No doubt thanks to both the elementals and fires they’d lit in the forest. Fires the sentient forces residing in this place weren’t happy about, if the seething mass of energy filling the air was anything to go by. "Keep alert, because there’s a third elemental around somewhere."
She nodded and bent, withdrawing a knife from her left boot. It looked and felt like silver, and I wondered if it would do any better against the elementals than the white ash.
Then I turned and ran for Tao.
He and the second elemental were still trading fiery blows, but Tao’s flames were no longer as bright or as fierce as they had been. I raised Amaya and screamed again, drawing the attention of the creature.
It swung around and aimed a ponderous fist at me. Fire spat from Tao’s fingertips, forming a rope of flame that spun around the creature’s wrist and snapped it back. Tao stepped away—his flame dying everywhere except for that one band around the creature’s wrist—and pulled with all his might.
The creature stumbled sideways, arms flailing as it struggled to regain balance. I leapt close, letting the heat of the thing wash over me, feeling the burn flush across my skin as I swung Amaya at the elemental’s head.
This time, the sword didn’t consume. She simply killed.
Black steel met with flame and the creature exploded. The force of it knocked me backward, and I landed on my butt several feet away. I grunted as the shock of the landing reverberated up my spine, but nevertheless tightened my grip on my sword and scanned the clearing.
Where the elemental had been standing, there was now a large patch of burned, sooty-looking ground. Several feet to the other side of that was Tao. He looked beat, his face drawn and ashen, as if the force of his flames had drained every ounce of life out of him.
But he gave me a tired smile when his gaze met mine. "I think you timed your reentry into our world almost perfectly. Another few minutes and I would have flamed out."
I pushed to my feet, sheathed Amaya, then walked over to Tao. Every step felt heavy, as if the sword’s weight had somehow become mine. Or maybe it was simply exhaustion. Walking the gray fields always drained me, and I’d done that and battled creatures on both that plain and this.
I pulled Tao to his feet, then gave him a quick hug and said, "Thank you."
He snorted softly. "We are family, and a family stands together."
"I know, but—"
He placed a gentle finger against my lips. He smelled of flame and fierceness and also, oddly, elation. He’d actually enjoyed fighting the elementals. "As I’ve said before, you are not doing any of this alone—"