I try to push myself up. My hands tremble, slipping against the stone. I make it to my knees and wipe the sweat from my forehead, staring up at the Flame.
“Your. Name.” It roars the words, impatient flames licking the vaulted ceiling.
“Ada Temperance Acevedo.”
The Flame contracts. Settles. When it speaks again, its voice is almost soft.
“State your bargain.”
Heart rattling, I sink back on my heels. The Flame towers above me, ancient and patient, and I have never felt so small.
I have no idea what I'm supposed to say. I've never made a bargain in my life. The Veritas Order forbids them. Stories of those who bargained with gods and lost everything are whispered like warnings in the dark.
“Your bargain,” the Flame repeats. The words slither through the chamber.
“I want to …” My voice breaks. I swallow and try again. “I need to save my brother. I'll do anything. Please.”
The Flame swells. Contracts. A sound escapes it, low and rumbling. Almost like laughter.
“That is a foolish way to make a bargain with a god.”
Cold dread pools in my stomach as the weight of my words settles over me.I'll do anything.I've just handed this creature a blade and bared my throat. But it doesn't matter.
There is no sacrifice too great. No cost too high. Not for Jordi. Desperation is its own kind of madness. And I am drowning in it.
The Flame sways, slow and hypnotic. Its heat caresses my skin like a warning.
“Such gifts in one vessel.” The voice curls through the chamber, ancient and knowing. “Empathy. Serephony. Flame-summoner.”
A pause. The fire crackles. Waits.
“And the one you've buried so deep you've almost forgotten it exists.”
My blood goes cold. The air in my lungs thins.
“The Sages taught you to lock it away.” The Flame flickers, and I swear I feel it looking at me. Into me. Through me. “But you cannot bury what you are, child. You cannot outrun your own blood.”
It stills. The silence that follows presses against my ears like a hand over my mouth.
“Interesting.” The word is barely a whisper now, soft as ash. “What are these Sages playing at, I wonder.”
Something in its tone makes my skin crawl. As if it knows things about me that I don't. As if it's been waiting for me to stumble into this chamber all along.
“I don’t?—”
“Has your brother told you what he's done?”
The question lands like a stone in still water. I clasp my hands tighter. Shake my head.
“Speak, child,” it roars.
I flinch. “No.”
The Flame sways again, slow and entrancing. I feel myself leaning toward it without meaning to. Toward the warmth. The light. The answers it's dangling just out of reach.
“Would you like to know before you make this bargain?”
I force myself to look away. “It wouldn't make a difference.”
