“Three people?” I asked. That didn’t sound like the Order. Geoffrey was more likely to bring tanks and nukes at this point. “Are you sure they’re a threat?”
He merely pointed, identifying a tiny blur along the horizon. I rubbed my eyes and squinted, trying to make out more than the indistinct form it was. I still wasn’t sensing anything. I scrambled up on the ledge as if that extra three feet would bring them into focus. As I did, the ground buckled and I slipped. The only thing preventing me from falling was my grip on a pike embedded in the wall.
The earth grumbled again, and a thin crack formed directly in front of us.
A crack I remembered with awful clarity.
I swung to Oron. “What are you doing?”
He clenched his fist and the earth unleashed another groan as the crack widened. My pulse raced as I looked back over the desert, switching to use my Iridescence to gauge the magical signature of the approaching figures.
The one in the middle lit up a bright and fiery red.
The exact shade as the magic lighting up my own veins.
Understanding dawned and I reached down to stop Oron. “Don’t do it!” I yelled as the hooded head of his Great Beast rose from the ground. Around me, people screamed as It hovered there, red eyes burning like coals as It awaited orders. Its scales flexed as It stretched and swayed, the movement strangely hypnotizing. “You don’t know who that is. But I do! That’s the Fire God. I can sense—”
The earth buckled again. This time I wasn’t holding on.
Bright lights flashed before my eyes as I flailed, toppling over the edge. My mind went blank as I hurtled to the ground. I reached for my magic but didn’t know what to do with it. I was eerily out of ideas. Then the earth rose, a moving, shifting, very much alive thing, and strong arms wrapped around my middle. The hard stop knocked the wind from my lungs, keeping me from yelling as wings beat hard and fast on either side of me.
“Once, just once, could you pretend to be the obedient, demure creature you very much are not?” The frustrated amusement in Ryder’s voice calmed the wild fluttering inside of me. Simultaneously, a swarm of butterflies swarmed my chest. Must be the dizzying height. “One of these days it would be nice to see you running away from danger instead of swan diving into it.”
I gulped as the incubus barrel-rolled, closing my eyes against the flipping horizon.
Definitely the dizzying height. Ryder made me feel nothing but nausea.
“On second thought, that was more of a belly flop of epic proportions,” he cackled. “I’m also not sure I’d be as attracted to you if you weren’t so headstrong. Forget what I said.”
“Could you be serious?” I shouted when the world stopped spinning. “I need to get to those figures. It’s the Fire God. I can feel it. But I’m not sure what will happen if Oron unleashes his Great Beast first.”
“I’m not sure I understand this term ‘serious’,” he said, snagging my earlobe with his teeth. I smacked him even though wild, wonderful emotions flooded my chest, making me jump. He adjusted his grip, snuggling me closer as we rocketed across the sand. “Your heart is beating so fast, glowstick. Fear? Or maybe something else…”
“Ryder,” I growled.
“Oh fine. Though you should know, that snake never moved. Oron called It off,” he said. Our forward momentum slowed. We touched the ground and I could finally breathe again. He snagged me when I tried to move away, humming into my hair. “I expect payment later since you so kindly used me as a personal, flying Uber. I know what I want.”
I snorted and struggled from his hold, making a rude gesture as I swiveled to keep my body between him and the threat. His rumble of laughter shook me. The incubus might not need my protection, but he was definitely getting it.
The three incoming figures pulled up on skiffs the size of skateboards about eight yards from Ryder and me. The roaring inferno of red that was the pint-sized girl in the middle approached first. Two other humans with the slender hilts of katanas sprouting from their shoulders held back.
Kaleal eased forward, eager to get a look at the final God of our quartet.
The wisp of a girl stood barely four and a half feet tall and one-hundred pounds dripping wet. Her lithe body was encased in olive leather, and a samurai sword hung at her side. Hair dyed the exact shade of Hot Tamales framed her smooth, round face. Eyebrows drawn by hand arched severely over eyes so dark they were practically black. When she grinned, her pearls of teeth glowed against her black lipstick.
“Meetcha!” she called, holding out her gloved hand. I grabbed it, wincing when she nearly crushed my bones. “I know who you are.”
“You do?” I asked, resisting the urge to shake out my limb when she released it.
“Sure do. You’re all over the television,” she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I’m Pyra, your fourth and final counterpart if I’ve done my math correctly.” She peered past me at the fortress that was the Earth Temple. “I gotta say, I’m a little miffed you didn’t come visit me before these old bores. The Castle of Glass is way cooler than this.”
She’s not exactly wrong, Kaleal intoned.
“How did you find me, anyway?” I asked, ignoring the ancient God. “And why?”
“I got tired of waiting around for you, of course. And, well, Ren over here—” she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the man with a mask covering the lower half of his face. “He came here as a child, so I kinda needed him to find the place. Stimpy, however, couldn’t be parted with him for even one day.”
My eyebrows lifted.
“As for why, that’s obvious. I wanted to join the fun. Kicking butt, saving the world, wielding magic.” She executed a series of elaborate punches. “It’s like stuff out of my books. Couldn’t keep me away even if you wanted to. Now gimme.” She flung her gloves to the ground and held out her hand again, voice crackling like a bonfire. “You’ve got something that’s mine.”
“I’m not sure if you’re ready for this,” I joked. “You seem a little hesitant. I want to give you a moment to wrap your head around this.”
She smirked. “I like you. Now hurry up.”
I snagged her hand and our bodies snapped together, a blast of light and power and energy surging outward, bowing reality. A roaring filled my ears, my blood sparking and blistering my veins, my bones rattling and shaking as I melted our hands together, forcing my counterpart to absorb all I was offering. Her head was thrown back, eyes open and glowing red as embers danced in her skin. I was breaking and shattering and splintering and reforming and congealing and binding all at once.
This must have been what it felt like when the universe had formed.
Wild and hot and vibrant and utterly insane.
It was laughter that brought me back down from the enormous high. Pyra’s hot, brash laughter. She folded one arm over her gut and threw her head back, the column of her neck exposed as she brayed.
Ryder appeared at my side, chuckling along with her.
“That was wild!” she cried and pulled me in for another hug. “Absolutely wild! I’m so freaking glad I didn’t listen to the temple masters. Imagine missing out a moment more of this.” The God of Fire literally glowed in the dark, her skin flickering as if embers cooled beneath her skin. She squeezed a lighter and cupped a small bundle of flames that burst forth, already easing into her element.
I bit my lip. She and Oron seemed to fit so well in this world. Even Joseph had adapted to his magic pretty quickly. But me? I’d barely known what to think of magic, let alone wield it. I felt inadequate when faced with their apparent easy mastery.
Good thing you have me, then, isn’t it, Kaleal whispered, peering with glee at the newly reborn God. It stung, realizing she was right to some extent. Without her showing me the way, who knows how long it would have taken me to figure it out.
This is why the Gods grow up in temples, Kaleal said with a shrug. They master things like patience and control as children. It allows them to adapt almost
instantaneously when they finally do acquire their magic.
I rubbed at the ache in my chest and the small hole there that nothing seemed to fill.
I hated that Kaleal made me doubt myself.
I tried to shut the ancient God out as Pyra scrolled fire over her shoulders and down her legs in one seamless motion. She slipped a cigarette between her lips and lit it once the flames returned to her palm, the gesture familiar and practiced. She blew out a stream of smoke and laughed at the question on my face. “What’s it gonna do? Kill me? I’m made of smoke and ash, aren’t I?”
Ryder roared with laughter, finally unable to hold himself back as he introduced himself to the little firecracker.
She flicked her cigarette at the temple, suddenly somber. “So what’s the plan?”
Her whiplash mood swings seemed to fit her element. “You familiar with the Order?”
She hawked a loogie and spat.
“Good,” I said. “The plan is to take them down.”
“Thank us,” Pyra crowed. “Geoffrey is a pain.”
“You know him?”
“You mean the guy who wiped out two temples and turned the other two against one another?” She stubbed out her cigarette on one of the black throwing stars sewn to her belt. The lipstick-stained butt vanished into a pouch at her hip. “The guy who picked off each and every search party we attempted to send out and look for survivors from Air and Water? Yeah, I know him. We all do. No one likes him.”
I exchanged a look with Ryder. He nodded slowly.
“I didn’t know you did that,” I breathed, amazed to discover that Water’s allies hadn’t entirely abandoned the temple after all.
“Well, you were an infant and technically everyone thought you were dead, so that doesn’t surprise me,” Pyra said, stretching her back with a groan. “Your temple warned mine about the danger just in time. They wanted to do you a solid in return. Didn’t quite work out in the end, but they tried.” She extricated a tube of lipstick from her pocket and touched up her lips. “So how do we wipe out the jerkwad?”
“That’s why I’m here. I mean, I came here to partner with Earth, and then found out that they have a pretty impressive little army built up.” My head swayed in a so-so kind of way. “I’m waiting to hear if they’ll support a plan to take him out.”
“I bet that isn’t going well.” She fiddled with her belt. “Earth has only ever looked out for Earth, so you’ll need to appeal to their desires.”
“I’m starting to see what you mean,” I said, looking over my shoulder. I could only make out the fires burning on the far-away walls. “Our welcome was lukewarm at best.”
“That’s why you should have come to Fire first.” She swatted my shoulder. “They know how to throw a party.” She clicked her lighter a few more times in thought, brushing away the sparks that flew. “But if you insist on starting here, I might be able to help you out.”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Because we’re getting nowhere.”
“Yeah, seriously.” Her answering grin was wolfish. “It’s time someone reminded them that no matter how tall the mountain is, it cannot block the sun.”
Chapter 29
“I’m bored,” Pyra proclaimed. She was picking at dirt underneath a nail with a knife. I curled my own fingers safely against my palms, wondering how she didn’t cut herself.
“You’re the one who insisted we arrive thirty minutes early,” Joseph reminded her, crunching on some trail mix. “I was perfectly content with getting extra sleep.”
It was irritating how quickly Davos granted Pyra access to the city. She’d flourished a dragon of fire in the air as she passed beneath its gates and boom, she was in. She wasn’t even confined to the pyramid as we’d been. After eating a quick meal, we three Gods had stayed up late strategizing how to approach this meeting with Davos. Now we hovered outside the conference room doors.
“I was bored then, too,” the Fire God sneered, slipping her knife back into a sheath inside her vest. “You sleep too much as it is.”
“And you’re a pain in my—”
“Would you two knock it off.” Finn clapped his hands from the floor where he sat, playing hangman with me on a spare scrap of paper. His facial piercings winked as he stretched to glare at the pair of them. “We have enough problems without adding infighting to the mix. We’ve only been here for ten minutes, Pyra, you can be patient a little while longer.”
The God pursed her lips, eyes glowing red as she snagged a cigarette and lit it up. Her shoulders slumped when the nicotine hit her bloodstream. “Yeah, yeah. One moment of patience may ward off great disaster, I know.”
She’d confessed last night to being obsessed with proverbs, and sprinkled them liberally throughout her speech.
Finn scratched a letter into one of the slots beneath the poor stick-guy, who was just a head and torso at this point. “I’m glad you—”
“Nope,” she interrupted, a bundle of flames appearing in her palm. Around the cigarette, she continued, “Can’t do it. Won’t do it. I have to know what they’re talking about. They owe it to us.”
“What are you going to do?” Joseph asked with alarm. “Burn down the door? It’s locked.”
“I like how you think,” she said with a wink as Finn and I scrambled to our feet, recognizing the dangerous glint in her eye for what it was. Flames lapped at the edges of the formerly gorgeous oak door, and Pyra kicked in what remained of the barrier. She grabbed my hand and strode inside the room I was beginning to loathe. I couldn’t think in boardrooms. They were so… boring.
As they had for the past few days, thirteen people bearing masks of bone stared at us. Oron moved away from the table around which they were assembled, peering down at a wide array of paperwork spread across its surface. His fingers twisted into a sign I didn’t recognize.
“This is an unseemly display, Ms. Zhang,” Seth drawled from his standard spot at the head of the table. “Though it’s not wholly unexpected from someone associated with the Fire Temple.”
“I’m happy to uphold your preconceived notions,” she snarked, sidling up beside Oron. “Because you’re holding up your end of that stick, too.”
“Ms. Ramone, I’m more surprised to find you joining these antics,” Seth said, his tone betraying his annoyance. “I thought you and I had an understanding.”
I crossed my arms while scrutinizing the orbital bones that made up his dragon’s skull. I bet they knew the masks made newcomers uneasy. That was the real reason they insisted on wearing them everywhere. Across from me, Oron surveyed the volley of our conversation, and he deigned to make that sign again.
“We had an understanding, but I’m tired of waiting,” I drawled. “All we’re doing is wasting time and giving the Order opportunity to launch a counterattack. If you aren’t interested in joining us, then say so.”
“I’m amazed she’s waited this long for you schmucks to make a decision,” Pyra added, tugging a document out of a woman’s hands. The page charred around her fingertips. “But that’s ok, because she’s got me now, and I know how you operate. It’s time to make a decision.”
She stared hard at Oron as if daring him to say something. Anything.
He didn’t so much as twitch and she snorted. “Figures you guys would lock away your God, too, with all the other radical changes you’ve made. You’ve turned him into little more than a puppet. I hope you’re pleased with yourselves.”
Seth drew himself up and I imagined the beast he wore spewing flames as his anger flared. “You know nothing of how this temple has survived the past two-thousand years,” he snarled. “Sacrifices were made in the name of protecting the people of the Gods. That meant certain old-fashioned ways of life had to go.”
“Fine. Fire tried something similar, too,” Pyra snapped back, brushing ashes onto Oron’s white robes with a sneer. “They failed.”
Finn and I exchange a glance. The room pulsed with waves of tension.
“Ms. Ramone,” Seth began, �
�since you insist on associating with this—”
“Before you say something you really don’t want to, to my friend over there—” Pyra interrupted, hooking her thumbs in her belt loops and swaying, “—you’ll want to hear me out. If you decide to not aide our First in her greatest hour of need, the Castle of Glass is prepared to declare war between our two temples.” Her sneer was downright sinister as hushed whispers surged around the table.
Never in recorded history had two temples attacked one another.
“Believe me when I say this is seventeen years coming, and we’ve done little else but prepare in that time.” Pyra slammed her hands on the table. Even though I knew what was coming, a shiver ran down my spine at her vehemence. “Not once did you answer our requests to communicate. Not once did you extend help to the survivors of Water and Air, the ones persecuted for little other than their loyalty. Not once did you publicly break from the Order.”
Flames licked Pyra’s heels as she advanced on Seth. Smoke spilled from her fingertips and rose from her shoulders as she continued, “Your support for the cause is long overdue. I demand your answer now, as head and God of the Temple of Fire, what will it be, Davos? Which war will you choose?”
Seth seemed frozen, his chest barely rising.
I flicked a look at Joseph and together we moved behind the smaller, but equally, mighty God. In my hands, I spun a wheel of water and Joseph used skates of wind to glide along.
“I may be the sole remaining member of Air,” Joseph said, tone steely, “but I, too, will throw my support behind Fire. Should you choose war with them, you choose war with me. I warn you, my lack of followers doesn’t make me any less frightening a foe.”
The dragon mask shifted my way. I inclined my head.
“We will fight the Order,” Seth said, seething. “However, I make one request before we deploy all our troops on a whim.”
Fan the Flame Page 19