The fire pushed them toward that inescapable edge where flesh and bone turned into a rain of blood and brain.

A single decision and they imploded.

Marcus stumbled back a step. “I-Impossible.”

Rook yelled something.

My eyes locked on the trees where Whisper had vanished and...the fire just kept burning.

The crater I’d caused widened as molten fissures cracked through the mountain.

Pure anarchy tore free as Marcus went to run.

It caught him in an updraft.

Held him aloft as his skin charred to a crisp, his bones shattered one by one, and his heart—that twisted, rotten heart—flew from his chest and sizzled into nothing.

The fire took all my fantasies of torturing him and made it a reality.

His dismembered corpse smashed against the ground.

Rook gagged and another wash her ice tried to stop me.

This time, I reached for her.

I wanted her to cool me.

I’d done what I needed.

These men were dead—

I jerked as the power that’d lifted Marcus into the air lifted me. The smoke behind me erupted into thicker, larger wings, wrapping me in thermals and making me weightless.

Rook cried out as I grabbed her.

The higher we rose, the lighter my body became. My skin thinned, revealing glowing bones. Light poured through the cracks in my flesh. Flames spiralled higher, causing a hurricane of cinders.

“Lucien!” Rook clung to me. “Stop. You have to stop!”

I tried.

Fuck, I tried.

But I was no longer in control.

Below us, the world cracked open. The forest ignited in a roaring wave.

We kept rising, lifted by pure power.

The entire mountain range began to glow.

Heat rolled outward in catastrophic waves, feeding on darkness and death. In the far distance, a dormant peak cracked open with a thunderous roar.

A volcano erupted.

Fire met fire.

And I was no longer whoever I’d been.

I was...free.

The sky glowed a violent red. Clouds burned. Fire rained. Lightning bolts cracked the heavens. And birds took flight with smoking feathers.

And in the midst of such chaos...I felt what I did when I set Uncle Wen’s bonsai alight.

I felt the world breathing. Trees growing. Wind blowing. Every little thing and every tiny heartbeat fell into the palm of my hand.

With a single squeeze, I could slaughter everything.

With a single thought, oceans would boil and continents would fracture.

I gagged on such power.

I choked on such anarchy.

I tried to pull back.

To take control—

The fire swallowed me.

The earth quaked, spewing magma into the sky. Mountains that were never volcanoes turned into lava funnels, making the entire valley come alive with ancient candles.

On and on, it roared.

Scraping me dry, killing me.

The peak where we’d stood suddenly folded in on itself. Brimstone board members were swallowed whole. The bodies of those I’d failed to free sank back into the cave’s belly as it belched with sulphur.

The dead panther slipped down a ravine and vanished into a pool of red-hot liquid.

My eyes burned as I looked toward the horizon where Whisper had fled.

My heart fucking ached.

I hoped he was okay.

That my death wouldn’t take him with me.

I screamed again as the power kept building, building, stealing my final heartbeats, pushing me closer and closer toward the end.

Rook grabbed my face as we hovered in the sky, completely at the mercy of feral power.

“Lucien!” Her snowy hands blistered my cheeks. “You’re killing yourself! Stop it!”

Hot wind tore at her hair, whipping the ice-white dress she wore into ribbons.

My body began to break.

My skin tore open, not just fissuring but tearing like rice paper. Glimmers of bone. Drippings of blood. But I didn’t feel pain. I no longer had the capacity.

I just felt lost and alone and sad. Bone-breakingly sad that I couldn’t say goodbye to Whisper and soon, I would have to say goodbye to her.

“Lucien, please.” She kissed my cheek. “I love you. Please don’t do this. We’ll figure out a way, alright? There has to be a way to stop this.”

My tattered, bleeding arm wrapped tight around her.

I no longer had the ability of speech. I forced the words into her mind.

I can’t stop. I want to stop. But I can’t.

Her eyes widened in horror.

She pressed her forehead to mine; a blast of snow and sleet flooded me.

It flooded me and flowed out of me because my body was no longer solid.

It was fading...vanishing...dissolving piece by piece.

She sobbed as we hovered above the Gaoligong mountains and the entire valley caught fire. Leylines and geothermal pockets exploded with steam. Everything shattered. Everything smouldered. Rivers of molten rock poured down the slopes, creating a landslide through the trees. The air turned alive with fireflies as burning leaves danced and birds turned into flaming arrows.

I felt their little hearts give out.

I felt their pain—

I gagged as each death only added to my strength. I fed off their energy just like I’d fed off the sun.

I couldn’t help it.

It felt unbelievably good.

My head tipped back as I thrummed with new energy—energy given to me with every life that died in the fire. They became mine to wield—to crush or keep, use or discard.

Agony crushed me. Guilt crippled me.

So much death. So much agony—

But the fire kept rising, rising—pushing me toward that fatal edge.

Rook wrapped herself around me, her body pressing tight despite the inferno I’d become.

“It’s fine,” she murmured. “Everything is fine. You’ll see. The moment you stop burning, everything will be okay.”

I love you. I’m so sorry.

She kissed me hard. On lips that were nothing more than smoke. “Damn you, Luxin.” She said my name how it was supposed to be pronounced. Furnace Heart. Exactly what I’d become.

“Oh well...it doesn’t matter.” She pulled back and smiled with heartbreak. “I didn’t want to tell you this. I didn’t want to hurt you anymore than you already are, but...if you burn up tonight? If you die...I’m going to die with you.”

“What?” A croak escaped my cinder-filled throat. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I came to find you because the moment you left, you broke the only thing keeping us from doing exactly what you’re doing now.” She shrugged, sniffing back her tears. “Without you close—without your fire to warm me—I’m going to freeze to death the moment you burn out.”

“But. Y-You can’t.” My eyes filled with heat, even as they threatened to go blind. “I won’t let you die. Remember?”

“It looks like you don’t get to make that choice anymore.” Cupping my cheek, she sniffed sadly. “I love you and I forgive you. But I hate that you’re leaving me. I hate that we had such a short time together. I hate everything about this but...I’ve lived long enough without you. So I’m grateful that I won’t have to do that again. I’m glad that I won’t have to be in pain anymore.”

“But you can’t.” I coughed up a mouthful of ash as my body collapsed in on itself. “You have to stay.”

“Even if I had that ability...I wouldn’t want to. Not without you.” She gave me the softest smile. “When you take your last breath...I’ll let the cold take me. Wherever you end up. No matter where you go...I’ll come find you, okay? I’ll never stop chasing after you.”

Images of her feeling this level of deletion.

Suffering this level of loss.

It cut through the fire’s hold.

ENOUGH!

The thermals guttered.

We fell.

I coughed as my heart faltered.

I gagged as my lungs ruptured.

The earth and all its dying creatures sang to me as we plummeted.

The rivers whispered goodbye.

The heavens said good riddance.