House of Winter

Chapter 33, Part 2

"Ari, I'm so thankful you brought Jinni to me," Lumi said. Her voice was quiet, but it was clear. "But there's no reason for you to hand yourself in as a bargaining chip. This war started with Tai, and it will end with Tai. In Reunsgar I learned everything I could about quelling. I need to quell Tai's power. If he is no longer a starrling, then he cannot be emperor of the Fire Lands. When I turn eighteen I can take my place as empress, and with the Fire Army I will be able to intervene and stop the war between Lombardia and Vastier."

"Stop a war by threatening another war?" Ari said. "I've seen what the Fire Army can do."

"You know I would never do anything like my father."

"That's easy to say," Ari said. "But all that fire does is burn, and once it starts burning, it's very hard to stop."

"And that's why we're all here," Tom said, nodding his head towards Katja and Sanna. "We're here to control the burn."

"You won't be eighteen for another year," Ari said to Lumi. "The war is starting now. I can stop it now."

"You think Matthias Stone will stop a war just because he has you?" Sanna asked. "He has wanted this war for years. The death of his son is the best excuse he's ever had to go to war."

Katja hissed in a breath.

"Not if he can't get access to oil," Ari said. "Lombardia has only just recovered from the Fire War. He knows it's fruitless to start another war. It's better for him to declare an easy victory. He gets that if he has my head."

"He's not taking your head or any part of your body," Sanna said.

Ari looked at her. Sanna was angry. She didn't know if she'd ever seen Sanna angry before. The tall girl was usually so cool and emotionless. It gave Ari an idea.

Jinni was watching her across the flames. He had hated her when she'd first rescued him, but he'd given her a grudging trust through their journey together. But Ari knew that she could trigger the memory of that night they'd met in the house of fire kinnhouses and she'd somehow used so much winter magic that she'd done such horrific damage to his leg that it had to be amputated.

Ari glared at him, and Jinni glared back.

"It's funny how no one ever discovered how Jinni got hurt," Ari said.

Lumi practically flinched at the words, and Tom leant instinctively towards her, as if trying to protect her from some unnamed threat.

"What are you talking about?" Sanna asked.

"Didn't you all wonder?"

"Of course I wondered," Lumi said quietly. "But then everything happened... and we had no time to hunt down who did this to him."

"I'm sure Jinni knows what happened," Ari said.

"I wish I could ask him," Lumi said.

Ari concentrated hard, and with great effort, she managed to create a sliver of ice in her palm. Without a kinnling to pull power from, Ari's magic had always been terribly weak, and often uncontrollable. The only time she'd experienced true power was that fateful night when Jinni, high on estellaine, had attacked her.

In reaction to the ice, Jinni's ears flew back on his head and he shuffled backwards. Lumi, who had been leaning against her tiger, almost fell backwards.

"Jinni," she tried to say soothingly, but Jinni was glaring at Ari. Ari glared back.

"What are you doing?" Tom's clear voice cut across the crackling of the fire.

"This is why Jinni hates me," Ari said to Sanna. "This is why he won't let me ride him. It's because he's the only one who knows the truth."

Sanna's expression was bewildered, but Lumi's expression told Ari everything she wanted to know. Lumi understood the truth.

"It was you," Lumi said, and she stood up, placing herself as a barrier between Ari and Jinni. "You were the one who attacked Jinni."

"But they thought that kind of injury was done by a very powerful starrling," Tom said.

"You don't think I was capable of that?"

Tom's expression was calm. It irritated Ari how he always seemed to remain so calm in the most tense of situations.

"Ari, you don't have a kinnling, so your magic isn't as powerful as it could be. I also know that you're younger than the rest of us, and haven't had as much experience and training." His voice was gentle, but it still pricked at Ari.

"Well what you probably don't know, Tom, since you've spent your whole life on the back of a wolf and probably never learnt to read, is that according to Sparrington's Theory of Surging, anger can act as a powerful surge of magic, in much the same way as a transition of kinnling power. And when I hurt Jinni, I was angry."

"How could you do that to him?" Lumi said. "How could you hurt him?"

"He deserved it," Ari said, boldness making her words overly emphatic. "He and every fire starrling and fire tiger. Everyone related to you and your family who is responsible for so much death and destruction."

"Ari, you can't mean all these cruel words," Katja said. Her voice was so overly sweet and kind.

Ari turned to the princess. "You always pretend as if you're the most kind princess, but you're worse than anyone I know."

"And yet I notice that the cloak you're wearing is from my wardrobe, is it not?" Katja said cruelly.

Ari laughed. "Yes, of course you'd notice that. Nothing is for free with you, is it?"

It felt freeing to say what she'd always wanted to say to Katja. To spit the words into the princess's face and watch her serene expression turn to shock.

"Sanna was right. You treated me like your personal slave and even when you acted kindly, it was all for your own gain. And you allowed King Matthias to blame me for Raphael's death, when your word was the only word that could have saved me," Ari's voice broke as she realised just how much that betrayal had hurt. "You left me alone in Lombardia, and you did nothing. In the end, you only cared about yourself."

Sanna placed her hand on Ari's arm, but Ari threw it off. "And you," she said, whirling on Sanna. "Katja and Tom are just as right about you. You'd betray everyone to be married to a murderer. You're more selfish than anyone I know. I thought you were my friend," she said, her voice cracking. "I thought you cared about me. And then I found out you were going to marry him."

Sanna pulled back, and there were tears in her eyes.

"I was the one who hurt Jinni," Ari said, spinning around and staring at Lumi. "I was the one who did that to him."

The anger was surging through her now, and it felt like power. Power and anger weren't so different, after all. With just these words, she could slice through this group and inflict as much pain as anyone could with magic. Words held power, and Ari lashed out with hers.

Lumi was standing now, and in her hands was fire.

For a second, Ari was terrified that Lumi would really hurt her now. Ari knew that Lumi was powerful. And at this moment, Ari knew that she deserved it.

But Lumi threw the fire away from Ari, and towards Warrah. Warrah let out a roar as the icy binds that kept him to the ground melted away, and the dragon sprung to life.

"You should leave," Lumi said, her voice vicious. "You are no friend of mine."

Ari didn't wait for Lumi to change her mind. She pulled herself clumsily onto the dragon's back, and he shot off into the sky.

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elle xx