The crackle of the fire blazing around my raised hand pierced into my ears. Its sharp sound filled the confines of the damp underground prison, reverberating back and forth like an angry ghost. Shadows flickered as the tongues of flames licked and danced in the air.
I doused the mage fire bursting from my eyes.
Vladimir stood up from where he was sitting on the floor. His usual lupine grace was gone. He didn't move like he used to. It was as though he was some old, homeless, sickly man and not a once-powerful most-wanted criminal. In a slow chain of movements, he raised his hands and grabbed the cold silver bars that kept him prisoner. I half-expected his skin to sizzle in contact with the silver. It didn't. He pressed his face against the rods as though reminding me that he can do tha
