Page 114 of A Reign of Chromes & Shadows

She took one look at him; pale, sweat-slicked, eyes dull with fatigue and nodded.

Rose and Short settled at their safe distance. The others set up a small camp. Rain joined them, Scarlet clinging to his arm as she walked beside him. Her energy was soft now; curious, trusting, safe.

He pulled a hammock from his pack, tying it between two trees with a flick of power. He lifted Scarlet into it, tucking her in like a child. She sighed, quickly drifting back into a deep sleep.

Rain lay down beneath her, head resting on his pack.

Sleep swallowed him whole.

Screams tore through the air.

Rain jolted upright, heart slamming into his throat. A vine of flame whipped past his face, inches from his eyes, glowing red and pulsing with lethal heat. His green irises reflected the fire, blazing like emerald embers.

He scrambled backward, breath catching as he took in the scene.

Chaos.

Flames and smoke billowed overhead; Scarlet’s handiwork. She hung limp in the hammock, unconscious again, her power having erupted upward in a vertical blast.

Briar stood in the centre of the clearing, teeth bared, panting like a cornered animal. Two flaming vines extended from her bound hands; one wrapped around Vass, who convulsed violently, the other around Glass, who gasped and clawed at the air.

Renn clutched Ember tightly, both of them wide-eyed with terror.

Hamish had a gun trained on Briar’s head.

Short had a knife pressed to Vass’s throat; ready to end him and his suffering.

Rose cowered behind her, trembling, her power flickering in panicked waves.

Rain rose to his feet, every muscle coiled, every sense sharpened.

Rain understood the situation instantly.

Hamish’s gun.

Briar’s vines.

Vass convulsing.

Glass choking.

Rose terrified.

Scarlet unconscious.

Ember shaking.

All of it, a powder keg seconds from detonation.

He reacted before thought could catch up.

With a violent flick of power, he ripped the gun from Hamish’s hand, sending it skidding across the dirt. At the same time, he yanked Briar into the air, her small body jerking upward with a startled cry. Her vines vanished instantly, severed by panic.

Rain slammed her wrists behind her back and pinned her to the nearest tree.

Then he flung Vass off his feet, hurling him into the trunk beside her. The impact rattled the bark. Vass gasped, pinned so tightly he couldn’t twitch a muscle.

Rain stalked toward them, thunder raging in his eyes.