Page 100 of Flameborne: Fury
My eyes closed on the sight of Bren, clutched in Kgosi’s talons, screaming as my dragon lifted her out of my apartment like a child’s toy from a dollhouse.
~ BREN ~
‘Akhane! Help me! Help me! He’s going to kill me!’
‘I’m coming, Bren. But, Kgosi would never harm for no reason. What did you do, Little Flame? WHAT DID YOU DO?!’
Stars flashed in my vision as I struggled against the grip of those curled talons that pinioned my arms against my ribs and poked at my sides so deeply they drew blood.
“Kgosi,please!”I gasped. “I didn’t mean to—I didn’t—”
‘You discarded your mate. You severed the divine bond. InanyPair that is a desecration of the sacred. Yet yours is the deepest sin—againstyourmate andmyhuman. My Chosen. I am Primarch. Judgement is mine!’Kgosi roared in my head.
I sobbed and struggled, but couldn’t budge his grip on me. My heart sang with pain, and my lungs were hollow, each breath more shallow and gulping empty air.
“Please. Please, I don’t understand,” I gasped. “I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t trying to sever, only stop it pulling at me—”
Kgosi roared again and pulled me up, out of the building so I was level with his eye, and in that moment I saw death’s approach, certain he would drop me, and probably flame me as I fell. The fury in his amber eyes blazed hot enough to melt stone.
‘You wounded me and my mate, and severed your own. You lash out with fear and create pain for others, then plead for mercy. Well, your judgment has come. Plead your case, hatchling. The burden of the herd, and the future of your people have been given into my hands. Tell me now, Little Flame… Why should I let you draw another breath?’
41. Bond Breaker
~ BREN ~
I struggled and screamed, panted with ever-increasing panic that the next breath wouldn’t offer any air at all. And all around me, the world crashed and shook. Lights flashed on in the dark, voices shouted and the stone wall crumbled in pieces under Kgosi’s grip. But he didn’t so much as flicker an ear towards it.
I was high in the air, held up to his eye-level, unable to see back into the apartment anymore, andterrifiedthat I’d killed Donavyn.
“P-please, Kgosi. I’m s-so sorry!”
He opened his mouth and roared, the sound like an earthquake, making my very bones tremble. Then Akhane shrieked and I tried to turn, to look for her, to beg her to help. But I couldn’t move in his grip. And when I stopped trying, I was trapped as fully in his gaze as I was in the grip of his talons.
‘Speak,’Kgosi intoned.‘Speak on behalf of mercy. Speak for your mate. Speak any reason you can give why I should let you live, and heal him. Speak it, Little Flame.’
“Speak what?! I’ll say anything. I’ll mean it! But I already told you I didn’t mean to—”
‘A bond cannot be severed by one who wants it. To break that cord, your deepest heart must desire it. You abandoned your mate, Little Flame—you betrayed him to your soul!’
“But I didn’t know!”
‘SPEAK!’he roared in my head so loudly my vision shook.‘Speak the truth you fear, the panic you fight. Speak the part of you that you try so desperately to protect that you would harm your mate to achieve it!’
I gaped at him, tears rolling down my cheeks. I could hear Donavyn coughing, his breath wheezing. The wave of fear that he might diebecause of mewas so tangible, so painful, I sobbed on the next exhale and trembled from head to toe.
‘Speak, Little Flame. Or die.’
“I don’t know what—”
‘What do you protect? What do you guard? What makes you so desperately afraid that you would kill to save it?’
A cloud of steam and smoke billowed over me, leaving me coughing, eyes stinging and watering. I struggled, but Akhane shrieked in my head.
‘Don’t resist, Bren! His smoke will clear your head! Breathe and speak the truth!’Akhane called, shrieking as she landed on the roof of the building two dragon lengths away.
I drew in a clear breath. My heart still hammered in my chest, my blood still pulsed with abject terror. But I couldthink.And the moment my dragon reached for my mind with a rush of love and assurance and urgency, Iknew.I knew what I had to tell the furious Primarch who held me in his grip.
I turned from Akhane and made myself meet Kgosi’s blazing eye. “I-I’m afraid of him,” I croaked, the tears coming thick and fast now. Kgosi grunted and I flinched.
