Page 225 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
Keir stopped at last and stood utterly still.
He closed his eyes.
The witches approached, cautious and curious, though none dared come too near. From a distance they raised their hands, sending blasts of green magic towards him.
It no longer mattered.
A light began to bloom from within Keir’s body.
At first it was only a faint glow beneath his skin. Then it grew brighter, fiercer, spilling outward until his entire form shone like a star fallen upon the earth.
The light swelled.
It grew and grew, expanding until it could no longer be contained by mortal flesh.
Then Keir’s body burst apart, disintegrating into nothing.
The light surged outward in a blinding wave.
It spread across the battlefield, devouring shadow and colour alike, until the world itself seemed made of white fire.
Adriana threw her arm over her eyes, shielding them from the unbearable brilliance. But the light exploded outward like a weapon.
The force of it struck her, and the world vanished as the blast hurled her into darkness.
If there’s one group I’ll never trust, it is the phoenixians.
Tabitha Wysteria
Alina did not know how long she had been asleep. It felt as though she had drifted through an entire lifetime of dreams before finally surfacing again.
When her eyes opened, she found herself staring at a familiar ceiling.
The small room she shared with Mareena in the city of Aruna.
For a moment she simply lay there, confused, trying to piece together the fragments of memory that floated through her mind like drifting sand. If she was here… then they had not left. They had not needed to flee the Desert Kingdom upon her dragons, vanishing into the distant skies.
They had stayed.
Relief barely had time to bloom before pain followed.
Her entire body ached, a deep, merciless agony that pulsed through her bones. Her breathing turned ragged as awareness slowly crept over her—anawareness of what was wrong.
Something was missing.
Alina turned her head slightly, and her attention fell upon the empty space beside her.
Her left arm was gone.
A strangled sound caught in her throat as she instinctively reached for it with her remaining hand, fingers brushing against thick bandages where the limb had once been. Her throat felt raw, parched, as though she had not tasted water in days.
‘You’re awake.’
The door creaked open.
Alina turned her head and saw a figure standing beneath the archway. For some reason the image seemed oddly blurred, the edges of the room softened by a strange dimness, as though the world had grown darker while she slept.
Frowning, she lifted her hand and touched her face. Her fingers brushed against cloth. Half of her face had been wrapped in bandages.
