A Shadow Bright and Burning (Kingdom on Fire #1)(7)

“We should get to shelter,” I whispered.

Agrippa’s yell made me look down the hill. He lay on his back, arm shielding his face. He’d dropped his stave, and one of the Familiars had kicked it out of his reach. The eyeless girl stood over him, cocking her head at different angles. Agrippa seemed frozen. He wasn’t fighting. With a grunt, the Familiar lifted her dagger into the air while her two companions held back and bobbed around her. They were letting her have this kill.

I dug my hands into the earth. I could distract the Familiars with my ability, but if I did…if Agrippa survived and knew what I was…

Rook got to his feet and picked up a rock. Running down the hill, he threw it and struck the eyeless rider on the side of her head, knocking her down. Her monstrous friends rushed to tend to her. This gave Agrippa enough time to roll over and grab his stave. Rook shuddered and collapsed.

The eyeless rider leaped back to her feet, dagger still in hand. Agrippa wasn’t her focus any longer. She turned toward Rook, now lying helpless. With a sneer, she sprang and caught him by the back of his shirt. He fought her, but his movements were slow. The blackness was overtaking him. Agrippa tried to get to them but was caught fighting off the other two monsters. The eyeless Familiar whistled for her stag.



She was going to take Rook away.

“No,” I whispered, getting to my feet. Gritting my teeth, I ran forward, my skin hotter than ever before. Fury stoked something deep inside. Power flooded me.

“Miss Howel, wait!” Agrippa cried.

“No!” I screamed. My whole body ignited.

The fire engulfed me, rippling over my clothes, my face, shooting out from my hands. Every inch of my skin tingled, and the blood in my veins seemed to hum. The world fell away around me, until all I could see or feel was fire. The column of blue flame swirled above me while the Familiars wailed. Grass sizzled as I advanced on the eyeless girl, still struggling to pull Rook onto her stag. She bared her teeth and groaned low in her throat. If I touched her now, I somehow knew I’d kill Rook as well. But I’d sooner see him dead than let her take him to God knows where. He would do the same for me.

“Let him go,” I said, “or I will kill you.”

She ran a tongue over her cracked lips, deciding. Then, slowly, she released Rook. He dropped to the ground and lay there. The girl turned for one last look at Agrippa, then spurred her stag and took off into the sky. The others joined her. They galloped away, spitting and crying into the storm. When they’d vanished, I felt my whole body relax. The fire died at once. Dark spots danced before my vision. My hands felt numb. But I’d done it.

My joy was short-lived as Agrippa pointed at me.

“You,” he said. “It’s you.” He didn’t sound friendly.



I turned to run. But the moment I stepped forward, the last energy fled my body. I collapsed into the mud, where darkness took me.

—

I STOOD BEFORE A FIREPLACE, TRYING to warm my hands. It didn’t work. With a sigh, I studied the pictures on the mantel. Small, exquisitely detailed portraits of a man and a woman. The man had hair and skin as dark as my own, so dark some would mistake him for a gypsy. The woman was soft and fair as a rose petal.

My father and mother. I never knew them. Father drowned in a boating accident before I was born. Mother perished in childbirth. My aunt Agnes took me into her home, this home. These were the pictures she wouldn’t allow me to take to Brimthorn. Why couldn’t I have them? They were my parents, after all.

My thin, hollow-eyed aunt appeared beside me. She looked the same now as she had eleven years before, when she’d first brought me to school. The last time I’d seen her.

“Henrietta, you overspent yourself. Your powers must be governed. Do you understand me?” Odd. She spoke with Master Agrippa’s voice.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Horrid child,” she snapped. Now she sounded much more like my aunt. She leaned in. “You are a horrid child.”

“No.” I tried to leave. She grabbed me, pulled me close to her as I struggled. She opened her mouth wide, wider, then wider still. I screamed as I disappeared into the void of her mouth, and Agrippa’s voice came out of the blackness to whisper:

“I’ve waited for you.”

—



I WOKE IN A SMALL, DARK room. A candle burned on the table beside me. Head spinning, I found my feet and staggered to the door. Locked. There was a barred window at my eye level. Peering out, I glimpsed a dim stone corridor.

This was a prison cell, probably where condemned witches were housed before being taken out to be executed. Agrippa had seen my fire.

I was going to die. At that moment, with my wretched head throbbing, I took that thought as a comfort. I returned to the bed and closed my eyes.

Someone cleared his throat, and I bolted upright. Looking about in a panic, I glimpsed two pointed ear tips sticking slightly over the edge of the bed. With a wheezing sound, a tiny creature climbed up the mattress and stood beside me.

Perhaps I’d already died and been damned to hell; the demon before me was ugly as sin. Its long, twitching ears were rabbit-like, but the rest of the beast resembled a bat more than anything. It scratched its ears with two hands and then brought two more hands out from behind its back to rummage in its coat pockets.

Yes, the demon wore a coat, a purple coat with a blue silk cravat. It retrieved a glass vial filled with shining liquid from its pocket and tossed it to me. In my hands, it was no larger than a thimble.