Page 55 of Magick and Lead (Dragons and Aces #2)

CHARLIE

S he didn’t come.

That was the thought that ran through my mind over and over as the flames crept toward me.

As the heat rose, sweat slicking my face and shirt.

As the conflagration encircled me, painting the walls around me in quivering, deadly orange flames.

As black smoke unfurled above me like the wings of some terrible raven, choking me, driving me to my knees.

She didn’t come.

The heat grew more intense, degree by degree, going from warm to hot, hot to scalding.

An ember landed on my shirt and I frantically patted it out.

Another landed on my pants, sparking a flame, and I smacked that until it went out too, wincing at the sting it left on my skin.

I crouched, pulling up my knees, wrapping my arms around them, making myself into a ball in the center of the cell to stay as far from the flames as possible. But the heat just kept rising.

Instinctively, my hand snaked into the top of my shirt and found the dragon stone necklace.

If I could generate fire with my hands and not get burned, maybe this fire wouldn’t hurt me, either.

Maybe the magick of the dragon stone would protect me.

It seemed too easy, too much to hope for.

As I rubbed the stone between my finger and thumb, the heat around me did seem slightly more bearable. But it was still starting to hurt.

The smoke stung my eyes, filling them with blinding tears. Even after I’d shut them, the world was still too bright and growing brighter as the flames crept closer and closer.

Essa , I tried to say her name, but when I took a breath to speak, it was like inhaling a handful of embers.

Coughs ripped through me, so violent I thought my chest would cave in.

Only I couldn’t stop. I kept coughing, harder and harder, until my ribs hurt, my chest ached, my lungs felt like they were on fire.

I felt incredulous.

I expected Essa to save me. Or the magick. Or something…

But no.

Parthar! Help! I love you. I’m sorry!

Nothing. No answer.

Hell, he was just a baby. I was losing it, my sense unraveling, my head swimming with dizziness. No oxygen. Coughs wracking my body until I almost puked. Then, coughing more. Coughing harder.

The flames were all around me. They seemed to be in me, the heat, the pain building into a single wave of stinging, screaming agony, overcoming me, still coughing, the world shivering, sparking to black, winking out. Oh god. To die. Is this what it was like?

Shit. Goddammit.

Essa. Essa! ESSA!

She didn’t come.