The Princess of Terrasen

Ch. 17

Aella  picked up her mate's body, already cold, lips blue. Something strange and foreign crashed into her, making her heart beat erratically, made it hard for her breathe, made it hard not to sink to her knees and die next to him. Together, the way they should be. She considered Arondite. It would be easy. So, so easy to make a simple cut along her neck, or maybe on her wrist and join him wherever he was now.

That strange feeling, the one that made hot, angry tears flow down her face, that made her scream as she fell to her knees, clutching him as close as she could made her head spin. That reminded her of how empty it was in her mind, in her shrivelled, husk of a heart. Looking at his still face again sent a new spike of anger through her. 

The feeling that made her breath come too quickly, that made her feel alone and scared and empty turned into fury. Raging hot, molten fury that poured through her veins. 

She felt something dark and twisted settle between her bones, felt it seep into her soul, into her magic, into her mind. She didn't fight it.

And she exploded with the force of a star.

Sheets and sheets of roiling, black flame exploded out of her as she tilted her head up, giving herself to her magic. She tapped into the uncharted core of her power, so much unfamiliar, beautiful, dark magic forcing it's way out of her body, melting the walls and the ceiling so quickly it looked as though they had never been. 

The flames hadn't touched her mate. She let them. This city didn't deserve Sebastian. None did. He wouldn't want to be stuck in a grave. He would want to fly. Her flames turned golden for a second, bright and clear and cleansing. 

Only until his ashes had been swept away, carried to worlds unknown.

Then black flames reigned again, destroying whatever was left of this palace, of this city, of the Ruhnn mountains beyond it and the sandy dunes to the south.

She sat at the centre of it, in the centre of a raging firestorm born of the darkness between stars and laughed as mountains collapsed, as sand melted to nothing and bones turned to ash. Aella Astern laughed as she razed a continent all the way back to it's roots under the sea.

Maybe she would set the world on fire. 

Just so they would know who Sebastian Miyron was.

And what she could do when they pushed her too far. Because there was nothing merciful left in her. Her heart had died. It vanished, leaving her a husk, without the only one who could restrain her, without the only person who truly amused her, leaving her without the one person who lightened the weight of her heavy soul.

She shifted into her hawk form and launched into the air, creating wind currents fast enough that she was practically being flung across the sky.

Deanna would not be easy to kill. There was always something Aella had sensed about her. Something primal and ancient hidden in the Queen's mind, in whatever she had of a heart. Something about her always sent off warning bells in Aella's head.

But she was responsible for Sebastian. She was going to die, whether Aella killed herself doing it or not. And Aella was the Fire-Bringer, she was the World-Breaker. There was nothing that was capable of stopping her. 

Not when she had bloodlust dancing in her veins, when her eyes were frozen rage, when her heart smouldered with anger and smoke curled in her mouth. She was a weapon, sharp enough to break through anything.

And Sebastian had been the shield that kept her power at bay. Kept her from destroying herself and this waste of a world. That shield was gone. 

And there was nothing to keep her from levelling this world until it was nothing but a bit of ash and dirt.