Page 126 of Madness of Her Mages

“Do you know how many people I killed?” Her voice rose in pitch as black ink spilled out of her, dissipating into the sky like smoke from a chimney. “I washed this nation in blood when my sister turned on me. And now you tell me all the slaughter was for nothing?”

“Yes, Aunt.” I clenched my hands by my sides while advancing on her again. “That’s what I’m telling you.”

My aunt snarled like a wounded dragon, her nostrils flaring as she bowed up to me, but I refused to back down.

Careful, Shiri.Drae’s dark voice rolled through me as he clutched my elbow, pulling me back.

She’s being stubborn,I retorted.

She still has the power to kill you.

She has the power to kill an entire nation if I don’t stop her.

When Malvolia let out a curse and stormed back into the bedchamber, I ignored Drae calling me back and followed her retreat. “Where are you going?”

“Away from you,” she called over her shoulder, her hands curled into claws, “before I turn you to ash.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Iwas startled from a fitful sleep by three earth-shaking horn blasts. I clutched my throat, terror numbing my limbs when I remembered Blaze telling me three alarms meant war.

“This is it,” Drae said through a shaky breath. “We’re at war.”

Goddess, no!I projected to my mates, my heartbeat thundering in my ears as panic seized my limbs.I can’t kill my sister. I can’t!

“Listen to me, Shiri.” Blaze held my face in his hands, his eyes as hard as iron. “You’re not facing any of this alone. Do you understand? We will be with you for all of it, and whatever you decide, we are there for you.”

Bile burned my throat as I slowly nodded, clinging to him while he flew me down to the floor below. Drae and Nikkos carried my sleepy-eyed nieces, laying them on the sofa where they mumbled and fell back to sleep.

We dressed in silence, either too numb, too depressed, or too terrified to speak. I turned away the servants when they produced a white gown and instead opted for the crimson dress Drae had given me when we were at Abyssus. I was tired of wearing white everything. I didn’t need a dress to announce my powers. I made an exception for the white cloak, though, since it would ward off the northern winds.

My mates helped me dress the girls. My gut was churning so hard, I couldn’t stomach the thought of food, but Drae made me eat a biscuit and drink a cup of tea. The girls picked at their food as we packed our bags. Then Blaze took me in his arms while Drae and Nikkos followed with the girls, and we flew in the direction of the darkening sky, thousands of winged magesconverging on the western side of the city, right beside the wall dividing Windhaven from Delfi.

We landed beside Malvolia, Mortimus, and my aunt’s coven at the base of the wide wall that was as tall as a giant, its end impossible to see as it stretched down the Delfian border.

I tried my hardest to quell my shaking limbs as I approached my aunt. “What are we doing here?”

She looked at me with a wild glint in her eyes, then scowled at my choice of gown. I didn’t care if she didn’t approve, and I was half tempted to remove the cloak, too.

She wore her crown of thorns again, a black leather tunic with all kinds of wicked blades strapped to the sides, and leather trousers that hugged her shapely legs. Her eyes and lips were painted in black charcoal, matching her onyx fingernails. After a long glare, she finally looked away from me. “You are going to tear down this wall.”

I shook my head to clear my ears. Surely, I misheard her. “Aunt?”

Her mouth twisted as she glared at me. “Shirina.”

“Forgive me.” I nodded in the direction of the seawall. “But doesn’t this wall support that wall?”

“No,” she snapped. “I commissioned this wall long after the seawall was built.”

It’s true,Drae’s voice echoed in my head.She had this built after the Crimson Tide. Fachnan commissioned an identical wall at the same time.

But what if my earth-shaking magic knocks down the seawall?I asked him.It is connected, after all, and my magic is too new for me to control it.

Drae grimaced.I don’t know.

“Besides,” Malvolia added, her voice taking on a maddening lilt, “the Ravini won’t drown if the wall collapses. Our mages will lift us to safety.”

I thought about the thousands of wingless Fae and humans who lived within the Tribus Point, those like my sister and her mates who might not get to higher ground in time should the seawall collapse. “But what about those in Windhaven and Caldaria who can’t fly?”

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