Conjured from my rage, fire erupted, engulfing the looters and burning them to ashes. Flames spread on to the things scattered around. The clothes, the baskets, the destroyed bed where I’d learned what happiness was with Elaine sleeping peacefully in my arms—all of it went up in flames before I could even comprehend where the fire had come from.
Thick and viscous like molten lava, flames churned around me in a twister, scorching the black walls of the cave. Heat rushed me, licking up my wings and blowing out my hair. But the fire didn’t burn me. I felt no pain. Even my skirt remained untouched.
I dove down to the sparkle of gold on the ground—Elaine’s eyeglasses dropped by the looter just before the fire consumed him. She wouldn’t have left without her glasses, not by her own will.
Rage flared anew, bursting out of me with another roar and a blast of flames.
Myflames.
Just like the wings, the tail, and the claws, the flames were another sign of the poison still taking over my body. Another part of me had been lost, turned into the beast that was slowly killing me. Only this time, I felt no loss because I’d gained a weapon better than any sword.
Elaine had been taken, and whoever took her was going to burn.
I emerged from the flames that had fully engulfed the cave now. Black smoke clung to my wings, trailing behind me like a mantle.
As the early dawn bled gold across the tide, Prince Rha’s army fought the mob of city dwellers in a well-coordinated effort. With the prince himself on one end of the beach and General Oskura leading the charge on the other, they moved ahead, forcing the thugs to retreat to the Wall or pushed them out into the ocean.
The prince would get his wish with sunrise. The City of Ashgate would finally be his.
And I had yet to find my woman.
According to the letter Tobis had received, Mazra was the one who had Elaine. Or at least, she was the one whom Tobis had to find in Ashgate if he wished to see Elaine. Except that Mazra wasn’t easy to find if she didn’t want to be found.
Ray on the other hand… Ray’s cave was right here, on the very top level of the Wall, with the best view of the city and the beach. If he didn’t have Elaine, he would surely know enough to tell me where she was, even if I had to claw that information out of him.
The doors to Ray’s cave were closed, and I didn’t knock. With a blast of fire, I set them aflame, then shoved against them, bursting them open. Inside, no one ran to fight me. The front room was empty. Ray’s guards weren’t there, either trying to fight Prince Rha’s invasion on the beach below or more likelyrunning deeper into the labyrinth of caves inside the cliff to save their hides.
With no one to stop me, I flew to Ray’s bedroom. Inside, the bedding and dishes were strewn over the floor, as if this place had also been ransacked by looters. Ray wasn’t here either, and neither was the female Joy Vessel. The human man snored under the blankets on the bed, asleep. The Joy Vessel was completely alone, and I couldn’t leave him here.
Grabbing the man along with the blankets, I shoved him under my arm.
Jerking awake, the human panicked.
“No!” he screamed, fighting my grip.
“Keep still,” I told him. “I’m saving you from the fire.”
“What fire?” He looked around wildly.
“This one.” I blew out a breath, and the flames appeared as if summoned by magic,mymagic.
My dragon magic.
For once, I embraced what I was. A man, a fae, a dragon—I felt them all.
Iwasthem all.
With every new blast of fire, a cathartic relief flooded my limbs. I felt the aching need to burn this city to the ground, and now I had the means to make it happen.
The flames engulfed the messy bed, the rugs, the blankets scattered on the floor, and the rotten food that had been left lying around. Fire clung to the stone walls, in hunger for more to consume. It found the wooden doors to the bedroom and burst out, spreading beyond the bedroom cave.
I reveled in the heat of the flames I’d created. But the human screamed under my arm, struggling to get away. I heaved him higher up under my armpit and flew out of the bedroom. I found the inner doors to Ray’s cave and kicked them open. A draftpulled past me, sucking the flames deeper into the tunnels like a chimney.
Tossing my head up I exhaled a long, hot stream of fire up to the ceiling. It curled and churned, cloaked into a cloud of black thick smoke, then slinked down the corridor, sucked deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of the caves.
“Burn Ashgate!” I roared.
The human coughed. No longer fighting me, he hung limply over my arm.
