Page 31 of Flame and Sparrow

“Just Karys?”

I became aware of the weight of my sister’s necklace against my throat, as I often did in my most frightening, desperate moments.

“Karys Sparrow,” I lied.

He hesitated.

The reminder of my necklace and its limited magic spurred me more fervently onward; I didn’t have time to doubt my plan. “You’ve witnessed my capacity for loyalty,” I pressed, motioning to my bruised and battered face.

He frowned at the injuries, just as he had back in my cell.

“You’ve seen how I stand within the fire,” I added. “What more do you need to know about me?”

“Plenty more,” he mused, but the look he regarded me with now was more conniving than cruel. “You don’t truly understand what you’re getting yourself into, Little Sparrow.”

He was right, of course. I didn’t know. His words threatened to wither my resolve, but voices pounded against my skull—Kinnara’s, Andrel’s, my sister’s—hardening that resolve further as they reminded me of what Ididknow.

The gods were cruel without cause. Without mercy. Without regret.

They were not invincible, however—the Marr had all been human once, and if I could infiltrate their world and discover their weaknesses, I could bring them to their knees, make them answer for everything. I could do this. I could be as calculating and as ruthless as them.

Iwoulddo this.

I stood up straighter and said, “I am not afraid.”

The god studied me for one last, long beat. “You aren’t, are you?”

Before I managed a reply, he reached out and took my thin arm in a powerful grip.

His hand was so massive it was able to encircle my forearm entirely. As he squeezed, a heat just short of burning radiated from his palm, searing a path all the way up to my shoulder.

As he drew his hand away, black marks like the ones on his skin twisted along my own. He traced a finger down to my wrist, and some of the darkness sank into my body, leaving only a small blot in the shape of a twisted flame, similar to the one most of his marked humans carried—albeit darker than any I’d ever seen.

I loathed the sight of it.

My fingers itched for a chance to release my claws and rip it off. To dig out all of the darkness he’d planted in me. My entire body trembled with the effort of resisting this urge, which I hoped the god interpreted as fear. Or pain. I couldn’t betray the disdain I felt toward him, or this mission would be over before it started.

“You’ll need to go back to your realm for the moment, or your fellow mortals will lose their collective minds and start acting even more foolishly than usual,” he said, candidly. “The mark I gave you will offer some protection until we meet again…assuming wedomeet again, and you survive the afternoon.”

I tried not to scoff at the challenge. “And after I survive it? Then what?”

“I’ll send for you when I’m ready to do so.”

I started to question him further, but the flames around us shifted, rising up and weaving into a complete circle around me, cutting us off.

I was alone with nowhere to go except through the fire.

Another test?

I decided it was. After gathering a few lingering scraps of my ragged and worn-out courage, I walked forward. The flames parted, but I only made it a few steps before I was jerked abruptly to a stop.

I was back in the mortal realm, bound once more to the pyre, the situation as dire as I’d left it.

No time seemed to have passed; the fires at my feet were just beginning to burn in earnest, the crowd only just starting to grow wary of the building heat and billowing smoke.

The smoke choked me, making my eyes water again to the point of blindness. The flames grew, lashing like whips against my body. Sweat drenched my hair and clothing, only to evaporate as the temperature rose around me, leaving my skin unbearably dry and tight and feeling as though it might crack and crumble away with my next wheezing breath. I strained against my bindings, head jerking this way and that, frantically searching—

The God of Fire was nowhere in sight.

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