Page 134 of Ash and Feather

Waiting for me.

I didn’t see Dravyn, but I felt him in every lash of heat and spiral of smoke that caressed my skin.

The longer I stood among his wind and fire, the more I felt myself regaining my balance. My power. Power that was almost overwhelming after so many days of weakness, but still welcome—it would be much easier to carry myself back to the middle-heavens while wrapped up in this divine magic.

I walked until my old house and its memories were no longer in sight, letting more Fire magic seep into my body, my breaths, my very soul. Wind whipped my hair and clothing around. Symbols of power appeared on my skin. I stared at them, thinking of all the places in the Palace of Fire where I had seen corresponding symbols.

A little more concentration would bring me back to that palace.

I could do this.

My physical body began to fade, to move toward the path between realms. My fingertips went first, as they usually did, turning to smoke that trailed behind me like ribbons caught in the breeze. The sight still unsettled me a bit, so I closed my eyes and focused on what I could feel rather than see.

“All. These. Flames. And I wonder…what else do you suppose he’s burned in his fury?”

My eyes flashed open as I spun toward the sound of Andrel’s voice.

The transporting spell broke with the motion, thrusting me back into a solid form with jarring speed.

I rebalanced and braced myself, listening for his footsteps, trying to pinpoint him within the haze of smoke and magic.

I could only just make out his shape as he approached, his edges wavy and blurred by the fires between us.

A blistering wind rose to my right, lifting a smattering of embers from the ground and curving them into a whip-like line. I focused on it, taking a determined command of it, ready to wield it however I needed to.

“This is but a taste of what he’s been doing since we took his trophy away from him,” Andrel said as he approached. “The gods are benevolent until something angers them. Then all they know is destruction.”

Destruction.

It was hard to deny this when everything was burning in every direction, for as far as I could see.

There was a village just beyond the borders of our land in one direction, and a beautiful forest lay in the other…were they on fire too?

Where did this end?

I knew Andrel was trying to plant that question—that fear—in my mind. I also knew there might have been some truth to what he claimed.

I would not listen to him, either way.

“You provoked his anger,” I said, lifting my chin, “and now you’re crying because he unleashed it. Make up your mind—are you prepared to wage a war against us or not?”

He didn’t answer right away, too busy eyeing the whip of fire hovering in my control. Though I didn’t actually grip any of the flames, they shifted about as if I had them by a handle, snaking back and forth in time with the movements of my clenched fist.

He continued to watch these movements with cold, calculating eyes until I cracked the makeshift lash, sending a line of fire across the ground between us. A deliberate breath and twist of my hand sent it shooting upwards into the beginnings of a shield.

Andrel leapt straight through it before it could reach its full intensity.

I stumbled back, surprised by his lack of hesitation. I clenched my fist tighter, holding my fiery whip ready but not yet striking. My emotions warred, torn between the desire to flee to safety and the desire to end him right then and there.

He brushed a few dying embers and ashes from his shoulder and said, “Last chance to choose the right side.”

“I’ve already chosen.”

“Yes, but I am a generous being…so I’m giving you yet another opportunity to change your mind.”

“I willneverbe on your side again.”

His gaze swept around us, taking in the roaring, destructive magic that now seemed brighter and hotter than ever before.

---