Page 60 of Queen of Legends and Lies (Dragons of Tirene #4)

Faint at first but growing brighter with each passing second…it’s my magic. My fire magic. The essence of who I am. But there’s something else, too, twined around it like a golden thread.

Another kind of fire, one I’ve never felt before.

My elemental magic resides in my blood. This new power is centered in my heart.

Phoenix fire.

Instinctively, I grasp for that shimmering ember buried within me. It flits away from my touch, elusive and stubborn. I grit my teeth and push harder, refusing to let it escape.

I need this. Rose needs this. The whole damn world needs this.

And suddenly, my mind is racing, and I remember the vision from the Hidden Valley. While holding a spelled feather, memories of the phoenix it came from rushed into me. That phoenix was the same one who granted my ancestors some of their powers.

I’ve felt this kind of intense energy only once before—while trapped within those visions.

My fire magic originated here. This is the root of the embers. Until this very moment, I’d always drawn on the reservoir of powers that lingered near the surface.

Why wouldn’t I?

But now, I dive even deeper.

With a final, wrenching effort, I seize hold of the strange new fire in my core and yank it to the surface. It replaces my red and yellow flames with a blaze of pure white light so bright my eyes burn and water.

Before, I used fire that destroyed. But now, what flows out of me, what weeps from my pores and covers my body and sweet Rose’s in a protective blanket as the drachen and the corrupted lash out beyond us, are the flames of consecration. Purifying flames.

And I am not afraid.

I am more myself than I have ever been. Finally, I’m getting acquainted with the abilities that lay dormant in my soul. This was who I was always meant to be.

Not Xenon’s pawn.

Not Jasper’s hostage.

Not the Ash Queen.

Not the destroyer of lives.

I bring purification. I bring life.

Rose cries out, going limp in my arms.

Spots dance across my vision. I blink in an attempt to clear away the blinding afterimages. When I can finally see clearly again, I look down at Rose.

She stares up at me with wide blue eyes.

The corruption…it’s gone. Purged from her body by the cleansing fire and then blasted away without even leaving ash. Her mind is free. And now she’s witnessing these horrors firsthand.

A blessing and a curse.

“Lark? What’s happening?” Rose shakes with shuddering sobs. “I can’t see! Why is everything so bright?”

“Shh, it’s okay.” I stroke her hair with a glowing hand, certain it won’t harm her. This fire doesn’t obliterate everything it touches. This fire sears away that which is unhealthy or unholy. Somehow, I just know. “Everything’s going to be okay. Just close your eyes, sweetheart. Don’t look.”

Pressing my hand to the back of her head, I bury her face against my stomach, protecting her from this living nightmare.

It’s all I can do as the corrupted around us cower yet still refuse to give up, throwing themselves against my shields only to collapse in a growing pile of death.

Mesmerized by the sight, I stare in awe at the blazing white flames that shimmer around us.

I’ve never seen anything like it. Never even dreamed that fire could burn this hot, this bright.

But I know this is my light, these are my flames.

I am aware of them like I am aware of the wings on my back beating the air around us.

The flames spread, enveloping my wings—the very extension of my being.

This is phoenix fire.

The magic of my true heritage, finally awakened after lying dormant for so long. Fire so pure and potent, it can burn away any corruption.

Even the tainted bones of a dark god.

Renewed hope jets through me, hot and fierce. I can do this. I can end this. For Rose. For Sterling. For everyone I love. For my kingdom.

I fix my gaze on Narc’s writhing, partially formed body and let the phoenix fire build inside me, hotter and hotter. The magic is so strong, so wild, I’m not sure how well I can control it.

But I’m going to give it three hells of an effort.

With all the strength left in me, I push it outward.

My shield turns into a mass of spinning blades that grow longer with every rotation. The fire roars out of me in a blinding torrent, swirling and twisting as it races toward Narc.

The god’s agonized shrieks overpower the crackle of flames. Eyril roots shoot out of the ground below and above him.

They thrash against the inferno like sentient beings trying to protect their master.

It’s no use.

Nothing can withstand the cleansing blaze of the phoenix.

“Go back to your mother, Narc. She’s waiting for you.”

He writhes and flails, his form disintegrating into ash even as he tries desperately to flee.

The altar shatters in the heat. Then starts to melt. The eyril roots run out, fizzle, and collapse. There’s nothing left to shield their god.

There is no escape.

Bluish purple eyes glare at me with vengeance and possibly confusion.

The urge to explain myself to this almost alive god loosens my tongue.

“Removing free will wasn’t your call. We decide what is best for us.

” Rose whimpers, and I hold her tighter as the light gets even brighter.

“Right or wrong, humans must be allowed to make choices. How are we supposed to grow, to learn, if your drachen are in control?”

The eye that was formed last falls from the socket, hanging by a spongy string of flesh as his raw-boned fingers scramble on the melting stones, his skull shaking as more bits of it break and flake away.

Narc’s jaw falls off his skull and bounces off what remains of the altar.

His bones glow. Or maybe they’re being devoured by the white-hot flames.

I can’t tell anymore. Purifying phoenix fire consumes him utterly, leaving nothing behind except a fine, gray powder that vanishes into the scorched earth.

It’s over.

It’s done.

I’m done.

I sag to my knees, cradling Rose close as relief crashes over me in a dizzying wave. The land is cleansed. And the corrupted? They look dead, too, but only time will tell.

We’ve won the war.

But even as the fleeting thought crosses my mind, I realize something is very wrong.

The phoenix fire is still burning strong.

It rages on, growing wilder by the second, until the very air shimmers with its force. Panic seizes me. I try to call the flames back, to somehow trap them inside myself once more. But it’s like trying to catch a hurricane in my cupped hands.

This fire has a will of its own, a hunger that won’t be denied.

I call the flames again, more insistent.

The inferno surges back toward me, a searing wall of energy that slams into my body like a battering ram. I scream as it engulfs me and fiery pain shoots through my every nerve and synapse.

The sensation is beyond anything I’ve ever known.

Yet even as my vision is overcome by blinding light, even as my flesh chars and my bones crumble to dust, I have a strange sense of peace. Of belonging. The phoenix fire isn’t destroying me…it’s welcoming me home.

My last thought as the luminosity takes me is a fervent prayer to the gods.

Please, spare Rose. Let her live. Let her have the future I’ll never see.

Then the light fills me, consumes me…swallowing me until I’m no more.