“Defeated? Do I look defeated?” Quellos rises to a standing position over the narrow saddle of his flying contraption, boots snug in two footrests. He gestures to both sides, and the sunlight glints off his goggles. “The Queen of the Below keeps her promises, something your precious High Prince of Winter was incapable of. Voidseal Bridge will fall and the rest of Winter with it.”
I bare my teeth, claws gritting in the icy stone. “It was a mistake to leave you alive. One I won’t make again.”
“Oh, you can try to kill me, little prince. But I think I’ll add the life of another pitiful Autumn royal to my list of accomplishments.”
Fire flashes in my eyes, and each breath sears with the torrent rising within me. All I can hear are my mother’s last rattling breaths. This traitorous madman stole my mother from me. Stole her from Father and Billy and Dom and Nori.
I will have my retribution.
Yes, yes, Autumn blood, feel the rage. Let it flow through you. It carves a path for my flame. Together, we can destroy him?—
No, I tell the Green Flame.Perth Quellos will die by my hands, my flame, alone. I need no other magic but my mother’s.
Without giving Quellos or the Green Flame another moment to speak, I perch up on the bridge’s railing with my front legs, open my jaws, and roar. An explosion of fire surges out of my mouth. The heat melts the ice from the bridge and turns the surrounding air to steam.
Quellos yanks on his controls, his flying contraption jerking left and right before shooting up into the sky. My flame misses him as he skids over it, then slaps out a few embers that caught on his boot.
A jeering laugh escapes him. “Predictable as always! You princes never understood the art of nuance. Dare I say all smoke, no fire?”
“You want fire? I’ll give you an inferno.” Fireballs lob from my mouth, arcing out into the chasm. Quellos narrowly avoids each strike. That bastard. With that stupid mini airship, he’s out of range of my claws or teeth and too fast to hit with magic.
“I wonder how you would have thrived down Below if you were given such an opportunity as I to see the light. Or the dark, so to speak.” Quellos tugs something over his left hand. It’s a huge metal gauntlet, silver except for a large coil of green-tinged steel on the palm. “I have the freedom to explore so many things I would have been shunned for on the surface.”
“It’s the perfect place for a twisted person like you.”
“Take this beauty for example.” Quellos holds the gauntlet up to the light, admiring the sheen. “I could never hope to compare with the power of a high ruler as just a vizier. But with some Spring steel, fuel from the Green Flame, my prowess with ice magic, and a little creative engineering, I’m able to channel my skills with such a force that even Keldarion should fear to reckon with me.”
Show him who truly wields the Green Flame.
No. Not here. Not now.There are too many eyes around us. Besides, Quellos deserves to die by Autumn’s fire.
“Let’s test it,” Quellos says cheerily. He holds out his gauntlet, and a screeching, mechanical sound whirs to life. A bluish-green light radiates from his palm, and then a blast of ice magic careens toward me.
I leap to the left, but the ray grazes my shoulder, so cold it sears.
“Ooh, hoo-hoo!” Quellos jumps up and down on the narrow saddle. “Why, if I had this contraption during our assault on Coppershire, I could have taken your sweet mother’s life from across the battlefield. I wouldn’t have had to even soil my garments with her stinking Autumn blood.”
“You craven wretch.” The words thunder from me, my whole body shaking. Long, white marks are etched beneath my paws. “I’ll kill you!”
My true form rips out of the wolf’s. But where once was skin is now pure flame. My limbs ripple with fire, my hair is a matted inferno, and I feel like the very heart of a volcano itself.
Without thinking, I leap onto the railing of the bridge and jump into the air. Bursts of fire shoot from my palms, giving me thrust and allowing me to fly toward Quellos.
He gives a squawk of alarm and jerks on his controls to put more space between us.
With a guttural roar, I hurl a firebolt at him. It smashes into the nose of his flying contraption, causing it to dip before Quellos straightens it out.
He flashes a toothed grin, his blue-stained lips stretched thin. “Yes, yes, come to me, great high ruler. Like you came for me outside Coppershire. Remind me, how did that go for you again?”
I throw both hands out, blasting a powerful beam of fire. He holds up the gauntlet and shoots out his own icy ray. Our powers smash together, exploding on impact.
“That’s right!” Quellos laughs. “I rammed your mother’s own lance through her heart. I still remember the resistance of her ribs. How I had to push a little harder to get them to crack open. I wonder how deeply she suffered before she died. It must have been excruciating.”
I have no words. I can only scream, hurling fireball after fireball toward him. His flying contraption moves like a mosquito, jolting left and right to avoid my blasts.
My body jerks through the air. I’m losing altitude. Too much firepower in my assault. I need more combustion to keep me afloat.But I have to kill him first.With another roar, I send a fire spinning up at his contraptions. It hits him head-on. His propellors stall, then choke to life, but the front of his contraption has a thick column of smoke puffing out of it.
Quellos yanks on a few levers behind him, gaining altitude. “What anger for such a gentle boy! I can only imagine the hatred you carry in your heart for yourself. You’re the one who let her die, after all. Isn’t the high ruler supposed to protect his family?”
