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“True,” she said. “I’m a High Queen.”

Roderick went unnaturally still. “That is impossible.”

Scarlett held up a palm, and Chaos erupted from her. It crashed into Roderick, hurling him across the small clearing and into a tree. He crumpled to the ground.

“The best I can come up with,” she said conversationally, standing and making her way over to him, “is that he had to be completely drained somehow. But even then, he didn’t seem as pathetic as you look right now.”

“He did not have a descendant of Arius merge death with his blood by their touch,” Roderick spat.

Andthathad Scarlett pausing.

That was an interesting talent.

“But he was drained?” she asked after a moment.

“My Lord, we are not sure what it is happening, but—”

The seraph stopped short when he saw Roderick on the ground, and his gaze swiveled to Scarlett. Before he had taken a single step towards her, she let the Chaos loose.

It exploded out of her with such force, she was lifted into the air where she stayed. The Chaos slammed into Roderick and the seraph, obliterating them into nothing. But it went beyond them. The Chaos radiated out and out and out. It swirled around her and into the air, pulling her starfire with it. White flames and darkness that took what it wanted. She could feel it, seeking more and more as it destroyed whatever life it found in its path, and she hoped Sorin had truly gotten all of their people inside the Citadel.

It took everything in her to stop the outpouring of that power, but she knew if she didn’t, the Chaos would kill her. That’s what her mother had said. If she’d have given up all her Chaos, she’d have died. And Scarlett had learned in her time between the stars that if she let it, the Chaos would take from her until it killed her.

That was the true cost of harnessing it. Finding the balance between the blessing and the curse that Chaos was and not letting it consume her.

Her feet landed on the earth as she dropped the few feet she’d been in the air, and she doubled over, her hands braced on her knees. She felt him appear beside her. He didn’t need to say anything.

“Fire wings?” she panted, lifting her head to look at him.

“You told me to be more creative, Love,” Sorin said with a wink as he scooped her into his arms.

He Traveled them back to the Citadel. Up to the balcony where Talwyn had screamed to her. The griffin was being tended to. Several Witches were gathered around it while Talwyn paced back and forth in front of Azrael. The Earth Prince had some scratches and bruises, but otherwise appeared fine.

Cethin and Kailia crowded around her when Sorin lowered her onto a sofa just inside the room off the balcony. A large suite of some sort. Rayner was off to one side with Auberon, Neve, and Hale, and as Sorin was doing his mother hen thing and checking her for injuries, the door opened. Tybalt entered with two others that Scarlett guessed were from the Avonleyan cadres. Between them were Nuri and Mordecai. There were deathstone bands on Mordecai’s wrists. She had no doubt he had allowed them to bind him, but Nuri still had the dagger in her shoulder.

Scarlett shoved Sorin’s hands aside, lurching to her feet. Her knees nearly gave out.

“Scarlett,” he barked, snagging her around the waist and hauling her back to the sofa. “You need to sit.”

“Someone take the dagger out of her. Now,” she ordered.

“We wanted to wait until we all had a chance to speak with them,” Cethin said.

“You can keep the deathstone bands on her, but take the fucking dagger out.” When no one moved, she looked at Rayner. “Please.”

He hesitated, but then strode forward, yanking it free. Nuri gave a shout, and the seraph let out a snarl that made Scarlett glad he was in deathstone.

“You don’t need to keep your hands on them. Let them go,” Scarlett said, again trying to stand.

Cethin jerked his chin, and the cadre warriors stepped away. Mordecai was immediately pulling Nuri into his chest, his wings wrapping around her and shielding her from the rest of them.

“He will summon us back at any moment,” Mordecai said, looking only at Scarlett.

“And you will be unable to follow that order because you are detained,” she answered. “Will that be enough?”

She knew Mordecai understood what she was asking. Will that be enough for Nuri to defy what Alaric demanded of her?

“It should be,” he answered. “She will require a Healer.”