Page 69 of Ash and Feather

Her voice was soft but certain as she lifted her eyes to mine and said, “I want to set fire to something.”

A chill rushed over my skin. I knew the feeling far too well.

Gesturing to a grove of small, skinny trees in the distance, I said, “Take aim, then, Goddess.”

She needed no more encouragement than this.

More flames sprung to her fingertips, wild and powerful—more powerful than she’d intended, I think.

She inhaled sharply. Refocused. Her chest heaved with the effort of taking deep, concentrated breaths. She swung her hand forward. The fire rushed out in a wave that overtook several of the trees—not just the ones she’d been aiming for, I gathered, based on the feeling of frustration that washed through her.

“Too messy,” she muttered.

She tried again, summoning more fire, attempting to hone it into a spear-like shape. The form didn’t hold; it got away fromher as soon as she tried to throw it, the flames taking on a mind of their own, stretching wide and engulfing everything in their path once more.

She cursed.

I watched quietly, not intervening until her gaze flicked to mine with a silent plea, her lips curved down in uncertainty.

I stepped closer, then, placing one hand against her side to steady her while I brought the other one up to help guide her magic. I didn’t try to control it or shape it myself; I merely countered it with my own power, forcing it back into form when it tried to rage out of control. It gave her more of an opportunity to focus on aiming. Allowed her to take a deep breath.

That was all she needed, really; her next attempt saw a precise arrow of flame strike the closest tree and set it—and only it—ablaze. It stood like a burning beacon, a herald of more power and precision to come.

She grew even more accurate once her initial fury and pent-up powers were released.

As the hour passed, she began hitting more and more targets, eventually challenging me to follow her shots with my own.

It quickly became a competition between us, trying to see who could strike the most targets, the most accurately, in the least amount of time. The small grove of trees was fast burned beyond use, so we left the smoldering corpses of them behind and raced across the land in search of more targets.

With every cluster of trees we ignited, her confidence grew and her restraint lessened. I’d rarely seen her so open, so relaxed, so…free.

And for what might have been the first time, the guilt I’d carried since stepping out of the Tower of Ascension with her eased somewhat.

Because in that moment, it was impossible to look at her and think she could have been anything other than a goddess, whether of Fire or otherwise.

We came to a hill overlooking a narrow creek. The trees along its banks were sparse, staggered, bent at odd angles in the mud—a challenge.

Karys summoned another javelin of flame, but paused to consider her attack.

“Getting tired?” I teased.

“Hardly,” she panted.

I smiled.

“I could do this all day.” She stood up a little straighter, catching her breath. “But let’s say the next series of targets will decide the winner between us.”

“Very well. A fair warning, though: if it’s a proper competition, now, then I’ll be taking it seriously.”

She scoffed. “As if you weren’t really trying before.”

“I wasn’t,” I told her. “ButnowI will be. And I don’t lose, I’m afraid. I don’t think I even know how to.”

“That’s too bad.” She finished catching her breath before smiling sweetly at me and adding, “I’m sure you’ll get better at losing, though, the more we practice together.”

I laughed at the taunt, summoning a spear of my own fire. “We’ll see.”

Her gaze narrowed on me at the challenge, and she kept it there as she pointed her fiery weapon toward the nearest tree.

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