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“It’ll…wear off,” he panted.

“Then I have no use for you,” she replied, pushing back to her feet. She cleaved his wings from his spine one-by-one before she separated his head from his body, leaving it all burning behind her.

Stalking to the ledge once more, she found the seraph with the damaged wing armed with a bow, a shirastone arrow trained on her. She laughed as she leapt from the ledge at the same moment he let the arrow fly. She’d feel the impact of that jump when the tonic wore off, but now she landed on her feet in front of him. He didn’t even have his next arrow nocked before she was plunging her spirit sword through his throat, twisting as she withdrew it.

She turned her back on him as he fell, fire already burning away his existence. Blood was splattered across her. Hers. The seraph’s. It was on her face, her clothing, in her hair.

None of it was the blood she wanted.

In this moment, she understood on a soul-deep level why Sorin had lost his mind when Scarlett had been injured all those months ago. How Thia’s death had driven Cyrus nearly insane. She understood why it had been so godsdamn hard for Scarlett to let Talwyn live and what that would have done to her when Sorin made that request. Razik wasn’t dead, but he was greatly injured. Their bond wasn’t even a full bond, and yet it demanded payment for harming him.

And she was all too happy to bestow it.

“Varlis!” she screamed, spinning in a slow circle as she searched for him. He’d be nearby, hiding like the fucking coward he was. “You should have killed me,” she cried again, sheathing the sword down her back.

His death would be completely by the fire he loathed.

The fire that had caused the death of her mother. Her father.

The fire that had loved her when no one was left to do so.

She heard the crunch of gravel beneath a boot before she spotted him. He had been slinking towards Razik’s still form, another bolt in his hand. Close-up, she could see it was nightstone. She heated the bolt, letting it absorb her fire until Varlis dropped it with a yelp.

With slow, measured steps she approached him, his tanned face leeching of all color as she burned away the vines he tried to subdue her with. He was powerful, but even in a weakened state, she was more so.

“Eliza.” He said her name with venom, taking a step back with every step she moved forward until he was getting far too near to Razik.

“I would stop right there,” she said in a dark calm. “Any part of you that touches him will be cut from your body, set on fire, and shoved down your throat.”

Varlis stilled, but the condescension on his face didn’t waiver. “You are involved with the dragon,” he sneered in realization. “You truly found every possible way to disgrace your lineage, didn’t you?”

“There is no doubt in my mind that my lineage is about to smile as I burn you alive,” she replied, fire flaring at her fingertips.

“Your father was nothing but a mill-worker near the Xylon Forest,” Varlis spat. “Worthless, with half the power of your mother.”

“And yet…” Eliza said with a half-grin as she flicked a flame at him. He cursed, batting at the hole she’d burned into his fine jacket. “I am still more powerful than you.”

“You arenothingcompared to me,” Varlis sneered, taking a step towards her despite the way her fire flared. “You won’t kill me.”

She barked a laugh. “What in the realms makes you believe that?”

“Because if you do, you will never learn how to lift that Curse Mark,” Varlis said, eyes dropping to the place where the Mark was etched into her skin beneath her tunic. “That is the reason you have left me alive all this time, is it not?” He frowned in mock sympathy as he took another step towards her, standing almost toe-to-toe with her now. “Hoping that someday you could convince me to relieve you of that burden?”

Then his eyes went wide in shock. There was a strangled groan and blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth. Slowly he looked down, seeing the flaming dagger she had shoved into his gut.

She’d been wrong.

She did want to use a blade for this.

Making the fire burn hotter, she slowly dragged it up his torso, feeling the Fiera steel slice through muscle while she melted her way through bone. Varlis tried to stumble away from her, but she gripped his jacket with a burning fist, sinking the dagger in further, just as he’d done with the arrow.

“Let me be very clear,” she hissed in a voice so wicked she could have been a descendant of Arius rather than a Fae of Anala. “I left you alive all these years because I did not have one single fuck to give about you.” She yanked the dagger higher, reaching his sternum. “The only time I thought of you was when I was having a shit day. When I would remind myself it could be worse. I could share blood with an actual piece of shit.” She halted the dagger, knowing she was nearing his heart. “And I would rather live with this Curse Mark the rest of my life and know it wasmyflames that ended your immortal years than let you take another breath on this side of the Veil.”

She yanked the dagger up, watching as the last of his life left his pale green eyes, before she stepped back and let him fall to the ground. She stood and watched as she burned every last bit of him to nothing.

When the ashes were fluttering away in the wind, she turned to find glowing sapphire eyes pinned on her. He didn’t move other than to blink. She took a few moments to gather herself before she approached him, figuring out her next course of action.

Those bolts needed to come out.