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CHAPTER THIRTY

I ’d held him back as long as I could, but the Fury’s power was a force of nature.

With every layer of ice and stone I cast over the pit which contained him, he blasted through it, his fire magic never faltering.

My fingers were buzzing with the sensation of casting so much power and a bead of sweat was sailing down my brow from the effort it took to contain him.

I couldn’t do it much longer. And one glance back told me Wandershire wasn’t nearly far enough from shore yet.

I’d placed myself here on the cliff’s edge the moment Kaiser Brimtheon had fallen into my trap, ready to stand between him and Everest to give her time to escape, and so far, it appeared to be working.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever told Everest how grateful I was to have her in my life.

In a world of darkness, we’d always cast light for each other.

Growing up in a war-fuelled town where fear, hatred and rage lay in the hearts of the adults raising us might have crushed the spirit out of me long ago had it not been for her.

I’d always known we would end up tangled in a life of combat, I’d just never thought I wouldn’t be charging into battle at her side.

Instead, I’d been forced into a life I’d never wanted, but one which held so much responsibility that I had no choice but to answer it.

And I may not have been trained for battle, but I had been taught how to punish those who defied the order of the stars.

The sound of Kaiser’s blasts stopped and my head wheeled back as the world fell eerily quiet.

I released a heavy breath, cautiously lowering my hands after several beats of silence. Had he run out of magic at last?

Relief trickled into me as I took a step toward the pit, listening for the Fury.

Quiet.

Nothing stirred but the wind, its icy caress cooling the heat of my brow. I thought on my next move. It might be pertinent to fetch the Cardinal Reaper and hand the Flamebringer to him. He had attacked another neophyte on Never Keep grounds after all, which made him worthy of execution.

An explosion split the silence apart and my vision was consumed by a spiral of red fire tearing up through rock and ice, ripping it asunder, its power sending me stumbling back toward the cliff’s edge.

The Fury rose from the hole I’d tried to contain him in, his eyes an impassive darkness that told a story of an empty soul.

With a cry of effort, I pelted shards of ice at his head, but they melted in the haze of heat hanging around him, cast in defence against that particular element.

It wasn’t the only one I was gifted with though.

And now he fought me face to face, I had no reason not to kill him.

He had attacked a Reaper, so his death was written.

I wielded earth, casting sharp pillars of wood from the ground around him, set to pierce through his flesh and skewer him fast. He burned them to ash before they could touch him and a growl built in my throat as I stared down my opponent.

He was no ordinary Fae. Furies were rare enough, but I’d heard the talk at Never Keep about this creature.

A heartless monster, raised on the teat of The Matriarch and shaped in her image.

He’d likely been put through brutal, rigorous drills to carve out his fears, leaving him as this empty vessel. A machine for war.

Yes, I’d heard the talk of him, but his interest in Everest stumped me. Why had he pursued her here? Why had she not told me of her plan to leave Never Keep this way? What had she done to offend this Flamebringer so deeply that he had hunted her to the edges of the island?

I didn’t know the answers to my questions, but I did know one thing: this Fury was the reason for the loss of Everest’s mother and the scar on her hand that had caused her countless struggles.

He was a curse from the stars, a plague on the woman I had long ago sworn to protect, and I would strike him from existence in her name.

Kaylina Arcadia had been good to me, she had cared for me well, more than my foster father ever had, and I would avenge her for my own sake as well as Ever’s.

I cast a sword of iron in my hand and rushed forward to cut him down, swinging the blade for his throat. His own sword flew up to meet mine, unsheathed in a fraction of a moment, the power of the blade he wielded cracking mine in two.

My ire grew. I hadn’t thought to come here armed. Weapons were rarely carried by the Reapers and my blades had been taken from me the moment I arrived at Never Keep.

“That blade is no thing of Pyros,” I spat, sending a spray of ice at his eyes to make him lurch back, but they melted in the heat hanging around him once more. Kaiser Brimtheon didn’t so much as blink.

“You stole it from Everest,” I accused, recalling the day he had done so when Castelorain had been torn in two by the Skyforgers. “It was made in a Cascadian forge by her mother’s hand, and I will return it to her the moment I cleave your head from your shoulders, Flamebringer.”

I rocked the earth beneath him, forcing him to take a step back in the snow, wielding the ground to open up once more. Kaiser’s foot slipped into the chasm, but he turned, leaping over the gap before I could make it wide enough to trap him once more.

I cast a heavy metal flail into my grip, letting the chain slide through my fingers as I began to swing the spiked ball.

“I will have blood for her,” I growled, my hackles rising as my inner Bear Order came to the surface.

I was tempted to shift so that I could sink my teeth into this piece of shit and feel the moment his bones cracked between my jaws.

He had wronged Everest so deeply, and I knew his death belonged to her.

But I had no doubt that if she wasn’t here to claim his blood on this clifftop, then she would have chosen me in her place.

Kaiser’s eyes flashed red as he faced me across the pit, the expression he wore suggesting he was evaluating me, trying to weigh up the threat and guess my next move. So I’d be the most unpredictable bastard he had ever faced.

I ran for him, closing the hole beneath my feet to forge a path directly to the Fury, preparing to split his skull in two with my weapon.

It scored through the air, the deadly whoosh of the metal ball promising a bloody strike. But as Kaiser’s eyes locked with mine, I felt a tumult of power rolling from him, colliding with me with such force it was as if it was fuelled by the stars themselves.

The flail slipped from my fingers, crashing to the ground with a thud beside Kaiser and I cursed my foolishness for not preparing for the deadliest power a Fury held.

Possession.

The magic of his Order form rolled through my chest, and a weight of dread fell over me. I lost control of my limbs, his will stealing the place of my own and forcing me to a halt right in front of him.

He cocked his head, taking me in with a scrutiny that cut me down to my bones. He appeared more fiend than Fae.

He prowled closer, this beastly asshole staring me down, his imposing height a match for mine.

His eyes were still blood red, shining with the fucked up power of his Order, but where I expected to see the thrill of my death in his eyes, I found only emptiness.

A blank space where there should have been a soul, like a sky that held no stars.

And that was enough to set my heart thumping unevenly.

Fear was an emotion I could usually control, but here on the brink of failure, it crept into me. She was relying on me and I’d lost the fight.

Would this Flamebringer kill a Reaper? Risk the wrath of the prophets of the stars? Surely even he wasn’t mad enough to do such a thing. But then again, if he didn’t kill me here and now, I would show the other Reapers his crimes and secure his execution.

“You failed to save her,” he commented, the wind tussling the strands of his black, red-tinted hair.

He was feeding on the fear those words sparked in me, naming one of my deepest terrors as it came to life before my eyes.

And he wielded that fear, sending it deep into my chest and whispering defeat into my bones.

I tried to speak, anger searing through my chest, but my tongue was bound by his possession, and only a strained growl escaped my throat.

“Your life was pledged to the order of the Reapers, Harlon Brook,” Kaiser said.

“Return to them and do not waste your time seeking her. Everest Arcadia belongs to Pyros now. And if you breathe a word of this fight to the Reapers, I will ensure she slits her own throat. If they ever come knocking at my door, I promise it will equal her death.”

With a jolt of power, he sent me striding away across the plain of snow, back toward Never Keep, forcing me to abandon Everest, not understanding why Kaiser Brimtheon sought to capture her.

I couldn’t even look back. I couldn’t call out to her in warning.

I didn’t know if I had bought her enough time to escape but leaving that Flamebringer there on the cliff felt like I was abandoning her to him.

No matter how hard I fought the merciless Fury’s possession, I couldn’t turn back.

I was beaten and I couldn’t even secure the bastard’s execution via the Reapers unless I wanted to risk my friend’s life.

A dire reality settled on my soul as shame washed through me.

Everest was on her own.