My blades land where the creature’s neck meets its shoulder. It skids to a stop at the tree line and howls. The sound isn’t one of pain, and it makes my hair stand on end. Dread shivers through me. Gleaming yellow eyes lock on mine, and in that instant, I know Mother lost control.
The flaming monster pivots and smashes into the nearest tree. The dark bark sparks and glows, catching fire. Red and orange lick higher, crawling up the ancient tree trunk and then exploding through the dense canopy above. The sudden roar is deafening. Cracking wood. Pulsing air. The rush of fire through healthy green leaves. The hottest, most dangerous magical flames known to man snap through the forest like twisting acrobats. Within seconds, the entire far side of the clearing goes up in a pounding blaze.
I gasp, and Dragon’s Breath explodes from my mouth like someone reached down my throat and ripped it all out. Pain sears my insides. I clamp down and wrap my arms around my middle, but it’s too late. My Dragon’s Breath is gone, and the destruction in front of me turns into total devastation.
I stumble back and bump into Griffin. My mouth tastes of ash. My throat burns, and an acrid exhalation is all that’s left of the greatest weapon I’ve ever possessed.
Griffin steadies me. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” I swallow, my throat so raw it hurts. “It feels like my guts were pulled out. I lost the magic.”
Mother’s creatures don’t move. They seem to be waiting. Watching.Did she get control back?Everything burns around them, red-hot and glowing. Flames jump from tree to tree, moving up our sides as Dragon’s Breath attacks the woods around the clearing. High above, branches pop. The trees whoosh and whirl. Everything is red, yellow, and orange, and my eyes are so huge they burn along with the forest.
“I have to stop it!” I try to latch back on to the magic as my lungs fill with heat and smoke. Nothing happens. Itignoresme.
“Leave it!” Griffin shouts. “Let’s go!”
I shake my head and concentrate, blocking Griffin out. Finally, after what feels like a dozen ground-down teeth and three buckets of sweat, a smoldering bough groans, and its flames dip toward me. I pull harder, willing my fire back from wood and leaves and burning space. I can steal magic. I can take it from a person. If I’m close enough, I can grab it out of thin air.
The strain is tremendous. My ears start to ring, and the heat is like a constant punch in the face. Dragon’s Breath continues to devour the treetops, and the fire I caught doesn’t complete its arc to me. The magic isn’t obeying me.At. All.
On my left, Flynn suddenly slams into Carver, shoving him hard seconds before a flaming branch hits the ground where Carver just stood. The fallen bough erupts in a shower of sparks, catching Flynn’s pants on fire.
I drop to my knees and smother the fire with my bare hands. There’s the initial, searing pain of the burn, and then my body reclaims the Dragon’s Breath and heals. Small dose. Direct contact. Easy, if painful.
Flynn’s pants are in tatters. His skin is an angry red, and there are blisters around his knees.
Grim-faced, he hauls me to my feet. “That’s the third time you’ve kept me from burning.”
I dart a look around the clearing, fear choking me like the fire. “Don’t speak too soon.”
Grunting in answer, Flynn tosses me at Griffin, who grabs my wrist and yanks.
“Run! Now!” Griffin barks over the raging inferno.
Mother’s creatures still haven’t fled, like they don’t fear the fire. I stumble after Griffin as he hauls me toward the horses. Panotii’s eyes roll so wildly I see more white than brown. He tosses his head, yanking at the grip Kato has on his reins.
I glance over my shoulder. My face hurts. My lungs feel scorched. “We can’t outrun this. It’s Dragon’s Breath. It won’t stop until there’s nothing left to burn.” I pull on my wrist. “I have to stop it. I can!”
Griffin abruptly swings around, and we nearly collide. A flickering bronze, his eyes reflect the firelight. A muscle jerks in his jaw, but he releases his hold on me.
Turning, I fling both hands into the air with a shout I can barely hear over the bellow of the fire, my fingers outstretched and reaching for the magic. I pull so hard that flames rush down and engulf my arms. The shot of agony shakes loose my hold on most of what I’ve gathered, and the time to reclaim the magic, heal from the burn, and then adjust to the surge of power costs me the initial battle.
My stomach drops. Calling the fire back to me won’t work. There’s too much, and it’s too powerful. But I think I know what to do now—even if I don’t like it.
“Keep back!” I shout as I catch more flames with a ferocious mental yank and then slam them into the barren dirt where there’s nothing left to burn. The fire writhes, a living thing, searching the charred grass for something to consume. Finding nothing, it burns itself out.
Grimly satisfied with my method, even if it means losing the magic, I do it again, and again, until I’m shaking with fatigue. Choking black smoke rolls over me. I drag more fire from the trees, piercing the growing darkness with glowing streaks and riddling the clearing with craters. The scene is apocalyptic. There’s not enough air.
I don’t take my eyes off the firestorm. If I can just concentrate hard enough, be strong enough, the magicwillobey me. It has to.
A powerful arm bands around my middle, and Griffin drags me backward. I dig in my heels, and my boots leave twin scars as they scrape through the ash. Flames snap boldly, and I lose another tree to the fire.
“We’re almost boxed in,” Griffin shouts, his voice hoarse from smoke. “It’s over!”
“We’ll never outrun it!” I cry. “You’re wasting time!”
“Thereisno time.” Beads of sweat roll down his temples and trace the line of his jaw, leaving streaks in the soot. Magic and nature’s grim war paint.
