Page 91 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

To get here at the same time as us, Trevor must also have been running constantly all day. He, and Isera and Alistair too, probably had the same idea as me. Follow Lavendera as she searches for the stone altar.

My concentration slips for a second as I’m struck by a sudden thought. Flicking my gaze from side to side, I scan the clearing for Lavendera. Shock pulses through me when I realize that she’s nowhere to be found.

Stone shoots towards me.

I leap to the side barely a second before a block of stone flies past in the space where my head was supposed to be. Snapping my gaze back to Trevor, I growl a curse and then increase the strength of my magic.

Tiredness washes over his features, and he staggers to the side as I blow his exhaustion from a spark to a wildfire. He shakes his head violently, trying to block out the emotion. Raising a trembling hand, he shoots a hail of pebbles at me.

I jerk back, but it’s no use. There are too many of them to avoid, so I just yank up my forearm to protect my face and twist sideways. Pain pulses through my body as the pebbles hit me in the back and side.

Fire roars across the grass to my left.

It explodes into hissing steam as it slams into Isera’s ice wall.

I gasp in a breath and spin back towards Trevor to see him raise a block of stone. Panic pulses through me, and I push at his exhaustion with everything I have. His knees buckle, and he loses the grip on his magic. I’m just about to sprint towards him and snatch the ring from his hand when a block of ice cracks into the back of his head.

His eyes go wide with shock before his brain catches up with the hit. Then he blacks out and slams face first into the grass.

I let out a yell of frustration as Isera snatches the ring out of his hand while shooting three consecutive blocks of ice at me, Alistair, and Fenriel. I throw myself sideways, rolling to my feet, while the blocks of ice shoot past on the grass. Alistair burns them off with his flames.

More blocks of ice speed through the air as Isera shoots them at us, barely aiming, while she backs towards the edge of the clearing. I zigzag across the grass, trying to get to Alistair and steal his ring while he’s busy battling Isera.

Magic flashes through the air. Hissing and crackling noises echo between the ice walls. I suck in desperate breaths, trying to keep my legs moving. My lungs burn, my muscles ache, and everything inside me is screaming with exhaustion from the constant running and the lack of food and water. But I have to get one of the rings. I have to.

Alistair ducks and Fenriel dives away as Isera shoots more blocks of ice at us to keep everyone back. I’m forced to throw myself forwards to avoid one of them, landing right in the line offire between Isera and Alistair. Panic crackles up my spine as I jump to my feet and try to dash away.

But before I can move more than a stride, Alistair shoots another torrent of fire towards Isera at the same time as she makes the ice ceiling crack above our heads.

Talon, Fenriel’s hawk, who had been trying to claw through the ice and create a hole at the top of the dome, lets out a screech of victory and swoops towards Fenriel.

I see the disaster that is about to happen as time seems to slow to a crawl.

Dread crackles through me like lightning, and I scream a warning, but I already know that it will be too late.

The hawk swoops down, oblivious to the torrent of fire that is about to shoot through the air. And Fenriel, who is busy leaping back up to his feet and spinning back around, doesn’t see it. I know, without a doubt, that when he turns around and sees what’s about to happen, it will be too late. Too late for him to make the hawk change direction. Too late for him to even release his magic and make the hawk vanish.

Talon is going to get incinerated.

Without thinking, I do the only thing I can.

I throw out my arm, grab the hawk mid-air, and yank it to the side.

Pain sears through me and I scream in agony as the flames roar past a fraction of a second later and singe my arm. The hawk lets out a high-pitched call of alarm. I release it, and it immediately flies straight towards Fenriel.

For a few seconds, everyone goes dead silent and still inside the clearing.

Fenriel is staring at me with wide eyes. His face is pale as death and full of lingering terror. A few strides away from me, Alistair casts a shocked look between me and Fenriel and Talon.Isera reaches the ice wall. Hesitation flickers in her eyes as she casts a glance at me.

Then she demolishes the wall, drops a strangely shaped chunk of ice right next to my feet, and then sprints away with her ring.

The sound of shattering ice makes Alistair lurch into motion.

Closing his fist around his own ring, he whirls around and hurtles into the trees in the other direction.

I’m left standing there in the middle of the clearing, staring at their disappearing backs while my arm throbs in pain. I flick a glance down at the ground. The chunk of ice that Isera dropped by my feet is still there. Confusion swirls through me as I stare down at it. It’s round, but shaped like a tunnel rather than a cylinder, and it’s about the length of my forearm.

Realization slashes into me. Bending down, I snatch up the chunk of ice and slide it onto my forearm. It fits perfectly, and Isera must have somehow adjusted the temperature of it too, because it’s only pleasantly cool instead of being so freezing cold that it would’ve risked causing frostbite.

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