Page 24 of Of Flames and Crows

What the—?!

Alastair’s screeched warning reached Nikolai a second before the simmering flames that had been hidden within the nexus arrowed straight up into their bodies within a single beat of their hearts.

It was as if the fire had been waiting to consume them.

Nikolai opened his mouth on a silent scream as his and Alastair’s cores went supernova. The inferno spread through his veins and bones before manifesting through his flesh, robbing him of breath even as it burned the oxygen in the air. A crimson blaze exploded around Alastair, his feathers catching fire.

The crow fell limply off his shoulder just as he hit the ground on all fours.

A cacophony of alarmed shouts sounded dimly in Nikolai’s ears as he fisted his hands on the warm stone beneath him. He shook his head dazedly, fighting to remain conscious. Bright sparks drew his eyes.

The flames crackling around his fingers had turned a rich, velvet red laced with inky strands. His pulse spiked.

Though he and Alastair were on fire, their flesh remained unblemished.

How—how is that possible?!

Nikolai blinked. The pain he was experiencing wasn’t from the flames eating away at his body, but the strange, new power coursing through his bloodstream. A power that had manifested outward in a crimson inferno.

A distant yell reached him. His neck muscles creaked as he turned his head a fraction. Marlena, Klara, and Julius were trying to get to him and Alastair through the conflagration filling the arena.

“Stay…back,” he mumbled.

His eyes rounded.

Dozens of Moon Magic shields shone palely in the galleries of the training ground. They’d been erected by the experienced sorcerers and witches in the crowd when the barrier meant to protect the spectators had failed. Shards glinted behind Marlena and Klara where the artificial moon now lay in tatters.

Did we do that?!

Dread twisted Nikolai’s stomach when his gaze found Alastair.

The crow was barely breathing.

I—I have to cut our connection to the nexus!

He shuddered as the storm raging within him threatened to consume him whole. He didn’t know what this was, except that itwasmagic of some sort. And it was clashing with his Moon Magic and his white magic, like oil trying desperately to mix with water.

Mae’s face rose before him. Determination filled Nikolai.

He clenched his jaw, gathered what he could of his and Alastair’s powers, and yanked at the link tethering them to the nexus.

Something pulled back.

Nikolai scowled.The hell?!

He dug his nails into his palms and reached for the connection once more, this time aiming right at the heart of the nexus. The tendons in his neck corded as he strained against the tether.

A sinister feeling flitted through him. He could sense something within the nexus. Something that filled his veins with ice.

A roar left his throat when the connection finally tore.

The firestorm filling the center of the arena abated, the flames fizzling out as rapidly as they had formed. Sweat dripped off Nikolai’s face and splashed onto the stone beneath him as he trembled and panted in the aftermath of the vanishing blaze.

Marlena reached him and dropped by his side. “Nikolai!”

Julius and Klara weren’t far behind.

Julius shook Nikolai’s shoulder violently. “You okay, kid?!”

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