Riley reached up to slide her fingers along his jaw, and cast Rafael a look. “You guys be careful,” she said, and then she pulled her hand away and vanished.
I blinked the bright light from my eyes and coughed on the choking smoke.
“This way,” Rafael gestured to the large stone ovens running the length of one wall.
We followed him, and found a break in the counters behind them. A wooden door, standing ajar.
The stairs beyond it led to a much narrower passage, designed to facilitate the movement of supplies to the kitchen. It had been hacked out of solid rock. Pipes and wires ran overhead, serving both the kitchen and receiving areas.
The smoke and heat had been choking in the kitchen, but here, it was almost intolerable. Air currents pulled the smoke in, and it billowed around us.
The passage was only dimly lit to begin with. Add the smoke, and it was almost impossible to see. Rafael held up hands that glowed, showing us the way. Riggs was behind me, sword heldhigh. Its light flared, highlighting swirling smoke and rough-cut stone walls.
We crept ahead, crouched over to find clearer air, but my vision swam. Behind me, Riggs coughed, a deep, racking sound.
When I hesitated, worried for him, his warm hand closed on my shoulder, guiding me onward.
Just keep moving, Bree,Caliel said.We cannot breathe in this smoke for long. We have to find those boys.
The Gryphon was right. I focused on putting one foot ahead of the other as we followed Dani and Marcus. Rafael’s glowing hands adding spots of welcomed light at the front.
What we walked through wasn’t just smoke. The walls seemed to be steaming—I put my hand to one, and yanked it back.
It was red-hot.
Then I saw flickering light beyond Rafael—the other door, also standing open. And beyond it, flames.
The storage area was already on fire.
If those boys are still in that hall, they are trapped,Caliel said.
So were we. Rafael stopped near the open door, and gestured us close.
“I’ll have to take us through,” he said.
“That’s too hot, and you don’t have enough left. It’ll burn right through your shields,” Marcus growled.
“Ash says he can now see them in the hall,” Dani insisted. “We have to get through.”
I glanced up at the pipes that ran overhead. “Is one of those water?”
Instantly, Riggs was with me. He crouched to give himself room and thrust the sword upward.
Welcomed water sprayed down on us. Warm, almost hot. Caliel was already busy inside me, and icy-blue scales poppedup among the darker-blue velvet fur clothing my arms. Then I heard Riggs inhale, and the water slowed in its progress to the ground. Slowed, and then hung, suspended.
I exhaled an icy fog, and forks of frosty lightning extended from my fingers. In the heat, the frozen crystals melted almost as soon as they formed, but I kept it coming, refreezing them. The air immediately dropped in temperature.
“Can you keep it around us as we move?” Marcus asked.
I glanced to Riggs, who thrust again with his sword, freeing a deluge down upon us. Then he caught it, holding it up while I froze it.
Rafael held his makeshift shield aloft and took us out of the passageway and up the stairs.
The heat didn’t just melt the ice—it evaporated the water as well. I kept refreezing what was left. It diminished with each step, but it kept us from burning up as Rafael led us into the fire.
Filled with crates and bagged goods, the entire storage area was aflame. We dodged falling bits of ceiling as we pushed for the exit and burst through into the hall. Cinders fell into the feathers clothing my shoulders, and vaporized in the cold radiating off me.
The flames climbed the walls, but had not yet ignited the floor and ceiling. I was running out of water, and the others were soaked in sweat. My exposed skin steamed, and my breath fogged cold into the burning heat.
