Knight of Flame

by Scott Eder

  “Do I have to wear this?” Cassidy griped, and pulled at the waistband of her leather pants. “I can hardly breathe in this getup.”

  “It could save your life.” Dev held out a fistful of Quinsteele chain. “Here. Cyndralla said you could borrow this.” He shook out the mail shirt. The tight weave of metal links whispered as it settled into form. “But she wants it back.”

  Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Great. More uncomfortable crap.”

  “Oh, stop complaining and slide your arms through.” Dev helped her wiggle into it and admired the fit. “Was that so bad?”

  Cassidy looked surprised as she shrugged her shoulders. “It doesn’t feel any different. I expected the chain to add a bunch of weight and be all noisy and stuff.”

  “That’s the beauty of Quinsteele,” Magnus said. “Stronger than Kevlar, lighter than aluminum and exceptionally quiet.”

  “It comes to this, my friends.” Stillman’s voice rumbled low and grave. “Gray must be stopped. I will continue to work with Cyndralla until you make it inside the building. At that point, use the scrying mirror to capture an image of the lobby so Cyndralla can open a gateway for me to join you.” Stillman turned to Dev. “You still have the mirror, do you not?”

  “Yes, sir. It’s in the condo.”

  Stillman pulled a small pink item from his pocket and handed it to Dev. “Use this one. Cyndralla made it especially for Wren.”

  Roughly the size of small cell phone, Dev turned the plastic case in his hand then flipped the catch. One side sprang open, revealing a compact mirror.

  “I assume it works like the big one, right?” Dev asked.

  “Yes. Point and tap the glass. The image will be transported to the big mirror in Cyndralla’s room. She’ll create the gateway as soon as the image comes through.” Stillman looked to each Knight in turn and raised his arm in farewell. “I must get back. May the elements shield us.”

  “And guide our way,” the Knights responded in unison. Even Cassidy, having not been aware of the ritual, spoke the ancient words.

  Stillman bowed and turned. “Oh,” he spun back to the Knights, “Develor Quinteele, you are reinstated and free to, what is that term I’ve heard you use…kick ass.” Pronouncement made, the Precept hurried from the room.

  “Straight down Gray’s gullet, right?” Magnus asked.

  “Yep. Let’s kick his teeth in.” Dev summoned a gateway to his condo and led the group through.

  * * *

  As a tribute to Wren, Dev wanted to drive her pink Chevy into battle. Magnus balked, but when Cassidy conceded shotgun and climbed into the back seat, he caved. He hugged his knees and fiddled with the radio until some suitable ass-kicking tunes rattled out of the tinny sound system.

  Dev had ridden to war on a horse, in a tank, even standing in the back of a chariot, but never in a pretty princess mobile. He wouldn’t have it any other way. Being in that car made him feel like Wren was there.

  They rolled into Tampa with the windows down and Rob Zombie’s “Dragula” cranked all the way up. Magnus shook the whole car with his head banging, but that didn’t explain the vibration Dev felt through the wheel. Though he stayed in the middle of the lane, the wheel rattled as if he was running over the safety reflectors paved into the median. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, that the road broiled and seethed, but the headlights showed the real story. Bugs, millions of them, repaved the road with their shiny carapaces.

  “Now that’s gross,” Dev said.

  “What?” Cassidy asked.

  “The ocean of bugs we’re driving over,” Magnus answered.

  “What’choo talkin’ ‘bout Willis?” Cassidy looked out the car window.

  In the rearview mirror, Dev watched the color drain from her face as she caught sight of the broiling black tide in a passing streetlight.

  “You okay, Caz?” Dev asked.

  “Sure.”

  Magnus grinned at her. “You don’t look okay.”

  “I’m fine. Turn around. Mind your own business.”

  After he turned onto Kennedy, Dev cut the lights and the music. In the post-Rob Zombie quiet, the insect invasion performed their night time concert of chirps and buzzes. It was loud enough to drown out any noise their car would make.

  In this racket, I could have brought the bike.

  In addition to the noise, the creepy crawlies drove all the people off the streets after sundown, which would work in the Knights’ favor. With no one around, they could focus on Gray and his minions.

  “I’m going to park a few blocks away. We’ll walk it from there. Hit the main doors.”

  “We’re not going to have to stomp through the bugs, are we?” Cassidy asked, her voice quivering. “I…I don’t know if I can do that.” She shuddered.

  Dev chuckled. “No worries. I can do something about that. They won’t come near us.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.”

  The Fire Knight parked next to a few cars in an otherwise empty lot two streets down from the Daegon Gray building. Dev got out first. Heat radiating out from his ankles, he cleared the area of insects before Cassidy got out of the car.

  “There. See?” Dev pointed to the cleared ring of asphalt around the car. “They’ll stay out of my heat.”

  Cassidy nodded and molded herself against his shoulder, her gaze darting from side to side to check the borders of their safety zone. She seemed to breathe deeper when the line didn’t waver.

  “Satisfied?” Dev asked.

  She nodded.

  While they checked each other’s gear and Magnus got big behind the SUV, Dev scanned the rooftops of the surrounding buildings.

  We’re too exposed.

  He never liked guerrilla warfare, preferring the simplicity of open fields and straightforward battles. There was something honorable about two forces standing toe-to-toe and duking it out until only the strongest and toughest remained. But tonight…he had a bad feeling that churned in his gut.

  “I’ll take point,” Dev said. “Magnus, you’ve got the rear.”

  “Figures.” Magnus’s coping mechanism was to bitch, but he knew the drill.

  “Caz, you’re in the middle.”

  “Goody. I’m the creamy filling in this sandwich. A girl should be so lucky.”

  Magnus snorted. “You’re going to fit in just fine.”

  “You goin’ stone, big boy?” Cassidy asked when Magnus didn’t finish his transition as she expected.

  “If I need to. Slows me down.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Dev enjoyed the chatter. After all Cassidy’d been through, she’d held up amazingly well. Pride welled, but a sudden blast of bone grinding fear chased it away. Not for himself, but for her.

  What if something happens to her? What if I lose her?

  The questions turned his mood black, inviting the welcome sense of rage into his heart and soul. The familiar emotion uncoiled and pushed the heat of his element through his veins.

  A low growl rattled in the back of his throat.

  They will not get her.

  Chapter 50

  PALE MOONLIGHT SHONE THROUGH THE PENTHOUSE windows, bathing half the room in sickly white. The other half remained sheathed in gloom. Alexander sensed Agridda’s eager presence veiled within the darkness.

  He studied the roof across the street and looked for a sign that his snipers were in position. They would shoot anything that approached the front doors. That the Knights would come tonight, he had no doubt. They would not allow his challenge to go unanswered.

  They come. Three of them. Gothrodul’s thoughts penetrated Alexander’s dark musings. Fire and Earth I recognize, but not the third. A woman.

  Air.

  No. The dragon’s thought fired back, sharp and bitter. I would know her. This one smells…fresh. Perhaps a new Water Knight.

  It matters not. They will soon be dead. How far?

  Five minutes. No more. The dragon answered.


  Good. I’ll open the doors. Be ready.

  As you wish.

  Where are they…ah. The moonlight reflected off a high-powered rifle barrel. One of his hirelings hunched next to the ledge, rifle trained over the side. Where there is one, the others will be as well.

  Soon.

  “Father,” Agridda’s hiss sounded from inside the gloom. “The sacrifices are ready.”

  “Good. Stake them in the waiting room. I will be out presently.”

  “Yesss, Father.”

  The darkness shifted and a shade of malice peeled away.

  Alexander pressed the panel and walked to his desk as the door in the roof opened. The pictures on the wall, where once his brothers’ nasty faces leered, showed empty, solid canvas.

  They closed their windows. Father must have told them about the plan. He studied the grim portrait of the Gray Lord. Then why is that old bastard’s spotted countenance still there?

  “No matter.” A muffled gunshot popped across the street followed by another and another until a steady barrage of suppressed gunfire popcorned through the night. The sound made Alexander smile.

  We have company.

  Chapter 51

  CASSIDY TOUCHED DEV’S BACK TO GET his attention. “I feel something.” They stopped under a blue awning four doors from the Daegon Gray entrance. “Confidence. Boredom. Over there.” She pointed across the street from the main entrance. “More than one.”

  “It could be anything.” He scanned the other side of the street—the coffee shop, a lawyer’s office, a marketing firm. The buildings were no more than ten stories high. Nothing moved.

  Magnus looked up at the same buildings with similar results. “I got nothing. Heat signatures?”

  “Nothing in range. We’ll keep moving. Caz, let me know if anything changes.”

  Back flat against the wall, Dev stepped into the clear.

  She sensed a flash of anticipation a split second before Dev slammed into the wall and grabbed his left shoulder. The shock knocked him to his knees. Before he could scramble back under cover, two more hits plowed into his chest. Magnus jumped out, grabbed him by the collar and hauled him back.

  Dev winced. “Did you see anything?”

  “You’ve been shot.” Cassidy stared at the flattened bullets embedded in Dev’s armor.

  “Flash from the roof across from Daegon Gray,” Magnus replied and risked another peek from under the awning.

  “You’ve been shot.” Cassidy reached out to the lumps of metal.

  Dev flicked the bullets off his vest. They had torn through the leather and exposed the thin layer of Quinsteele underneath.

  “Caz, I’m okay.”

  Ensuring that the bullet didn’t go through, she tapped the metal through the tear. No blood. No hole. The armor itself was unblemished and Dev showed no sign of pain.

  Or fear or concern or anything other than curiosity. I’d be freaking out if I got shot and he’s so…so matter of fact. What if the bullet had been higher? What if it hit him in the head? The unbidden thoughts raced through her head. What if I lost him?

  Focus. He’s fine. No blood, no foul, like Dad used to say. But her heart wouldn’t give it up. Its pounding beat tried to convey a message that Cassidy wasn’t sure she was ready to hear.

  Magnus picked up one of the crushed bullets.

  “One hundred sixty-eight grain hollow point. These guys are pros.”

  “Suggestions?” Dev asked and crouched.

  “Make a run for it. I’ll shield.”

  “Are you crazy?” Fear blossomed in her belly and spread to her limbs, turning them to lime Jello. “We’ll never make it.”

  “Sure we will.” Magnus reassured her. “No problem.”

  Dev nodded like they did this sort of thing every day. If Magnus had stood up and announced he liked pizza, Dev would have nodded the exact same way…for freaking pizza.

  “Let me get ready.” Magnus kicked off his boots and mumbled, “I don’t know why I wear these darn things anyway.” Barefoot, he closed his eyes. “Maybe I will try flip-flops.”

  Cassidy watched his body change, sensed his joy when he pulled his element. It came on quickly this time, skin going from tan to white to fissured gray in seconds. When he opened his eyes, they too were the same granite of his body.

  Emboldened by their closer relationship, Cassidy rapped on his granite arm. Solid. Now she understood why his armor and clothes hung so baggy. In stone form, he was bigger and needed the room to grow.

  Now that’s cool.

  “If both of you stay against the wall, I can shield you.” Magnus’s speech came out in a dry rasp, the grinding of stone on stone. “Whatever you do, don’t stop. Walk at my pace.” Magnus eyed them each in turn. “Dev, when we get there, get us in as fast as you can.”

  Magnus arranged them against the wall—Cassidy first, then Dev, with Magnus on the outside.

  “Now we have a Dev sandwich.” Cassidy covered her fear with a lame attempt at humor, but it seemed to work.

  I hope Dev doesn’t notice my trembling.

  Magnus responded with a heartfelt, “Bleh. No thank you.”

  Dev just grunted.

  “Let’s go.”

  Magnus set a steady pace, taking one large step for every two of Dev and Cassidy’s. His stone body completely engulfed theirs and kept them safe, but Cassidy felt the vibration as he took hit after hit. Stone chips flipped against the wall ahead or landed on the ground. One slipped past Dev and grazed her ear.

  She sensed Magnus’s pain. He may be made of solid granite, but the bullets hurt as they gouged out pieces of his broad back.

  Hang in there, big guy. Just a few more feet.

  “Stop here.” Dev switched positions with Cassidy outside the first Daegon Gray window. “The doors are probably wired so we’ll go in here.” He drew Cinder and placed the tip of the diamond blade against the hurricane-proof glass.

  Cassidy felt his body tense, his shoulders and arms bunch as he jabbed a hole through the shatter-proof glass. Twisting the blade, he enlarged it until it was the size of a quarter, and slipped in his finger.

  Magnus grunted as the devastation rained down, the level of his pain grew with the pile of stone chips on the pavement.

  Satisfaction flowed into Cassidy as Dev called his inner fire. His finger ignited, melting the film coating on the glass in a high-energy flash of green and blue. He reversed Cinder and shattered the window with a single blow.

  “Let’s go.” Dev charged into the Daegon Gray lobby, knife ready, hungry for a fight. When none presented itself, he rushed over to the main desk. “Alarm,” he responded to her questioning glance.

  Breathing heavy, Magnus stumbled in and, out of sight of the opposing roof, collapsed to all fours. Cassidy rushed to check his back. Deep pits and craters, like the surface of the moon, marred his smooth surface.

  “Oh, Magnus.” Cassidy didn’t know how to help the stone giant. “What can I do?”

  “I’ll be fine once I merge with the earth again. Just give me a moment.”

  Dev ripped the alarm’s control panel out of the wall and smashed it against the marble tile. “I don’t know if that will do the trick, but I feel better.”

  “I’m happy for you,” Magnus panted.

  Dev eyed the door and windows as he came back and knelt next to Magnus.

  “You going to make it?”

  Magnus bobbed his head and Dev took up position by the hall that led to the stairway and elevators, taking the compact scrying mirror out of his pocket.

  “We ready to bring in the boss?”

  Magnus shook his head. “Let me get over this first.”

  The Earth Knight’s pain assaulted Cassidy’s heightened senses. While she didn’t feel his physical distress, she understood how much it hurt him. How can he stand it?

  While she watched, his body transitioned from granite to flesh, revealing the severity of the damage to his back. She could see how much the change hurt. He gasped, his bod
y shook, and his fingers curled into the marble tile.

  Cassidy assessed his injuries. The Quinsteele links had been shattered and in places ground into deep wounds. The leather underneath was shredded. Not even Dev’s amazing armor could withstand a steady assault of that magnitude. Ragged flaps of skin peeled back on torn muscle and in some places bare bone. Blood slicked his back, ran down his arms and legs and spread out in a crimson blanket around his hands and knees.

  “Maybe granite…wasn’t the best…choice.” Magnus hissed through clenched teeth.

  “Shhh.” Cassidy placed her hand on his trembling arm and sent cool thoughts of health and wellbeing.

  The deep crease in his brow lessened and he breathed a little easier.

  “Let me see if I can find some bandages.” She cursed herself for not bringing any medical supplies. What did she think, that they were going to waltz in, kill Gray and walk out all suave and cool?

  Rookie.

  “It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” Magnus reassured her. “The granite usually works, but that was too much.” He tapped on the tiles below his hands. “Marble? No, too soft.” He closed his eyes. “Hmm…iron it is.”

  Relief and a strong sense of wellbeing flowed from the injured Knight as his body changed again. The garish wounds closed. The skin on his back bubbled and flowed like water, rippling across the surface and smoothing the once ravaged flesh until not a mark remained.

  Amazing. She couldn’t help herself and touched the remade flesh. Perfect.

  “Pretty neat, huh?” Magnus’s strength returned. The transformation wiped away all signs of his agony along with his injuries. Continuing the change, his body hardened beneath her fingertips. His overall coloring darkened to a silvery-gray.

  “Is the show over?” Dev asked from the low lit entrance to the hallway. “We’ve got work to do.”

  “Don’t mind him.” The iron giant pronounced each word slowly; his voice deep and hollow as though coming from the bottom of a well. “He’s just jealous.” He rose ponderously to his feet.

  Magnus may have been joking, but his comment struck a nerve. Dev was jealous. Cassidy felt his emotion spike, raw and fast, then bury itself quickly under concern and taut aggression.