Page 98 of Of Flame and Fury

Cristo’s eyes shined. Kel couldn’t see the person who had given her a new carving kit, who had promised her safety.

Kel wanted to spit at him—to scream, to cry.

But she refused to waste her anger—or the opening. When Cristo turned back toward the screen, Kel made her move.

She lurched for the pen and jumped toward Cristo. Shoving her elbow into his back, Cristo cried out, stumbling forward. With the weight she’d thrown at him, Kel lost her balance and toppled down on top of him.

They fell to the ground in a heap. Pain speared her hip, but she managed to climb onto Cristo as he began to crawl away. Pen in hand, she let him rise onto his knees. She maneuvered behind him and though he was strong, the second he felt the cool, sharp metal against his throat, he froze.

Kel half-expected a dozen armed soldiers to burst into the room. But nothing changed, nothing shifted, other than the pen as Kel tried to keep her hand steady.

“We’re going to walk out of here,” Kel spat. “And you’re going to take me to Savita.”

Kel jammed the pen deep enough into his throat that red beads flashed against the metal. “Do you understand?”

FORTY-TWO

Cristo raised his hands, as if in surrender.

Then, he sighed.

“I’m a dreamer, Kelyn. Not a fool.”

Faster than a phoenix strike, Cristo ducked his head, latched onto her arms and thrust her forward. The pen flew to the floor as Kel tumbled through the air, over Cristo. She landed in front of him with a hardthud. Her hip spasmed, sharp and hot. Black spots danced across her vision.

Kel sucked in thin, agonized gasps. Splayed on her back, she felt like someone had rammed her lungs with a hammer.

Cristo reached out a hand to her. “If we had more time, I believe I could convince you of my cause.”

She had no breath and no defense—and still, Kel fought. She flipped onto her hands and knees and crawled toward the pen, reaching it before Cristo.

She wanted to jump up, to stab Cristo wherever she could, to make him feel her pain, until he promised to free her family.

But Kel couldn’t grasp the pen.

She tried and tried, but her hands kept shaking. No matter how hard she focused, she couldn’t steady them enough to tighten around the pen. She flexed her knuckles and curled her fingers. The pen wasright there—

And then a boot kicked the pen from beneath her trembling fingers, and hands seized her, pulling her to her feet.

Two men stood behind her, restraining her arms. The lack of sleep, the fear, the rage—it was all catching up with her. The familiar static was in her head and the room spun around Cristo.

As he moved toward her, she spat, “You’re evil.”

Cristo shook his head. “The kindest people in this world think they’re the cruelest, and the cruelest think they’re the Alchemists themselves.” His jaw clenched. “I am neither cruel nor a god. I simply have the stomach for hard choices and the resources to find a cure.”

“At what cost?” Kel spat.

“For her, I’d bleed Salta dry.”

“Who?” Kel sneered, though the word turned to a yelp as one guard tightened his grip on her arms.

Cristo turned back to the screen and exited the file. With the guards holding her upright, Kel was forced to watch. The screen switched to a strange, annotated map of Cendor, covered in red and black dots. A large cluster of red hovered over Fieror, and a cluster of black just north of Vohre, in the forest. The red seemed to crowd Cendor and Ascira, while Ebrait and Dresva held most of the black.

The map was gone before Kel could decipher the annotations, the guards jostling her back toward the exit.

“Alchemists!Why tell me any of this if you’re just going to lock me up?” Kel screamed.

A muscle in Cristo’s jaw feathered. “Rahn convinced me that you and the other Howlers could be trusted. She wanted me to tell you all when you first signed your contracts.Contracts…” Cristo paused, “… that clearly state that if you reveal any of this to people outside Cristo Industries, you’ll be serving a prison sentence long enough that many phoenixes will live and die without your guidance.”

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