Page 95 of Her Cruel Redemption

Lester’s voice cut through the noise, sharp and familiar. I turned to see him striding toward me, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, face soot-smeared and furious.

‘You’re supposed to be at the gate,’ he barked, shoving a soldier aside as he closed the distance. ‘Do you even know what’s happening there? They’re holding the line by a thread. This isn’t your problem.’

‘We lose these ships and we lose the war,’ I replied, scanning the dock, attention drawn to the bridge strung high above the quay that led to the lighthouse in the harbour. Soldiers were clustered around the steps, facing off against what looked like a handful of infiltrators.

Lester grabbed my arm, yanking me around to face him. ‘Let’s not pretend this has anything to do with the ships. This—’ he waved a hand at the lightning-streaked sky above ‘—is her own doing and it’s not your fucking job to save her from herself. Let her drown in her own damn storm!’

‘You’re going to have a lot of hands down here helping to fight the flames and move the fleet in a minute. Oceatold troops are already inside the walls,’ I said, shaking him off to head for the bridge.

‘You’re going to get yourself killed!’ he called, swearing loudly as he stumbled after me.

Ahead, the group of soldiers stumbled out of my way as I took the steps towards that swinging bridge above, and I caught my first sight of Rhiandra, moving quickly as she climbed, magic flickering around her, racing through the dark halo of her hair as it was whipped around by the wind. I caught the words of one of the fighters below her as I drew nearer, pushing my way past my own soldiers to reach her.

‘—to find a way off the dock!’ he bellowed up at her. ‘We’ve done what we came for!’

‘I can get the rest of them,’ she called back, eyes fixed on the lighthouse as she picked her way up the steps towards the bridge, hands gripping tight to the railings. ‘Just give me a little bit more time.’

I read her intent; to attack the ships that had already escaped the harbour. And I could vividly imagine the voices in her head egging her on, coaxing her to keep pushing forwards, to strike out again, to use just a bit more magic. Could vividly imagine it, because it was a chorus I was keenly familiar with, one swirling around in my own head, hissing at my stupidity for refusing to bend her to my resolve. I could take her mind, compel her down the steps. A battle of wills, hers against mine, and if I won she could be at my feet in minutes. I didn’t. Instead, I reached for the minds of the soldiers standing between us, bending their thoughts as easily as snapping a thread. Their weapons dropped first, clattering to the dock in unison. Then their bodies stiffened, frozen by my command. All except one. A frizzy blone woman who I immediately picked out as Yoxvese, with mental shields strong enough to give me pause. I didn’t have the time to break through them, and it didn’t seem to matter when she was weaponless and slight. I wondered if she’d try to bar my way. I paused when I reached her, halted by the thoughtful expression she wore as she scanned my face.

‘Do you think you can stop her before she kills herself?’ she asked.

I had to crush down the choking fear that Rhiandra might die, crush it down before it fed the insistent call of magic and began to warp my decisions. ‘I’m going to try.’

She nodded, then stepped clear.

Above, Rhiandra had taken her first step onto the bridge. Her magic sparked dangerously around her, fracturing the night like shards of glass, and I felt the sharp edge of it in my chest, the bitter taste of it in my mouth. The bridge swayed under her hurried steps, planks bowing and railings swaying, but she didn’t falter. She didn’t even glance back. Her gaze was locked on the lighthouse ahead. She didn’t care about the soldiers she’d left behind or the ships still in the harbor. All that mattered to her was the storm she could command from that tower and the destruction she could wield with it.

I surged forward, my boots pounding against the steps as I took them at a run. I stepped onto the bridge, feeling it groan beneath my weight, the boards slick with seawater and trembling under the storm’s fury.

Without warning, she turned on me. Her eyes were wild, glittering with the snapping threads of light leaping off her. ‘Don’t come any closer,’ she snarled. She was destruction and vengeance and the power of the pulsating storm above, and her gaze weighed on me like a death sentence.

For the first time in years, I felt small.

‘Your friends want you to turn back,’ I said, trying to measure out my words, to be calm. I could see the way her hands were trembling from here. ‘Esario’s forces have breached the walls. We’re in retreat. You’ve already won.’

She showed no sign she’d heard me. Her magic lashed out, more instinct than intent, a jagged arc of lightning that split the air between us. I jumped back as it missed me, spiking down into the dark sea below, but I could feel the heat of it on my skin, the swell of static in the air. She turned her face to the sky, reaching up a hand like she wanted to grasp the clouds and climb her way up to them.

I knew her well enough to know where this was going. She’d always hankered for power. She was ready to let it consume her.

I reached for her mind.

Tasted the wild turmoil of the emotions running through her.

I felt her recoil immediately. She hadn’t thought I would do it. But she already thought me a monster. I would be one if it meant protecting her from herself.

‘Stop.’ The command rang with magic, slicing through the chaos of the storm, wrapping around her. She gasped as her body went rigid, the flickers of lightning dimming, retreating, as I tried to contain the hurricane of feral power burning through her. It was tearing at her mind with serrated teeth, but I could force her to still. I could force her tokneelif I wanted to, force her tocrawltome. I could feel the flare of temptation to do it, to render her completely at my mercy, could hear that hissing voice of magic tearing through the box I’d caged it in to urge me on. But if I’d thought Khatar’s will was strong, it was nothing to this. Wrestling with her felt like trying to lock a hurricane in a jar. Pain pierced my head as I slowly took a few steps closer. She was panting, breath ragged through bared teeth, dark eyes lit with fury.

‘You said you wouldn’t… never again,’ she grated, labouring to get the words out.

I paused, afflicted with the bite of uncertainty. I’d never thought she believed that I hadn’t touched her mind since I’d made that promise after I forced a secret from her. She’d always refused to believe it. My focus wavered, my control slipping. Magic surged around her again with a ferocious vengeance, and before I could touch her, she lashed out with one hand, all raw instinct and wild rage.

The lightning hit me square in the chest.

Pain ripped through me, white-hot and blinding, driving me to my knees. Everything went dark.

I opened my eyes to Lester’s face above me. He was knotted with worry as he slapped at my cheek.

‘Well shit, there must be a god up there who likes you!’ he called over the howling wind. ‘I thought you were bloody dead!’

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