Page 85 of Fated By Fire
Rage fires through my veins, molten and unrelenting. I lunge forward, but Lydia’s warning shout stops me cold as she comes up behind me.
“Don’t!” Her taloned hand grips my shoulder, claws digging into my flesh. “The Heartstone’s unstable—one spark and this whole block goes up!”
Malakai laughs, the sound echoing like bones rattling in a drum. “Smart girl. Back off and let me do what should have been done years ago!”
“You’re going to destroy us, Steele!” I snarl. “You don’t realize what’s at stake, damn you!”
“No,youdon’t truly understand what’s at stake.” His free hand presses Elena closer to the crystal, her fingertips trembling inches from its surface. “Too long, Craven. For too long, you and your line have dictated to us. Forced us away from our true purpose. Well, now I have the power in my hands. The power to use the stone the way it should have been all along.”
“You have no idea how to control it, Malakai,” I try to reason with him.
“Don’t be a fool. I know exactly what I’m doing. Rossewyn bloodawakensit. And with it, I’ll burn your pathetic human compromises to ash.” Malakai shoves Elena forward, and I feel myself bristling, surging toward him.
Elena’s entire body shakes, her knees buckling under the strain. But her voice cuts clean through the chaos. “Go to hell.”
That’s my girl.
She slams her palm onto the Heartstone.
The world whites out.
A shockwave hurls me against the vault wall. My skull cracks stone, and for a heartbeat, there’s nothing but ringing silence. Then light—blinding, searing light—floods the chamber, scorching my retinas. I throw an arm over my face, the heat searing my skin even through the scales rippling across it.
When my vision clears, the Heartstone isn’t just glowing. It’salive.
Elena floats inches above the ground, her hair whipping in an unfelt wind. The stone’s energy ribbons around her, tendrils of crimson and gold weaving through her fingers like liquid fire. Her eyes—fuck, hereyes—are twin eclipses, pupils drowned in starlight, galaxies swirling in their depths.
Malakai stumbles back. “Impossible. You’re not—”
He freezes as Elena’s gaze locks onto him.
“You don’t touch what’s mine.”
Her voice isn’t hers. It’s ancient, a chorus of women long dead. My dragon roars in recognition—
Lyria’s lineage, alive in her bones.
We never had to show how to use that power. The knowledge runs in her veins.
Malakai snarls, his form blurring as he shifts. Scales erupt across his skin, wings shredding his suit. But Elena is faster.
She flicks her wrist.
The Heartstone answers.
A whip of pure energy lashes out, slicing across Malakai’s chest. He crashes into the far wall, his roar shaking dust from the ceiling. The impact cracks the stone, fissures spiderwebbing toward the vault’s ceiling.
I’m moving before I think, my own shift rippling under my skin. Fire floods my throat, molten and ready.
“Elena!Look at me!”
Her head turns. For a heartbeat, the cosmic void in her eyes flickers.
‘Caleb.’
I hear her voice in my mind, fractured but hers. The bond surges, a bridge between us, and I’ve never felt such a complete sense of wholeness. It’s like breathing for the first time.
She’s not alone in this battle. Neither am I. Malakai is going to face both of us. And we are fucking formidable.
