Page 272 of Emylia

And I was coming for them—with blood on my hands, and nothing left to lose.

ChapterSixty

Still trembling, I let him guide me forward. My legs were unsteady. My hands slick with blood and soot.

But when he’d pressed my bow back into them, something inside me clicked into place. The weight of it. The familiarity. The purpose. It didn’t make me whole—but it reminded me how to move.

“I’m going to Thrainn’s,” his voice dripped with something dangerous—something that pulsed with vengeance. “I'll check if they’re alive. You have to get out of here.”

My head snapped toward him.

No.

No, no, no.

But it wasn’t the words that shattered me.

It was his face.

His eyes were storm-swept, swirling with uncertainty, drained of color until they were nothing but smoke.

Fear.

Not for himself.

For me.

He thought if I stayed, I’d die. That he’d lose me.

Gods, he was such an idiot.

Didn’t he know?

I would burn before I let him face this alone.

“I’m coming with you.” I didn’t wait for his protest.

I ran.

Behind me, his curse—low, furious. Then his boots. Pounding. Fast. Chasing after me like the world was ending.

The hundred yards to Thrainn’s house stretched like eternity—like grief had tethered itself to me and dragged behind with every step.

Smoke tore at my throat. Flames clawed at the edges of my vision. And still—we ran.

The ground blurred beneath us. Each step crushed everything I hadn’t come close to processing.

Everything I’d lost.

Everything I could still lose.

Grief clung to my boots. Screamed at my back.

Don’t go. Don’t look. Don’t see.

Thrainn’s home rose through the smoke—one of the last still standing. It was one of the only ones not yet devoured by fire. But not untouched. Black smoke curled from the windows—thick, greedy fingers reaching for what hadn’t yet burned, searching for a way in.

Maalikai reached the door first. Nearly ripped it from its hinges with brute, unhinged rage that I thought he was controlling far better than I was. Then slipped inside like a shadow with purpose, like wrath melting into darkness.

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