CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE: AMARI

Jahi’s winds carry the Iyika into the shattered throne room as Zélie orders the attack. United maji strike in concert: Imani’s gas drops soldiers, Nâo turns wine to rams, Kenyon’s flames rip the ceiling, and Kâmarū shatters the golden throne. Zélie pushes toward the cellars to free captives while elders follow.

Amari moves to assist but is confronted by Nehanda on the stairs. Nehanda, unsteady yet lethal, hurls marble and pillars of earth, battering Amari across the floor. Amari counters with a searing blue blast that pierces Nehanda’s defense, wounding and dropping her.

Urged by memories of her father’s ruthlessness, Amari nearly strikes the killing blow. A restraining inner refusal halts her, and she rejects the cycle that made her a monster after killing Saran. Facing Nehanda’s taunts, Amari declares the monarchy over and her choice to be better.

Amari releases her hold, leaving Nehanda gasping on the tiles, and limps toward the cellar stairs as Zélie’s forces press the liberation. The palace’s symbolic seat of power lies broken while Amari’s restraint signals a decisive moral shift amid the Iyika’s takeover.