Page 67 of Crown of Darkness
Maybe Finn senses it too. “No debt, my lady,” he says, lifting his fingers for her to settle onto. He lowers her to the ground. “It was my pleasure. And now I am one up on Eris.”
I look around. “She’s not here?”
“What do you mean?”
I tell him what happened.
Finn pushes to his feet, cursing under his breath. “Eris doesn’t simply vanish. If she was on watch tonight, then she’d be stuck to your ass like a burr.” He doesn’t say that something’s wrong, but I read it on the grim line of his face. “I’ll find her.”
And then he’s gone.
A huge dome of shadowy clouds envelops the library and collapses in upon it. Thiago stands in the yard, holding his palms outstretched.
“What’s he doing?” I whisper.
“Everything needs oxygen to breathe,” Thalia says. “Even fire.”
The clouds of smoke roil and thrash, but it looks like they’re being contained within an invisible glass dome. Flame licks at the edge of the ward, but they’re slowly being choked out.
Another figure steps from the shadows.
Prince Kyrian, his face grim as he wields his own magic. Twirling his finger, he sweeps Thiago’s darkness into tight coils that seem to crush the building. Flames writhe, but they’re slowly dwindling as if his smoke-coils choke the life from them.
The fire burns low… and dies.
Finally, it’s done.
The air reeks of smoke. Blackened marks scorch the library tower, and every window in the place is merely an eyeless gaping hole.
But some of the library remains untouched.
And nobody died.
Though, as I see Princess Lucere bearing down upon me, I don’t think we’ve escaped entirely unscathed.
“What in Maia’s name did you do?”
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Chapter Thirteen
“Me?”
“Your natural gift is Fire, isn’t it?” Lucere snarls. “I think if we need to find the culprit, then we need look no further than right here.”
Thiago steps forward. “Vi had nothing to do with this.”
“Were you with her?” Lucere demands, turning on him in a rage. “Was she in bed with you when this happened? Can you vouch for her whereabouts?”
And he pauses.
“I was on the battlements,” I reply softly, “with Eris. I couldn’t sleep.”
Thiago cuts me a look telling me not to say any more. “Vi has no reason to attack you and your court—”
“Doesn’t she?” Lucere demands coldly. “Perhaps she didn’t like the way you danced with me. Perhaps she—”
“If you think me foolish enough to attack a foreign kingdom over something sopettyas jealousy,” I snap, “then you know me not at all. I am not my mother. And I know who Thiago chose all those years ago. He spent thirteen years winning my heart, over and over again, and you think I’d believe that his head is turned by another woman?”
