The fire glowed closer. Flames dripped from the blackened branches to crawl across the ground at an alarming speed as embers swirled through the air like stars of hell.
"Grab what you can," Kael said. "We have to get out of here."
I hardly paid any mind to what I was grabbing. I just snatched what I could before Kael began to tug me up the mountain. We hadn't gone several feet before the fire closed into an unforgiving wall of flames ahead of us. I pivoted to find the way down was the only clear way out.
Something was trying to force us to abandon our mission.
Kael pulled the bag he'd managed to snatch up farther onto his broad shoulders. "We have to go back down. Maybe we can find another way around."
Aileen's words found me then, like a breath on a crisp breeze in hell. She'd said to head straight north east and that the journey was part of the test. I vaguely heard Kael holler my name, but I didn't budge. Something was strange about the fire. Why would it come out of nowhere? Kael tugged on my shoulder, but I shook him off as I stared at the blaze before me.
I drew on my magic. Energy swirled around my fingertips, begging to be let loose. I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I molded the energy into a sphere and threw it at the fire. The orange and crimson flames parted around it as the magic shot through. My heart raced, and I threw some more with the same result. I whirled to Kael. Sweat was dripping down his stubbled jaw.
"I think I can get us through the fire."
YOU ARE READING
The Cursed Key
FantasyA forgotten past, a dark mage, and an unyielding curse. Another team beat free-spirited archaeologist Olivia Perez to the dig of a lifetime, and now she's left with the choice to wait for scraps or brave a dangerous, dusty tomb in hopes of finding o...
