El hit the ground hard. So hard her butt bounced, twice, and she slid three feet back coming to a stop.

“C’mon, Anella, you can do better than that,” Nexin said. Her brother only used her full name when he wanted to get a rise out of her. It was working.

She stood with a grunt—or was it a snarl?—and snapped her wrist out to the side. Three feet of flaming blade erupted to life from the electrum hilt in her hand. El didn’t bother with the shield on her left wrist; Nexin had gone around it like it wasn’t even there in their last exchange.

Crouching into Flames over Water, blade held at a low angle behind her, she glared daggers at her arrogant brother. The nearby crowd had grown to over twenty strong, but she ignored them. Any distraction against her brother would end the bout in a heartbeat. His arrogance was well-earned.

“Oh, that’s a new one for you,” he said playfully, his empty hands spinning as liquid flame rolled out and took the shape of a long halberd. Bastard didn’t need to use the electrum foci she did. “Whenever you’re ready,” he taunted, dropping low and extending the halberd in Fire Rising to the Sky.

“You’re going down this time,” El growled and flared the electrum nubs on her shoulders, gouts of flame in the briefest shape of wings billowing out for a heartbeat, and she hurtled forward like a streaking comet. Boots skimmed a hair’s breadth above the floor, stomach muscles strained, and she twisted at her core mid-air. Her sword sparked along the ground as she brought it up in a lightning-quick arc to catch the halberd and slam it aside.

Except Nexin stepped out of the way like he knew it was coming, and El flashed past him. Her hard-soled boots skidded as she landed and spun, flaring her wings again to halt her momentum, then whipped her sword up to block Nexin’s overhand chop.

He moved in impossibly fast, not even using his wings, and flame struck flame in a shower of embers. It was everything El could do to keep that halberd’s edge at bay, strike after strike coming faster and faster. Her blade whirled as she parried; one above, two on her left, above again, three on the right, two below. Sparks rained down around them, filling her vision like a swarm of lazy fireflies as she tracked his weapon. But the blade itself was a feint, and he snapped his hips around in a powerful low roundhouse kick.

Barely in time, her leg came up reflexively to block his kick, shin to shin. Even through the magic of her usually invisible flame armor, barely more than a shimmer as it converted the kinetic energy to radiant heat, agony lanced up her leg like he’d split the bone down the middle. El clenched her teeth to stop from crying out. Her armor was strong enough to stop a horse’s kick without even tickling. Pain like that… just how strong was her brother?

El had no choice but to retreat, to double-step back, and again, her leg barely supporting her weight. By the Pyre that hurt! Her blade scarcely kept up with Nexin’s attacks, but she was keeping up, and she met her brother’s eyes with defiance. She would beat him this time!

Nexin smirked.

His halberd split down the middle, suddenly two sinuous swords that lashed out in a blur.

El ducked the first, parried the second, rolled out of the way of the third, and ignited her shield to parry the fourth aimed straight for her wide eyes. It still hit her with the force of a battering ram and threw her back fifteen feet. What absurd strength! No sooner had she landed than Nexin was almost on top of her again, the twin swords replaced by a maul with a head the size of large dog.

She was too off-balance to try to dodge it, and with her leg practically numb beneath her, she’d never be able to completely block the blow. The best she could hope for was a simultaneous hit. El planted her feet and raised her shield over her head, bracing for the impact.

“Come on!” she shouted and snapped her sword around under her shield to take Nexin at the knees.

But he’d expected that too, and leapt into the air. Instead of the maul’s titanic impact, his foot landed almost gently on her flaming shield, before he kicked off and flipped over backward. El watched, wide-eyed and awed as her brother’s weapon once again shifted forms. Even without his wings activated, he seemed to hang in the air, like he was meant to be there. His right arm pulled back on the string of the fiery bow, a ballista-bolt-like-arrow drawn and ready, and he smiled.

“Burn it all,” El cursed, half respect, half frustration, and poured all her power into her shield.

It wasn’t nearly enough.

The arrow hit with a blinding flash and an explosion that threw everybody back, El and the watching crowd included. Her shield disintegrated like paper, and her body finally stopped rolling on the other side of the room. Like a stone baked in the sun, small trails of smoke rose from her flame armor, the only thing between her and oblivion, as she pushed herself up to hands and knees. Now it wasn’t just her leg that hurt. In fact, it hurt the least.

“Better.” Nexin offered his hand.

She grudgingly took it and let him pull her to his feet. “You cheat,” she groaned, then flipped her hair out of her face. Burn it, even her hair hurt. And was it smoldering?

“Oh?”

“Being able to use whatever weapons you want without a focus, I’m sure that’s cheating.”

“Just means you need to practice more,” he said, throwing one arm over her shoulders and patting her head with the other. Putting out the flames?

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“I don’t think she’ll ever be as good as you,” a silky-sweet voice said from behind them.

El turned to Laze with a scowl. Her best friend didn’t even blink, round eyes only seeing Nexin.

“Thanks,” El said flatly.

“Aw, don’t be like that, Laze,” Nexin said, and mussed the girl’s short hair. “You’ve both come a long way.”

Laze blushed from the tips of her toes to the tops of her ears.

“Sir, thank you for taking the time to give our squad such an educational demonstration,” Faled said with a formal salute. Always so stiff.

“At ease soldier,” Nexin said. “Happy to help.”

“Happy to trounce your little sister in front of her whole squad, more like,” El added and elbowed him in the ribs. That was more than she’d been able to do in their bout. Would she ever score a hit? Eighteen years of challenging her big brother, only two years her senior, and she’d never once even landed a genuine hit. Not with a stick in their youth, not with swords in their adulthood.

“Little of both,” he conceded. “So, what did you learn?” Nexin turned to the others in the room, the teacher in him coming out.

“Don’t bet on El?” one offered.

Surprisingly, Nexin shook his head. “In that final exchange, did any of you see what El did? How she used her wings without using her wings?”

“You mean that burst of speed?” Faled asked.

“Exactly! Flaring your wings gives you thirty to fifty percent more thrust than when you have them active, but that power increase only lasts a few seconds, and it’s hard to pull off. If you’re new to it, it’s a lot like sprinting, so you need to practice, but it’s worth the effort. Plus, by flaring her wings like she did, she kept a card hidden up her sleeve for the surprise attack.”

“You didn’t look surprised,” Laze pointed out.

“Where do you think I learned it?” El confessed. “Saw him do it a few weeks back, been trying to copy it ever since.”

Nexin spun El around so that her back faced the group, and pointed at the small electrum nubs on her shoulder blades. “Most soldiers need to concentrate to bring their wings out, to ignite them. Once they do, it’s effortless to keep them out, or to use them to fly. But that ignition time is a weakness, even if it’s only a few seconds. An opening that our enemies have learned to look for. What El did, flaring them, that eliminates that weakness.”

“What’s the different between igniting and flaring?” Faled asked, others in the unit nodding at the question.

“When El flared her wings, did you see them take shape?” Nexin asked. There were a few puzzled looks, and then people shook their heads. “So, when we talk about igniting, we’re talking about giving shape to our flames. Whether it’s weapons...” Nexin ignited a sword in his hand, then let it vanish. “Or our wings. It’s the constant use of our magic.

“Now, with flaring, we sacrifice form for power. It’s just a raw torrent of energy. No concrete shape, and we can’t make it last. But, before you get to using flares in combat, you need to be able to instantly ignite your wings.

“El, bring ’em out,” he instructed, and moved his hands away.

She did as she was told, her fiery wings bursting to life as easily as opening her hand. She didn’t need to look to know they extended to their full eight-foot length in a heartbeat, small flaming feathers falling away and fizzling out as she stretched.

“Now put them away,” Nexin said, and they vanished in a blink. “Now back out,” he said.

El gave him a small scowl—she wasn’t a circus act—but ignited them out again.

“If I kept asking, could you keep doing that?” Nexin asked.

“If you keep asking, I’ll punch you,” she replied.

Nexin raised an eyebrow at her.

El sighed. “Yes, I could keep doing that.”

“And that’s exactly how quickly you all should aim for. That, more than anything, will save your lives out there on the battlefield. And for the record, El is faster at igniting and flaring her wings than I am. Yes, I expected the attack, but even I didn’t expect how quickly she’d execute it,” Nexin finished.

El’s cheeks heated at the compliment. And even that hurt. But less.

Faled nodded and saluted Nexin a second time. “Thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to treat my little sister to some cake before she scowls the skin right off my bones.”

“Cake?” Laze asked hopefully.

“Yes, you can come too,” El said flatly. Not like her friend would take no for an answer where Nexin was involved.

Laze bounced up and down and gave a small clap. In her form-fitting military uniform, gold buttons on the black jacket, red belt around her waist, and knee-high boots that clacked on the floor every time she hopped, it wasn’t the standard military image. And that was exactly why El loved her best friend.

“That new place on the corner across from Kit’s?” Laze asked, referring to a popular soldier’s bar. “Did you see the chocolate cake they had in the window? I almost died just looking at it.”

“That’s the one,” Nexin said and threw his arms over the two girls’ shoulders. Like little sisters, both of them. “C’mon, I think Faled is going to keep saluting until I’m out of the room,” he said and gave a sidelong look at El’s unit-lead. Sure enough, rigid with a sharp salute; left arm at his side, elbow perfectly ninety degrees, and his right arm across in front of him to cross his wrists. He’d hold the position all night long if Nexin stood there watching him.

“You’re going to regret offering to treat,” El said as the three exited.

“I always do,” Nexin smiled. “How you stay slim and still fit into your uniform I’ll never—” he cut off with a choke as El’s elbow found his gut.

“Those words should never be spoken to a woman,” she threatened.

“Yes, well,” Nexin laughed, “it’s the least I can do before my sister gets sent out on her first patrol after graduating the academy.”

“Finally,” El sighed. “All this training. I’ll finally get to use it for something real. Too bad they’re not sending us to the front where the action is.”

“Don’t be so eager to fight, El,” Nexin said seriously. “Don’t be so eager to kill. It’s not all glory and adrenaline like the stories tell. War isn’t pretty, and I’d keep you as far from it as possible if I could.”

“Doesn’t get much further than where we’re going. Salid,” El sighed, yet again. “I didn’t even know people still lived so far from the capital.” Resignation didn’t even begin to describe how not excited El was about the mission. Hadn’t she proven herself enough? The only one she couldn’t beat, at least half the time, was her brother. But he was a flaming prodigy. Was it because she wasn’t as good as him?

“Hey guys, what’s going on over there?” Laze asked, interrupting before Nexin could respond.

A growing crowd crawled along the street, soldiers at the center escorting a small group hidden by the press of flesh.

“Hey,” Nexin called to a soldier running past. The man looked over, ready to dismiss the call, but did a double take when he saw the stripes of Nexin’s rank. He skidded to a stop and snapped a salute.

“Sir!” he said smartly.

“What’s going on?” Nexin asked, returning the salute.

“Refugees from the south,” the man said.

“The south? Where?”

“Salid, if the story is true. I’ve just been sent with the others,” he nodded to three soldiers running ahead and pushing their way through the throng, “to escort them. Something about the town being attacked. Wiped out.”

“Salid?” Nexin asked, but directed his question to his sister.

A new emotion smothered the resignation in her gut, but it wasn’t excitement. It wasn’t the rush of getting to prove herself. It was heavy, and cold. It made her fingers tremble, and she quickly clenched her hands together to hide it.

Dread uncoiled and made itself nice and comfortable as she looked into her brother’s eyes.