Page 146 of Ashes of Aether

There’s no time to shield us both. I can only shield myself.

“Ignir’muriz!”

Flames encase me, preventing the shadowy ravens from reaching me. Their beaks stab into my fiery wall, and one by one they are obliterated.

My shield was hasty, and the attack was powerful. My flames are extinguished before the flurry ceases. The last few ravens break through my defense and tear at my dress and the flesh of my bare arms. But they inflict no fatal damage.

I glance at Koby. I don’t know which spell he used to defend himself, but it appears his shield was ineffective. Long gashes mark his cheeks. His fine clothes are shredded into threads. Blood stains the rich fabric.

Kaely raises her hands. Shadows stir once more.

I also reach for my magic and pull aether into my grasp as swiftly as I can.

We both unleash our spells.

“Rivus!”

“Ignira!”

I expect my fireball and her shadow bolt to collide. But they don’t. While my attack targets Kaely, hers doesn’t target me.

It rushes for Koby.

I shout his name. Aether blooms from my fingers as I race toward him.

He tries to speak spell-words, but it is too late.

The shadow bolt pierces his chest.

Darkness floods through him, choking him from within. The veins in his neck throb and blacken.

My fireball strikes Kaely. She shrieks, but I don’t turn to look. My gaze remains on Koby.

A strangled cry comes from his throat. His bulging, blood-shot eyes turn to me.

Then he falls. Dead.

I stare at him. My hand grips the staff so forcefully my fingers ache. I grip it even harder.

Black blood spills from Koby’s chest. His unseeing eyes gaze up at the shrouded stars.

I am given no chance to mourn him.

“Rivus,” Kaley calls again.

Another shadow bolt surges forth. This one is intended for me.

There is no time to speak spell-words. The darkness will tear through me before the syllables leave my throat.

Like Koby, like my father, I will be dead.

But if I die, how will I save Eliya?

Emotion smashes through the dam of numbness. A wave of fear and fury and grief engulfs me. I am helpless in its tyrannical grasp. I struggle to stay afloat, to not drown.

Magic rips through me—the pressure too great for my mortal body to contain.

An inferno explodes. It seizes everything in its path: Kaely, Koby, the undead nearest me. Stone walls heap around me. The volatile flames don’t distinguish between friend or foe. They devour even the people fleeing from ghouls at the end of the street.