“Gods help us…”
Through the bond, Elowen’s breath catches. I feel the exact moment the weight of their fear begins to settle onto her shoulders again. She had tried to hold it together for them, tried to stand calmly beneath their accusations, tried to protect them even when they bound her hands.
And now they look at her like a monster.
“Elowen,” I murmur quietly.
But the tension in the bond sharpens.
Ravik is still staring at us. The terror on his face has twisted into something ugly again as he glances toward the villagers gathering behind him.
“You see what she’s done?” he shouts suddenly. “Look at it! Look what she brought here!”
His voice rises with desperate fury.
“My son is burned, my shed is ash, and now there’s a demon standing in our yard!”
A frightened cry breaks from somewhere in the crowd. Another lantern drops. This one shatters. The oil ignites instantly where it spills across the dry grass near the cottage wall, a thin line of mortal fire spreading outward across the ground.
Several villagers scream. The sudden flames leap higher as the oil catches. I feel the exact moment Elowen sees it. The terror that floods her thoughts is immediate and absolute. Not fear for herself. Fear for them. Because she knows what happens when panic takes hold. Because she knows what the bond does when she believes people are about to burn.
“Elowen,” I say sharply.
But she is already staring at the spreading fire with wide, horrified eyes. This time far worse than before. Because now she believes the entire village is about to burn. And the power bound to her terror begins to answer.
19
ELOWEN
The screams tear through the square like a blade. For one suspended moment I do not understand what I am seeing. The flames that began as a thin spill of lantern oil have leapt outward in a rush, licking hungrily across the dry grass and the wooden beams of the nearest buildings.
The night fills with sudden heat and chaos as villagers stumble backward in confusion, their earlier anger dissolving into frantic panic. Someone knocks over another lantern in their haste, and the fragile line between accident and catastrophe shatters instantly.
Fire spreads faster than thought.
A man near the square cries out as sparks catch the hem of his coat. The fabric ignites with terrifying speed, flames racing upward along his sleeve as he tries desperately to beat them out with his hands. The smell of burning cloth and smoke fills the air, thick and choking, and the sound of terrified shouting rises all around me.
The bond explodes.
The terror rushing through my chest feels like a living thing clawing its way free as the sight of those flames sears itself intomy mind. Every instinct in my body screams the same thought over and over again.
They are burning. Someone is going to die. His power answers immediately.
The heat surging through the tether no longer feels like the warmth I once learned to control. It roars through my veins with force, responding to my fear before my thoughts can catch up with it. I feel it gathering beneath my skin, rising like a storm breaking through the surface of deep water.
“No,” I whisper.
The word trembles as it leaves my mouth. Across the square another building ignites. And now this is my fault. This fire is started by me.
The fire spreads across the roof of the cooper’s shop with terrifying speed, the dry timber catching instantly as the power races outward through the village like lightning striking oil-soaked ground. Flames surge upward in great twisting columns that paint the night sky orange and gold.
People begin to run. The square dissolves into complete chaos as villagers scatter in every direction, their frightened cries echoing through the streets as more sparks leap from roof to roof. The abyssal flame does not behave like normal fire. It moves with frightening purpose, devouring wood and straw faster than any ordinary blaze should allow.
I feel exactly why. My fear feeds it.
“Oh gods,” I breathe.
A woman screams somewhere to my left as part of a roof collapses inward with a thunderous crash. A man tries desperately to drag a water barrel toward the spreading flames, but the heat is already too intense for him to approach.
