Page 40 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

Fear still paralyzed her, but she forced herself to breathe, to slow her heart as she searched for the warmth inside her. Raising her hands out in front of her, she sent a prayer to the goddess and unleashed her flames.

They were unruly, with very little control, burning in colors from yellow and orange to a deep red, flicking sparks and ash all around them. Lea focused on aiming them toward the demons as Gray struck at them with his sword, creating a distraction. As Lea’s muscles burned with the effort to throw her magic toward the nabis, she began to understand what Erik had meant. Aim for the chest, he’d told her, the largest part of the body, and the easiest to hit.

Two demons shot toward her. Quick lurches meant to disorient. Lea raised her palms and blasted them backward, the demons screaming and hissing as the fire burned away their shadows.

She continued to aim for their chests, and each time her fire struck her target, slamming into the nabis’ skin, their silhouette faded. Their darkness became less dense, their forms less sharp.

A shrill scream sounded from Lea’s right and she looked over her shoulder to see two demons gliding toward Emma and Janelle. Noah's fire had weakened as he’d fought to cover them. What had been a tall, thick barrier of flames now had bare patches, weak spots with smoking edges.

Through a hole in the wall of fire, Lea watched as Janelle held her dagger in front of her, her face brave and set in determination as she sidestepped in front of Emma. Lea sent her flames hurling toward the monsters approaching them. She didn’t have time to worry about her power being too unpredictable, nor about harming her friends. Her entire focus was on destroying the threat as her fury fueled her, and she tapped into that wrath. Flames growing hotter, blue and white fire engulfed the monsters, consuming them whole until nothing remained.

Lea watched in awe as they disappeared, hesitating only a moment too long. She felt teeth sink into her arm and claws scratch her hip. Her scream sounded foreign as she cried out at the intensity of the pain. It was unlike anything she’d felt before, not a stinging or stabbing. Not even a burning. It felt like death—like a cold so severe it threatened to freeze her blood in an instant.

Heat engulfed her as Erik’s flames destroyed her attacker, and Lea collapsed to the ground. Only seconds had passed, but the icy pain had already turned into an aching heaviness. She couldn’t move her arm, couldn’t flex her fingers. Lea tried to stand, but her leg wouldn’t move. Everything below the wound on her hip was completely dead to sensation.

"Fuck!" she shouted, touching her shoulder, then her hip, to find a greasy oil-like substance mixed with blood oozing from her arm and dripping down her leg.

Gray was instantly at her side. "Gods dammit!" he hissed under his breath. Laying his palms against her wounds, he sent healing magic into her skin. The pain was immediate, excruciating.

"Stop!" Lea cried out, the absolute agony making her vision go blurry.

Gray’s brows furrowed, but he removed his hands. "Can you heal yourself, Azalea?"

Lea nodded as she looked up, the heat from Erik‘s fires causing sweat to drip into her eyes. He continued to fight, and though Erik remained unharmed, his face was red and sweating with exertion. His chest heaved in effort, short of breath, as he fought to keep his flames growing hotter, sending streams of fire dancing around the woods. The battle almost resembled a dance, a gruesome but graceful game of cat and mouse as the monsters dodged his blows with their quick, fluid movements.

As Erik fought against the three nabis, movement caught the corner of Lea’s eye. A fourth demon, their leader, who had spoken to them.

"Your power will feed me for years to come—"

Gray moved to strike, arcing his sword toward the nabis’s head, but without thought or hesitation, Lea threw her night magic out. There was no effort to aim. She didn’t even consider what her shadows would do as she engulfed the monster in darkness, blinding it. An animalistic instinct took over as she let her magic find the evil creature, wrap around it, and push inside to destroy it. Gray had told her only fire could kill them, and yet, she could feel her shadows tearing the icy black form apart, forcing its very essence to bend to her will as it completely disappeared.

"Gray!" Erik shouted, breaking Lea from her trance, "I'm burning out!" Her shadows faltered as she looked at Erik, and a stab of fear wedged in her heart at his shaking arms. Lea looked back to her mate, an awe-filled expression on his face as his eyes focused on the empty space where the nabis had been moments before. He looked around, ensuring there were no lurking nabis aside from those Erik battled.

"Go! Help him!" Lea urged, attempting to stand. She grimaced as she rolled to her knees, collapsing onto her stomach as her arm and leg gave out.

"Don’t try to move! Find your fire!" Gray called to Lea as he ran toward Erik, sword arcing in the air at an impossible speed. "You're the only one who can end this, Lea."

Lea watched Erik and Gray dance around the remaining nabis, lightning fast as they struck and retreated, over and over. They were a mixture of fire and shadows, so entwined with each other that she could hardly tell who the streaks of movement belonged to.

"I can’t! I’ll hurt you!" she said with a shaking voice. She didn’t trust herself not to lose control, to hit her mate or her friend instead of the demons they fought. They were too close together.

"You can!" He said with a confidence that made Lea think that just maybe, she actually could.

Lea reached down the bond, fully expecting to feel desperation saturating every fiber of their connection. Instead, she found confidence mixed with a hint of trepidation, but not the full-out panic she’d expected. He couldn’t save them, didn’t have the tools. Butshedid, and he believed she could. Gray paused for just a moment, looking at her with his chin raised.You are my queen. Finish this.

Gray didn't speak the words aloud, and yet she felt them in her heart, saw them in his eyes. His utter belief in her took Lea’s breath away as he raised his sword to continue fighting, a glint of silver cutting through the air. Focusing all her energy on Gray, she thought of warming the metal in his hand. Pictured the blade turning red hot, burning the nabis as he sliced through them.

Gray flinched when his sword burst into flames, the long silver blade glowing red and orange as fire rose from the weapon. With a quick glance in her direction, Gray laughed, a beautiful, rumbling sound, before launching into his attack. Lea focused on the sword and the sword alone, feeding her magic into it, forcing it to bend to her will and forbidding the fire from spreading beyond the razor-sharp edge.

Erik's flames dimmed, the well of his magic running dry. "Your sword!" Lea called as a nearby nabis stalked toward him. As if they had rehearsed it a hundred times, Erik pulled his sword at the exact moment Lea commanded it to burst into flames. He stabbed the white hot blade forward as the nabis lurched at his neck, hitting it exactly where its heart would be, if it even had one at all.

The creature shrieked and attempted to pull back, but Erik was faster. Without the burden of using his day magic, he joined Gray in battle.

They fought as one, turning back to back as they ducked and struck with their fiery swords, silently communicating.

"Fuck yeah, Sunshine!" Erik called out as they destroyed what remained of the shadow creatures with ease, the final one evaporating into a fine black mist as Gray decapitated it in one fell swoop.

"Always with the heads," Lea teased half heartedly as she let her flames wink out, collapsing onto her chest as exhaustion pushed down on her. Making sure her magic was tucked safely away in her chest, she rolled onto her back, resting her head on the cold ground as she looked up at the stars still shooting toward Calir. They’d done it. Their first trial of the Wicked Wood, and it had been as terrifying as Gray had warned her it would be.

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