Thrall of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 4) by Bella Klaus (elon musk reading list .txt) 📕

around the infirmary were the mothers of my teammates, they’d almost certainly tell Kresnik I’d stolen the ashes of the Flame’s biggest enemy.

“Where are you going?” he hissed.

Ignoring him, I pushed the door open, letting out the scent of burned meat.

I flinched at the doorway, steadying myself with a hand on its wooden frame. The room was darkened with a single candle on a high shelf illuminating wisps of smoke curling from behind Healer Calla.

“Back away,” Hades said. “Before she notices you.”

The healer turned around and met my eyes with glistening eyes and slack features that looked as white as death. To her left, a treatment table stood against the wall with a still figure whose bottom half was wrapped in a white sheet. Slash marks crossed her back, the flesh inside shining as brightly as freshly spilled lava.

My stomach dropped, and I placed a hand over my chest. This didn’t appear human. “What’s happened?”

“The flame whip,” Healer Calla said with a sigh.

“Why?” I whispered.

“Leave us,” Aurora croaked from the table.

Hades groaned. “You’ve ruined our big chance. Now how are you going to steal back my ashes?”

I was about to back out of the room, when Healer Calla inclined her head and walked toward me, averting her gaze from mine. My throat dried. Had Aurora meant that she wanted to speak to me?

“Please don’t agitate her,” the healer murmured as she passed.

A series of tight knots twisted from my belly to my gut, and my heart thudded against my ribcage. What could Aurora possibly want to say to me? The wounds on her back split, revealing orange magma that shone brighter than the candle flame.

I hurried to Aurora’s side on legs that wouldn’t stop trembling. As I approached her bedside, the scent of burning flesh gave way to brimstone, and heat radiated from her back.

“Did you get this from traveling to another realm?” I asked.

Aurora chuckled, but there was no mirth in the sound. “It was my punishment for failure.”

“What?” I blurted. As far as I knew, the woman had done everything Kresnik had demanded of her, including helping to bring him to life. What could she have possibly done to incite his anger?

“Kresnik wanted me to fetch another phoenix.” Her voice was so faint I had to edge closer to hear. “I failed.”

My brows drew together, and I placed a hand over my mouth and nose. “Did he want to make another baby?”

Aurora didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure if it was out of loyalty to Kresnik or because she’d passed out from the pain. My gaze darted to the glowing whip marks. Up close, they were a mix of yellow fire bursting from red. I clenched my teeth. How on earth could a person endure that level of torture?

“How can I help you?”

“You don’t have the magic,” she rasped. “Even if you did, you’d face the same punishment for treating my wounds.”

“That isn’t even fair,” I blurted. “Kresnik set you up for a task you couldn’t complete. But you’re just a fire mage, not a seer.”

Aurora didn’t reply.

“Are you?” I asked.

“Not an effective one like Father Jude,” she rasped.

I shook my head from side to side. “If Kresnik needed you to go to another realm, why didn’t he do it himself? He’s just Father Jude with a different soul.”

“A mingled soul.” She placed her palms on the table and tried to pull herself up. Her skin cracked, making her cry out.

My stomach flip-flopped, and I placed my palm on her shoulder, trying to keep her on the bed. “Don’t try to move. At least not until the wound has time to scab.”

Her body shook with harsh sobs. “This will be my fate for the rest of my life.”

Shock barreled through my gut, making my insides go numb. How could someone inflict such a brutal and long-lasting punishment on a loyal servant? I knew nothing about fire-based torture and only the basics about black magic and psychic attacks that I’d picked up while working with Istabelle.

“What’s Healer Calla giving you for the pain?” I asked.

“No magical healing is allowed.”

“What exactly happened?”

“The flame whip,” she whispered.

My brows drew together. Healer Calla said this, too, but the whip I’d seen during Jonathan’s banishment ceremony had been harmless. Father Jude had punished Aurora for not instructing Jonathan better, but the whip hadn’t done anything back then—it had barely reddened her skin.

I leaned forward, flinching at the heat radiating from her wounds. It was like standing too close to an old-fashioned bar heater.

“The punishment has to be cumulative.” It was the only explanation I could conjure up, and it would also explain why Aurora had been so desperate for me to forgive Jonathan, when he’d clearly been guilty of violating my mind. It also explained why some of the audience hid their faces while Aurora got her punishment.

“Yes,” she replied from between clenched teeth. “The first whipping doesn’t hurt, but the second stings. With each application of the whip, the body retains the heat, until…”

“What happens if he whips you again?” I asked.

“I burn from the inside out,” she replied with a cough.

An avalanche of dread tumbled through my insides, making me clutch at my belly. My gaze darted back to the molten flesh, which seemed hotter and more hellish than before.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, but words would never be enough.

Aurora didn’t reply, and my throat thickened, threatening to cut off my air. How many of those whippings were directly or indirectly because of me? Kresnik needed a new phoenix because the magic he had stolen from me wasn’t sticking. And I had disobeyed her request to forgive Jonathan and gotten her whipped.

Guilt clawed through my lungs and clenched my heart, making me catch my breath. Everything that had happened between us up until now no longer mattered. Aurora was suffering, and there was something I could do to ease her pain.

On legs that wouldn’t stop trembling, I walked to the single candle, plucked it off the shelf, and continued around the room, lighting