Empire of Flame and Thorns (Flame and Thorns #1)

Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

F or one single second, we all just stare at each other. Then everyone’s eyes turn towards the stone altar and the two gold rings that remain. Fenriel, who was holding up the third one, snaps his fingers closed around it and yanks his hand down.

The clearing explodes into chaos.

I throw myself sideways as a block of stone shoots towards me. Across the grass, Fenriel whirls around and tries to sprint away.

Fire roars through the air, creating a wall of flames in front of Fenriel, at the same time as Alistair, Isera, and Trevor dash towards the altar.

Rolling to my feet again, I leap up from the grass and sprint towards it as well. But I’m on the wrong side of the clearing. They arrived in a spot that was much closer to the altar than mine. So before I’ve even made it halfway across the clearing, they have already reached the stone altar.

Desperation slashes through my soul as I watch Trevor and Alistair snatch up the remaining two rings.

Isera arrives one second later, her fingers almost managing to brush the ring that Alistair grabs. A block of ice explodes into existence, wrapping around Alistair’s entire hand. He cries out in shock and then slams his burning palm over the ice encasing his hand.

Fenriel makes another attempt to sprint away with the ring he already has, but this time it’s Isera who throws up a massive wall of ice. I gasp as it shoots up from the ground, encircling the entire clearing and locking above us like a dome. Her message is clear. No one fucking leaves until she has one of the rings.

I silently thank her for that because I also need to get one of the rings before the others can disappear with them.

Sprinting across the grass, I aim straight for Trevor while bombarding him with pulses of magic in order to find something that sticks. Stress. Panic. Fear. Exhaustion.

Exhaustion .

My magic finally finds a spark in his chest to latch on to. I pour my magic into it.

To get here at the same time as us, Trevor must also have been running constantly all day. He, and Isera and Alistair too, probably had the same idea as me. Follow Lavendera as she searches for the stone altar.

My concentration slips for a second as I’m struck by a sudden thought. Flicking my gaze from side to side, I scan the clearing for Lavendera. Shock pulses through me when I realize that she’s nowhere to be found.

Stone shoots towards me.

I leap to the side barely a second before a block of stone flies past in the space where my head was supposed to be. Snapping my gaze back to Trevor, I growl a curse and then increase the strength of my magic.

Tiredness washes over his features, and he staggers to the side as I blow his exhaustion from a spark to a wildfire. He shakes his head violently, trying to block out the emotion. Raising a trembling hand, he shoots a hail of pebbles at me.

I jerk back, but it’s no use. There are too many of them to avoid, so I just yank up my forearm to protect my face and twist sideways. Pain pulses through my body as the pebbles hit me in the back and side.

Fire roars across the grass to my left.

It explodes into hissing steam as it slams into Isera’s ice wall.

I gasp in a breath and spin back towards Trevor to see him raise a block of stone. Panic pulses through me, and I push at his exhaustion with everything I have. His knees buckle, and he loses the grip on his magic. I’m just about to sprint towards him and snatch the ring from his hand when a block of ice cracks into the back of his head.

His eyes go wide with shock before his brain catches up with the hit. Then he blacks out and slams face first into the grass.

I let out a yell of frustration as Isera snatches the ring out of his hand while shooting three consecutive blocks of ice at me, Alistair, and Fenriel. I throw myself sideways, rolling to my feet, while the blocks of ice shoot past on the grass. Alistair burns them off with his flames.

More blocks of ice speed through the air as Isera shoots them at us, barely aiming, while she backs towards the edge of the clearing. I zigzag across the grass, trying to get to Alistair and steal his ring while he’s busy battling Isera.

Magic flashes through the air. Hissing and crackling noises echo between the ice walls. I suck in desperate breaths, trying to keep my legs moving. My lungs burn, my muscles ache, and everything inside me is screaming with exhaustion from the constant running and the lack of food and water. But I have to get one of the rings. I have to.

Alistair ducks and Fenriel dives away as Isera shoots more blocks of ice at us to keep everyone back. I’m forced to throw myself forwards to avoid one of them, landing right in the line of fire between Isera and Alistair. Panic crackles up my spine as I jump to my feet and try to dash away.

But before I can move more than a stride, Alistair shoots another torrent of fire towards Isera at the same time as she makes the ice ceiling crack above our heads.

Talon, Fenriel’s hawk, who had been trying to claw through the ice and create a hole at the top of the dome, lets out a screech of victory and swoops towards Fenriel.

I see the disaster that is about to happen as time seems to slow to a crawl.

Dread crackles through me like lightning, and I scream a warning, but I already know that it will be too late.

The hawk swoops down, oblivious to the torrent of fire that is about to shoot through the air. And Fenriel, who is busy leaping back up to his feet and spinning back around, doesn’t see it. I know, without a doubt, that when he turns around and sees what’s about to happen, it will be too late. Too late for him to make the hawk change direction. Too late for him to even release his magic and make the hawk vanish.

Talon is going to get incinerated.

Without thinking, I do the only thing I can.

I throw out my arm, grab the hawk mid-air, and yank it to the side.

Pain sears through me and I scream in agony as the flames roar past a fraction of a second later and singe my arm. The hawk lets out a high-pitched call of alarm. I release it, and it immediately flies straight towards Fenriel.

For a few seconds, everyone goes dead silent and still inside the clearing.

Fenriel is staring at me with wide eyes. His face is pale as death and full of lingering terror. A few strides away from me, Alistair casts a shocked look between me and Fenriel and Talon. Isera reaches the ice wall. Hesitation flickers in her eyes as she casts a glance at me.

Then she demolishes the wall, drops a strangely shaped chunk of ice right next to my feet, and then sprints away with her ring.

The sound of shattering ice makes Alistair lurch into motion.

Closing his fist around his own ring, he whirls around and hurtles into the trees in the other direction.

I’m left standing there in the middle of the clearing, staring at their disappearing backs while my arm throbs in pain. I flick a glance down at the ground. The chunk of ice that Isera dropped by my feet is still there. Confusion swirls through me as I stare down at it. It’s round, but shaped like a tunnel rather than a cylinder, and it’s about the length of my forearm.

Realization slashes into me. Bending down, I snatch up the chunk of ice and slide it onto my forearm. It fits perfectly, and Isera must have somehow adjusted the temperature of it too, because it’s only pleasantly cool instead of being so freezing cold that it would’ve risked causing frostbite.

A sigh of relief comes from the back of my throat as the strange magical ice soothes the burns that Alistair’s flames caused.

“You saved him.”

Whirling around, I blink in shock as I find Fenriel still standing there. Some of the color has returned to his face, but he is still staring at me with wide eyes.

“You saved Talon,” he repeats.

Since I don’t know what to say, all that makes it out of my mouth is, “Yes.”

That word seems to make everything come crashing down around him. He staggers a step to the side and chokes back a sob. Talon lands on his shoulder and nudges Fenriel’s cheek with his beak.

I just watch them in silence. I didn’t even know if the hawk could die, since he’s a product of magic, but based on Fenriel’s reaction, it appears as though he can.

Fenriel swallows down another choked breath and reaches up to stroke the hawk’s feathers. Then he starts towards me. I remain rooted in place with the chunk of ice wrapped around my forearm. The burns weren’t too bad. They’re painful, but they will heal. Probably by tomorrow. Especially now since I could treat them with the strange ice straight away.

While striding towards me, Fenriel raises his hand. Then he tosses something towards me. I yank up my uninjured arm and catch it on reflex.

Stunned shock pulses through me as I stare down at the object now in my hand. One of the gold rings. With eyes wide, I raise my gaze to Fenriel.

“Take it,” he says.

And because my brain is slow with both pain and exhaustion, all I can manage to reply is, “You’re giving it to me?”

“Without Talon, nothing matters. My life is meaningless if he is not by my side.” His gold and blue eyes are dead serious as he holds my gaze. “You saved him. I owe you more than a simple ring.”

My mouth drops open, and I just stare at him.

All the usual cheerfulness and excitement is gone from his expression now. Instead, cold ruthlessness, the likes of which I have never seen on his face before, spreads across his features.

“Take the ring,” he says. It sounds almost like an order. A muscle feathers in his jaw as he clenches it while he squeezes his hand into a fist. His eyes are locked on the woods to my right as he grinds out, “I’m going after Alistair.”

I stare after him in shock as he stalks right past me and continues towards the tree line. The hawk flaps his wings on his shoulder and then flies into the air. Fenriel takes off at a sprint.

With my mouth still open, I stare at him until his long red hair disappears completely behind the foliage.

I look down at my hand.

The golden ring in my palm glints faintly in the late afternoon sunlight. I close my fingers around it while stunned disbelief washes over me. I have one of the rings. I can win the trial.

Trevor groans on the ground.

Panic shoots up my spine as I remember that he is still here. And Lavendera is here somewhere too. I need to get away before either of them decides that, between me, Isera, and Alistair, I’m the easiest target.

After sliding the ring onto my finger, I whirl around and sprint back in the direction that I came from. I keep running until my legs can’t take it anymore. Sinking down on the ground, I brace my back against a tree trunk and gasp in deep breaths.

Exhaustion rolls through my entire body.

But I’m far enough away from the clearing that the others shouldn’t be able to track me. So now, all I need to do is to run back out of the forest.

A sudden realization slams into me like a shovel to the face. The thought is so jarring that I swear my ears are ringing.

After looking down at the ring on my finger, I drag my gaze up and stare out at the forest before me while that terrible realization sweeps through my whole soul.

I managed to get all the way in here by following Fenriel.

But without him, how the hell am I supposed to find my way back out again?