“I’ll do what I can.”
The words are clipped. Almost grudging.
But they’re a yes.
“Thank you,” I start, but he cuts me off.
“You need to return to your room.” He sets the blade back in its place and turns to face me. “If your roommate wakes up and finds your bed empty, she’ll have questions.”
Jade.
Who I can’t tell any of this to.
The secret lodges in my throat like I swallowed it wrong.
“Right.” I swing my legs over the edge of the mattress. “I’ll use my heat sensing ability to sneak around, like I did to get to the Crown.”
“That’s too slow. Too risky.” He crosses toward me, and my heart rate spikes. “I’ll fire travel you to Phoenix Hall. You can use your heat tracking to make it inside undetected.”
He stops in front of the bed. The dawn light catches the sharp angles of his face, the deep green of his eyes, the tattoos that trail down his arms and disappear beneath the waistband of his?—
Focus, Evie. Missing brother. Inappropriate thoughts about combat instructor. Priorities.
“Come here.” He extends a hand.
I reach for it automatically, my fingers brushing his palm. Then, I stop.
Because I’ve never been able to fire travel before. It’s an advanced skill most witches never master. But that wasbeforemy magic was amplified by the Crown.
“Evie?” Kieran stares me down, impatience burning in his eyes. “We have to go.”
“Give me a second.” I pull my hand back and close my eyes.
Fire travel. The theory is simple enough—I’ve read about it extensively. You call on your magic, visualize your destination, and let the flames carry you through the space between. The execution is where most witches fail. It requires a level of magical power and control that doesn’t come naturally to most.
But I’m not most witches anymore, am I?
So, I reach for the flame that every witch carries in their core.
It answers immediately, brighter and hungrier than ever.
I picture the back entrance of Phoenix Hall, where the hedge grows wild enough to cast deep morning shadows against the weathered stone. Ivy climbs the walls in tangled patterns, andthere’s a patch of darkness near the foundation where even the sharpest observer would miss a person standing still.
Then, I reach.
The world dissolves into heat, and then my body’s made of flame, my consciousness stretched across the distance between Kieran’s room and my destination.
A second later, I’m solid again.
I stumble as my feet hit grass, catching myself against the cool stone wall of Phoenix Hall. The morning air is crisp against my skin, carrying the salt-smell of the ocean and the sulfur of the volcano.
I did it.
I actually did it.
A laugh bubbles up in my throat—slightly hysterical, and definitely inappropriate given everything that happened tonight. But I can’t help it. I just fire traveled. Me, Evie Thorne, the bookish one, the forgettable one, the fourth copy of the Thorne template.
I fire traveled on my first try.
