I’M SO CLOSE.
This one thought consumes me as I stalk toward the girl. Trapped in the net, she’s defenseless. No staff. No magic.
With this one kill, I’ll fulfill my duty. Protect all of Orïsha from her madness. Every sin committed in this hunt disappears. The only living being who knows of my curse goes with them.
“Huh!” I pin down her arms with my knees, pressing harder when she fights. I raise my sword and push down on her sternum with one hand, angling to drive the blade through her heart.
But the moment my hand touches her chest, my magic roars through my skin. A force that can’t be stopped. Stronger than any magic I’ve felt.
“Ugh!” I wheeze. The world disappears in a burning blue cloud. Though I fight, I can’t get out.
My curse holds me down.
Red skies.
Shrill screams.
Running blood.
In one moment, the girl’s whole world flashes before my eyes. Her heartbreak rips through my own chest.
Rawer than I knew pain could be.
Cold rock hits my bare feet as she climbs the snow-capped mountains of Ibadan. The warm smell of jollof rice wraps around me. My heart stops when the guards kick down the wooden door of their home. Orïsha’s guards.
My guards.
The very sight of them suffocates me. Like a gorillion squeezing my throat.
A thousand instances flash before me, a thousand crimes bearing the seal of Orïsha.
The snow leopanaire shines as the guard’s ironclad fist collides with her father’s jaw.
It gleams when the blood-covered chain wraps around her mother’s neck.
I see it all. The world Father created.
The pain she’s forced to live in.
“Mama!”
Zélie screams. A cry so mangled it doesn’t even sound human.
Tzain covers her in the corner of their hut, a desperate attempt to hide her from the world’s pain.
It all speeds past. A blur, yet an endless stretch of time.
Thrashing as she runs after her mother.
Freezing when she gets to the tree—
Skies.
The horror sears into my brain. Maji bound by majacite chains. Ornaments of death.
Hanging for the whole world to see.
It’s a wound that reverberates through my core. A decree to any divîner who lived through that night.
In Father’s Orïsha, this was the only end maji could meet.
It takes everything in me to fight Zélie’s memories back. Her sorrow drags me down like a vengeful current.
With a lurch, I snap back to reality.
My sword hangs above her chest.
Curse the skies.
My hand shakes. The moment to kill still hangs between us. Yet I can’t bring myself to move.
Not when all I see is the scared and broken girl.
It’s like seeing her for the first time: the human behind the maji. Fear embedded in the pain. Tragedy caused in Father’s name.
Father …
The truth sears, a bitter liquor burning down my throat.
Zélie’s memories don’t hold the villains Father always warned of. Only families he tore apart.
Duty before self. His creed rings through my ears.
My father.
Her king.
The harbinger of all this suffering.
With a cry, I strike down. Zélie flinches at my speed.
The cords binding her fall into the dirt.
Her eyes snap open and she scrambles back, waiting for my attack. But it doesn’t come.
I can’t be another person bearing the seal of Orïsha who causes her pain.
Zélie’s mouth falls open. Questions and confusion hang on the curve of her lips. But then her head snaps to the masked figure in the dirt. Her eyes go wide with the realization.
“Tzain!”
She rushes to her feet, nearly tripping in the process. Her brother’s name echoes through the darkness.
When nothing answers her, she falls to the earth. Against my will, I sink with her.
I finally know the truth.
Yet I don’t know what in skies’ name I’m supposed to do.