XENIA’S POVThe darkness lunged. They had substance; they weren't merely illusion and smoke. Eyes burning with the will of the Architect, claws like steel. They screamed as they slammed into the wall of fire I had created, their shapes sizzling in the flames but quickly reforming. With flames blazing into the closest wolf, I threw out my hand. Two more surged in its place, their jaws snapping inches from my throat, but it scattered into cinders. "Xenia!" With a single arc of her blade, Reyna sliced through one, but her face was pale and her eyes were darting from one enemy to another. Another shadow slithered out from the Architect's cloak for each one we knocked down. Never-ending.I forced my flames higher, searing the chamber, until the marble floor cracked under the heat. My veins felt like molten iron. The shard pulsed in my mind, whispering: More. Let me guide you. Give in, and you will never fall.No. My fire was mine.But gods, it was getting harder to hold.RICO’S POVShe
XENIA’S POVThe room darkened. The palace itself shivered for a heartbeat as the walls creaked and the torches sputtered. My eyes were burned by the light from the shard. My mind screamed no, but my hands trembled toward it. I wasn't moving. It was the whispering, the pulling, the shard.“Burn to death. burn to death.” "Xenia!" The storm was broken by Rico's voice. I was only a few inches away from the shard when his hand closed around my wrist. Warm against the Architect's icy whisper, his touch was grounding. Instead of walking, the hooded figure glided closer. "Are you sensing it? Are you hungry? The fire won't wait indefinitely. I'll give you control if you choose me. All you love will be consumed by your flames if you disobey me.”The council members shrank back. Reyna’s sword hissed free, but the Architect did not flinch.My chest burned. Not with fear. With something older. Wilder. I wanted to fight. I wanted to burn. But whose fire would it be?I clenched Rico’s hand tighte
XENIA'S POVRico held on to me for a while. His arms remained around my shoulders, tentative but firm, as if they held a wild flame that could burn him at any time. "Tell me," he muttered. With a tight throat, I shook my head. I still felt phantom heat in my veins from the shard's visions. "You don't want to hear it." "Give me a try." His eyes were beseeching, but his tone was abrasive. And that was even more painful. At last, I pushed the words out. "I saw you. Dead. My hand burned you.”The ensuing quiet was more oppressive than any yell. Rico tensed up and took a slow step back, his face blurry in the torchlight.“You’d never hurt me,” he said at last. But it sounded more like a prayer than a certainty.The crack between us widened. I felt it. So did he.CATTY’S POVI found them like that — too close, yet miles apart. Their bond had been unshakable once. Now, the shard had slipped doubt between them like a blade.“Come,” I said quickly, breaking the tension before it could tea
RICO’S POV I was still in the storm. My chest continued to burn even after the shard had dimmed and Xenia's fire had reduced to embers. My heart a traitor, my steps heavy, I followed her down the hallway lit by torches. I was torn apart by every look at her back, which was powerful, uncompromising, but shadowed. She had resembled a flame-born queen. Nevertheless, I had witnessed her destroying everything in that vision. My hand brushed the hilt of my sword. If it came to that, would I be strong enough? Just the thought was poison.She stopped suddenly, and I nearly crashed into her.“We’re not alone,” she whispered.The torches flickered. The air thickened. And then the shadows moved.Figures peeled from the stone walls, cloaked and silent. Their masks shimmered faintly, carved with the Architect’s mark.My blade was in my hand before the first of them lunged.XENIA'S POVThese were not your typical soldiers, and the battle was swift, vicious, and quiet. Their movements were too pr
FracturesXENIA’S POVI was still gripped by the fire. It was like embers waiting to roar back to life beneath my skin. However, I wasn't haunted by the fire. Rico's eyes were the source. He had faced death and fought a hundred battles, but I had never seen him look at me the way he did after I had burned those wolves. Like I was a stranger. Like I was something to be afraid of. I therefore didn’t recoil when he cornered me in the war room that evening. I looked him in the eye. I muttered, "Say it." He clenched his jaw. "What do you say?" "That you believe I'm becoming like them." No accusation was worse than his silence.RICO'S POV I was pierced by her silver eyes. She demanded the truth, not just wanted it. The thing that gnawed at me the most was that I was unable to console her, especially after I had a mental image of her standing in the snow with flames consuming her hands. I pushed out, "I don't doubt you." But I was deceived by my voice. A shudder. A hesitancy. And
Blood on the SnowXENIA’S POVWinter's Edge woods were too quiet. Every crunch of our boots reverberated like thunder in the white silence that covered the ground covered by snow. With a map in hand, Elric led the way to the location where the shard's pulse had been detected using his wolf-sense. With her bow strung and ready, Catty stood at my side. Despite the bitter cold, I could feel Rico's presence behind me like heat. It calmed me, which I detested. The part of me that wanted to lean back into it was something I detested. Elric crouched close to the icy creek and murmured, "Here." As if illuminated from below, the ice glowed dimly. "It's here." The fragment. buried beneath the ice. But the woods moved as he reached down. The birds dispersed. Branches broke. The snow then burst into flames.RICO’S POVThey came from beneath — wolves, but not wolves. Their eyes burned with sickly green light, and their jaws dripped black ichor instead of saliva. Corrupted. Shard-touched.“P