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He was tired of the charade now, and Hammer huffed. Sparks flew from his nostrils before he opened his muzzle as wide as it could go.
Hammer exhaled then and watched as the world burned.
Burning to death was not the best way to go. Smoke inhalation is certainly preferable. But burning was horrible. There was a reason that the human hell was a place of fire.
It was the worst thing that the ancients could come up with for their sinners.
Because when you burned,everythingburned.
Your skin, your muscles, your nerves. They burned away, making you scream until your vocal cords cracked. Then the fire ate them up too.
Hammer knew that by now that the soldier’s organs were completely shriveled.
The fire kept rushing from him, but he was in no mood to stop.
When the fire and his rage finally ceased, all that was left of the leopards and the human were bones. The bones looked so pathetic from his height.
Ajmal was still close by. Hammer wasn’t going to let him get away. With a giant flap of his wings, he rose into the air. He had his old friend in his sights quickly.
He grabbed Ajmal before he could do anything. Then he turned, going back to Charlie.
She was still hiding, and he could feel her fear, her terror.
Would she be afraid of him?
TWENTY-THREE
CHARLIE
Charlie would remember the screams forever. She would remember the sounds of the flames forever. The sounds of the dying shifters would remain with her forever.
There would be no reprieve. They would continue to haunt her.
Hammer had said he would burn the world down to get her. He had meant it literally. She left her hiding place slowly, carefully.
The flames were dying down when she stumbled from the rocks. Hammer was shifting back into his human form. She looked around, dazed, as his spiked tail disappeared.
His blond hair shone in the soft light of the sun. She heard him murmuring, and the flames flickered once more. Then they disappeared.
Had he that much control over the flames?They did come from him,Charlie thought to herself.
She then saw a mess of a man at Hammer’s feet. Ajmal Basu was curled up and shaking. His face was contorted with fear.
Ajmal’s eyes were so glassy that she knew he wasn’t seeing her. He wasn’t seeing Hammer. All he was seeing was the fire.
The fire would remain with him forever, also.
Hammer lifted a foot and placed it on Ajmal’s neck while she looked around. There were three neat piles of bones spread out.
They had burned so much that there were no discernible features left. Hammer’s fire had burned them out of existence.
That wasn’t the only devastation. The ground around Charlie was black. Anything that had been growing had turned to ash.
She was quite sure nothing would ever grow there again. There would be nothing left for the future.
In her heart, Charlie knew Hammer had no choice. She had heard the guns. She had heard the snarls of the shifters. She had heard him wait. He had waited for them to attack. And she also knew if they had stopped and retreated, he would have stopped. All he wanted was Ajmal.
They shouldn’t have attacked.
