Burnt Devotion (Imdalind, #5)

Luckily, I already had a way around this.

Wind swirled around me with one pulse of my power, the element growing warm as it intercepted with my ability, creating a small whirlwind of hot air that lifted me into the air enough to soar through the street. Perhaps make it to the clock.

The power grew as flags and overhangs that lined the buildings began to whip around, the force of their unsettlement growing as the power did.

One after another, the little beasts turned their heads to me. Eyes wide as they searched, several of them hissed into the air as they tried to decide what was going on, as they desperately searched for something else to attack.

It only took a moment for them to figure out what was going on, but it was a moment too late.

The wind moved as I did, pushing myself into the street, soaring past the store fronts, past the bodies, past the carnage with Ryland at my side as I towed him along.

The wind followed us as we moved, sweeping through the air as it supported us, the movement so fast and calculated it didn’t take the Vil?s long to figure out what had happened.

I heard their calls as they descended from the rafters, speeding after the wind, past their enemy they couldn’t see.

The force of the wind grew as they moved over me. The unstable gusts pulling at my hair and clothing, shifting the flow of my own powerful surge until it almost sent me off course.

It almost would have been better if it had.

Even through the blindness of my location, the rats had thought ahead, forming a wall before us. A wall of black and leather, a wall of fangs and claws. Vil?s that were so intertwined it was nothing more than a web to catch us.

It was a good plan.

Unfortunately for them, I was stronger.

The shield around us dropped with only a flick of my magic, the tiny creatures screaming louder at our sudden appearance, only to have their hungry calls silenced by the ball of fire I sent at them. The fire magic travelled on the back of my powerful ability, the destructive force speeding towards them.

It flared from my palm in an orb of red and black, growing to the size of a small car in mere seconds before I released it into the air toward the monsters, burning a hole in the web in a ring of flame that quickly moved through the rest of them, weaving its way through the creatures like a burning wick.

The smell of singed flesh assaulted me as we flew through the carnage, my feet hitting asphalt as I ran away from them, sure they were following me, but not really carrying at that point.

I was kind of enjoying burning the little things.

Bring it on.

We turned a sharp corner into one of the many courtyards that rattled the city, the stone square one I had visited many times throughout my life. It had always been beautiful, full of life, full of laughing lovers and tourists.

Now, it was red and black, the sound of pain and fear so strong it rippled through me in a tangible wall that turned my blood to ice.

People screamed as they ran through the open space, frantic to reach the buildings that stood around them and the supposed safety they offered, only to end up pounding on doors that were already barred against them. While some ran, so many more had already fallen, curled into themselves as they writhed, as they screamed, as the tiny things ripped into them, awakening their magic, turning them into another of Edmund’s pawns.

The large statue of Jan Hus stood on the other end of the square, the green copper of her face streaked with the blood of those who had tried to escape, her body covered with the tiny creatures.

As one, they caught sight of me, of my sagging shoulders and the tangle of hair that fell over my face. Their joy echoed around me in a screech that drowned out the pain they had caused.

I looked at them for only a moment, my magic flaring aggressively in a wanton desire to attack, to flare, to rip the world with fire and destroy the beasts, but not here. Not now.

I didn’t know if Thom had made it to the clock yet, and there were too many innocents. I wanted to help them, not kill them.

I could still fight.

With one burst, a wall flew away from me, rumbling over the old cobbles as it flew toward the Vil?s that would attack us, toward their distorted faces and the fangs that dripped with blood.

I looked at the powerful attack for only a moment before I began to run toward the side street and the corner where the clock stood only a few steps ahead, a few precious paces until safety.

I passed the humans as they screamed, as they writhed, my magic ripping the creatures away from them as I went, knowing there was nothing else I could do. Uncertain if I should put them out of their misery.

It was only screams.

Only fire.

Only blood and the sound of my shoes against the cobbles, Ryland beginning to writhe in the air beside me as he woke.

Within mere steps, the door came into view. The old wooden slab covered with claw marks, a few dead creatures huddled to the side.

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