Page 114 of Of Flame and Fury

Kel cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed, “Savita!”

If the phoenix heard Kel, she ignored the scream. Savita was toobusy fighting for space amid two other flaming beasts, her feathers turning more molten with every second.

“Which one is Sav?” Coup asked, moving to Kel’s side.

Kel pointed, trying to follow Sav’s path beneath the ceiling. “She’s in between those other two,” she shouted hoarsely.

Rahn shifted to Kel’s other side. “Even if she heard us calling her, I’m sure Cristo has a new collar on her to keep her racing. He’ll be guiding her wings. She won’t be able to stop.”

“We need to get out before the heat becomes too much,” Bekn barked, nearest to the door. “Maybe we can find Cristo and force him to stop this. But we can’t do anything from in here.”

Kel followed Rahn’s hazel gaze to the tinted window. It looked like the same tinted, thickened glass that she’d found in Cristo’s lab, preserving the flaming phoenix ashes.

“He’s there,” Rahn breathed, almost too faint to be heard over the roaring blaze. “Behind the window. Controlling the phoenix collars from where he can watch. I know it.”

“What?” Dira shouted. “He’s on the other side of the window?”

Rahn nodded, slowly, distractedly. “There’s an adjoining room behind the window, but the door to it is across the other side of the building. It’ll take us too long to get in.”

Before any of them could question the strange pain cutting through Rahn’s words, Rahn pivoted to her right, toward Dira. The winger frowned, though her brow quickly smoothed as Rahn pulled her into a swift kiss.

Dira froze, dropping her bat. For just one, short moment, the winger and the technician clutched each other in a knotted embrace, straining their arms, until Rahn forced them apart.

She glanced at each of them, her eyes dark, pleading.

And then the newest Howler lunged toward the track’s fracturing flames, into the path of six burning phoenixes.

Dira screamed, a wordless, gut-wrenching wail, as the firebirds barreled toward Rahn. Horror and confusion collided inside Kel. She would never reach her in time—

Flames.Kel was the only Howler meant to die.

FIFTY

As if colliding with an invisible wall, the phoenixes froze, mere paces from Rahn. Their heat should have caused her to shrink back, but she stood still, a fragile statue beneath six blazing gods.

The phoenixes twitched, hovering in mid-air momentarily before their wings relaxed and they lowered to the rough floor. The birds let out confused grumbles. Kel spotted Savita at the center of the small horde, onyx eyes bloodthirsty, ready to win this race. Whether it was because of Cristo’s new collar or her nearing rebirth, Sav blazed wilder than Kel had ever seen.

Slowly, Rahn turned to face the tinted window. The phoenixes’ screams calmed, and their heat cooled to blurred feathers. Only Rahn’s voice echoed around the hall, commanding the silence. “Estra wouldn’t want this. It’stoo late, Canen.”

Understanding finally rushed through Kel, and she almost sagged to the broken floor. Whatever she and the others thought of Cristo, it was clear that Rahn believed he’d never hurt her. And she was right; he’d paused the entire race to save her life.

A sharp, static noise blared through the hall. Through a speaker that Kel couldn’t see, a low voice commanded, “Move, Rahn.”

“No,” Rahn shouted. “So, either let them kill me, or give up.”

Kel moved across the floor, the other Howlers at her side. The phoenixes tried to snap and claw at them, though their collars seemed to hold them taut. Even Savita, with anxious, confused flames shrouding her, watched them hungrily. Kel couldn’t see the invisible, electric restraints curbing their movements, but she could almost hear them. It was a steady murmur in the air, like insect wings or a distant crowd.

“Estra means something to all of us,” Bekn called, stepping forward. “But this isn’t the way to save her.”

The speaker crackled before Cristo replied, “Move.”

The phoenixes fought harder against their collars. Flames thrashed about and Lynx lashed out at the smaller phoenix to his left. Cristo allowed them to fan out across the painted track line, just enough for Savita to spread her wings without colliding into other feathers.

Kel moved without thinking. Though her legs felt heavy, she sprinted toward Sav, weaving between open beaks and wincing at the overbearing heat. She heard someone shout at her back, but she couldn’t make out the words through the growing, crackling flames.

Pressed between writhing flames and nipping beaks, Kel stopped, ignoring the heat biting her skin. A sob slipped from her throat.

Savita.

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