This was all because of him. Her friends were going to die, and it was because of this man, who sought to seize power that wasn’t his to wield. She ripped herself away from Illya as fury burned through her veins. It was an anger she’d felt before—she’d felt it in Hector, those first days after finding him in the desert. In the god, every day in Pallas’s control. But she had never claimed this anger for herself.

She did now. She seized hold of this lethal rage that had lived somewhere deep in her bones for years and years, growing in the darkness and now finally given light.

She didn’t need to think, didn’t need to control it, just let her fury blaze as she raised her arms. She didn’t hear the god’s thoughts, nor did she feel its conspicuous silence, only its presence, its anger that joined with her own and sent power flooding out from her palms.

It was like Beru had released a breath, the exhale booming out across the battlefield. It might have gone for miles, felling trees and shaking the earth, but Beru could only see what happened in front of her as every one of Pallas’s soldiers froze in place.

Silence echoed over the tomb.

Beru took in the sight of her friends—injured but alive. Alive. They were all staring at her, shock and fear etched onto their faces.

Her gaze locked on Pallas, and suddenly she didn’t know whether it was her or the god who started striding across the stone platform to reach him.

She saw movement from the corner of her eye. Lazaros had finally come down from his perch, rushing to Pallas’s side as Beru stalked toward him.

It didn’t matter.

“The sword,” Pallas gasped out, backing toward one of the monoliths. “Use the sword to stop her!”

The Godfire sword would incapacitate the god. It couldn’t burn out her power like it burned out Grace—but it could temporarily cut Beru off from the god’s powers, like the Godfire collar had.

Beru’s rage carried her to Pallas. She clenched her fist and Pallas collapsed to his knees, choking as Beru crushed the air from his lungs.

His fearful blue eyes darted up to hers, their whites overtaken by thin red lattice. He gasped for breath.

Beru contemplated how helpless he was, at her mercy now. It was only Beru’s human heart that had given him power over her for so long. Her love for her sister, her fear of what it meant to wield true power. She considered how easily she could snuff out his life.

No.

The thought surfaced in her mind, clear as the sun breaking through the clouds.