Page 46 of Burn Bright
No hesitation now. It didn’t matter if Galina’s previous warnings had been dire. Pure heart or not, I couldn’t resist plunging headfirst into the pool, my hips hanging over the edge of thefountain.
Instantrelief.
The waters of Vashta’s Tears welcomed me, though it felt thick and strangely fluid, like molten quicksilver. I sucked in a mouthful and swallowed, trying to cool the flaming embers deep in my chest and stomach. It wasn’t enough. I went under completely, and the blessed cold sank through my fevered body, my ears popping withpressure.
The mouthful of water I’d swallowed sat heavy in my stomach, the leaden weight of it slowly sinking through every inch of my body, and bringing with it a coolness thatinvigorated.
Power rushed through me.Heat.
But it was no longer burning me tocinders.
NowIwas theflame.
Steam rose off the pool as I surfaced in a ball of pure flame; one that spread its wings and speared into the sky. Energy crackled through me. I saw the woods sprawled below me, and the air of the night sky rushed pastme.
Everything melted away. Pain, sorrow, hunger, fear. I emerged raw and new, and filled with pureexultation.
Banking in the sky, I circled the clearing where Cas and the rest of the men looked up, crying out and pointing up atme.
And suddenly it dawned onme.
Despite this rush of exhilaration, this glorious change, it also meant the end of any hopes I might have held towardhim.
The king needed a firebird’sheart.
And now the prince and his men knew a firebird could be consumed in order to heal, I would never stop beinghunted.
And I had a dutynow.
Everything changed. The sudden lightness of being I’d felt sank into a hot ball of lead in my chest. I plunged through the skies, my enormous wings lashing out just enough to stop my fall. I hit the ground, and the heat ran through me, a spill of energy that left me shuddering in human form on the melted patch of brown dirt I knelt in.Naked.
Yells echoed through the forest. My head jerked up. Cas! And theothers.
"You passed the third test. You are truly my heir now.But my old foe is gathering strength. Take my cloak."Galina swirled it around my naked shoulders."It is crafted of magic, and shall notburn."
Somehow I wobbled to myfeet.
"You have little time to lose,"she whispered, clasping my cheek in her cool, ethereal hand."Go, Neva. The Darkness has found its mantle. The man it rides will kill the entire company if you do not stop him—and none of the others can. He will spread this infection through your kingdom—through your world of men—until the Darkness finally has a foothold in another land. And this time, there are no guardians left. Only you can stopit."
Casimir. Evaron. The soldiers who rode with them. It would not stop there. Densby was the closest village on the way out of the Woods. My father was ill. Mysisters...
Reaching for the fallen spear that marked Vashta's grave, I turned toward the clearing where the firebird's ashes stillburned.
"Vashta watch over me," I whispered, making the sign of the trident upon my forehead with myfinger.
When I gained the top of the hill, I glanced back one moretime.
Galina wasgone.
And another scream tore through thenight.
