Page 12 of Crown of Flame

“You burned me,” she says.

I say nothing.

“Why didn’t it hurt me when you burned me?”

“I don’t know,” I reply simply.

I have no time for frivolous questions.

“I will check the other floors of this ‘tower’ for you,” I say, deciding I have nothing else worth doing.

“Thank you.”

She is still detaching prisoners delicately from the device that connects them. There’s something eerily beautiful about the way her body moves, and I find myself intrigued by her.

I find no signs of the portal that brought me here on the floor above us. As I ascend the stone incline beyond that floor, I can immediately notice a similar chill.

And as I reach the highest floor, I note several holes in the wall, like the hole I exited earlier. Only these seem much less intentional.

Several cells line the walls, too, but they all seem to have been blown open.

There are no other creatures here, ‘dark elves’ or otherwise.

“That’s impossible,” she says upon my return as she detaches the final prisoner. “I heard them earlier. They have to be here.”

“You can check for yourself if you like.”

She shakes her head. “I believe you,” she says.

She comforts the prisoners, talking to them and making sure they’re going to be okay.

Something about the display entices me. Mere moments ago, she was terrified, almost unable to speak. Now, she offers strength to those who cannot help themselves and who feel the same fear.

What is this feeling?

We return to the exit on the bottom floor, and she stares out at the world beyond this one. She hesitates.

“Well, thank you for your help,” she tells me. “I guess I need to be going.”

Rage fills my mind as she walks away. She would seriously ignore her promises after I made the effort of helping her?

I grab her, freezing her body in place with my mind. The fear I sensed earlier returns.

“Did you forget our deal?” I ask. “I’m not leaving you until you give me the answers I need.”

5

SERENA

What a strange creature.

He grabs me, and I feel a familiar sense of déjà vu as I watch the frozen landscape, terror coursing through me. But there’s something different about it this time. It doesn’t feel like before, when the dark elves seized me with their magic.

“Let me go, please,” I say, my voice wavering. It’s incredibly cold out here, the evening freeze nearly starting, and I can’t avoid shivering.

Whatever reason the dark elves had for bringing him here, I’m starting to think he might not be from Protheka at all. Fundamental concepts like buildings and compassion confuse him, and he seems poised to only do things when they directly benefit him.

But he doesn’t seem evil in a typical sense. He has no problems with snapping dark elf necks, but he also doesn’t kill indiscriminately like they do.