Sky Breaker (Night Spinner Duology), Addie Thorley [100 books to read in a lifetime txt] 📗

realm itself. The mountain shudders as the stones hit the blue and white tiles.

Finally the Lady of the Sky turns, peering at us through the falling rocks and collapsing walls of satin, and I gasp even louder. An overwhelming ache skewers me like a saber through the heart.

I’ve never had any reason to wonder or imagine what the Lady of the Sky would look like. Even if I had, never in my wildest dreams would I have expected to see the face of my mother staring back at me. The Lady of the Sky is her perfect likeness, down to her bowstring lips, always colored with rose paint, and soft auburn curls. She even has my mother’s eyes—kind but fierce, gazing at me with pride.

“M-Mother?” I stammer.

As soon as I say her name, the Lady’s face changes, morphing into the likeness of Shoshanna, the Ice Herald who mentored me when I first joined the Kalima. She perished during the siege of Verdenet, and I cried silently in my bedroll every night for an entire year after. Yet here she is, her warm eyes smiling, her lips quirked into their signature smirk.

“I don’t understand.” Tears soak my cheeks, but I’m unable to remove my hand from the blade at Serik’s throat to wipe them away. “What do you see?” I ask him.

He answers with a warbling grunt followed by a stream of whispered pleas, “Get up. Wake up.”

Enebish rises from the ground and slowly looks from the Lady of the Sky to me, her expression full of wonder and awe, hurt and outrage. And then I’m crying even harder because I finally understand. She sees me in the face of the goddess. The Lady has cared for all of us. She resides in all of us. She is every incarnation of a mother.

I don’t know what Kartok sees, but whoever or whatever it is, the visage doesn’t deter him. He raises his sword and charges toward the Lady and Father, bellowing a Zemyan war cry.

Enebish starts after him, her injured leg moving faster than I thought possible.

The Lady and Father stand tall and unflinching on their balcony, watching the sorcerer come. Unlike the Lady of the Sky, Father Guzan’s face isn’t one I know, but his arching brows and peach-blossom cheeks invoke a familiar feeling—memories of places I’ve felt happy and safe and loved: running through the sprawling vineyards on my parents’ estate; sitting astride Tabana while her hooves churn up the grasslands; kneeling in the throne room at the Sky Palace, surrounded by my warriors.

Kartok is just steps away from the First Gods when Enebish catches the back of his robe in her good hand. The fabric pulls taut, collaring Kartok like a leashed dog. He coughs and his arms flail, grappling for balance. Enebish pounces again, diving into his waist and tackling the sorcerer to the ground. Then they’re rolling, snatching, struggling, the blade slashing between them, hungry for blood.

Bile rises up my throat. My ears ring with screams. With every swing, Kartok comes closer to flaying Enebish open.

“We have to do something!” Serik’s skin flares hotter than ever, and I pull away with a curse.

I gape at my hands. My fingers actually moved. Not much, but enough to bring the knife a hairsbreadth from Serik’s throat. Thanks to his skirmish with Enebish, Kartok doesn’t immediately refill my mind with ice.

“Burn me,” I say urgently to Serik. “Raise your hands to my knife, cut the ropes, and burn me with the full strength of your power.”

Serik is so perplexed, he outright laughs. “Why in the skies would I do that?”

“It will weaken my bond with Kartok! We’re connected through Loridium and through my siphoned power. If we break that link, I might be able to resist him enough to set you free.”

Serik says nothing. I can’t see his face, since I’m standing behind him, but I can feel him rolling his eyes.

“Neither of us can help Enebish if I’m holding you hostage,” I hiss in his ear. “I don’t know why you’re hesitating. We both know you’ve dreamed of setting me aflame long before you ever had a Kalima power.”

“I’m hesitating because I know this is a trick,” Serik says. “Some sly way to get the upper hand. You’ll probably charge up there and assist the Zemyan.”

Enebish cries out as Kartok’s sword skims her cheek. Another scar to add to the others. The sight of her cherry-red blood detonates a cannon in my chest. An explosion of fear and outrage.

“Do you honestly think I’d do that?” I try to snap, but my throat is too raw, too tight. “I know I’ve wronged you both. I know I’ve committed unpardonable sins, but I swear on my Kalima power, on the lives of my parents, on every morsel of pride I have left, that I’m on your side.” I take a deep breath and force myself to continue. “I’m sorry, Serik. I was awful to everyone, but especially to you. And I’m not asking you to forgive me; I know you never will. I’m simply asking you to give me the chance to make recompense where I can. Let me help you—and the girl we both love.”

The apology feels like a knife lancing a festering wound to let the infection drain out. A necessary, if painful, release.

After a prolonged moment Serik says, “My heat will kill you.”

“Your power isn’t that strong,” I say with a rueful smile. Even though part of me knows it is. Knows what I’m risking. “You don’t need to pump me full of fire—just one strong surge to break the connection.”

I grit my teeth and loosen my grip on Serik so he can lift his hands and drag the rope across the blade. He spins around, still caged by my arms, and looks into my eyes. Squinting with suspicion. But beneath this lingering hostility, there’s the tiniest hint of surprise. Maybe even respect.

I nod permission as he places his palms against my chest.

Before I can brace myself,