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Mori had failed.
She wasnât going to make it there in time to save Tia. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she had tried to keep her family safe, she was about to watch her sister die right in front of her.
It didnât feel real.
It didnât feel possible.
Even as she forced herself to run faster, the thought killed something deep within her. Tia and Lottie were all she had left, and tonight, she could lose them both.
The flames eating at her skin and clothes grew hotter, so hot that she couldnât ignore them anymore, and they started to eat away at her body this time. Dark patches of blistering skin stretched over her arms. Her leather armor melted into her skin. The pain made her want to scream as it slowly corroded her senses, consuming her, eating into the depths of her being, but that last ounce of self control was all she had left to her name. If she screamed, she had no idea of what would be left of her.
If she said anything at all, her self-restraint would splinter, and she would cloak. She would give Aurora exactly what she wanted.
Tears burned in Moriâs eyes as she pushed herself onward anyway, desperate to help, forcing herself to try even though she knew what was about to happen.
To be this close and to still failâit broke something in her very soul.
She felt it, the moment it happened. There was a snap, like a bone shattering, and the fires of the forest swallowed her whole. They engulfed her, their smoke filling her lungs like air, and her tears blurred into the flame until she couldnât tell them apart.
That dying little part of her that felt so helpless, so small, so weakâthat quiet little voice finally faded into nothing. Mori didnât know where it had gone, and honestly, she didnât care.
âNo hard feelings,â Aurora said, her voice warbling and distant.
The winged angel grinned, her eyes crinkling with delight, and she leaned into the hilts of Tiaâs swords to drive the final blow.
No!
Mori had meant to say it out loud. It was a half-baked effort to distract Aurora long enough to intervene, but all that came out was a thunderous roar. It rumbled like a ship splintering under a wave as the ocean swallowed it whole.
The flaming trees around her bent with the sound, as though her voice alone could level them. They trembled in the aftermath of her scream, as though they feared the word itself.
In the moments before Mori launched at the winged angelâs throat, Aurora only had time to turn her head and raise one eyebrow in surprise.
Whatever that sound had been, it cleared Moriâs head. Her pain was gone. Her body ached with pent-up energy, with rage, with heat, with hellfire. White flame erupted over her skin and engulfed her fist as she landed the first blow in Auroraâs throat. Aurora gagged. Seconds later, Moriâs knuckles cracked against Auroraâs temple, and the winged angelâs head snapped back in a blurred flurry of hair and fire. Aurora teetered. The swords in her hands fell, and the piles of ash across the ground softened their fall.
Mori didnât even pause to catch her breath. Aurora would die, and Mori would burn the fallen woman to death with her own bare hands.
Knuckles cracked across Auroraâs jaw as Mori swung again. Blow by blow, Moriâs fists ripped long gashes in Auroraâs nose, her neck, her chest.
Her fist landed hard in Auroraâs gut. The winged angel doubled over, nothing but a ragdoll for Mori to play with, and Mori drove her knee into her opponentâs face. Auroraâs head snapped back once more, and she finally stumbled just out of reach.
Auroraâs eyes narrowed with hatred, and the two of them launched at each other once more as the hellfire around them consumed the once-beautiful forest.
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Long nails as sharp as claws reached for Moriâs face, but she was faster. She ducked at the final moment and sank to one knee. One hand grabbed Auroraâs tattered clothing, while the other erupted with another surge of white-hot flame. She landed the devastating blow in her lost sisterâs stomach. Aurora screamed with pain, her voice unleashing a wave of air that toppled nearby trees, and she collapsed onto the ground.
In seconds, Mori was on her feet. Auroraâs wings flailed wildly, but Mori sidestepped each swing with ease. One slashed at her head, the glistening black steel of each feather glimmering in the infernoâs firelight, but she ducked each desperate swing.
She didnât think.
She didnât pause.
She didnât even know where she was, anymore, or what had brought her here, but none of that mattered.
Nothing mattered but this womanâs blood, and she would have it all.
Moriâs elbow landed hard in Auroraâs throat, and the fallen angel doubled over. This time, however, Aurora grabbed Moriâs shoulders and dug her nails in deep enough to draw blood. They both snarled at each other with barely restrained hatred as ripples of pain blistered through Mori, one after another.
In answer, Mori sank her own claws into Auroraâs neck. Her grip drew fresh streams of blood that coursed along her palms and down her ash-covered arms, blending with the soot to create a gory cascade along her skin.
The two of them glared at each other, nose to nose, covered in hellfire and desperate to burn each other to cinders.
Or so Mori thought.
To her surprise, Aurora grinned. Wicked delight danced in those glowing white eyes, and she chuckled darkly. âThis worked better than I could have dreamed.â
Mori wanted to say something. Anything, really, but her voice escaped her, and she could only snarl.
âLook at yourself,â Aurora ordered. âLook!â
As curious as she was angry, Mori briefly glanced at her arms, wondering what the hell the woman was on about. To her surprise, her skin glimmered like the night sky. It shimmered and shone with all the brilliance of starlight, even as flames erupted across her hands as her nails sank deeper into her opponentâs throat.
Auroraâs haunting laugh filled her head. âYouâre as beautiful as I am, dear.â
Mori couldnât form words. She didnât know how.
All she wantedâall that matteredâwas for Aurora to die.
Mori couldnât even remember why that mattered, but it was all that drove her onward.
âYouâre the youngest of us,â Aurora continued, her nails digging deeper as the two of them circled, locked together, burning in the blaze. âYou were the last one of us the Divine Mother made, and that makes you the most powerful of us all. With you, she did not hold back. She poured every last ounce of herself into you. You are her essence, the lingering lifeforce of a goddess, and you are the one I wanted most. That power of yours is unrivaled.â
Mori snarled, wanting her to stop talking even though the distraction was useful. If the woman blathered on, she could regain the upper hand and finally land the death blow.
âTia never told you that, did she?â Auroraâs nose wrinkled with disdain. âOf course. She held you back. She wanted to keep you locked away in that cage in your soul. She feared you, little sister. She feared what you will inevitably become. What I will unleash within you.â
âDie,â Mori seethed, her hellfire burning hotter than ever before.
Auroraâs teeth gritted together, and her hair billowed wildly around her face in the scalding heat of the growing inferno around them. âThen I will break you open and carve it out of you.â
She wrenched her claws free. Dark blood coated her nails, and splatters landed across her face as she raised one hand to strike.
But Mori was done with this.
So very, very done.
She drove both of her fists into Auroraâs stomach. The woman buckled, doubling over in agony with the blow, just as Mori knew she would. Mori twisted her hands until her palms rested against her opponentâs body, and she channeled everything she had into her fingers.
All the rage.
All the hatred.
All the fear.
All the grief.
The overriding sense of loss that clung to her like smoke, refusing to let go even though she couldnât understand where it had come from.
She unleashed it all, and her hellfire raged with a brutal heat she had never before felt. A sizzling power, really, that she didnât know could existâand here it was, obeying her every whim.
In a flash of brilliant white light, the world faded. The light swallowed even Moriâs figure, and the last thing she saw before the heat engulfed them both was the glowing outline of Auroraâs eyes. Moriâs palms became suddenly empty, and the last of her strength dissolved.
In the flood of white, she fell to her knees. Dazed and alone in this bleach-white world, she closed her eyes to let the light consume her.
And for the first time in her life, she feltâ¦
â¦free.
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