Page 6 of King of Fire and Flames

Esen kind? And my sad eyes apparently made her feel sorry for me?

Impossible. She was never nice without an ulterior motive.

My mind raced like a rabid eponar across the desert—spinning this way and that with no clear sense of reason or direction—until one thought trumped the others. Had Esen perhaps slipped up and revealed something useful?

I already knew that Azarn hated Arrow with a fiery passion, but the information about his sister… about Arrow being responsible for her death… Well, that was new. And interesting.

Had Esen meant to share that with me? Or had she royally fucked up?

Leather creaked as she shoved the window open, poked her head out, and barked a single word. “Melaya.”

The red-haired mage appeared next to me on the other side of the glass. His brow was smooth, untroubled, but his dark eyes fixed narrowly on Esen with something akin to dislike.

She tipped her head in my direction and hissed three terrifying words. “Make her sleep.”

Twin flames ignited in Melaya’s eyes. He snarled and flicked his fingers near my face.

Scorching pain burst inside my skull, then a black wave crested over me.

Chapter 2

Leaf

When I woke up, I found myself tied to a pole, a wall of flames surrounding me. Heart pounding, I struggled against the chains that linked my hands together behind my back, unable to even wipe sweat out of my eyes.

I released a volley of curses and bucked against the restraints.

Moaning, I squinted through the ring of fire magic, but couldn’t see shit. Heat licked over my skin, scorching hot, but somehow the magical flames didn’t burn me. Beyond them, only darkness loomed, and low voices murmured beneath the whoosh and crackle of fire.

Dust, where in the hells was I?

“Melaya,” a male voice barked out.

The fire mage’s smirk appeared between the flickering flames, and then the owner of the menacing voice sidled up beside him. A tall fae with a wiry build, chestnut hair falling in loose waves to the middle of his back, and an unpleasant aura hovering around his shoulders.

“Take care, Melaya,” he said, the casual cruelty of his voice chilling, despite the suffocating heat. “I don’t wish to roast the human just yet. She may turn out to be compliant.”

I seized upon the word yet and let it tumble around the chaos of my mind. The fire fae planned to kill me. Perhaps not immediately, but eventually. That much was clear.

The mage shouted a command, and the ring of flames disappeared.

The fae issuing the orders strode toward me, and I finally got a good look at him. A crown of black flames writhed like windswept shadows around his brow, and flakes of charcoal sloughed off its wood, eddying around the male’s shoulders.

The crown was a magical thing, as was the fae who wore it—Azarn, the Fire King. It had to be him.

Boot heels clicked over flagstones as he stalked a tight circle around me. My eyes adjusted, and shapes emerged from the shadows, the light from braziers dotted throughout the courtyard revealing figures huddled in a far corner, whispering secrets.

Probably Esen, Raiden, and perhaps a few counselors or torturers, all smacking their lips in anticipation of making me scream and confess to deeds I’d never committed.

Behind crumbling arched columns, the top section of a black tower thrust its turret through a star-studded sky, making me think that the courtyard might be located somewhere high, near an outer wall of Taln’s palace.

At my feet lay Arrow’s cloak, the embroidered feathers dulled by dust and grime. Given how much I hated it, the sight should thrill me, but it only made me sad.

The king seized my chin, turning my face for his inspection. “Are we certain this is the girl?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“Of course,” Esen replied, the staccato clack of her boots echoing as she strutted from the shadows. “I know the human well. Check her teeth. Not even the best glamour can hide bones. And she has the feather glyph on her neck, too.”

A rough thumb prized my lips apart.

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