Page 14 of Of Flames and Crows

A gray cat padded out of one of the grottos and leapt onto the sorcerer’s shoulder. Roman swallowed. From the others’ lack of reaction, he was certain the creature was a familiar and that no one else could see it.

“You got the goods?” Zak challenged. “A deal’s a deal, Devin.”

The sorcerer’s mouth stretched in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Of course. Here, catch.”

He extracted something from his coat and tossed it at Zak. It was a clear bag filled with thin cannabis rolls.

Zak almost dropped it in his haste to open it. He pulled out one of the homemade sticks, brought it to his nose, and inhaled deeply. Pleasure brightened his face.

“Sweet.” He handed Devin a roll of bills and flashed a mocking smile at Roman. “So, what do you want with our friend here? Is it something to do with this Fire Magic Vincent told us about?”

Zak’s friends sniggered as he shared the cannabis cigarettes with them.

Vincent paled. “What?!”

He cast a guilty look at Roman.

Roman fisted his hands and silently cursed his best friend. He’d inadvertently told Vincent his secret a year ago, in a moment of weakness. Truth be told, he hadn’t thought Vincent had believed him. After all, he’d never shown him his powers.

Did he tell them because he wanted to impress them?!

“Look, I—I was joking when I said that!” Vincent stammered, his gaze swinging wildly between Zak and Devin. “Besides, we all know that stuff’s not real!”

A voice coiled out of the darkness. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

CHAPTER7

Roman whirled around.A man with red hair and a reptilian gaze was climbing the shallow steps to the terrace, a tawny lynx coiling around his legs.

Every instinct Roman possessed told him to run.

Zak frowned at the stranger and took his cigarette out of his mouth. “Who are you?” He glanced at Devin, suspicion clouding his face. His tone turned accusing. “You told me it would just be you tonight.”

The red-haired man smiled.

Fear rooted Roman’s legs to the ground.

Vincent must have caught on to the sinister mood pervading the terrace. He clutched Roman’s arm and pulled him back a step, his face pasty with apprehension.

“Quite the little mercenary you’ve found there, Devin,” the red-haired man drawled.

Devin bobbed his head respectfully. “He will be dealt with presently, Master.”

A choking noise broke the tense lull even as Roman considered the ominous meaning behind the sorcerer’s deferential address. His head whipped around. Acid burned the back of his throat.

“Oh God!” Vincent mumbled.

One of Zak’s friends was slowly turning purple. The vessels in his sclera ruptured, rendering his eyes grotesquely red. He dropped his cannabis roll and clutched his throat on a panicked wheeze.

The other three gaped. Red blotches filled the whites of their eyes the next instant. They started coughing and wheezing.

All four fell to the ground, fingers clawing at their windpipes as they struggled to breathe.

Alarm rounded Zak’s eyes. “What the—?!” He glared at Devin. “What did you do to my friends, asshole?!”

“The same thing I did to you,” Devin replied coldly.

Zak’s gaze dropped to the cannabis stick in his hand. He cast it to the ground as if it were a snake. Terror leeched the color from his face as his friends started to convulse and foam at the mouth, backs arching and legs kicking out in violent spasms.

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