Akadian waved his hands and flames rolled their way around the perimeter of the chamber. Rising so high and fast they began to eat all the air in the room as it quickly filled with a thick, black smoke. The flames surged as though they had a life of their own, claiming everything they touched to ashes in a matter of moments, even the stone walls.
Wyldfire.
The smoke took no time filling the space, pushing down on them from above as his flames inched closer, hot on her back like liquid magma.
Ambrose tried to wield but between the heat forcing itself from every direction and the smoke stealing her breath away, she couldn’t focus enough to channel anything. Her eyes burned and she didn’t want to use her magick without knowing where it would land.
His flames raged higher and wider as they closed in on her.
Tendrils of fire scorched her back and she cried out as it touched her. Singeing her nerves to the bone.
She dropped to her knees where the air was cleaner.
Heat pulled into her chest with every breath she took and her head swam.
Lost in a sea of blue flames, she couldn’t see where Akadian was through her clouded vision.
She was going to die.
And Akadian was going to be the one to kill her.
She gasped but her lungs failed her.
A presence moved behind her that for so many months had given her comfort—and even now made her heart flutter with emotion. He might aswell have struck a dagger through her chest and pierced her heart.
He reached down and lifted her sputtering to her feet. Bringing her face level with his as his eyes flashed with victory.
“I told you I’d kill you,” he sneered and placed a warm hand on her chest. “You can’t escape this time. This is your end, Casimir.”
“No!” She couldn’t control it.
Couldn’t stop it.
Dark clouds formed and thundered above their heads as the walls around them shook. Purple-white hot streaks tore through the room around them, striking wherever they could.
The chair burst into flames when her lightning touched it.
The wall exploded and broke into pieces.
Her clouds grew into a swirling tempest as purple-white light clashed in every direction above.
Ambrose grabbed the second dagger from her side and plunged it straight into Akadian’s stomach. She kicked the hilt until it buried the entire blade into his abdomen.
One last strip of lightning, reached down from the storm above and hit Akadian directly where the dagger lay inside him.
His body convulsed, limbs bending back in horrible ways as purple-white light came from his open mouth and eyes—her lightning exploding inside of him. The thundering explosion that followed wasn’t enough to drown out her screams.
“No!” she cried, agony filling her as she watched his skin glow bright and purple.
A hole formed in her chest where she knew her heart should be as though it had just been ripped out. She grasped her chest as her screams filled the chamber but all she heard was the sound his body made when it hit the ground.
And didn’t move again.
Her storm clouds grew as heavy as the pain in her chest before rain came pouring down and washed away his fire just as it almost filled the entire chamber.
“Akadian!” Ambrose rushed to his side, hands shaking as she reached for a pulse.
His eyes didn’t open and his chest remained still.
