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I lowered my left hand to my iridescent dress, pressing my fingers into the smooth fabric to calm myself. Around us, the others scurried from body to body, muttering observations at each other; even Tared had tactfully turned away. I drew in a last breath, the smells of sea and stone and blood mingling in the back of my throat, and allowed the iridescent magic to travel up, up, up through my left arm—

Something red lunged forward on the edge of my sight.

And then everything happened much, much too fast.

Thysandra dove at us with the desperate strength of a hunted animal, wings bursting wide, arms stretched out to grab the glowing orb. Creon reacted before I could shout a warning. A knife appeared in his free hand as he took a swift step sideways, arm swinging back to aim and throw.

Naxi cried, ‘No!’

Creon went slack mid-swing, dagger clattering down as his knees buckled.

And the glass ball fell.

It seemed to be plummeting for an eternity as I stood there, horrified, paralysed, unable to figure out what for hell’s sake was happening for one catastrophic moment too long. Demon magic. Bogged down nervous system. Catch it,catch it—

The fragile glass sphere shattered as it met the rocky ground.

The world moved in brusque, jerky flares around me. Beyla had jumped forward, blades forcing Thysandra away from me and the glass shards. Lyn was shouting at Naxi. Naxi’s high voice wailed melodious apologies laced with sobs, something about defending, something about death.

I stared at the broken binding, knowing what was about to happen yet unwilling to believe it.

There they were, two small wisps of magic, rising from the rubble just like they had done from that shattered glass on Tolya. One containing Creon’s unbound magic, powers so deadly they might single-handedly decide the outcome of this war. One containing the price he’d paid – his voice.

Drifting in separate directions.

‘Em!’ Tared’s voice, rough and hurried.Panicked.‘Fuck, Em, we need his magic. I’m sorry – I’msorry– but please—’

‘I’m sorry,’ Naxi moaned, as if echoing him, ‘I’msorry!’

‘Em?’ Beyla said behind me, warnings clinging to the sound of my name. ‘Orin’s eye, don’t be stupid now, Em. He can’t talk the Mother to death.Hewants to kill her too, doesn’t he?’

Make good choices, Emelin.

Tared was saying more. Lyn’s voice was climbing higher and higher. I absorbed none of it, staring at Creon’s blank face as he lay there on the rocky ground, the roar of my thoughts numbing that ever-present chorus of needs and expectations. Through the iridescent cloth of my skirt, my nails dug deep lines into my thigh, the pain a blessing to keep me focused.

Make good choices.

We did need that cursed magic. He did want to kill the Mother. He had sacrificed more than a voice to win this war. All true, all so very true. Emelin the hopeful symbol wouldn’t hesitate. The Underground’s perfect unbound mage knew her duties. And yet—

I didn’t want to make that choice.

I’d promised to protect him.

He had suffered enough. He had lost too much already. These split seconds before choosing brought a clarity that even hours of deliberation could never rival – the perfect, razor-sharp understanding that I was never going to be Emelin the hopeful symbol. I was not an obedient weapon. I was not everyone’s smiling saviour.

And that did not make me a failure.

They would be angry, and that was fine. I didn’t need to please them to save them. If they thought me an idiot, I was still going to save the gods-damned world.

But I was going to do it onmyterms.

The magic drew itself, a burst of iridescence so vigorous it left me light-headed.Make good choices, and here was my choice – my powers lashing out and snatching one of those tendrils of binding magic just before it could dissolve. A single flick of my wrist, and I dragged my catch into Creon’s throat with the full strength of my fury.

It spread over his bronze skin with a pearly glow, then sank in, like raindrops absorbed by the earth. The second fleck of magic was gone, and I couldn’t bring myself to mourn it.

The world had gone icily quiet around me.

But at my feet, Creon shuddered.