Blood gushed from the witch’s mouth and she made a sickly gurgling noise.
“Good,” she managed. “Your...air magic...it’s even stronger than I thought. But untrained. You can heal me. You—you need me.”
“I don’t need you! I hate you!” Lucia’s rage only blazed hotter. As if to match her rampant emotions, flames burst from Sabina’s chest. The witch looked down at herself, panic finally showing in her wild, pained gaze.
“Enough! No...Lucia, it’s enough! You’ve proved yourself—”
But before she could utter another word, a raging inferno lit up the dark room, consuming Sabina completely. Lucia’s long, wild hair was swept back from her face from the blast of the heat wave. Sabina’s scream of agony was cut short as her blackened corpse fell heavily to the ground and the flames disappeared.
Lucia shook from head to toe as Sabina dropped to the floor, her eyes wide with horror at what she’d done. She’d hated Sabina enough to want her to burn.
And she’d burned.
Magnus was at her side the next moment. He sank to his knees next to her and pulled her against his chest, holding her tight to stop her from trembling.
“It’s all right,” Magnus soothed.
“She was going to kill you.” Her words came in tight bursts.
“And you saved my life. Thank you for that.” He wiped her tears away with his thumbs.
“You don’t hate me for what I’ve done?”
“I could never hate you, Lucia. Ever. You hear me?”
She crushed her face against his chest, taking comfort from her brother’s strength. “What will Father do to me when he learns of this?”
Magnus tensed and she pulled back from him to look up into his face. Her brother’s attention was on the door—now fully open. Standing there was her father.
He was staring at the charred remains of Sabina Mallius. Then his gaze slowly tracked to his children.
“You did this, didn’t you, daughter?” His voice was soft, but never before had it sounded so dangerous.
“No, it was me,” Magnus said, raising his chin higher. “I killed her.”
“Liar. It was Lucia.” The king moved toward them and gripped Lucia’s arm, lurching her up to her feet and away from Magnus. “You killed Sabina, didn’t you? Answer me!”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out for a moment. Her throat was nearly too tight to speak. “I’m so sorry.”
Magnus sprang to his feet. “Sabina was going to kill me.”
“And you saved him with your magic.” The king shook Lucia. “Didn’t you?”
All Lucia could do was nod, her gaze moving to the floor, hot tears streaking down her cheeks.
The king grasped her chin and forced her to look into his face. His grim expression was now mixed with something else.
Victory.
A hawk took flight from its perch on the edge of the balcony as the king said, “I couldn’t be more proud of you than I am right now.”
Ioannes transformed back into his body once he returned to the Sanctuary and opened his eyes, staring up at the constant blue sky that never shifted to night.
“I was right,” he whispered.
He’d watched over the dark-haired princess for years, waiting for a sign. In recent months he’d despaired that he was wrong and had been following a girl who held no magic within her.
But he hadn’t been.