It was like the world stopped turning. I felt utterly frozen, unable to do anything but stare.

Cohen was yelling, "Stop! Stop! Please! Please, stop!" He lunged towards Nadia, but Caine's guards converged, holding him back by the arms.

Kai swiveled on his heels, the movement so abrupt that that I didn't entirely track it. Caine moved too, turning me towards Kai, a reminder of what would happen if he dared pull the trigger.

Caine's own gun dug into my head with enough force to bruise. I tried to twist away from him, trying to get to my friend, to Cohen or Kai, to someone who could help, but Caine's grip on me only tightened.

I felt Caine's attention shift to Nadia, heard him inhale, begin to speak—begin to give another order that would likely end with more blood.

The blast of a gun shook the entire room, echoing off the high ceilings and making me shrink back from Caine. It cut off his words, drowned out Cohen's yelling and Nadia's cries of pain.

Blood rushes in my ears, my chest tightened, and bile burned at my throat. For a split second, I thought Caine had shot me. I closed my eyes tight, my breath coming in sharp inhales and exhales as I tried to register what had happened. Had he truly done it?

But no pain ever came. By the time I realized that it was Kai's gun that had fired, the guard holding Nadia was already falling. He toppled to the ground behind her, his body flopping like fish as blood spirted from a hole in his forehead. It pooled in a wide circle around his head, growing steadily even after the man had gone still.

Kai crossed the room his arms moving around Nadia's waist just as her knees gave out. He kept her standing, one arm wrapped around her upper body, her good hand tangling in the front of his shirt. In an instant, Kai had his gun back on Caine.

Every gun in the room was still pointed at Kai, but none dared shoot.

Crimson blossomed from Nadia's right shoulder and her upper arm. The fabric of her shirt was torn, the tatters of it concealing the majority of the grisly details. But it was bad, that much I could tell by the gray pallor of her usually warm brown skin. Blood ran in rivulets down her bicep and forearm, twining like ribbon through her fingers. The sound of it dripping onto the floor seemed to echo in the deadly silence that followed the echo of the gunshot.

Her eyes were wide with fear and shock as she clung to Kai. He said something to her, words too quiet for me to hear, and she nodded. She whispered something back. Kai shifted her slightly, moving so he stood between her and a majority of the guns.

"Who would you have as queen, prince?" Caine said, his attention still on Cohen. My friend struggled against the guards holding him, his attention kicked on Nadia. When Cohen did respond right away, Caine said, "If you would have the healer, you should choose quickly. She only has so much blood in her body, after all."

Where is Jaxon?

Kai tried press a hand to Nadia's wounds, a sorry attempt to stifle the bleeding, but she whimpered at the pain of his touch and angled further away from him. He pursed his lips and I could see the apology written all over his face. Could see as he whispered the words to her.

"I caught the healer first, you know." Caine said, drowning my attention back to him. "I thought it would draw in our dear, sweet Monroe." His lips pressed into the flesh of my neck, his breath hot as he said, "Always one to put others before herself. It's charmingly predictable. What I didn't expect, was for the exiled prince of Erydia to come after her too. Perhaps I should have. Maybe it's the will of your damnable goddess that the two Warwick boys would be hell bent on fuc—"

"Enough," Kai cut him off. "Let Monroe go. Let her go and let us leave."

"No, I don't think I will."

"You've lost. Go with some level of grace, Uncle."

"Have I lost? I suppose that depends on who you ask." He smiled, his lips dancing along the skin of my neck. I flinched away from him as he nipped at my ear. "I don't feel like I've lost," he muttered as he used the barrel of the gun to drag fabric of my skirt, pulling it further up my legs. I tried to kick him in the shin, tried to get my arms free, but he only shifted me in his grip.

Kai's voice was sharp, a warning or a plea. "Monroe—"

Caine cut Kai off. "You're just like her—Caterine." He spat her name like a curse. "You're just like both of them. Stupidly sentimental. You let your heart lead in every damn decision. Which girl will you go for? Which person will you save? Who will you shoot? You follow your heart this way and that." He lifted the gun, letting it travel down the column of my neck and settle between my collar bones. "Letting it make decisions."

I closed my eyes, my fear spiking as a note of calm entered Caine's voice. The gun drifted lower still, tracing a line between my breasts. Over my stomach. He pressed a kiss to my cheek, his breath tickling my eyelashes.

"Please," I hated the word as if left my mouth. Hated that I felt compelled to beg. Hated the acidic tang of fear that coated the inside of my mouth and churned in my blood. It made my hands sweat. Made my heart speed. Made me again whisper, "Please."

"Caine," Cohen said, his voice low with warning.

"And like both Caterine and Anna, you will lose. You will always lose," Caine said, his mouth a wet rasp against my skin. "That's the thing about following your heart, it is so easily broken."

Kai yelled something—a warning or a plea, but it was lost to the sound of the gun going off. The suddenness of it had my body jerking backwards. I knew...I knew I was hurt.

I saw it in Kai's expression. In the scream that I never heard. I don't know if it was the blood rushing in my ears or my own screaming that drowned out him yelling for me, but I saw my name of his lips, saw him lunge for me.

For a second, there was nothing, only a searing heat in my middle... then the world snapped back into focus. Into vivid clarity and I was there, still being held up by Cain, his gun, the barrel of it wet with my blood, was still aimed at me.

And the pain.

It hit me like a train in the dead of night.

I was numb, and then I was on fire. Burning. Blinding pain. I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or closed. I couldn't breathe. A sharp, high-pitched sound echoed through the ballroom, muffling the cries of fear and shock coming from my friends.

They were screaming—I could hear it now.

I was screaming. The noise, that terrible, broken sound...it was coming from me.

Then I was falling, my knees colliding with the ground, the pain of that forgotten as I pressed hand to my torso. The top of my dress was wet, the fabric sticking to my skin. Blood. So much blood. Too much blood. Blood pulsed between my fingers, coating the tiles and making them slippery beneath me.

I was still staring, watching the puddle of crimson fan out from me, when I was shoved sideways. The realization that I should catch myself came too late and my head hit tile with a sound that seemed too loud in the suddenly quiet room. My stomach was on fire, my entire body alight with it.

But there was no fire in my veins. No voices in my head. No goddess to save me.

Caine told me to shut up. I heard him, but I couldn't catch my breath, couldn't slow my breathing, couldn't drown out the sudden panic. He yelled at me again. And again.

Seconds passed, or years. I don't know.

I was still screaming, that awful sound ripping from my throat as Caine fired his gun a second time. I jerked forward with the force of it, unable to control the way my body spasmed. This time, the bullet entered in through my side and exited—lodging in the tile a few yards away.

People were yelling, Kai was begging. But I was no longer a person. I was merely sensation. Only pain. I didn't scream anymore.

"That's one of you dead." Caine spoke from above me. "Who will go next?"

There was a shuffle of boots coming from the guards in the peripheral of my vision—vision that was flickering like candle—but no one approached me. I must have been hovering, propped on my knees, craddling my middle, because seconds later, Caine kicked me in the spine. The force it enough to send me sprawling to the floor. I didn't have the strength to move. To even make a sound.

Goddess, it hurt.

My vision was splotches of black and white and crimson.

I felt the tricking warmth of Nadia's healing as she tried to help me—but I wasn't sure what she could do. There was so much blood. The warmth of her ability remained steady, a presence I leaned into. I had no one else to hold me and I let that subtle warmth remind me that I wasn't alone. My friends were here.

I gasped, a sharp intake of wet breath, as a boot pressed to my skull. A whimper forced its way from between my lips and Caine chuckled. "Not dead...yet. Maybe there's still time to save her. What are you willing to give, Kaius?"

I reached deep within myself, gathered every last ember. I begged. I pleaded. I prayed. My ability pressed against my skin, a heat that pulse in tandem with the pain in my torso.

I found three words.

"Go to hell."

"I beg your pardon?" Caine crooned.

Each word was pure agony, but I was determined. "Go. To. Hell."

He laughed, the pressure on my head unrelenting. "Still very much alive."

Not alone, the fire in my blood seemed to sing. Not alone.

"Let me go to her." Kai's voice was soft, pleading. "Please, Uncle—Please...Please just stop this."

In the moments after I'd been shot, the guards must have released Cohen, because I watched his boots as he inched his way across to where Nadia and Kai stood. I silently urged him forward, I silently begged him to stop.

As if sensing the prince were up to something, Caine reached down and caught hold of the back of my shirt. I was hauled onto my knees in front of him, his gun once again finding purchase with my skull. A sound ripped from me, broken and aching. Blood was a warm weight around my middle.

Caine used the gun to pull a few piece of my hair from my face. I watched the gun tremble in his hand, not realizing that the shaking wasn't coming from him, it was coming from me. I was trembling.

Caine glanced to Kai. "Monroe or your brother?"

Kai's voice trembled as he said, "Let—Caine...Caine please leave her alone. Leave them all alone."

"The girl you love or your brother, which is it? Choose wisely. She's likely to die anyway—two gunshots." He tsked and looked to Cohen, who was still moving towards Nadia. "Take another step, prince, and I'll make it three. Maybe I'll aim for her head next."

The pain in my stomach was more than I could bare. I blinked rapidly, fighting for consciousness as Caine traced my jaw with the tip of his gun. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks and I rallied against my own fear, hating myself for crying in front of this man. But goddess, everything ached. It was...It was breath stealing.

I wanted it to end. I wanted it to end so badly that I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from begging him to end it. Please, goddess. Please make it stop.

I didn't see if Cohen took another step or not, but I felt the gun shot, this one to my outer thigh. My body jerked and a scream clawed it's way up my raw throat. I twisted in Caine's grip, trying to get away from him. His grip only tightened.

Nadia and Kai were both yelling now. I was begging. My own words breathless from pain, easily over powered by everyone else's screams.

"Stop!" She was saying. "Cohen, don't move another inch!"

"Stop!" Kai was yelling. "Stop, now! Everyone! Everyone stop! Stop now!"

Nadia staggered back from Kai and turned, her eyes going wide with horror as he swiveled his gun towards Cohen. "Kai—?"

"Don't move." His hands shook around the gun, his attention flicking first to Nadia and then to Caine. When he looked back at Cohen, his voice was soft, pleading. "Stop. Please, please everyone stop moving. Now. He's...He's killing her." His eyes were wild. "Please."

"Shoot him," Caine ordered. "Shoot the prince and maybe I'll let you hold her while she dies."

"No." Nadia's hand was pressed to her shoulder, stifling the blood as she said to Kai, "I'll end you. I'll end you right here and now if you so much as try."

She swallowed and turned back to me. It wasn't until her attention was on me again that I felt her healing power. I hadn't even noticed it's absence and barely registered it now.

I wanted to tell her not to bother.

There was this odd peace, like a shroud cloaking me from everything else happening.,And I knew. I just knew that it was the end. I'd almost died a lot of times, but none of them had ever come with this level of preparedness.

I was tired.

And my brothers were there. If there was an after to this world, then my brothers would be there waiting for me. My mother might be there too. And my father. Uri. Eventually, whether in seconds or in years, Kai would join me. They all would.

But at least this bone-crushing agony would be gone.

Consciousness flickered in and out.

"Would you leave her to die alone?" Caine asked.

I forced my eyes open. Kai stood a few yards away from me, his gun still pointed at Cohen, his attention wholly on me. His hands shook.

Caine's voice was soft, almost gentle. "What is she worth to you?"

Kai's voice was soft as he whispered, "She's everything."

A smile laced his voice. "She's going to die like she's nothing." Caine sighed. "One bullet in the prince and I'll let you hold her until she dies. A true trade."

"You will not shoot him," Nadia said, every ounce a queen.

Caine pressed his gun to my head once more and this time...this time I knew he was serious. "It's him or her."

"Please..." Nadia's voice broke. "Please, Kai."

"Choose."

Kai's eyes closed briefly and when he looked at his brother again, there was a shadow of resolve on his face.  "I'm so sorry, Cohen."

"You will not touch him!"

Power surged from Nadia like a tidal wave—violent and frightening. Pain exploded behind my eyes and I screamed as the healing she'd been doing just moment ago turned into something awful. The intensity of whatever she was doing outweighing any pain the gunshot had caused. And I'd thought I'd known agony before.

That...That was nothing.

It felt like I was being carved into shreds from the inside out. Like every inch of me was being torn open. Every cut, every bruise, every incision, every scrape—reformed. And the bullet holes. Goddess, above.

Around me, the screams of others echoed through the ballroom. The lacerating pain, like my entire body was being wrung out and set alight, remained for only a few seconds and then it was gone, disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

Opening my eyes was an effort, but when I did, I saw the look of shock on Nadia's face. She clutched her wounded arm, blood still threading between her fingers as she took in the guards around us. The ballroom was a mess of bodies, everyone in differing states of standing, kneeling, crouching. Some even lay prone on the floor. Some were dead. Blood dripped from noses, from eyes, from ears.

Across the room from me, Kai was on his knees. His gun was abandoned on the floor in front of him, his body bent overtop of it. One hand was pressed to his upper chest, almost his shoulder. He was looking at Nadia, his brow furrowed, his golden eyes alight with surprise as he noted her shocked expression.

Slowly, like awakening from a dream, the entire room seemed to regain full consciousness at once. People scrambled to their feet. Behind me, Caine huffed out a pained breath, as if he too had been struck by whatever it was Nadia had just unleashed. But whatever stupor or pain-filled consciousness she had caused was gone now, I knew it as soon as fingers dug into my hair. I hissed through my teeth and I was yanked upward.

I tried to help lift myself, sure Caine would rip my scalp from my head if I didn't support some of own my weight, but my fingers slipped against the blood pooled around me. I struggled to keep my eyes open, my lids like iron shutters. Strange. I felt so strange. Like I was in my body and also out of my body. My ability was no where.

I was only pain, only fear.

I could feel my heartbeat in my stomach and in my upper thigh, as if each bullet wound was it's own pulse. Dying. I'm dying.

But I wasn't ready. My earlier peace towards death was gone and now I stood facing it in the arena of my mind. And I hadn't lived at all. I hadn't seen anything, done anything. I wanted a future. Tomorrow would probably be hell, the pain was hell, but I wanted to live to see it.

I wanted a million tomorrows.

Take them.

That dark chorus of voices seem to sing. Soft. So so soft. Whether the goddess or every goddess-touched girl before me, I wasn't sure. But they all seemed to speak as one, the words growing louder until it was all I could hear. 

Take them all.
Take it all.
The world is yours to burn.

As Caine pulled me back to him, his gun still dancing along my skin, I rallied, reaching deep within myself. Stoking a long forgotten forge. No. It wasn't over. I am not over. I have only just begun, I wanted to scream.

We have only just begun. The voices sang back to me.

Beyond the ballroom, people were yelling. I heard a noise from behind me. The crack of ice. Of a frozen pond. A fissure. Like a wall of glass doors breaking. And I didn't know what had taken the rebels so damn long to show up, and I didn't truly care.

The pain coursing through me was so sharp, like a blade against my skin. I leaned into it. Allowed it to awaken me. Bring me closer to consciousness. I fought for focus.

A chorus of voices echoed from within me, as if they'd only just woken from their own stupor.

Burn.

Take the throne.

Rule.

They are nothing to you.

Kill.

Kill.

Kill.

Kill them all.

Take what is yours.

Turn them to ash.

Each voice overlayed the other, until it was a cacophony of sound. I could barely think through it. And while it was frightening, to feel so out of control of my mind, there was a sweetness to it. Like this was what my soul needed. A melody that was meant only for me and I knew it.

A thread of thought broke through the den. There was talking around me, but I was able to focus on it and the voices in my head. Truly, I wasn't able to focus on much more than inhaling and exhaling.

But then came the spark. I felt it in my gut, a slow burn of power. Like I was an empty vessel being slowly, carefully refilled. Heat enveloped my veins, pressed against my skin, seared away the fog of my thoughts and made one thing incredibly clear—

I was going to kill Caine.

Deep in my consciousness, there was a tug, like my ability was still holding fast to some unseen pinprick of light. A thread of fire. I followed it, letting my ability push me inward, let it remind me what I was here to do.

Burn.

I was always meant to burn.

I hit the end of the thread and sighed. It was like cool water, like waking from a good nights sleep. My very soul seemed to smile as I settled into heat, warmth. Fire. It wasn't the power I remembered from the arena, but I'd never burned with my full power before.

There you are. I found you. I remember.

I would burn with it today.

Kai was on his knees across from me, his hand still pressed to his chest. He'd grabbed his gun from the floor and was pointing it at Caine again. Cohen was still in his shackles, but in the chaos of whatever Nadia had done, he'd managed to steal a gun and make it across the room to where she stood. Now, he too stood facing Caine, a weapon trained on him.

I turned sharply, digging deep into my ability, preparing to strike, when something caught my attention. Blood. The stain of blood on Kai's on shirt, just over his heart. It was growing larger. And he...he swayed slightly, bracing a hand on the floor to steady himself.

There was a lot about Nadia's morphing ability that I didn't understand. I was fairly certain that she didn't understand it either. I could remember enough of my childhood to know that my ability had began that way. But judging by the look in my friends eyes, the tightness in her jaw, I had a feeling that she'd been aiming all of that untrained rage at only one person.

Everyone else was collateral. Even Caine, who deserved death far more than anyone else in this room.

Kai's hand slipped around the gun and he almost dropped it. The power rising in my blood, in my veins, hesitated.

"Nadia?" My voice came out as a hoarse whisper. "Nadia, whatever you're doing—you have to stop. Please. Please stop. For me."

The stain on blood Kai's shirt continued to grow.

She didn't look at me, her attention was on Kai and I knew she was still out of control. Her healing ability bounced back and forth, whipping my insides over and over again with an unsteady thrum of pain and healing.

My ability was in a frenzy, pushing against my skin as I fought for control. The voices turned sour.

Only one.

Kill her.

She wants our throne.

End her.

Wicked girl.

Killing our king.

Stop her.

Spill her blood.

The crown is Ours.

I blocked out the noise. The sound of cracking glass. The rallying cry of soldiers. The vision of Caine's men turning, the guns swiveling towards the doors to the garden. My focus turned needle-sharp. Kai, Nadia, Cohen.

I marked their locations. Imagining that they were straw clutched in Kai's hand. I would have one chance at this. And they were as fragile as sticks in a burning house.

Caine's hand moved, his gun moving in an arc towards my temple. One last bullet to finish the job. Kai pushed to his feet, his had still pressed to his chest, his mouth opened in a scream I would never hear.

By the time the first rebel soldier's boot crunch on broken glass or Caine's gun fired its shot, I was already ablaze.

🔥🔥🔥

Hello! Longer chapter today! I usually try to skim for larger typos and didn't have the chance today so it is what it is 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Fun fact, if you follow me on Instagram then you will have already seen a cover for Of Cages and Crowns, but it isn't THE cover for OC&C. That cover will be announced in the next week or so. You should totally go follow me over on the gram to see what books I'm reading, what books I'm writing, how cute my cats are, hear all the TCC news first, and just generally be the coolest people on the Internet. I will also be doing an Instagram live even next weekend with Loridee De Villa, author of How to Be the Best Third Wheel. We will be talking writing, editing, publishing, and just general life stuff. You should come hang out with us!

If you enjoyed this chapter leave this emoji 🌈 in the comments and ALSO go comment on my most recent Instagram post with the same emoji (briannajoyc). You gotta complete both parts of the mission for it to count. 👀 I'm paying attention.