вlood & peтalѕ [ ĸoтlc - тιana ]

20K EXTRA: tell me what

— OKAY SO recently this book hit like 20k reads and almost 2k votes :') and to celebrate, i'm writing an extra for this since yall loved this (and i still don't see why but um okaY)

this takes place between the time of tam's death and his public planting.

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marella couldn't believe no one had bothered to tell her.

sure, she had definitely been close to neither linh nor tam; and she definitely wasn't in sophie foster's little 'golden circle'- in spite of the fact that she had helped out the black swan with quite a few things - but she definitely deserved to have found out any other way than this.

the atmosphere in the room had dipped considerably - actually, that was an understatement. keefe's jaunty face had crumpled quietly, linh had sort of collapsed with her arms around dex (who was trying to take her to the sofa, while whispering something comforting in her ear) and biana had simply frozen in place, her face going deathly pale. fitz and sophie had simply lowered their heads.

"now you know." biana's surprisingly clear voice rang out through the otherwise near silent room. "now you know what happened to tam." her gaze shifted from where it had been aimed at the window to marella's now widened eyes. "is there anything else you want to know?"

marella could feel a sob building up in her throat as she shook her head. no, she didn't want to hear anything more about how tam — tam — had died.

died. dead, dead and gone. there was no coming back from it.

"uh, sophie, could i use your bathroom?"

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the feeling of the cool tiles against her rapidly heating skin was the only thing that was keeping her anchored to her body. keeping her back pressed to the wall, marella tried to stabilize her breathing. in, out. in, out.

stay calm, marella. hold yourself together. don't give in to the feelings.

it wasn't working. it wasn't. she could feel herself slipping, slowly losing her careful grip on her ability.

and as she let out a cry of agony, her pyrokinesis surged up and out. flames sparked off the tips of her fingers, singeing her tunic and filling the whole room with the scent of smoke and something...metallic?

fisting her now raggedy tunic between shaky fingers, marella forced herself back down. quiet, she told herself. you don't want them to come find you like this.

but what was this? just her mourning for a friend? the tightening in her throat told her that yes, she was indeed mourning, but...

the smoke was inside her now, burning up her lungs. desperate to get it out, marella choked out a cough...and stopped short.

was she really just mourning a friend?

no. no, she was not.

[fin]