Page 38 of Thunder's Reckoning

I stood, moved around the desk slow, letting my steps echo. Every sound was a countdown. I let him feel each one.

“Better?” I repeated, savoring the word. “Sable is my chosen flame. She was born for this.”

“She’s damaged,” he snapped, defiance sharp in his broken voice. “Because of you.”

I stopped a foot away, staring down at him. My jaw flexed, but my voice stayed even, colder than stone. “She was sanctified. Purified. The flame burned her clean of her mother’s weakness. She was made sacred.”

“Her mother burned because of your delusions.”

The words struck. A crack through my spine, sharp as lightning. My jaw twitched, once. I didn’t let it show in my eyes.

But he saw it.

“You made us watch,” Tallis said, leaning into the pain. “Said the fire would carry her soul. All it carried was her screams.”

“That woman was tainted,” I said. “She tempted me into sin. The fire was mercy.”

He laughed, raw, blood flecking his lips. “She loved you, Gabrial. Until she saw the monster hiding under a prophet’s robes.”

Love. Filthy word. Loud. Mortal. What I felt for Sable was beyond love. It was divine.

I turned away, not from weakness, but to breathe through the storm building in my ribs. My eyes landed on the far wall where Sable’s childhood drawings still hung. Suns. Crooked houses. A child’s handprint in orange paint.

“I gave her everything,” I whispered. “And she will return. The children too. Malik will rise as shepherd. Zara will be shaped into a vessel worthy of the flame. And Sable…” My voice softened to reverence. “Sable carries the fire in her bones. She is my vessel. My creation. She will kneel again.”

“She carries your shame,” Tallis hissed.

I turned fast, and this time I crouched low, folding my hands like prayer until I was eye-level.

“She is the flame reborn,” I said through my teeth. “Untouched. Sacred. Until you polluted her with your filth. You gave her ideas. You gave her hope.”

Tallis shook his head, slow. “She was breaking long before me. I just showed her the door.”

“You think I won’t find her?”

“No.” His lip bled as it curled into a grin. “I think when you do, she’ll burnyoualive.”

We stared in silence. The kind that comes between thunder and the strike. His eyes bled hate. Mine bled truth.

Finally, I stood, straightening my cuffs. My voice was calm, almost gentle. “How many more will burn before she finally kneels?”

He didn’t blink.

“Rohan,” I called, still staring at him.

The door opened.

“Take him to the circle. Prepare the flame.”

They hauled him up. Tallis said nothing, even as they dragged him away. He thought silence made him strong.

But the loudest sound in this world is burning flesh.

And the gods always listen.

***

THE SKY WASbleeding.