Chapter Forty-Three-Through the Flame
The wind howled as Kael and Lira raced across the plateau, their cloaks flaring behind them. The news of Cristi's awakening had arrived barely hours ago, but Kael hadn't even waited for David's orders. He just ran.
"Do you think he's still… him?" Lira asked, her voice strained as she kept pace.
Kael didn't look back. "He has to be. Cristi isn't like Andreas. He's not built to burn people. He's the type to protect them."
"Exactly," she said. "Which makes the Death Flame that much more dangerous."
They reached the base of the ruined hill where Cristi had last been seen — the land was warped, blackened, and trembling with residual magic. Grass had wilted. Trees stood twisted and scorched.
Kael slowed. "This is bad."
Suddenly, the air shifted — and Kael saw him. Cristi was kneeling in the middle of a burnt clearing, shirtless, arms wrapped around himself. The flame of death shimmered around him like a cocoon — not hot, not even warm, but heavy. Soul-crushing.
Lira reached out. "Cristi—"
He screamed.
The cocoon shattered in waves of black fire, knocking them both to the ground. Kael rolled to his feet, coughing. The wind was saturated with smoke — but not from anything burning. It came from Cristi's soul.
Cristi stood now, eyes blazing — one black, the other still his own hazel. He looked like a man split in two.
"You shouldn't have come," he said. "I don't know how long I can keep it back."
Kael stepped forward, blood dripping from his nose, but his voice was calm. "That's why we came. So you don't have to keep it back alone."
Cristi shook his head violently. "You don't understand, Kael. It's not just power. It speaks. It tempts. It tells me what could be fixed if I just let it out. It showed me a world without tyrants. Without Andrei. Without war."
"And what's the price?" Kael asked.
Cristi's voice cracked. "Everyone."
He dropped to his knees again, and the flames pulsed violently. Lira knelt beside Kael, drawing a sigil in the dirt. "I'm going to try and seal off the worst of it — temporarily. But I'll need time."
Kael nodded. He walked up to Cristi, even as the heatless fire licked his clothes and tugged at his soul.
"You think I don't hear voices, too?" Kael whispered. "Andrew's legacy burns in my blood. Andreas's madness echoes in my name. But I chose to follow the voice that told me I could be better. So can you."
Cristi looked up, tears burning on his cheeks. "It hurts, Kael. It hurts so much."
Kael extended a hand. "Then let us carry it with you."
Behind him, Lira finished the sigil, and a faint aura shimmered around Cristi. The black fire calmed, pulled inward like a tide, retreating — just a bit.
Cristi gasped, clutching his chest. "What… what did you do?"
Lira stood, exhausted. "I bound a part of your aura to Kael's. For now, you'll stabilize as long as you're near him."
Cristi looked at Kael, stunned. "You'd do that for me?"
Kael gave him a tired smile. "We're not losing anyone else to fire."
Cristi collapsed forward into Kael's arms.
For now… the fire had quieted.
In the Distance…
From atop the jagged peak of Mount Haerum, Andrew watched the scene unfold through the eyes of a shadowed hawk.
"They've delayed the death flame's will," he muttered, a strange look in his immortal eyes. "But that fire is not done with him."
Mihai stood beside him. "You could take the flame back, Andrew."
Andrew closed his eyes, pained. "No. That fire never belonged to me. It belonged to something older. Something that wakes only when the world needs cleansing."
Mihai's voice was low. "Then we should prepare the world. Because it's waking up hungry."