Kingdom of Ash

Rowan’s knees buckled, but he held on to
his magic long enough for the steam to lessen.
For it, too, to be calmed.
It filled the plain, turning the world into
drifting mist. Blocking the view of the queen
in its center.
Then silence. Utter silence.
Fire flickered through the mist, blue
turning to gold and red. A muted, throbbing
glow.
Rowan spat blood onto the battlement
stones, his breath like shards of glass in his
throat.
The glowing flames shrank, steam rippling
past. Until there was only a slim pillar of fire,
veiled in the mist-shrouded plain.
Not a pillar of fire.
But Aelin.
Glowing white-hot. As if she had given
herself so wholly to the flame that she had