Curse of Stolen Flame (Firebird, #1)

CHAPTER 52

Someone threw up a shield of wind around the royal family before the impact of the explosion could reach them. Shards of debris and bodies slammed against the wall of air as thick, black smoke rippled into the room.

The pressure under Kindra’s skin subsided immediately.

She hadn’t been riled up by Jasper or too drunk.

Her magic had been sensing a bomb, right where she and Jasper had just been standing—

And Tess had gotten them away.

Had the other Firefury sensed it too? Had she felt something and lured them away, thus saving their lives?

Another possibility floated through her mind, but it was so horrifying Kindra did not even entertain for a second. Her magic back under control, she wrapped her arms in flames and surveyed the room, picking out faces among the chaos.

The smoke was so thick, shrouding half the room in darkness.

Darkness comes. The queen had seen it.

Helena and Emeline were behind the shield of air, along with Antone and Celeste. Sebastian and Myala hadn’t come tonight, though she had no idea how safe they were if the castle was under attack. Even her mother, thank the gods, had found sanctuary behind it.

No sign of Tess.

She desperately tried to find her amidst the crowd of people fleeing for the doors, only to be pushed back by another cloud of rolling black smoke.

Not smoke, she realized as she watched people try to penetrate it and be stopped as though it were made of stone .

A bolt of terror so severe it nearly brought her to her knees shot through her.

The wall of blackness blocking the way out wasn’t smoke at all.

It was shadows, which meant—

The first Shadow Assassin stepped out of the darkness. Not even fully formed, he swung his blades towards whoever was nearest.

It happened to be Caroline Halis, too drunk and cloudy with violetleaf smoke to fully understand what was happening. Genevieve Halis grabbed for her, but a guardsman pulled her back.

She screamed as her sister was stabbed clean through the heart.

Beside her, Helena and Celeste were screaming. Emeline stood defensively in front of her wife, having drawn water from somewhere to fight with. Jasper and Antone had their swords drawn.

Kindra looked at her husband. “I’m going out there,” she told him, simply and matter-of-factly. He looked sick about it but didn’t protest. “Guard my mother.”

He nodded, and for a second, she really looked at him. Oh, how I love you, she thought, and she, despite the circumstances, gave him a soft smile.

He didn’t return it, but he reached out and cupped her face. “Come back to me,” he told her. “I love you, Kindra.” And then he kissed her hard on the mouth.

She didn’t even get a chance to reply before he was gone, racing over to stand in front of her mother, who was sobbing.

“Let me through the shield, Ryle,” she demanded as she strode down the steps of the dais. A dozen more assassins stepped out of the shadows, attacking anybody unfortunate enough to be near them. Nobody stood a chance. Guards and courtiers alike fell at their feet. Whenever they found themselves at a disadvantage, they simply vanished and reappeared in another place, resuming their carnage on the other side of the room. The guards were overpowered—most people could not face a Shadowmaster one-on-one, and with the door blocked, no more could get in to help them.

“Kindra, we cannot protect you if you do this,” Ryle said, sweating from the exertion of maintaining the shield. “Our priority is the king and queen.”

“I know,” she replied. “But what kind of cursebreaker would I be if I stood by and did nothing? ”

When she stepped through the shield, she realized it had muffled some of the sounds, too. Suddenly, all she could hear were the screams of terrified people, the shouted orders from the guards trying to form a plan, and the never-ending cacophony of battle.

It nearly overwhelmed her, and she stumbled.

But then Tess was there. “Kindra, what are you doing? Get the fuck behind the shield!”

“No,” Kindra retorted, flames licking up her skin. “I’m not a coward , despite what you may think.”

Tess looked at her, utterly distraught. “That’s not—I didn’t mean that you should do this.”

“And that’s what you don’t understand about me, Tess,” she yelled above the noise. “I may not want to be a savior or a cursebreaker, but I will always protect the people I love.”

And then she was running across the room, straight towards the Shadow Assassin who’d killed Caroline.

It was the same Shadow Assassin from the Harvest Festival, she realized as she drew closer, and a deadly calm settled over her.

He grinned as she approached, as if he’d been hoping for this. His black eyes glinted with violent delight.

You might’ve escaped me once before, but not this time. She launched herself at him.

They circled each other as they fought, trading blows. Where his darkness rose to swallow her, her fire flared, blasting it back. Where her blasts aimed, his blades deflected. When he vanished only to reappear behind her, she was already twisting to meet him.

There were no Shadowmasters in the castle to train with, so she’d spent the months since the Harvest Festival reading about them. She’d read all there was about their fighting style, their magic. And though it wasn’t anything compared to actual fighting experience, it allowed her to hold her own.

If her ability to keep up surprised him, he didn’t show it. Rather, he seemed bored as they dueled, like this was a waste of time.

Or a waste of hers.

The realization came too late .

She felt the shield quake behind her. She risked a glance over her shoulder just in time to see Ryle narrowly dodge a dark blade. The guard who’d been maintaining the shield with him already lay dead, blood pouring from his sliced throat.

The second assassin was a blur behind the Windspinner, and Kindra could only watch in horror as the Shadow Assassin aimed for Ryle’s side, still fending off her own attacker.

Ryle spun out of the way, but in doing so, he lost control of his magic. The assassins attacked again, and he became entirely focused on keeping himself alive.

The shield fell.

Darkness rippled near her, and when she looked, the assassin she’d been fighting was gone.

He was halfway across the room, a dark blur as he teleported his way directly towards the royal family.

Kindra began running, eyes only on Jasper and her mother.

Vylie Inacorro got there first.

She materialized out of nothing, pulling herself from thin wisps of darkness. It was such a magnificent feat of magic it would have impressed Kindra under nearly any other circumstance.

Vylie swung for Jasper, and Kindra screamed. Too far, she was still too far—

Jasper did not hesitate. He attacked Vylie with such vigor and strength even the assassin herself was caught off guard. Within seconds, he had her on the defensive, pushing her back, away from Kindra’s mother. But Vylie was a master in her own right. She disappeared and reappeared in quick succession, hopping around him so that he was spinning to keep up.

Kindra was a few yards away when he stumbled, too dizzy, and Vylie brought her blades down.

Time seemed to slow down as she watched Jasper swing his blade to parry the blow. Too slow. Tears blurred her vision as she continued to run, rallying her magic to protect him. She hadn’t said it back. She hadn’t said it back—

Fire slammed into Vylie, but it wasn’t Kindra’s. No, it was Tess, who was charging towards the assassin with a murderous look on her face. “No!” the guardswoman screamed, launching herself at the assassin .

Jasper managed to avoid the death blow, Vylie now locked in battle with Tess. Relief set the tears gathered in Kindra’s eyes streaming, but it was short-lived.

The man she’d been fighting was now attacking Antone.

It was more like a cat toying with its prey—Antone was nowhere near the swordsman Jasper was, and only a true master could hold his own against a Shadowmaster. Spotting Vylie and Tess, though, he grew tired of playing, and a second later his blade pierced Antone’s stomach.

The king, guarding a still-unconscious Cordilya, bellowed. Celeste screamed. Even Jasper cried out.

Kindra was upon the Shadowmaster within seconds, but the steadiness she’d felt when she’d first attacked had faded as the violence around them only grew. Jasper tried to fight with her, but she shoved him back towards her mother. “Do not leave her,” she snapped as she deflected a swath of darkness.

The assassin shifted into shadow; his next blow came from her left side, slamming her onto the floor. She struggled to rise, but the darkness had a solidness to it, pressing her into the ground.

Jasper started screaming, but he did not move from her mother’s side.

“You were supposed to be off limits,” the man crowed as he stood above her, shadows wrapping around them and blocking everything else out. “But every Annalindis is as guilty as the next. All of you deserve to die .” Her fire illuminated the space around her, and she saw him raise his blade, grinning like a maniac.

In her last moments, Kindra thought of Jasper. Of her mother. Of Helena and Emeline. Of Tess. Of Harthwin, and her small cottage. Of the children she danced with at the Harvest Festival. The one she held as he died.

There has to be more than this, she thought. I have to be more than this.

And then, facing her own death, panic ripped opened her soul. “No,” she gasped, fighting against the shadows, against herself.

But she couldn’t stop it as it reached for that ancient, furious power that had once saved her life all those years ago. She could not keep from calling it to her .

And as Scaldor answered, as his power flooded her senses, scorching her from within, as the fury and might and never-ending fire of him filled her completely, she ignited, the force of her power blasting away any trace of darkness.

Enveloped in flame, she rose.

And then she slammed a fist of pure blue flame straight through the assassin’s chest and incinerated him from the inside out.