Loriel did not see the blast coming. Yet the light was anything but furtive: it was a white shriek, a concentrated column of fire that split the air with a whistle. The projectile struck Konstantin square in the right shoulder, tore through flesh, and sent him tumbling across the broken flagstones in a scarlet spray. He landed heavily, his hand still raised in an unfinished gesture, the rune he had been trying to trace fizzling out on his fingertips. A trickle of blood ran from his mouth, and his right eye, wide open, stared at the sky without seeing it.
She screamed his name but her voice was immediately swallowed by the deafening crash of battle all around. She wanted to rush to him, but a movement to her right pinned her in place.
