes through the mountaintops. My magic carves through her mind like a knife as I dig through her scars, opening them the way I opened mine on the warship.

I feel the rough hand of a guard around her neck. I see the father who died for pushing him back. I flinch from the crack of knuckles over her left eye. I feel the warm blood that spilled from the wound.

“Amari, stop!” Zélie shouts from afar, but I can’t release my hold. My eyes flash with blue light. The bones crack in my arm as my magic spins out of my control. A never-ending flood of Ramaya’s life fills my mind. Every shard of pain that rips into her being rips through mine.

I don’t feel the hands that pull me back. I barely see Ramaya seizing before she collapses. Shouts I can’t decipher ring out as Zélie’s face breaks through the madness, her voice muffled by the pain in my head.

Beyond her, Ramaya’s body lies unconscious.

I can’t tell if her chest still moves up and down.

“Khani, quick!” Mama Agba yells.

Khani, the elder of the Healer clan, runs onto the bloodstone. Her white braids swing as she presses her hands against Ramaya’s neck, feeling for a pulse though Ramaya’s eyes stay frozen in an empty gaze.

After a long moment, Khani exhales. Her lips turn to a frown.

“She’s alive.” The Healer shakes her head. “Barely.”

Tears come to my eyes. My hands start to shake. “I didn’t … I wasn’t—”

Zélie pulls me into a hug. She rubs her hand up and down my back, but I can hear the tremble in her breath.

“Don’t look.” She squeezes my shoulder. “Don’t do anything.”