Page 30 of Flame and Sparrow

He regarded me with more silent appraisal, and then finally a curt nod, as if he was merely allowing me—a lowly mortal—to address him as such.

My entire body felt tense, coiled tight from years of waiting, watching, preparing for this meeting.

He’d been wrong a moment ago. Thiswasa dream. Mydream. I’d fantasized about this day for years, and now I was actually standing before one of the Marr. The vengeful rush of hatred and possibility that overcame me was so intense I nearly cried out in delight.

I caught myself, however, reining in my rage and keeping my thoughts level. I couldn’t waste this opportunity by acting rashly. It might briefly satisfy my lust for vengeance, but I’d just been struck by a grander plan. A better idea.

A wild, mad, likely impossible idea that would require every ounce of control and cunning I possessed to pull it off.

The tides shift, and so too must our tactics. That’s whatKinnara had said. She was right. And here was how we were going to shift things—howIwas going to shift them—by destroying the gods from the inside out.

While saving myself from a fiery death in the process.

I forced my face into something resembling triumph—with a touch of reverence—and my tone into something far braver than what I currently felt. “I’ve succeeded, then,” I said.

He canted his head slightly. Curiously.

Good.

I could manipulate curiosity easily enough.

“Succeeded in finally catching your attention,” I explained, steadying my voice, “because yes, I was working with others on the night I destroyed your temple, as you so rightly assumed. But this meeting with you…it was my idea, and mine alone.”

He folded his arms across his broad chest, skepticism dancing in his eyes, but he didn’t interrupt.

“I was trying to attract your attention.” I swallowed again to clear the dryness in my throat. “Because I want you to consider making me your divine servant.”

His smile shifted from skeptical to something wild and twisted and cruel, and the dryness in my throat turned to a full desert.

But he still didn’t speak, so I didn’t stop talking.

“The people of Cauldra built their temple to attract your attention—to flatter you in hopes that you would find one of them worthy of walking by your side—but you must realize how empty their gold and promises are.”

He snorted. “Of course I realize it. You humans are nothing if not predictably cliche when it comes to such things.”

“Yes; those temple builders could never understand your true nature.”

He laughed a quiet, breathy sort of laugh—one clearly tempered by the curiosity I’d managed to pique in him. “And I’m to assume that youcould?”

“You moved mountains and set the world ablaze when you ascended. I hope to ascend in the same way. To serve in the same way.”

“To serve…” Another quiet laugh. “…With fire and violence and turmoil?”

His question—and the dark glare accompanying it—felt like a challenge. A test. So I didn’t let myself hesitate. “Exactly.”

His stare did not soften. It pressed as a physical weight against my body, carving in and pushing aside all the layers of me so he could better study the very soul at my center.

Neither of us moved or spoke for a long moment, leaving too much time for the reality of the situation to settle over me. I fought the urge to recoil as it did, knowing he could strike me down without breaking a sweat. That he could set me alight with a breath, leave me here in this emptiness to burn for an eternity, turn me to nothing but ashes to dance upon…

I was playing with fire in every sense of the phrase, and as the seconds crawled by, I began to think I had made a fatal mistake.

He lifted his head toward the sky, eyes narrowing, brow furrowing in thought.

I inhaled too sharply in response to his sudden movement. A muscle in his jaw twitched, he shook the tension from his left wrist, and I braced myself for the coming fire.

Then he slowly looked back at me and asked, “What is your name?”

“I…Karys. It’s Karys.” I managed to clamp my mouth shut then, afraid my elvish surname would give too much of me away. He’d saidhuman sacrificesearlier. So for all his power and confidence, he couldn’t tell what I truly was. I wondered how long I could keep up such a ruse—a problem I would have to deal with later.

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