Page 8 of Crown of Flame

Then I see the bodies of my friends, laid haphazardly on the floor in a circular pattern.

“So much trouble for such a simple thing,” Arcanis comments.

I notice that the room is very hot. At first, I think it might be the flickering candles and sconces that fill the room, but it’s so much hotter than that.

Then I notice that Nielsen is nowhere in the room and that he probably got away.

At least there’s hope for one of us.

The white light pulsates, becoming much larger.

“Now’s the time,” Arcanis commands his men. “Start the ritual.”

He looks toward me, and I almost throw up in my mouth as he winks.

“Sweetheart, I hope you’re watching,” he says. “This is a big moment for your people.”

In unison, the dark elves’ incantations grow louder.

They extend their arms, reaching toward the center. Suddenly, the light in the room’s center begins spreading, flowing toward the men uttering the incantations.

I shouldn’t have looked down at Aldor. Maybe I thought for a moment I could see his beautiful face one more time, or that there might still be signs of life somehow and that I might have a chance of a life with him.

But he’s being sucked dry, used as little more than a fuel source. His body is skeletal, drained of its fat, muscle, and blood.

“Yes!” Arcanis cries out as I get a glimpse of a fiery cavern room, emerging in place of the bright white light. “It’s working! Don’t stop!”

My friends are little more than bones now. I’m watching it happen, and it still doesn’t feel real to me.

I cover my eyes. The room is almost blinding now, the portal in the room’s center almost overtaking it. I can barely even see the torches within the irradiating, expanding white light.

Then, with no warning, I hear a loud explosion, and the light vanishes.

There is no portal in the room’s center. There are only nine confused dark elves, scanning around the room.

“What happened?” Arcanis asks. “Did it work?”

Nobody says anything.

None of them know what to say, all of them just as uncertain as he is.

“No,” Arcanis says, shaking his head. “It can’t have failed.”

He stomps over to me, scowling, his teeth bared. “You did something! What did you do?”

“I have no idea,” I tell him. “I’m sorry!”

Then I hear another explosion, and the nine dark elves around the room are all flung from their spots, crashing into the floors and walls.

The white light reappears and disappears suddenly.

In the center of the room is a fire, brighter than anything I’ve ever seen. I can’t explain how, but there’s something almost enticing about it.

Is that a face?

Without warning, rocks are pried free from the tower’s structure, flying through the air in all directions toward the fire in the center. I duck as the wall behind me is partially ripped apart, the cell door crashing open against the force.

The black stone reconfigures around the fire, constructing an almost humanoid body overlaying its fiery core.