Page 43 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

Something wraps around my hand. Stilling the rush of racing thoughts and whispers pulsing in my brain.

I look down at my left hand and find strong fingers lacing through mine. The rough calluses brush my skin with a distant comfort. Flicking my gaze up from our hands, I find Cole’s warm amber eyes staring down at me, the flames dancing in the reflections.

He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. He only squeezes my hand.

It’s okay. It’ll all be okay.

The meaning of it alone chases away the storm breaking inside my head, clearing a path for me to take.

“I believe in you,” he whispers, so softly I almost question whether he was the one who actually said it. “You are the strongest person I know.”

He slips his hand from mine, his eyes still focused on me as he takes a step back.

I look at the flames, my heart slowing in my chest as I come down from my own panic.

I had practiced manipulating Daeja’s dragonfire with Marge.

And while it was at a much smaller scale, I have to try again.

I have to try until I have nothing left.

I take a step forward, stretching my left hand out with Cole’s mother’s ring in the direction of one of the closest buildings on fire.

“Yield to me ,” I whisper inside my head, eyes locked on those wicked flames as I take another step. Another. And another.

The heat blasts me in defiance, warning me to get back.

I stop a few inches from the flames, narrowing my eyes as sweat drips down my forehead.

The salt stings my eyes and blurs my vision, but I can’t blink.

Gritting my teeth and fighting the trembling in my arm, I bend my fingertips toward the fire as if I were digging into it for a stronghold.

As heavy as if I were moving the building itself, I swing my hand across my chest.

The flames, shrieking in protest, reluctantly follow my hand, sending a blast of embers off into the sky. A small smile tugs at my lips. It’s all the confidence I need.

I stretch out both of my hands and focus on hooking my influence into the flames before swinging them back and forth to break them from their own volition.

As I find a steady rhythm, the flames surrender more and more to me as I swing them.

With a strangled grunt, I slam them down into the ground, forcing them to join the magical ley lines beneath me.

A soft smoke rises from the building, but at least it’s free from dragonfire.

“Well done,” Daeja purrs. “I knew you could.”

A soft laugh rumbles in my chest, a flare of her pride bleeding into my subconscious as I pant. I can do this.

I turn my attention to the rest of the buildings surrounding the square.

I can’t wrap my head around how much effort it’ll take to return it all to the ley lines.

But if anyone can do it, it’s me. And if I have to do it one at a time, if it drains every bit of my strength, so be it.

I sweep my hands across the town’s center, spinning myself in slow circles as I coax the flames out away from the buildings and toward me.

Marge’s voice whispers inside my head from the last time I slipped into The White. You are in control—remember that.

Sucking in a quick breath, I spin in slow, staggered circles, arms outstretched and summoning the flames closer to me, pulling them in as if I’m the center of gravity. As I spin, the fire twirls with me, becoming a cyclone of heat and flame.

Yield to me!

The flames grow larger and larger around me, spinning faster and faster and teetering on the edge of my control, waiting for me to slip an inch before it bursts and explodes.

But I won’t. I can’t.

“Yield to me!” I scream as my head begins to catch up with my body, my skull pulsing with an uncontrollable dizziness.

The flames roar, desperate not to give into my control.

The tips of the inferno spike, as if racing toward the sky to escape my grasp.

I stop spinning, though the lingering sensation still has me staggering, my head lolling as I fight to regain my balance.

I pull my elbows into my sides, dragging the flames closer and closer to me, to where the wall of still spinning flames surrounds me.

I should be scared.

If I were in this exact situation a few months ago, I would have already pissed myself. Or passed out. The temptation to let go of the flames and rest flirts with me. But those two little words echo in the back of my mind: hold on.

My determination overrides any of the alarm bells, and I scrunch my eyebrows down tighter as I fight to keep my eyes open in the blinding whirl of flames.

Yield!

Trembling and shaking, I rake my fingers down from the top of the fire tornado as it screams with almost human objection.

To!

Just a little further to the ground. But it refuses to bow before me, as if I’m not nearly worthy enough.

Me!

With a guttural scream, I fall to my knees and slam my hands down onto the heated cobblestone street.

The deafening circle of flames roars as it swirls down and around in a whirlpool-like motion, as if sucked into the abyss beneath the streets.

The fire disappears into the ground, and a bitter coldness snaps in with the lack of overpowering heat.

“You’ve done it.” Daeja’s grin is palpable. “That’s my two legger.”

Panting, I stare at my hands splayed on the ground before me, my arms shaking beneath me and threatening to collapse as I fight to catch up to my racing pulse. The Blood Ring glows with a soft blue before fading to its normal gray sheen.

My vision snaps black, and I collapse forward onto the ground, face first. But I can’t care about the slamming ache that meets my face. Only the exhaustion tearing at my bones like a vulture stripping a carcass. As my consciousness fades, something slides underneath my belly.

I peek open my eyes. Daeja has her nose underneath me and lifts me off the ground.

My feet flail weakly beneath me as I fight to regain my balance.

My arms are strung limply over her snout as I try to lift my heavy head.

My boots meet the street, and she freezes, allowing me to slowly pull myself up off her muzzle, my legs shaking underneath me.

When I turn around to assess the damage to the buildings, my head spins. Cole dives to me as I fall forward, catching me in his arms before I can smack face-first into the ground again.

“I’ve got you,” he whispers into my ear, lowering to his knees.

“Did everyone…everyone make it out okay?” I croak into his chest. “Did I save them?”

He pulls my head back gently, a small grin splitting his beard as he motions behind him with his chin.

The buildings around us sizzle, a light gray smoke rising from the foundations and clouding the air.

The bases of the homes are stained with black scars, but the wooden beams and brick columns still stand.

And down the smoky street where the crowd slipped away, their distant silhouettes return.

I fucking did it.

A laugh breaks from my chest, tears misting my eyes the harder I smile. For once, I made a difference. For once, I saved them.

The street shakes under the heavy landings of A’nala and the other dragons with their riders.

Sethan dismounts A’nala, who flicks her golden gaze between Daeja and me.

Her expression is free from annoyance and could be mistaken for something resembling pride.

The other dragon riders dismount. Sethan looks at me wordlessly, a serious calm drowning his features as he unsheathes his sword, stabs it down between two cobblestones, and kneels, dipping his head low.

One by one, the rest of the dragon riders follow suit, removing their weapons and kneeling. Each red dragon bows, with A’nala being the last, her eyes closing as she dips her maw. A swarm of pride and sheer amazement swallows me as I watch them all.

For Daeja.

And for me.

A patter of rapidly approaching footsteps steals my attention, and I turn to the sound.

Corvin races up to us like a bat out of the hells from one of the side streets.

Almost tripping over his own feet by how hard he runs.

Once he reaches Cole and me, he hunches over, coughing as he tries to catch his breath, before looking at me with wild eyes.

“I…couldn’t…” He gasps, sucking in a large breath of air. “...get…Darian…out.”