Page 141 of By the Flames of Her Fury

More arrows shot across the chamber, right where she’d been standing. These were charged with lightning magic and left smoke in their wake.

“Okay,” Sloane said slowly. “Any other ideas?”

“Why don’t I just fly again?” I spread my wings and lifted into the air, but the runes weren’t only on the floor. As soon as I gained height, the ceiling flashed in warning, red symbols lighting up among the stalactites. Blades burst from slits in the ceiling, slicing through the air in intersecting arcs. Steel flashed inches from the tips of my flaming feathers before retracting again.

I crashed back to the ground with a grunt.

“Well,” Tessa said, staring upward and clicking her tongue, “that answers that.”

“Wait, do that again,” Sloane exclaimed. Her gaze was fixed on the tile nearest me. “Flash your wings.”

I did as the rebel requested. I lifted my wing over the row of tiles closest to us, and flames danced across my feathers. One of the tiles directly beneath it flared gold.

Sloane grinned. “I think it likes you, Lightbringer.”

I extended my wings as far as they would go without me stepping on a tile, and several more turned gold in response. “I wonder…” Summoning more phoenix fire, I shot a stream of bright orange and red flames over the entire chamber. In return, tile upon tile lit gold, creating a path in the floor that led from where we stood to the opposite side of the room.

“It’s the heat,” I said.

“No,” Sloane countered. “It’s the light. Your light.” She looked at me. “The Elders may be soulless murderers, but they were right about one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You really are our only hope.”

I diverted my gaze back to the pattern before us. “Let’s just get this over with.” Keeping my fire outstretched ahead of us, I carefully stepped on the first golden tile and held my breath.

Nothing happened.

“Promising start,” Tessa said.

When no magical arrows shot at me, I moved to the next one. Tessa followed, with Sloane close on her heels, making sure they only touched the tiles I did. The chamber filled with the sounds of crackling fire, boots scraping stone, and our heavy breaths.

Halfway across, my fire flickered. I furrowed my brow, forcing more power into the blaze, but it was as if something was snuffing it out. A chill spread across the chamber. With no warning, my fire sputtered out completely.

Darkness fell over us. The golden runes disappeared, leaving us stranded.

“Why’d you stop?” Tessa asked.

“I didn’t. It just went out.” I wracked my brain, trying to remember the pattern. There had been one just to the left, and then straight ahead, and then to the right…

I jumped to the left. The air was silent. But when I stepped forward to the next one, the rune flashed bright red, then went dark.

“That doesn’t seem good,” Sloane muttered.

I forced both their heads down as a lightning arrow whipped above us, but the motion caused us to stumble onto several other tiles. A rumble shook the cavern. The ceiling shifted and glowed, bringing down more blades that sliced right above our heads. The runes on the floor flashed wildly, red then gold then orange. Tiles behind us dropped away to reveal a black pit below.

“Run!” Tessa screamed.

I lunged forward, barely clearing the edge before the row behind me disappeared. We were only a few rows from the end. Sloane struggled beside me, so I grabbed her elbow and pushed her forward, and we both stumbled over the last row.

An earsplitting scream sounded behind us. I whipped around to see Tessa dangling over the abyss, clawing at the last row of tiles. “Tessa!” I shrieked. I dove to my stomach to grab her arm, but it was too late.

The final tiles crumbled and fell away. Tessa’s head disappeared, along with her strangled cry.

“No!” All the air left my lungs as I screamed. I summoned my wings to plunge after her. My feet were almost off the ledge when I saw it.

Tessa swung a few feet below, held by nothing but bronze fingertips buried in the side wall.