Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

“What’s the cure?” I fold my arms across my chest. “For the serum?” He scoffs. “The antidote.” “You know what I fucking mean.” Shadows scurry in from the edges of the walls in his cell. “Tell me what the cure is, and I won’t send for the Rybestad Chest that will hold you in the air until you mummify.” He stands slowly, cracking his neck before he moves to the center of the room, where the chair they’d tortured Violet in had been bolted. “Cures are for diseases. What we have is power, and that, dear Riorson, isn’t curable. It’s enviable.” “Bullshit. There’s a way to get rid of this,” I seethe. His smile grows even wider. “Oh no. There’s no cure. You can never give back what’s taken—you’ll only hunger for more.” “I’d rather die than become one of you.” Fear flavors the words because I feel it, the power beneath the college, the craving to sate the need for it. “And yet, you just did.” Jack laughs, and the sound curdles my blood. “All this time, you’ve been convincing everyone you’re the hero, and now you’ll be the villain…especially in her story. Welcome to our fucked-up family. Guess we’re brothers now.”