Hearts of Fire by Kira Brady

sounded above, and they looked up to see two Thunderbirds chasing a dragon through the smoky sky. Wide-eyed humans rushed past. Shock and disbelief warred in their faces.
    “Seize him!”
    Alice heard her brother’s voice and spun to shield Brand. A second later a thunderbolt tore through the air. With a wild push, she threw what Aether she could influence against the force coming at them. The thunderbolt jarred a hair, smashing with a rumble and a shower of sparks into the building behind them. The wood groaned and collapsed beneath the hungry flames.
    “Frost blight you!” she shouted. “What have you done? What madness is this? The town is lost!”
    “Get your filthy claws off my sister,” Emory ordered. She’d never heard such ice in his voice. Static zinged through the air with the force of his anger. A Thunderbird stood behind him, as if Emory were in charge. Both were covered in soot and sweat. “Come out and fight like a man.”
    “Stay out of this, Emory.” She wrapped her arms around Brand. “You can’t hurt him. He’s kin now—”
    “The hell he is,” Emory swore.
    “I won’t fight you, brother.” Brand held out a hand in peace.
    “Just because you’ve turned Alice into a whore doesn’t make you blood.”
    “Watch your tongue,” Brand snapped.
    “What’s this about?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
    “You tell me,” Emory said. “Father’s men were attacked. They went to meet with the Unktehila and were ambushed.”
    “No.” She didn’t want to believe it. She pulled away from Brand to search his face. “Did you know?”
    He shook his head. Lines of strain bracketed his mouth. “I swear I didn’t—”
    “Shut up!” Emory yelled. “There was no negotiation. No treaties. Nathaniel escaped to warn us, and we found you gone, Alice. And now you show up with the enemy. Ruining yourself with that soulless demon-kind. How could you?”
    “I love him.”
    Emory’s mouth curled in a sneer. Behind him, Nathaniel made a choking noise. Another Thunderbird screeched through the sky and fell, injured, into the street. He Changed and pulled himself to his feet. She recognized Will, bloody and limping.
    She planted her feet, side by side with her lover, and raised her chin. “Where is Father now? What does Norgard want?”
    “I don’t know,” Emory said.
    “What are we going to do?”
    Will limped closer. “Your father is dead.”
    “No. No, he can’t be.”
    “He is. The Raven Lord is dead.” Will raised his hand and pointed at Brand. “And now I’m going to do what we should have done from the first: exterminate every last one of these damned lizards.” A thunderbolt coalesced between his fingers, and he hurled the bolt at Brand.
    Alice screamed. She dove in front of Brand, but it was too late. The thunderbolt hit him in the chest. It burned a hole straight through him. Blue lightning flared out over his frozen limbs, and his beautiful golden hair shot out. He was like a terrible, fiery angel, lit from behind by the burning town, lit from within by white hot sparks. His eyes rolled into his head, and he collapsed into the dirt.
    Fire burned the back of her eyelids. Her throat felt scorched. She found herself in the dirt by his side, screaming his name, running her hands over his still-warm flesh, willing the Aether to return to his unmoving chest and pump his silent heart. But her gift wasn’t strong enough. No Kivati could bring back the dead. “Heal him!” she screamed at Emory. “Lady, please! Heal him!”
    Emory’s voice shook. “I can’t, Ali. I don’t know how.”
    “You ask the forbidden,” Nathaniel said.
    “I don’t bloody care! Do something. Please! Oh, gods!” Her skin overheated from the burning buildings, but inside pain lanced ice shards through her soul. She wanted to go with him, wherever his kind journeyed after the long good-bye. She didn’t believe he could simply cease to exist; the Lady wouldn’t be so cruel. If he had no soul,