Page 215 of Flame and Sparrow

An idea struck me.

My hand closed around that bracelet Dravyn had given me in the next breath, and I braced myself for traveling.

I didn’t picture his palace as he’d told me to do.

Instead, I pictured the space between worlds, a specific spot in Eligas with rocky ground and a bright blue sky, where every sound and threat had been neutralized—the first place Dravyn had ever brought me to on the day he’d rescued me from the burning platform in Cauldra. He’d whisked me away from the chaos, and I’d been safe, able to breathe, able to decide what to do next.

I just had to believe this gift he’d given me could take me there again.

I clung to the bomb and the bracelet, and I silently pleaded for the magic to work.

Within seconds, fire and wind roared to life around me. The flames grew taller, folding over me, blocking most of my surroundings from view. What I could see in the narrow strips between the flaming threads was changing, the darkness around the tower brightening into entirely new scenery.

It was working.

I was so caught up in trying tokeepthe magic working that I didn’t see Andrel diving toward me until he was already through the flames.

I didn’t have time to gasp before he slammed into me, knocking me back against the tower. The flames kept going. Burning him. His armor protected much of him, but his hands and face were exposed, and the nauseating scent of seared flesh filled my nostrils.

He had been willing to bury himself in the rubble of his planned destruction, and he seemed to think nothing of burning for his cause, either.

I bent, curling protectively around the weapon and the bracelet I held, and I didn’t stop picturing Eligas.

The transportation spell kept going.

The flames roared faster and thicker and the wind did not stop swirling, even as Andrel’s arms locked tightly around my waist and he pulled me off my feet.

As my feet slipped out from under me, I fell—and Ikeptfalling.

He fell with me.

We passed through the realms together, tumbling and twisting between shades of light and darkness.

We didn’t end up in the peaceful stretch of barren land I’d been aiming for. Andrel’s attack had thrown me off course, and so instead we ended up lost in one of the strange rivers that crisscrossed the emptiness.

I ripped free of him and maneuvered as best I could in the murky water, cursing silently at him for dragging me into it.

But this was a better outcome anyway, I soon realized.

The bomb slipped from my hands, and I just barely caught it—but not before noticing that it had started to sink much, much faster than me.

So I simply…let go of it.

The key to my revenge, to the destruction I’d once wished for more than anything…I let it go, and it slipped through my fingers as easily as the water I was treading through. I watched it disappear into the depths, sinking like a stone while I fell slower than ever—almost buoyant, suddenly, the loss of its weight making me feel lighter in every sense of the word.

Floating off to my right, Andrel watched it sinking, too.

He started to dive after it.

I caught him by the sleeve and held tightly to him, pinning his arms behind his back, wrestling him as best I could in the strange water we were suspended within.

Finally, after the bomb had been well out of sight for several seconds, he stopped fighting and simply glared at me.

Then, somewhere far, far below us, the weapon ignited.

The light from the explosion was just a flicker at first, but rapidly grew and grew until it engulfed everything in a blinding glow, forcing me to clench my eyes shut. The waters churned to life around us, the current shifting this way and that, the magic within trying to orient itself in the wake of the debilitating power that had rushed through it.

A sudden pressure grabbed at my arms and legs and started to jerk me downward.

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