Page 122 of Psycho Gods

It was terrifying.

Scorpius proclaimed, “Vidimus. We saw,” and the eye tattoo on his neck blinked open. It stared straight at me. His blind eyes glowed, and he turned his head like he was searching for people.

“Vicimus. We conquered,” Malum finished as flames poured off him.

My thighs trembled, and I put my hands on my knees to keep myself upright. Crystal feathers clattered against the rocks as my wings drooped.

I wanted to lie down.

Flames tumbled off Malum faster, like the air was kerosine, and somehow the frozen mountainside caught fire.

It should have been impossible.

Somehow the kings’ power broke the laws of thermodynamics.

I gnawed on my lip as I stared at the three men who were in a trance.

It hit me like a punch to the gut that this was an astronomically stupid idea.

How was I supposed to do anything to stop them?

Ice radiated around me, but whenever I tried to channel it into something different, nothing happened. It was like I was an inanimate frozen object, incapable of anything but misery.

No, I was not having a pity party.

It was called being aware of your limitations.

My knees knocked together, and it took everything I had not to sprawl down under the weight of my wings.

“Stop it,” I said and pointed my icy hands at the fire. Immediately I felt like a fool because nothing happened.

If anything, the warmth felt delicious, and I wanted more of it. Why would I try to put out the fire that was warming the chill from my bones? I wanted to flame it brighter.

“Stop the fire,” I repeated lamely to the kings and envisioned ice exploding from my fingertips toward the devils like it had when I’d fallen atop Jinx and stopped them.

At least, that was how I imagined it happening. It wasn’t clear to me how I’d stopped them.

I gnawed on my lip as the flames expanded across the mountainside.

Swearing under my breath, I visualized putting out the fire. My stomach twisted with apprehension.

No ice exploded off my hands toward the scarlet inferno.

If anything, frost receded from my fingers as the air warmed around me. I thawed and basked in the inferno.

I clapped my hands loudly and tried a different approach. “Snap out of it.”

The kings remained mindless beings of fire and death. The very unwell part of me was jealous. It would be nice if I could sink into a mindless craze and stop worrying about my actions.

Shockingly, they did not stop.

No one could say I hadn’t tried.

The mountain became uncomfortably warm as scarlet flames expanded in every direction. They leaped high into the air and formed a wall of fire.

I squinted against the brightness while I inhaled the heat greedily.

The kings were shadowy outlines, untouched in the middle of an inferno. Tools of death waiting to be deployed.

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