Page 1 of A Kiss of Flame
Chapter One
Levian felt a familiar tingle in her fingers. It skittered up her arm, over her shoulder, and cascaded down her spine. “Hells,” she grumbled.
She’d sensed the moment she grazed her fingers over the small Elder Fae rune carved into the rotting floor; she’d done something very stupid. As usual, her instincts were impeccable. The moment the word slipped from her lips, the symbol began to darken. It was an odd rune, not one she’d recognized—which is why she’d carelessly bent over and brushed her fingers over it.
“Good or bad?” Carvatticus asked cautiously as he leaned over her shoulder. The symbol pulsed, sending a wave of energy through the barely standing tower in which they stood. The tower creaked and shifted, dust cascading from the rafters.
Car held his breath, both afraid to move or sneeze lest the floor beneath them give way and the tower topple over. Everything settled after a moment, and her friend let out a deep sigh. “Right—how bad, then?” he asked, peering down at the darkened symbol on the floor.
Levian stood from her crouch and gazed around the small, circular room. Carvatticus wasn’t a mage like she was. He was a daemon with his own unique magickal gifts. He couldn’t hearwhat she heard, couldn’t sense what she sensed, couldn’t feel what she felt. The energy that had blasted from the symbol was rippling through the entire abandoned estate, awakening some ancient spell.
Her skin prickled with magick.Hells.Levian took off toward the stairs they’d just ascended. “Very bad,” she clipped, snatching Car by the front of his jacket and pulling him with her.
The ancient estate was barely standing. Much of it had long been consumed by the forest that surrounded it. Levian assumed the tower only stood as well as it did because of old spells of fortification that were slowly fading away.
“If you’re running, ViVi, it must be,” Car teased, following close behind her, seemingly not rattled at all.
Levian flew down the stairs, cursing herself. She knew better than to touch the rune. It had been careless.
The whole house shuddered, forcing them both to brace against the walls to keep from falling down the stairs. The ancient plaster cracked dramatically next to her hand as the tower began to give out. Levian felt a hum of magick pulse through her before the hands she had pressed against the walls started to sink into the cracking plaster like it had turned to quicksand. She gasped and yanked her hands back. Car wasn’t so quick. The daemon cursed behind her as his whole hand was sucked into the wall. Levian spun around and grabbed his wrist. She conjured a spell of release, but it did nothing. The wall pulled Carvatticus deeper, and a loud noise echoed from somewhere distant.
“Any time now,” Car hissed, his calm demeanor replaced with alarm as his arm sank to the elbow.
Levian stretched her hands toward the ancient wall, feeling the dense energy hum beneath her skin. She whispered in the Elder speech, the ancient language used by mages to better weave their magick, trying to draw out the roots of the ancientspell she’d triggered. “Vithaë il'málë, örmin daia en'siltha,” she muttered. Her body vibrated with energy as she tugged at the threads of magick, trying to unweave the core that held the spell together, but it was like trying to undo a lock with a thousand pins. The spell was annoyingly complex and cleverly bound.
The vibrating ceased as she gave up and pressed her blue sweater past her elbows. Unless she wanted Car’s pretty little daemon ass to be devoured by a wall, breaking the spell the pieces was her only choice. Levian inhaled deeply, the scent of the forest, musty stones, and old magic filling her lungs. Her heart thrummed, her skin sizzled, and all grew quiet as she summoned the magick around her.
As a mage, Levian could not merely craft magick from natural elements like witches or other Folk—She was a conduit. Capable of pulling magick from within and around her to weave something wholly new. Her ears crackled as the magick pulled into her, a rush of heat and pressure expanding through her veins. It was like pulling the energy from a storm to hold lightning, bright and volatile. The Elder words tumbled from her lips—“Vornath tal'kír, örmin weian draen.”—binding her spell tighter, layer upon layer, like a smith forging a great weapon.
Carvatticus grunted as he fought to pull himself out to no avail. “I rather like this arm,” he growled at her impatiently. “And I’d like to keep it.”
Levian’s eyes snapped open, glowing a fierce violet, the color bleeding into her vision. Sweat dripped down her temple as she touched two fingers crackling with violet magick to the enchanted wall. Like a blade plunged into a heart, she sliced the ancient spell with precision. A shockwave boomed through the house as the enchantment splintered apart.
Her head and body ached from exertion, but she had little time to recover as the tower began to rock. In the distance, parts of the house were loudly collapsing. Car utilized his daemonstrength and yanked his arm free from the solid wall with a grunt. They flew down the stairs as the tower began to cave in above them.
Car cursed, lifting his hand over his head to block bits of debris falling over them. For once, Levian was thankful she had traded her usual flowing silken dresses and robes for dark slacks and a simple sweater. Her instincts had proven spot on again.
There was a loud crash above them as they hit the bottom of the stairs. Car grabbed Levian and launched them both out of the way as the tower began to come down. Already exhausted, the mage barely managed to throw up a magick shield as everything crumbled. Large stones and bits of debris ricocheted off her invisible barrier inches from their faces until all was still, and nothing but a cloud of dust filled the air.
The barrier fell, and for a moment, Levian and Car lay in a pile on the ground, coughing and panting. “It’s never a dull moment with you, Vi Vi,” Car teased with a groan, rolling away onto his back.
“I could say the same of you,” she clipped between coughs. They often fed into each other’s more compulsive sides. It had been that way since they were teenagers. “Though I didn’t force you to come,” she reminded him as she sat up with a grunt. Levian’s body ached, and her head throbbed under the exertion of using so much magick in such a short span. She wasn’t sure her barrier would have held if the tower had collapsed on top of them.
“You never do,” he replied, taking her hand and brushing a lazy kiss over her knuckles before plopping it down. “Yet here I am.” She rolled her eyes and gave his shoulder a playful shove.
Car came from a long line of daemon Folk, but he didn’t look quite like the typical daemon one would imagine. He was much shorter than most daemon males, shorter than Levian by an inch or two, and more slender in his build. His skin was pasty white,and his eyes a similarly dark shade of red like his curled horns, which protruded just above his ears. Car sat up next to her, ran a hand through his wavy, short, jet-black hair, and scratched at the base of one of his horns before surveying his arm. His jacket was coated in dust and old plaster, but he seemed fine. All his thick fae silver rings were intact on his fingers, which he wriggled and flexed.
“Nicely done,” he told her, nudging her side with his elbow before he stood and offered his hand to help her. “As always.”
Levian took his hand and, to her dismay, had to hold onto it for a moment to steady her shaking legs. “I nearly got us killed,” she snapped angrily.
He shrugged. “Yet we’re still alive,” he replied on the bright side with a smirk. She scowled at him as she brushed some dust from her clothes and hair.
“It’s funny how much and how little has changed,” Car mused as he reached into his jacket. “Once a youthful mage with more spunk than sense who didn’t give a shit about anyone else’s opinion. Now look at you. Chasing down a mysterious sect of thieves all on behalf of theWizen Council of Mages.” He said the last with flourished sarcasm before plucking out a small silver flask from an inner pocket and giving it a shake.
“Don’t make me regret not letting that wall eat you alive,” she grumbled tartly.
Car smirked. “It’s simply amusing. That you’re now working with Council, and I’m now High Daemon Lord, yet here we both are, nearly getting squashed to death in the ruins of a long-dead pixie. Just like when we were kids,” he reminisced before handing her the flask, which she took.