Page 240 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue

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I knew he would turn into ash.

I knew it would explode in my face.

But I grabbed the back of his neck with my free arm, looking into his beady eyes in the last moments of his miserable existence.

Nobody hunted the Huntress.

I closed my eyes as he burst into a cloud, the mask thudding on top of his cloak. I spit the grit from my mouth.

The groans in the passage turned to yells.

My power pushed against my skin, as if it wanted to break through me to get out and help them.

Protectorate blood still drummed through me and it wanted to help.

I looked down at the light. Maybe it would follow me if I raced back into the passage.

Or maybe–

With nothing but instinct and faith, I kneeled down, pushing the soot out of the way. The light pulsed underneath me, unsure.

My power stirred in my chest, restless and eager, as if urging me on.

I pressed my right hand, bloodied fingers and all, against the pulse. The ground was cold, but I felt it thrum under my palm.

Cautious, at first. Sensing me just like I sensed it.

I know you.

I touched you underneath the crypt.

You know me, too.

The light began to grow beneath my palm. My own power rushed into my fingertips, straining against my skin to meet the light, as if they were two friends reuniting.

The purple light snaked up my hand, glimmering.

Accepting me and my power.

Finally, just as I felt ready to burst, blue tendrils unfurled from my fingertips, coiling with the purple. They drank each other in greedily, twisting and turning.

“Please,” I muttered under my breath as the cries in the passage echoed louder. “Please give us light.”

The pressure in my hand built as blue and purple danced together.

A hum began to drum around me.

Behind me, Nadya gasped.

A moment later, a hazy blue light began to spread through the crevice.

It crawled up the walls, searing into the ceiling.

The maze lit up like the sky at dawn.

“What did you do?” Nadya asked, breathless. Mesmerized or horrified, I couldn’t tell.

I turned to her with an ashy smile. “I helped us fight back.”

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