Page 83 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
The room fell silent for a moment to take in the formidable sight.
“Hello, Uncle,” Maez said, her face tight, her voice cold.
Nero only smiled at her menace. He opened his mouth to say something, but Maez’s hands shot out and her magic blew him backward. Caution morphed his arrogant face as if he was surprised Maez didn’t allow him to speak.
Green lightning stabbed at Nero from every direction, a zipping ball of static surrounding him, but not a single blast penetrated the swirling air that encircled him. He grimaced, opening his balled fists and pushing his hands forward as emerald sparks shot out, knocking into Maez. She growled, gritting her teeth, holding her hands out in mirror to Nero’s own as her feet skidded backward toward the edge of the blood-slicked dais.
A figure stood amongst the field of corpses, so coated in gore I didn’t recognize her at first. But then she brushed her red hair over her bare shoulder to tumble down her back.
“Briar!” I called.
I was only able to take a single step toward her before three Silver Wolves ran at us. Grae jumped in front of me, sword drawnas he caught a Wolf in the side and then turned to the other while I finished off the third.
As I yanked my blade from the Wolf’s side, I watched as Briar turned to me, her expression pinched, her eyes bloodshot. I could tell from the way her brows knit together that she was crying. She gave me one single look, placing her hand over her heart, before turning toward the dais and limping toward her mate.
“No,” I sobbed.
The ground rumbled as the dragon flew past the rubble of the now-missing wall, circling back toward us again. Grae grabbed me just in time, throwing me to the ground and shielding me with his body as the dragon barreled into the hallway, piercing another hole into the palace. Fire ignited in every direction—the carpets, the tapestries. A hole in the roof above us caved in, blocking our way to the far end of the great hall.
I scrambled to my feet, searching for Briar, but the pile of stones was too tall. I climbed up the crumbling heap of debris two steps before my feet slid out from under me and Grae pulled me back.
“We need to get out of here before that dragon brings the whole place down,” he shouted.
I lifted on my tiptoes, barely getting a peek of Maez and the feral green fire that burned all around her now. Her face was tight with pain, her posture stooped, and I knew in my gut that she was losing this battle. That she was more experienced with the magic, but that Nero was simply stronger—in his madness, if nothing else.
But then I looked around and realized it wasn’t madness. It was the blood—the deathshe’dcaused. He was more powerful because he had been more indiscriminate. More ruthless.
More of a monster.
A retinue of Olmderian guards began climbing through the blasted hole in the wall to my right and I barked orders to them to remove the rubble. Despite their frightened expressions, they did as I said.
“Calla,” Grae snapped, but I was already moving rubble with my raw, cracked hands. My mate let out a curse from behind me and jumped to my side to help move the debris.
We were all getting out of this together or not at all. I wasn’t leaving my twin to die in this place. She had come to my aid, and there was no way I wasn’t going to hers.
A scream rent the air, and I looked between the walls of rubble to see a bolt of lightning hit Maez square in the chest and she tumbled off the dais. Nero laughed, stalking forward, summoning another wave of power to end her.
Dread gripped me as I watched him lift his hands, knowing that when they fell, Maez’s life would end along with any hope of us surviving.
But when Nero lifted his hands to the sky, a flash of brilliant lightning struck him from behind, not of emerald... but of crimson. The rest of the wall in front of me crumbled to reveal the source of the rogue dark magic:
Briar.
She stood on the dais behind Nero, a flow of churning green siphoning off from Maez and morphing into scarlet as it poured out of my twin. She was taking Maez’s magic and turning it into something else entirely.
“What in the Gods... ,” I whispered, horrified, as Briar seemed to draw the sorceress’s power into her, using herself as a conduit to shoot at Nero.
Maez stood on wobbling legs, blood trailing from her nose and ears. Her magic sputtered, barely a spark, but she shot it at Nero’s other side. He stood in the middle of the dais, pulled in either direction by Briar’s and Maez’s magic, his teeth bared, clearly in pain.
But he didn’t drop.
Sweet Moon, it still might not be enough. After all the deaths by his hand, he was so fueled with dark magic, even their combined power might not be enough to fell him.
I kept moving stones, revealing another familiar face in the walls between us.
“Mina!” I tried to reach for her hand and pull her over the rubble, but she slipped. “Grae, help me!” Before he could reach her, a soldier appeared, one in Damrienn garb. “Look out!”
Mina whirled toward her attacker as he lifted his sword aloft and charged.
