Sahrak didn’t say a word. He just stared at his hands, as the air around them thickened with tension like something in him had snapped—or perhaps, snapped into place.
One after the other, with eerie calm, he let yellow flames engulf his palms, licking up to his wrists. It wasn’t the hurried blaze of a firestarter, no. It was deliberate. Controlled. Like the fire obeyed him.
Kaelen blinked through the light, shielding his eyes slightly with a forearm. Hovering his blue fireball mid-air, illuminating the narrow end of the tunnel like a torch gripped by an invisible hand with shadows wavering on the damp walls.
“Um… Wh—what are you doing?” Kaelen asked, folding his brow. He looked genuinely confused. “Why’d you light them one by one?”
Sahrak didn’t look at him. His eyes, usually so shar
