“You people keep asking me that. You weak, ignorant mortals. Born with so much potential, yet you are always falling short, failing at every turn. Sickening.”

“Kyan . . .” Lucia said, an edge of warning in her voice.

“Except you, little sorceress. You’re completely exempt from the failings of the rest of your kind. You are a perfect specimen, an example of what humans should be. What they will be.”

Jonas glanced nervously at the flames, the hellish cage trapping them there with a sorceress and this man—someone far more dangerous than any simple magic-wielder.

Kyan took a step closer, his fists clenched at his sides.

“Stay away from Jonas, you freak,” Lys snarled, stepping forward resolutely and fearlessly, then she gave Jonas a sidelong glance. “We can handle this, you and me. We’ve handled worse.”

Jonas’s heart swelled. He suddenly couldn’t take his gaze off her, this fierce, stunning warrior who’d stood by him every step of the way. This remarkable girl who’d told him she loved him.

But then his heavy heart ached when he thought of how he’d forgotten all about her the moment he’d seen Cleo, how he’d practically fallen at the golden princess’s feet as he’d begged for a kiss.

He’d been too blind to see that he’d already won the greatest treasure of all.

Jonas turned to face Kyan, staring him right in his amber eyes. “You heard Lys. Back off. I don’t have your orb, but if I did, I’d happily shove it right up your arse.”

Kyan regarded him with a chilling smile. “You’re either exceedingly brave or utterly stupid, boy.”

Jonas eyed Kyan and Lucia in turn. “Enough of this. Go play with your magic somewhere else. I can’t help you.” He sent a withering glare to Lucia. “And clearly you can’t help me either.”

Kyan continued to stare at Jonas so intently that he thought the man might be trying to read his mind. But then his expression slackened just a touch, and he frowned and cocked his head. “I do sense other magic here,” he said. “Undiluted elemental magic.”

Kyan snapped his gaze to Olivia and in the beat of a hawk’s wing, his amber eyes shifted to a vivid shade of blue. “Watcher.”

Olivia staggered back a step, shaking her head. “Stay away from me.”

“You dare to oppose me?” Flames rolled down Kyan’s arms, billowing with rage as bright as his eyes. “Did you really think you could conceal your true identity? What has Timotheus told you to do? Take me by surprise? Fool me? Trap me?”

Olivia turned to meet Jonas’s stunned gaze.

“Is that true?” he asked. “Are you a Watcher?”

“I’m so sorry, Jonas. I can’t . . .” Her voice trembled, she continued to shake her head. “Timotheus was wrong to send me.”

The circle of fire blazed brighter, rose higher, as tall as the oldest trees in Mytica.

“You wish to help your elder imprison me?” Kyan snarled. “You will fail, and I will gladly watch you burn.”

Jonas could barely think; the roaring heat was becoming too much to bear. “Olivia, tell me what’s going on!” he demanded. “Who is he?”

Olivia’s tawny complexion had grown dead and ashen. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I’m not as strong as Phaedra was.”

Jonas was about to respond when suddenly the outline of Olivia’s form began to shimmer, and the air before her shifted. Her clothes dropped away, crumpling to the ground, and from them sprung a golden hawk, spreading its wings and flying up past the ring of fire, into the sky.

“Coward!” Kyan roared after her.

“Kyan,” Lucia said softly, placing her hands on his burning arm. “We need to leave. She’s gone, and the rebel doesn’t have the Kindred. We’ll keep looking.”

But he wasn’t listening, didn’t even look at her. Instead, Kyan pulled his gaze from the sky and sent Jonas a look so fierce that he staggered back a step.

Beside Jonas, Nic frantically scanned the circle of fire. “We have to get out of here,” he said.

Lys nodded, her expression grim. “There must be a way.”

“You’ve been assisting an immortal in her quest,” Kyan snarled at Jonas, pulling away from Lucia. “You wish to see me trapped again? Tortured by my eternal imprisonment so lowly mortals won’t need to fear my wrath?”

“I have no fight with you, whoever you are.” Jonas held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, feeling the heat of the fire grow more intense behind him. “Honestly. I didn’t know what she—”

“More lies!” Kyan thrust his hands out and, with a violent push, sent a blast of fire magic searing directly toward Jonas.

“No!” Lysandra screamed, and she shoved Jonas out of the way, knocking him to the ground. On her way down after him, she was struck in the heart by the spear of flames.

And then it disappeared.

She gasped and collapsed to her knees.

Jonas grabbed her, searching her for signs of damage. “Lys! Are you all right? Lys, please! Answer me!”

Her face was damp with perspiration, her breath coming in small, rattling gasps, but still she managed to grin up at him.

“You were in my way, you arse.”

A wave of both blind fury and pure relief overcame him, and Jonas smiled back at her. “Do you have any idea how much I love you, Lysandra Barbas?”

“What?” She blinked. “You love me?”

“Yes.”

“And what about Cleo?”

He grinned. “Cleo who?”

“Nicolo.” Lucia’s voice was quiet but firm as she interrupted the tender aftermath of Kyan’s rage. “Get Jonas away from her before it’s too late.”

Jonas glared up at her. “You and your friend need to leave. Now. Hear me? Come any closer and I swear I’ll kill both of you.”

All the fight that had been glimmering in Lucia’s eyes was gone, leaving only a sad, bleak expression. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I know you won’t believe me, but I’m sorry. Nicolo, do it now!”

Without a word, Nic grabbed Jonas and yanked him away from Lysandra.

Jonas tried to break free. “What are you doing? Let go of me!”

“Jonas?” Lys reached out toward him, a smile playing at her lips. “I love—”

Her sweet words were snapped into silence as a nest of flames burst up and blossomed from her chest, flowing over every inch of her body like lava.

“No!” Jonas shoved Nic away and scrambled to get to Lysandra, whose form had been transformed in an instant into a blazing column of amber fire.

The flames rose up and up, and with a violent lick they shifted from deep orange and amber to bright blue—the same shade as Kyan’s eyes.

The sound of Lysandra’s screams sliced through Jonas’s very soul, and in one heartbreaking instant, the flames themselves shattered like glass, sending shards of blue crystal flying and falling all around them.

Leaving nothing behind.

With a breathless wail, Jonas crumpled in a hard heap to the ground, staring at the empty space where Lysandra had been only moments ago.

He stayed like that, motionless, tears burning in his eyes, for some time, and he didn’t notice when the circle of fire disappeared, or watch as Lucia and Kyan left the abandoned market, leaving Jonas and Nic there all alone.