The sky is still burning when I wake.
Crimson light splits the clouds in violent pulses, thunder tearing through the heavens as if the world itself is screaming in protest. The pillar of fire ripped from my chest now coils through the storm like a living god.
And it is still inside me.
My body convulses violently against the infirmary bed, every nerve igniting in unbearable waves of heat and pressure. I cannot scream anymore. My throat is raw. My vision bleeds red at the edges.
Zane grips my shoulders, terror etched into every line of his face. “Kali! Stay with me. Don’t you dare leave me.”
I try to answer him.
Only fire answers back.
The First Flame surges again.
The walls crack.
The healers are thrown backward in a blast of heat and force. Wolves howl in panic outside the shatte
