“Se-ra! Se-ra!” my brothers cried.
My heart raced. My breath escaped my clenched teeth in labored huffs. My body screamed with pain as the white flames raged through my arms, but I could not stop.
“Litlnadr,” Daigen’s voice was infuriatingly calm over the roar of my flames, “keep going.”
I hated him.Hatedhim.
I clenched my fists so tightly my fingernails cut my palms. Daigen needed to suffer. He needed to knowexactlywhat he robbed from me.
I pushed the rest of the burning fury through my throat. “I refused to loveanyonebecause they left me.”
Suddenly whatever was fueling my fire had run out. The flames extinguished as my magic quieted. My knees buckled and I collapsed to the floor.
My eyes fluttered open. A smoking ring of char on the stone floor surrounded me. Daigen’s wooden table had turned into a pile of ash. His iron tools were scattered through the remains and still glowing red. The Nordingaard crystal in the vise was a luminescent white.
The flutter of wings whispered near my ear. One of the ravens—one of mybrothers—landed in front of my face. As soon as he started preening wisps of hair off my sticky cheeks, I knew it was Erik.
Daigen stood over me with the handle of a wooden pail in his hand. “Feeling drained after your little tantrum?” He shook the pail and water sloshed within. “Good thing you emotionally exhausted yourself, I was afraid I was going to have to give you a bath.”
A loud squawk filled the air and the other raven—definitely Endre—flew toward Daigen with his talons out.
Daigen slammed the pail on the floor and shielded his face with his forearm. “I’m helping her, corpse reaver!”
I winced as Endre’s talons sank into his skin, but Daigen did not even blink as he lowered his arm to bring Endre to eye level. “I amhelping.”
Endre lowered his head and made a low sound like a growl. Erik croaked and Endre turned his head and croaked back.
Were they…talking to each other?
“I was going to let her find you, you didn’t have to interrupt me!” Daigen said to Endre.
Endre hissed, but lowered his hackles and released his grip on Daigen’s arm.
He fluttered to the floor and nuzzled his feathered head against my palm. I could not believe Endre was in front of me,touchingme, and being playfully affectionate again.
I snapped my eyes up to Daigen. “Change them back!”
“Can’t.” Daigen moved his index finger over his sleeve—his wounds from Endre’s talons had healed and he was stitching the torn wool back together with invisible magic. “It’s easy to convince the magic to turn men into animals, since…well, most menareanimals, but the other way around? I would have to know who they were as people tomakethem people again.”
My heart fluttered. Iknew who they were!
I placed my hand on Endre’s smooth feathers and shut my eyes, focusing on the tiny bits of magic in his body that sparkled in my mind’s eye.
Instead of letting rage fuel my power, I focused on memories of dark wavy hair and calloused hands. A dented dueling sword. Rude jokes our parents hated.
My whisper skated over my lips. “Please.Please come back.”
The tips of my fingers tingled, but I opened my eyes and only found the shining black eyes of a bird staring back at me, not Endre’s mossy green ones.
I huffed. Maybe Endre was just being stubborn. Typical.
I focused on Erik. I centered myself on the memories of his scolding voice as I snuck away from the manor past sunset, his charcoal sketches of the cat that lived in the kitchen, and him drawing my blankets over my shoulders on cold nights.
But my magic refused to cooperate.
I threw down my hands with a scream through my clenched teeth. “Nothing is happening!”
“Your flame is different from mine.” Daigen lowered his arm with the perfectly-repaired sleeve. “You don’t have the affinity for transformation, but you’ll develop the skill eventually.”
