Page 15 of Crown of Flame

How does any of this even benefit them?

I’m knocked to the ground again by the ursain, but this time, I’m able to retrieve my dagger from my belt.

I reach up, trying to drive it into the jaw of the face on the monster’s torso, but it seems nearly impenetrable. The skin is hardened against my attack, and as I snap out of the way of the biting mouth on the monster’s stomach, driving the blade into its fur, I find no purchase.

That’s when I immediately feel the presence of the other monster standing over me.

I’m going to die here. I fought harder than anybody’s ever fought to live, and I’m going to be ripped apart unceremoniously outside a laboratory.

I close my eyes, bracing for the inevitable.

Then my eyes are filled with a bright glow.

Fire engulfs the monster above me as it’s again flown through the air. I try to avoid smelling the burning fur.

“Run,” my fiery savior says into my mind.

I kick myself to my feet and follow the instruction without hesitation.

For a moment, I don’t look back, aware of the freeze that will surely destroy my body but fleeing anyway. I don’t have a plan or any sense of reason left.

Seeing what the dark elves have done to these people, dying unmourned in a frozen field doesn’t seem so bad anymore.

But I haven’t given up yet. I need to survive this so I can put a stop to it forever.

When I’m far enough away, I look behind me. I see my savior ripping the creatures apart with his mind.

I want to bend down and vomit.

Even from here, with the wild and unyielding wind in my face, I can see the blood and guts that pave the snow in the distance.

I try to steady my breathing, relieved that both of the creatures have been dispatched and that I might still live.

But there could be more of them. I don’t know how many monsters escaped the tower or how many more could be in the other towers.

How many more humans are currently the subjects of experimentation? How many lives are being pointlessly ended to satisfy elven curiosity?

I feel a sense of warmth, and I realize that I’ve lost nearly all the feeling in my body. I have been so overtaken by adrenaline that my body provides its own heat. The noise of a swirling fire is just above me.

“This is why you stay with me,” the creature speaks into my mind. “Clearly, you can’t survive in this world without me, and I can’t survive in this world without you.”

I nod, unable to properly convey my gratitude. Am I admiring a monster?

I look up at him, watching him in fascination.

Why is there suddenly something so magnetic about him?

I want to punish myself for the thought.

6

CINIS

“These strange, tall objects burn when I touch them,” I say, watching in fascination as the flaming debris drops onto the pale ground.

“Those are trees,” she says. “And please stop burning them. You could very easily kill me.”

We walk through the cool rushing wind, which is much louder and angrier than I remember back home. She stays close by my side through the darkness.

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