Page 33 of The Blood Orchid

The fire brightened again, the color lightening to an amber gold, the tanzanite beginning to glimmer with ghostly whispers of white and blue. Zheng Sili sank down to his knees, his hands trembling, but still he directed his flames at the door. We were so close now, but I was growing dizzy, could hardly breathe, and didn’t know how much longer either of us could maintain the heat. Once these firestones burned out, we were doomed.

I closed my eyes and thought of nothing but the Empress, stoking the flames inside myself even hotter and brighter than the ones before me.

Her knife pulling across the prince’s throat, the skin yawning open like a bloody scream.

Her honed fingernails tracing over my cousins’ soul tags.

The taste of her blood on my tongue, the sharpness of her spine against my teeth.

At once, the fire blazed pure white, blasting back my hair in a surge of light. I leaned into the feeling, let it swallow me whole.

The taste of iron and gold, salt and death, pain and endings. Skin that splits like wet paper between my teeth, kindling bones, wire-sharp tendons, a hot rush of liquid power spilling down my throat. The Empress held tight and still in my claws, helpless as a mouse in the talons of a hawk. I wore a cage of pearl around me, an undead monster, an abomination that even the Moon Alchemist couldn’t look in the eye, but I would do it all again just to watch her come undone. Her stuttered last breaths, the taste of her broken dreams, the salt of her skin.

When Zheng Sili released his fire, it was like snapping back into my body, doused with cold water. At first I thought he’d given up, but he dove straight into the fire, snatched the tanzanite, and pressed it between his palms.

The sudden spray of water knocked me off my feet. I crashed into the tiles, an icy rain pummeling me, glass-sharp in its sudden coldness. At the doorway, a geyser burst forth from where Zheng Sili had pressed the waterstones just beyond the threshold, drawing up a torrent from the ground. He’d extinguished the whole room at once, leaving us in sudden darkness and wet ashes, like we were inside a decaying corpse.

Wenshu lay on his back in a steaming puddle, looking stunned. Durian sat a few feet away, letting out unhappy chirps.

I tried to move to him, but the world slanted, and my cheek slammed into the ground. Wenshu appeared before I could try to get up again, hauling me up by my arm and pulling me toward the door. Overhead, the soggy rafters creaked, slowly folding inward. But it didn’t matter anymore. Now we were free.

We emerged into the sunlight, where Zheng Sili was sitting heavily in a muddy puddle. It seemed the other alchemists had long abandoned the burning building and headed back home. All the guards’ horses were gone.

We sat down a few feet away, too tired to move any farther. The sun was setting, and soon the freezing night would descend.

“You’re alive?” Zheng Sili said tiredly.

“Seems like it,” I said, reaching a hand out for Durian, who was waddling down the front steps.

“That’s too bad,” Zheng Sili said, wiping wet hair from his face. “I was hoping I could get out of buying you a drink.”

Chapter Seven

“Some thanks we get for setting everyone free,” Zheng Sili said, glaring at the horizon. “They didn’t even leave us a horse. I swear, this is the last time I do a good deed.”

“I doubt they knew we were inside,” I said, shivering as a breeze ripped through the valley. We would need to head indoors soon, before night fell and the evening chill latched on to our wet clothes. I had no more firestones to dry us out, and it was a long walk to the next town.

I blinked hard, my vision still sparkling with gold flashes, the taste of blood still on my tongue. Even inside my own head, I couldn’t escape the Empress.

“What are you doing out here, anyway?” Zheng Sili said, standing up and stretching. “Shouldn’t you be in the palace?”

“Great question,” Wenshu said wryly, pulling out waterlogged scrolls from my bag and grimacing at their state.

“None of your business,” I said.

Zheng Sili rolled his eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry, is this royal alchemist business? Second-rate alchemists can’t know?”

“If you’re going to betray me the second someone points aknife at you, then you don’t need to know my plans,” I said.

“That was weeks ago,” he said.

I scoffed and turned back to Wenshu. “Just leave the scrolls,” I said. “I can fix them when I get more waterstones. We need to get to another town.”

“With what horse?” Wenshu said, grimacing. “How do you—”

He trailed off, a strange look in his eyes, the words stopping as if his air had been cut off. Before I could ask what was wrong, he folded forward, landing face-first in the dirt.

“Whoa,” Zheng Sili said, taking a step back.

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