Page 71 of Of Flames and Crows

Roman’s breath misted in front of his face as the temperature around him rapidly plummeted. Glittering crystals formed in the air. The shards thickened before forming thick cages around Barquiel and Oscar.

The demon and the sorcerer’s muffled bellows rose faintly as they dropped into the lake inside their prisons of ice. The surface of the water froze over.

Mae frowned. “There you are.”

She extended a hand. The double-bladed dagger she had conjured from her pendant sliced through the ice and slammed into the witch’s palm.

She narrowed her eyes at it. “And where have you been?”

The weapon took on a guilty vibe.

The fox sighed. “Judging by the strands of meat caught in his teeth, he was probably eating something.”

The weapon squirmed under Mae’s dark stare.

“Mae!” someone shouted.

Roman turned. The white-magic sorcerer with the crow and the red-eyed man with the tiger were closing in on them, the others lagging in their wake.

The sorcerer touched Mae’s cheek gently, his worried gaze roaming her face. “Are you okay?”

He scowled when the red-eyed man barged past him and hugged her. Roman lowered his brows, similarly irked for some reason.

“Er, Vlad, now’s not the time for this,” Mae wheezed, pressing her hands against the blond man’s chest.

He let her go reluctantly.

Violent tremors started shaking the walls around them.

“Shit,” muttered a witch with purple hair and a white rabbit. “This whole place is going to come down on us!”

“Anyone seen Raya?” the man with the flashlight asked, a muscle jumping in his cheek.

Mae shook her head. “No. She’s probably inside the fortress.” She paused at his expression. “Don’t worry. You’ll get your chance for revenge.”

The guy hesitated before nodding jerkily.

“Violet’s right. This whole island is about to collapse.” Mae studied the cave with a grim look. “Whatever crashed into the portal and caused the dungeon to flood created some kind of slipstream that’s dragging everything into, well—” she grimaced, “Hell.”

Roman flinched. Mae noted his reaction with a squint.

She looked at her weapon. “Hellreaver, you’re up.”

The weapon quivered.

Mae pointed an imperious finger at the wall. “What I mean is, I want you to carve us a way out of here.”

The weapon’s quivering intensified, as if it were protesting.

Magic flared threateningly around Mae. The weapon froze before sagging in her grasp.

The fox rolled his eyes, like this was a regular thing.

CHAPTER30

“Areyou going to talk to me?” Mae asked for the tenth time.

Hellreaver grew even heavier where he hung around her neck in his medallion form. The weapon hadn’t spoken to her once since they’d made their successful escape from the underground lake.

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