Maya's POV
The fire wasn't just hot anymore. It was alive.
Orange flames crawled up the wooden bars of my cage like hungry fingers. Black smoke filled my lungs with every breath. I coughed so hard my ribs felt like they were breaking.
This was really happening. I was really going to die.
"Please," I whispered, but my voice came out as a croak. "Somebody help me."
Nobody came. The villagers just cheered louder.
I pressed my back against the far side of the cage, trying to get away from the flames. But the cage was too small. There was nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run.
The heat made my skin feel like it was melting. Tears poured down my face, turning to steam before they could fall.
I wanted my mother. Even though she'd been dead for years. Even though she couldn't save me. I just wanted someone to hold me and tell me it would be okay.
But I was alone. Like always.
That's when I heard the screaming.
Not human screaming. Something else. High and desperate and full of terror.
My eyes burned from the smoke, but I forced them open.
Ten feet away, I saw another cage. Smaller than mine. Made of twisted black metal instead of wood.
Inside was a bird.
A falcon with silver feathers that seemed to glow in the firelight. It threw itself against the metal bars over and over, crying out with each impact.
The cage was rolling toward the bonfire. Just like mine.
They were going to burn it too.
"No," I whispered. "Not the bird. Please, not an innocent bird."
"Burn the Storm King's spy!" someone in the crowd shouted.
"Send it back to him in ashes!" another voice yelled.
The falcon's cage rolled closer to the massive bonfire. The bird's cries got more frantic. More desperate.
I watched it slam against the bars again and again, trying to escape. Trying so hard to live.
And something broke inside my chest.
Not my ribs. Something deeper. Something that had been holding me together all these years.
I wasn't going to die watching another innocent creature burn.
I wasn't going to let them win. Not completely.
If this were my last moment alive, I'd make it count.
The strange electricity under my skin, the storm-power everyone called a curse, began to hum. It felt different this time. Stronger. It had been waiting for this exact moment.
"I'm sorry, I was always afraid of you," I whispered to the power inside me. "I'm sorry I tried to hide you. But I need you now. Please. Help me save that bird."
The electricity answered.
It surged through my body like lightning trapped in a bottle. My skin started to glow with soft blue light. Static crackled between my fingers.
I grabbed the wooden bars of my cage with both hands.
"NO!" Elder Silas screamed from somewhere in the crowd. "Don't let her use dark magic!"
I didn't care what he called it. I didn't care if they hated me more.
The storm-power exploded out of my hands.
Blue-white lightning blasted through the wooden bars. They shattered into a thousand pieces. Splinters flew everywhere. The crowd shrieked and jumped back.
I fell through the broken cage onto the hot ground. My legs barely worked. Burns covered my arms. My dress was on fire in three places.
But I crawled forward. Toward the falcon.
"Stop her!" Elder Silas's voice boomed. "She's escaping!"
Heavy footsteps pounded behind me. The guards were coming.
I crawled faster. Every movement sent waves of pain through my body. My hands left bloody prints on the ground.
The falcon saw me coming. It stopped throwing itself against the bars and went completely still. Those storm-gray eyes locked onto mine.
"I'm coming," I gasped. Blood bubbled at the corner of my mouth. "I'm going to save you."
Why? A voice in my head asked. Why save a bird when you're dying?
Because someone should get out of here alive. Because someone should be free. Because if I'm going to die anyway, I want to die doing something good.
I reached the metal cage. The bars were already hot from the nearby fire. They burned my hands when I grabbed them.
But I held on.
"Please," I begged the storm-power inside me. "One more time. Just one more time."
The electricity roared through me. Stronger than before. So strong it hurt.
Lightning exploded from my hands and wrapped around the cage. The metal lock shattered. The door flew open.
"FLY!" I screamed at the falcon. "GO! BE FREE!"
The bird didn't move. It just stared at me.
Hands grabbed me from behind. Strong hands. Burning hot.
"Got her!" a guard shouted.
They dragged me backward. Away from the falcon. Toward the main bonfire.
"No!" I thrashed in their grip. "Let me go! Let me"
They threw me.
I flew through the air and landed hard right next to the massive bonfire. The impact knocked all the air from my lungs. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.
The fire was right there. Inches away. So hot it felt like my face was melting.
This was it. This was really the end.
I turned my head; it hurt so much to move, and I looked one last time at the falcon.
The bird was still sitting in the open cage. Why wasn't it flying away? Why wasn't it escaping?
"Go," I mouthed the word. No sound came out. "Please. Go."
The falcon tilted its head. Then it spread its beautiful silver wings.
And it launched into the sky like a shooting star.
I watched it disappear into the darkness above the firelight. Higher and higher until I couldn't see it anymore.
Good. At least one of us made it.
At least one innocent life was saved.
The flames reached my arm. Pain exploded through me. I screamed.
Everything started to fade. The sounds. The heat. Even the pain.
I was dying. Actually dying. Right now.
I closed my eyes and waited for it to be over.
But then the air changed.
The temperature dropped. Not a little. A lot. Like winter had suddenly arrived in the middle of summer.
The villagers' cheers turned to screams of terror.
What was happening?
I forced my eyes open one more time.
The sky had gone black. Storm clouds swirled overhead in a massive spiral. Lightning flashed inside them, not orange like fire, but blue. Storm-blue.
Thunder boomed so loud the ground shook beneath me.
And then I saw him.
A man was standing in the middle of the air. Actually standing. Like, there was an invisible floor up there.
He was huge. Taller than any man I'd ever seen. His eyes glowed bright blue. And lightning, real lightning, danced around his body like living snakes.
The Storm King.
He looked down at the village with cold fury on his face. When his gaze swept over the crowd, people fell to their knees in terror.
Then his eyes found me.
Lying in the fire. Dying.
His expression changed. The fury melted into something else. Something I couldn't understand.
"Who dares," his voice boomed like thunder, making everyone cover their ears, "harm the one who saved my daughter?"
Daughter? The falcon was his
Before I could finish that thought, he moved.
One second, he was floating in the sky. The next second, he was kneeling beside me in the middle of the flames.
The fire didn't touch him. It couldn't. It moved around him like he was made of water.
Up close, he was even more terrifying. Power radiated from him in waves that made my teeth hurt.
But his eyes, those glowing storm-blue eyes, weren't angry anymore.
They were sad.
"You saved my child," he said softly. "You chose to rescue my daughter even as you died. Why?"
"Because," I coughed up blood, "someone should get to live. Someone should be free."
He stared at me for a long moment.
Then he smiled. Not a kind smile. A dangerous one.
"You have a warrior's heart, little one. And warriors deserve a warrior's death." He touched my forehead with one finger. "Or a warrior's rebirth."
"What?" I whispered.
"I can end your pain. Let you die peacefully. You'll feel nothing."
That sounded nice.
"Or," his eyes blazed brighter, "I can give you power. Give you strength. Give you a new life. But the transformation will hurt. And when you wake up, you'll belong to me. You'll be my weapon. My queen. My mate."
Mate? What did that
"CHOOSE," he commanded. "Death or rebirth. Peace or power."
The flames were getting closer. My vision was fading. I had seconds to decide.
And I thought about Elder Silas. About the guards. About every person who'd called me cursed and wrong and a monster.
"Make me strong," I gasped. "Strong enough to make them pay."
The Storm King's smile grew wider. "As you wish."
He placed both hands on my chest.
Lightning exploded through my body.
Not burning. Transforming.
I screamed as my bones broke and reformed. As my skin split and healed. As everything I was died and something new was born.
"You are mine now," the Storm King's voice echoed in my skull. "Mine to command. Mine to protect. Mine to keep."
The pain intensified. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
"Sleep, little weapon," he whispered. "When you wake, you'll be reborn."
Darkness swallowed me whole.
But just before I passed out completely, I felt it.
Something wrapping around my soul. Something powerful and ancient and unbreakable.
A bond.
A chain made of lightning and magic.
Connecting me to him.
Forever.