"So what? My skin burns the same as anybody else’s. Whether it’s an accident or I light the flame myself, it’s stillexcruciating."
I flinched, unable to help it, because I’d soon find out.
Kyle saw and shook his head. “What’s even worse is dealing with the burns afterward. It’s better you won’t experience that, trust me. You don’t have what it takes."
Yep, Kyle totally judged me here. Judged me, found me lacking, and yet wasstillgoing to sacrifice me anyway. He was totally fucking wrong too.
"I’m stronger than you,” I swore. “I’ve survived worse than you and I could survive this too."
"Bullshit." Kyle started turning away to go back to work. It seemed like he was preparing multiple places to start fires at.
"I could live." Hold on a moment. "It’s not up to you, is it? Not normally. You only light the flame, not control it. The fire does the rest." That’s what Rob said.
"Yeah, but—"
"You wanna use me as a sacrifice, but what if I have what it takes to survive the flames? Wouldn’t you be better off with me as a partner?"
He went still for a single second before shaking it off and laughing. "Nah, you don’t wanna be my friend. You’re desperately trying to save yourself."
"I want to survive. I might not know about power, but I know about that.” I stared him down, not flinching at all this time. “Survival isn’t pretty. You have to do things you never thought to make it out alive."
"Bullshit. How can you partner with me if you can’t even save yourself?"
"You might be a mage, but I’m not. I can barely access my other side on a good day.” Now I smirked like I was the one in control. “I hope you’re stronger than you look because my bet? You’ll be overwhelmed before you even make it out of this building, long before you’re close to rescuing your friends."
"Bullshit." Sounded a lot less convincing that time.
"Try me,” I challenged. “If I survive, it’s now two against the rest. That’s more than you had before. If I fail, you still get to sacrifice me, right?"
…
"Ah!"
The sudden heat around my midsection surprised me more than anything. Kyle threw a jet of flame at me. Without the freedom to bat out the flames, the heat worsened until the fire went out, burning my shirt.
"Sure." Kyle grinned. “It’s your funeral. Probably.”
The next flame near my wrist caused me to jump but there was nowhere to go. The sensation ended even faster because he hadn’t used his magic that time. He flicked open a silver lighter and held the single flame near my skin, going up and down my wrist and forearm. The flame almost felt welcome in the drafty building until he brought it closer and closer to my skin, the temperature quickly becoming too much.
To do this, he was right up close, watching with amusement and a raised eyebrow, like waiting to see what I’d do next. Maybe testing me to see if I meant my words or would try something with him this close.
I grit my teeth, enduring the flame another few seconds, though when it directly licked against my wrist I cursed, “Fuck, you’re toying with me.”
“Everybody in the coven earned many of their burns before the induction brand.” A mark on his shoulder burned, reminding me of the tattoo the other man had, a strange and nasty burn/brand of charred skin infused with magic and fire. “You’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
The next blast of fire came from his magic lighting up the skin of my other arm.The agony has a purpose,I reminded as sweat dripped down my forehead and my body jerked and twitched, trapped and longing to escape. Either he lit me up in a quick blaze, or he spread it out and inducted me and I had a shot, a hope, I just…
“You don’t look so good,” Kyle said. I was sweating profusely and my panting breaths came so fast they nearly choked me. I did not feel remotely good, for obvious reasons. “Come on! You’re lucky I only need to add a little bit of magical fire to the infernal offering. You’rereallylucky I left the blowtorch at home. Toughen up. This is nothing.”
Kyle hoped to gain power from this perverse ritual. He used his own magic sparingly, conserving most of his strength. Only to signal his intentions for this blaze and when he couldn’t help himself, only to make the flames grow quicker. This was a small fraction of how bad it would get if he, say, poured on the gas and then torched me.
I’d toughed out broken bones in the basement before. I lived through hell on earth, came out the other side, and started putting together a life for myself. This situation sucked out loud and completely terrified me, but the really messed up part was that I already knew for a fact none of thiscame closeto the worst I could handle.
So why did I feel like I could barely take much more of this? Something was wrong.
As he waved the flame around me in a taunt, it clicked.Thiswas what I saw in my visions.
I felt it then.
