swung at him, but fell to my knees in pain, clutching my stomach. It felt like I’d been torn in half, like I was coming undone. The king laughed, but it was cruel and without mirth.
“What a pair you make, honestly you should see yourselves. It’s almost Shakespearean. All this destruction and violence. Sons turning on fathers, wives against husbands. It’s a disease. And for what? Now then, where were we?”
He lifted me up again, dragging me towards the blistering furnace, and holding me up to the wall of fire until I could feel my skin burning. I stabbed him with my dagger, again and again, but it barely made a scratch.
“You’ve got spirit,” the king said, twisting his lips into a grim smile. “But you’ll never be strong enough. You may be renitent, but you’re still just a human.”
I flailed at his neck and shoulders until I found the shaft of the broken arrow, buried deep under his collarbone. I tore it out, coated with the king’s blood, so thick it ran down across my thumb, staining my fingernails.
“I’m only half human,” I growled, splattering his face with blood, “and you can shove your covenant up your royal ass.”
I licked the arrow shaft, coating my tongue and lips with the king’s blood, and feeling it run down the back of my throat. I could taste the elixir in it, and my injured body responded hungrily to the rush of power.
I saw the look in his eyes the minute he realized his mistake, but it was already too late.
Ten drops? Twenty?
It was impossible to tell.
April’s bracelet screamed a warning.
But I wasn’t a danger to myself. Only him.
In one fluid movement, I ducked under his arms and grabbed his sword, plunging it into his chest until I heard bone crunch and felt it pierce his heart. With my other hand, I snagged the key around his neck and ripped it off, breaking the chain.
He staggered backwards, a look of shock on his face, fumbling for the handle, but it was too late. Before he could pull it out, I lifted my foot with a roar of rage and kicked him, as hard as I could, into the roaring furnace below.
I scrambled across the stones, tearing holes in my knees, my hands wet with blood, trying not to think about what I’d just done.
I felt like I was dissolved, melting and being remade again all at the same time, as the elixir in my body worked to stitch my skin back together as fast as I ripped it open again.
Tobias had told me once, nobody knew how fast I could be, how much elixir I could consume. I felt like my skin was on fire, like my eyeballs were glued open. Blood stained my teeth and chin as I pulled myself forward.
I found a hatch, just inside the volcano, and tore the door open. I staggered down the cement stairs, sucking in ragged breaths as my lungs melted, tearing away my scarf and gasping for air.
The control room was much older than what I’d seen in the citadel. Large gears and buttons, and electric panels I had no idea how to use. Someone had scrawled large directions in the ground with chalk, but it was for maintenance. Finally I found a sign on the wall in red, faded paint. Shutdown protocol. I jammed Richard’s key to unlock the hidden panel and turned all the knobs to zero, then gripped the large lever.
I pulled at it, gritting my teeth and wincing in pain, then screaming as my stomach wound opened again, dripping blood on the floor.
The entire mountain vibrated, with a great rumbling sound. Red flashing warning lights and sirens assaulted my senses, and then, with a great shudder like a dying beast, everything was still.
Footsteps sounded behind me and I whirled, baring my teeth and flourishing my blade, but exhaustion and darkness overtook me. I passed out to screams, rays of light, and someone shouting my name.
EPILOGUE
I felt the light behind my eyelids and heard the ringing of bells. Soft, cool sheets beneath my bare skin and something wet licking my face. I frowned, shoving away the hairy beast, but it was soft and friendly. A golden retriever, I knew somehow.
“Down boy,” I said in a voice that wasn’t my own.
I rolled out of bed and fumbled for my glasses, and the world snapped into focus. Soft purple walls, my wife had picked the color. I never cared enough and was happy