The walls were still weeping smoke.
Ava lay motionless in the rubble, chest barely rising, her once-smirking lips blistered and silent. Sparks skittered along the floor like frightened animals. The air was thick with heat—wet, choking heat that tasted like vengeance and grief.
Lilly stood above it all, shaking.
Her hands, still on fire.Her breath, ragged like a hunted beast.And her eyes? Glowing, golden burning.
She wasn't in control anymore.
She could feel it—flames licking up her arms, threading through her veins like molten thread her bones ached with it her skin cracked light. The rage she'd kept locked up for years had kicked the cage wide open.
Sam ran to Lilly and didn't hesitate.
"Lilly—hey, hey Look at me," Sam said, soft but urgent, stepping through the heatwaves like she didn't care they might kill her.
But Lilly didn't look she couldn't.
Lilly dropped to her knees with a cry that sounded more animal than human, fists punching the floor. The flames roared up around her in a sudden, monstrous and outrageous.
Sam dove in anyway.
Wrapped her arms tight around Lilly's scorched shoulders.
Held her.
Even as the flames kissed her skin.
Even as the heat threatened to blister her lungs.
Even as Lilly screamed into her chest, every sob sending shockwaves of heat across the room.
"You're not alone," Sam whispered, voice shaking but sure "You hear me, Lilly? You're not the fire, You're still you."
But the flames didn't stop They surged, wild, eating the ceiling. The light flickered like the world itself was flinching.
"I can't—Sam I can't stop it—" Lilly gasped, thrashing, eyes wide with panic. "I'll hurt you—"
"You won't." Sam's hands cupped Lilly's face, forcing her to meet her eyes.
"You won't, because I'm not leaving."
Lilly blinked, sobbed, shuddered—
And the flames sputtered once, twice then faded, like a storm giving one last scream before it dies.
Lilly collapsed forward into Sam's arms.
Sam cradled her, holding her like something precious and breakable, whispering into her hair:
"It's over,
It's okay,
I've got you,
I've got you, Lilly."
In the silence that followed, only the sound of ash drifting to the ground could be heard. Somewhere in the wreckage, Maya lit a cigarette and muttered, "Goddamn drama queens."
But her eyes never left the girl still burning from the inside.
Because something had changed.
Lilly wasn't just dangerous now.
She was legendary.