I pulled free of the fields and stepped back into my flesh. For several minutes I did nothing more than sit there, regaining my equilibrium.
After a few minutes, the awareness of my surroundings returned. The air was hot enough to burn my skin and it was filled with shouting—Tao and Ilianna, in trouble.
Fear surged again and I opened my eyes. The clearing was in flames. Everything burned—the trees, the ground, even the air itself seemed to be on fire.
I blinked, positive that I was imagining it, that my vision was faulty, but it didn’t help. The world was on fire.
The elementals.
I scrambled to my feet and twisted around, looking for Ilianna and Tao. I saw Ilianna first—she was running backward, intermittently yelling abuse and flipping the contents of two small bottles at the elemental that trundled after her. Given the way the creature’s fiery form reacted to the spray, I knew it had to be holy water. It kept the creature at a respectful distance, but she didn’t have an endless supply and would need help soon.
I swept my gaze past her. Tao was on the opposite side of the circle, his body ablaze as he stood his ground, going toe-to-toe with a second elemental, battling fire with fire. His fire didn’t seem to be having much effect on the creature, but at least the elemental’s fire didn’t seem to be hurting him. Which was something to be thankful for.
The third elemental was nowhere to be seen, but instinct said it wouldn’t be far.
I drew Amaya free from her scabbard and ran through the circle. This would destroy any protection it offered and leave the book open to attack, but I didn’t have any other choice. Ilianna had just thrown the first of her bottles at the creature, which meant she was out of water.
I screamed and raised the sword high above my head. Amaya’s hissing was an electric, vehement sound that filled the clearing and made the creature shudder. It turned around, its movements heavy yet rapid.
I swung Amaya. Lilac fire splattered through the air in a wide arc, whipping around the creature like a leash, burning where it touched. Then the blade hit it. Unlike the white ash stakes I’d used the last time I’d confronted these things, Amaya didn’t slice through the elemental, allowing it to pide and regenerate. She simply consumed it.
The creature’s flame seemed to wrap around the black of her blade, and then it melted away, as if its energy were being drawn into the sword itself. The blade shuddered and glowed, the ethereal steel glinting and flaring as the purple leash of her fire drew tighter and tighter, until the elemental was little more than a flicker of flame, and all I could hear was Amaya’s fierce hissing and the elemental’s dying screams.
Then the last of the fire creature was gone, and Amaya felt heavier in my hand—almost as if her belly were full. I shuddered, then thrust the thought aside and looked at Ilianna.
"You okay?"
She nodded and wiped a hand across her sweaty forehead. "Just fucking hot."