Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

“It’s the only way,” Mom yells, and I turn my head as my muscles knit and my skin cools. “You can’t imbue something this big in an instant. Not without hundreds of riders, which we don’t have. If you want to save your friends, you’ll do this!” she shouts at Sloane, her fingers wrapped around the first-year’s wrist as she drags her to the wardstone. “Mom?” I croak, but she doesn’t answer. “You’re a Mairi,” Mom says to Sloane. “Yes.” Her bright blue eyes meet mine, wide with uncertainty. “I killed your mother.” Mom taps on her chest. “Mom!” I shout. Brennan collapses next to me, pale and sweating, and I haul myself to my knees. “I tracked her down and hauled her to her own execution, remember?” Mom says to Sloane, pushing her against the stone. “You were there. I made you watch. You and your brother.” “Liam,” Sloane whispers. Mom nods, picking up Sloane’s left hand and putting it on the lowest circle of the massive rune carved into the stone. “I could have stopped his death, too, if I’d just paid a little more attention last year to what my own aide was doing.” “No!” I shout, lunging forward. Aaric runs in from the side of the ward chamber, not only catching me but stopping me. “Let me go!” “I can’t,” he says apologetically. “She’s right. And if I have to choose between her life and yours, I choose yours.” My life or…hers? “Andarna!” I scream. “I’m so sorry. I choose your life, too. You are mine. I can’t let you die.” Andarna shifts around my side, moving forward so she’s po...