Page 70 of Of Flames and Crows

He blinked and stared into the crimson pupils of the witch who’d saved him. His core trembled. Throbbed. Swelled.

Mae was replenishing the source of power deep within him.

Ho—how?!

She lifted her lips from his, clutched his hand, and grabbed the flank of her fox familiar. Roman grasped her fingers tightly as the animal picked up pace and rose, powerful legs creating violent currents in their wake with each kick.

They emerged from the water moments later.

Roman was hauled onto a rock shelf, coughing and spluttering. He shuddered, arms and legs trembling as he struggled to stay on his hands and knees.

“You okay, kid?” Mae panted.

She was leaning on her elbows beside him.

“It’s Roman.”

She blinked at his low mumble.

“My name. It’s Roman.”

His heart skipped a beat at Mae’s amused smile.

“I know,” she drawled, oblivious to the hot feeling surging through him. “You have a very impatient and worried grandfather and great-grandmother waiting for your return.”

Roman blinked. “Great-grandmother?!”

Mae grimaced and rose to her feet. “It’s a long story.”

A man hurried over to them from where he’d been waiting, the flashlight in his hand casting eldritch shadows on the walls of the freshly formed underground lake.

“Our way out is blocked,” he said grimly.

He glanced at Roman before shining the bright beam back the way he’d come. A fresh rockfall appeared in the pale radiance a few hundred feet away.

The giant fox shook out his fur and drenched them with a shower just as the crimson bubbles carrying Mae’s companions and the Fire Magic prisoners they’d saved bobbed to the surface of the water. The sorcerer with white magic and the red-eyed man with the tiger were with them. They started swimming toward the shoreline as the spheres protecting them vanished.

The fox tensed. “Here they come.”

Roman felt a strong aura of corruption and the vile energy of the demon approaching from beneath the water. Oscar and Barquiel exploded from the lake, water dripping off the dark spheres enveloping them. Inky orbs and black lightning arrowed toward Mae’s friends.

A crimson wave detonated around the witch and the fox, the familiar’s nine tails vibrating with power. She raised her hands, her eyes bright with magic.

“Shield! Multiply!”

Roman’s breath caught at the potent magic contained within the spell she’d invoked. The conjuration raised crimson barriers loaded with pale runes between her companions and Oscar and Barquiel’s attack.

“Devour!”Mae barked.

The red sphere that exploded into life with her second conjuration expanded as it whizzed across the water and swallowed the orbs and the black lightning with gluttonous gulps.

Barquiel shrieked. Oscar cursed.

Mae sneered.“Negate!”

The third conjuration made the corruption shielding the sorcerer and the demon flicker into nothingness.

“Ice Fortress!”the witch growled before either could react.

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