Page 544 of Flirting with Darkness

Kyllen had the best chance against King Aigel if he combined his own strength with that of the gargoyle.

He carefully separated a funnel-like part of the gears from his flying board. It was designed to propel the board forward by emitting a stream of gorgonian magic. Now, Kyllen fitted it around the tree branch of his torch weapon, just under the flames.

The dragon fire consumed little wood for fuel. It burned mostly by using the gargoyle magic. The funnel from the flying board fanned the blaze, turning Kyllen’s torch into a flamethrower.

“Hold on, Amira,” he muttered under his breath, “I’m coming for you.”

Holding his fortified weapon, Kyllen ran toward the sky palace. This place was the prison for his wife. And he was ready to raze it to the ground.

He no longer made any effort to hide. Spreading hissentiesin a halo around his head, he scanned the walls of the palace with their small eyes. Each pair was a weapon on its own.

Spreading their feathery wings, two guards separated from one of the balconies and headed his way, bows ready in their hands. Kyllen stretched a few of hissentiestheir way. The beady eyes of his feelers searched for the eyes of the guards. The moment their gazes crossed, the guards dropped to the ground, their gray solidified bodies shattered to pieces of rock on impact.

He reached the first support pillar of the palace unimpeded.

Burn it all.

He shot the dragon flames up the wood. Running under the arch of the thick vine, he sent another blast up some opening—maybe a waste disposal or a drain, it didn’t matter, if it allowed something to drain down, it was good enough for the fire to travel up.

The flames crackled and spread, rising higher. Kyllen dashed around the wall, finding other openings and sending dragon flames up the pillars and vines. Propelled by the gorgonian magic, the gargoyle fire spread up, unstoppable.

“Amira, Amira, where are you, my sweet pea?”he kept probing through the thread connecting his heart to his wife’s.

She was in there, he sensed it. He had to get her out before he inadvertently harmed her with his arson that was meant to free her.

He jumped on his flying board. Without the funnel part he’d removed, it wouldn’t go fast, but it could go up to wherever Amira was. Tuning out everything else, he focused on the tug of his bond with her that was pulsing warmly inside his chest.

“Where are you, Amira? Where are you, my love?”

8

AMIRA

The entire palace was aflame. The heat of the fire blasted the exposed skin of my face and arms even from the distance where King Aigel and I stood.

Sky fae leaped from roofs, balconies, and patios on every level. They spread across the skies like a flock of large, fantastical birds.

Groups of other creatures were escaping the burning wreck through the doors and windows of lower levels. Dressed in clothes and running upright on two feet, they clearly were people. None of them had wings, though. Many had horns, tails, and even hooves.

“They can’t fly!” I screamed as one of them appeared in a window of a higher floor. The curtains engulfed in flames blew around the poor man like a ring of fire.

King Aigel barely spared a glance at the desperation of his people. “Only high-born have wings. The rest are mostly servants.”

“But they will die!”

The man in the window jumped and thankfully landed onto a soft flower bed below. Leaping to his hooves, he hurried away from the burning palace, limping but alive. I heaved a breath of relief, glad people were taking their lives into their own hands, instead of counting on their heartless king to save them.

King Aigel took a grim look at his magnificent palace that was quickly disintegrating into a pile of ashes.

“We need to go.” He stalked my way, clearly intending to grab me and take off into the air again.

I backed away from him. With the smoke obscuring us from the sky fae circling above, I only had the king to deal with. If I managed to get away from him, I could possibly make a run for it.

“What is it, my little pet?”

Pet.

The word sent a shiver of disgust down my spine. I’d been called that before, but in a more affectionate way and by a more deserving monarch than King Aigel. I had not been anyone’s pet since, and had no desire to rehash the past.

---