MISTRESS OF FLAME

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 35

THE REMAINING members of the Wraith ran without stopping to check if they were being followed or not. They ran for their lives until they could no longer feel anything other than their labored breathing and the insects around the forest.

"Stop!" Dandrev shouted at Oxar and Onyll. "Let's help Lura first!"

"No! We have to leave this forest immediately!" Oxar snapped at Dandrev.

Onyll agreed with Oxar and glared at Dandrev. "And how do you suggest we help Lura, huh?! She's our healer! We can't help her! What we need to do is run away from that monster as far as we could!"

"Even our strongest attacker, Radus, was burned to ashes." Oxar's voice trembled as he paced back and forth anxiously. "I couldn't even put out her flame!"

"I used my strongest attack, and I couldn't penetrate her defense!" Onyll shivered when he remembered what had happened back in the clearing. "If that was really the real Mistress of Flame, it would be foolish for us to even hunt her again. She'll burn us all alive!"

Dandrev gritted his teeth. "Tell that to His Majesty! He's waiting for our report!"

Oxar contorted in disgust. "The emperor clearly knew who that woman is but didn't tell us! Screw him!" Oxar let out a snort. "Capture her? Yeah, right! That's the Mistress of Flame!"

Dandrev listened to Oxar and Onyll, and he couldn't say anything. He, too, knew how dangerous that woman was. Her flame was nothing he had seen before. It was too fierce!

"But isn't she supposed to be dead?" Dandrev asked in a low voice. "She's a myth amongst sorcerers..."

Onyll snorted. "Dead or alive, I don't care. I am not going back to that monster."

All of a sudden, something clicked inside Dandrev's brain. "That man we were chasing...we met him in the city, right?"

Oxar and Onyll looked at Dandrev.

"What are you thinking, Dandrev?" Oxar asked upon hearing Dandrev's tone.

Dandrev swallowed as he explained what came to his mind just now. "How often do you meet someone you're hunting without effort whatsoever in the street? He's on a wanted list. Shouldn't he be hiding?"

Oxar and Onyll became silent as their brain worked double.

They were in the city of Ager, and the talk of the town was the escapee from the empire and her companions. According to the empire's spy, the escapee was in the city, so the Wraiths waited, but they didn't see the woman they were looking for. And then the man—one of the escapee companions, according to the imperial spy—passed before them on the street.

They chased the man and didn't stop even when he left the city gate and entered the forest to escape.

They all thought he was running away to escape...

Oxar's lips parted when he understood what Dandrev meant. "Are you saying...we were lured to that clearing?"

Dandrev nodded. "After the woman got Radus's flame essence, she didn't give chase like we thought. The target was Radus and his flame essence."

Onyll dropped on his ass and sat on the ground, feeling weak and drained. "But why?"

"I don't know," Dandrev answered. "All I know is that we were lured there by that man. It was a setup. Maybe, maybe..." Dandrev guessed, throwing anything worthy to consider, "she needs flame essence or something. You heard her, right? She said 'I blessed your ancestor with myflame' and she wanted it back. For what reason? I don't know."