With his command, a spray of Furtig-fueled fire streaked across the night.
Celia, Ragnor, and Luvic stood in a triangle formation, back-to-back. They twisted their hands, covering themselves in an ocean of water. It evaporated in great gasps of steam. Just as quickly as the fire consumed the water, they created more.
The water doused the fire.
The fire evaporated the water.
The air was thick with steam. It was so hot that pink blisters started to form on their skin.
Celia gasped and changed her water to sheets of ice.
“Jacob,” she gasped. She grabbed her crystal necklace. “Jacob!” Then she conjured a glacier, holding Jagger’s Furtig and blood fire back.
This fire burned hotter than any fire on earth. It was more potent than the magma that swirled beneath the ocean’s surface. It was hungrier than the lava that clawed free of erupting volcanos. It was—Jagger claimed—an unquenchable, unbearable flame.
The Bards encased themselves in sheets of ice. The horror swarmed the glacier-blue shield.
Jagger laughed, enjoying their terror.
Last, seeing her brother on his back, jumped down from her hill and sprinted across the darkness. The horror’s larvae were inching across the pavement toward his still form.
She slammed to her knees next to him.
I spun at the whistle of a blade and ducked. The edge of it sliced off the end of my braid.
The cruel Finn had found a sword.
He laughed. “Hello, Mari. Having fun?”
He lunged, and my Finn knocked him aside. They rolled across the ground, the horror chasing after them.
It was the most vicious fight I’d ever seen. I’d thought Darin and Finn fighting was a terrifying thing, but this? It was two warriors with the same strengths and no weaknesses.
No one could fight like Finn.
Except . . . Finn.
The flame of Jagger’s creatures grew into a hell-like heat.
The bitumen stung my eyes. The acrid smoke clawed at my throat.
Inside the melted ice, Celia screamed.
It was more than pain.
It was more than horror.
It was?—
I dropped to my knees. I cried out and curled inward, grabbing my chest.
The thread that had tied me to Jacob snapped free. It ripped out of me with so much force I could’ve sworn I was bleeding.
I screamed, clutching at the empty hole where the shining thread had been.
The tie to my brother yanked out of me. The rope severed. The connection snapped.
I fell to the ground, my cheek hitting the sidewalk. I rolled into myself, hugging my knees to my chest.
