Page 140 of The Curse of Golden Blood
This was what Ylvena had created when she filled my mind with lies.
This was her weapon, finally unleashed.
Sunfire exploded outward in waves, forcing the guards back. Their formation scattered as they dove for cover behind pillars and overturned furniture. The golden throne itself began to smoke, its perfect surface marring under the assault of uncontrolled heat.
Through the chaos, through the screams and the sound of shattering crystal, I heard another voice.
"Miralyte!"
Pelbie.
My attention snapped toward the sound. Two guards were dragging her toward a side door, her healer's robes torn and bloodied. One of them held a blade to her throat while the other yanked her arms behind her back. She was fighting them, struggling with everything she had, but they were stronger.
"No!" The word tore from my throat.
That moment of distraction cost me. Ylvena struck like lightning, faster than thought, faster than anything that large should have been able to move. She knocked me off my feet, my shoulder hitting the marble hard enough to make me cry out in pain.
"Look at what you've become." Her voice was ice and blood and the end of everything. "So much power, all gone to waste. We could have ruled this world together."
Pain shot through my ribs where she'd struck me. Each breath felt like swallowing glass. But I pushed myself up anyway, sunfire flickering weakly around my fingers.
"We're not ruling anything together." Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. "You're a murderer and a liar."
"I'm a survivor." She circled me like a predator, white eyes never leaving mine. "I've made the choices you're too weak to make. Sacrificed what needed sacrificing. Built something lasting from the ashes of sentiment."
"You built nothing. You destroyed everything you touched."
Her laugh was winter wind over broken glass. "I gave you purpose. Direction. Without that grief, without that driving need for revenge, you would have lived and died as nothing more than another mortal peasant girl."
Every word felt like acid eating away at my soul. "You were jealous." I spat blood, wiped it on my torn sleeve.
"You know nothing about—"
"All this power." I struggled to my feet, legs shaking. "All these centuries. And you're still just the daughter she didn't want…"
"Shut your mouth."
"Tell me, Ylvena. When you killed her... did Emystra call out for me instead of you?"
Ice crystals began forming on the broken marble. Ylvena's white eyes blazed with something beyond rage, beyond fury. Something primal and wounded and utterly lethal.
"How dare you." Each word came out sharp enough to cut. "How dare you speak her name."
"Why? Because it hurts?" I laughed, tasting copper. "Because even now, even after everything you've done, you know she loved me more?"
"She loved a lie!" Ylvena's composure finally shattered completely. Power erupted from her in waves, cracking pillars, turning tapestries to ash. "A fantasy! A dream child she could mold into perfection because she never had to watch you disappoint her!"
"At least she chose to save me. What did she do for you? Left you here to rot with a crown and a court full of sycophants."
"I earned this throne!"
"You stole it. There's a difference." I wiped more blood from my mouth, never breaking eye contact. "Tell me, sister. In all these centuries of ruling, have you ever felt loved? Actually loved, not feared?"
Her face went white as winter. "Stop talking."
"That's why you needed me to hate you, isn't it? Because hatred is the only emotion you know how to inspire. The only connection you're capable of making." I took a shaky step forward. "Even now, even torturing me, you're still trying to make me need you."
"I said stop!"
