Page 5
Story: Phoenix's Refrain
I snorted. “I think we’re finally here actually.”
Gin stepped forward. This was why I’d asked her to come along with me to the Lost City. A broken door lay before us. I remembered it from my last mission through the city. It had seemed insignificant at the time, but now, yeah, my visions kept snapping to this spot. This place wasn’t part of the memories, but I kept seeing flashes of this door. It was the key to the memories.
Gin was good at fixing things. Really good. And her lock-picking skills were second to no one.
Gin knelt down in front of the broken door and started looking it over. “There is a barrier of some sort here. Magic. It’s weak right now because of the full moon.”
The full moon was tied to the monsters and their shifting tempers. Right now, when the moon was full, the monsters’ magic was erratic. And that erratic magic here in the Lost City had weakened the barrier of this broken door, eating away at it, making it hard for the barrier to hold its seal. Just as Bella had speculated. That’s why I’d come here now when the moon was full.
The problem was the beasts always got a bit moody around the time of the full moon. Luckily, I was somewhat of an expert monster slayer.
My phone rang again. It was a number I didn’t recognize. But the name ‘Heaven’ was displayed prominently on the screen. Must have been someone’s idea of a good joke.
“Heaven is calling,” I told my sisters.
Yeah, Heaven. As though that would make me answer the phone.
I looked up at the sky and said, “Nice try, Nyx.”
I could hear the rumbling of beasts.
“What’s that?” Gin asked, unsettled. She nearly dropped her tools.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told her. “I’m on it.”
I was already up and swinging my sword through the overgrown centipedes. Damn, their armor was tough. I blasted one with a fire spell. It worked better than my sword.
“How are you coming with that door, Gin?” I called back.
“Just a little bit longer,” she replied.
Tessa was helping her, holding her tools and keeping an eye out in case any of the beasts got past me. The centipedes were gone, but now I had some rather large silver wolves to contend with.
And by silver, I meant made of actual metal. They weren’t covered in fur like normal wolves. They were made of some kind of strong metal, stronger than anything I’d ever encountered. My sword bounced right off them. Even my magic didn’t put a dent in them. Nothing was hurting them. Sure, I could force them back with some well-placed telekinetic blasts, but they just kept rushing forward. We were being overrun.
“Now would be a good time to get that door open,” I told Gin, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.
I didn’t know what was on the other side. Hopefully, it wasn’t more monsters. All I knew was things weren’t looking good here. The monsters came at me from either side—and from above.
Magic flashed, and then the beasts were gone. A combined blast of thunder, fire, and lightning had split them into little bits of metal. That blast had also knocked me on my ass.
I looked up and saw Faris. So he’d been the one to blast the monsters to bits. And save my life. Damn it. I really didn’t want to owe Faris anything.
He pulled me to my feet. “You really must be more careful. You are carrying priceless cargo.” He looked down at my belly.
Faris saw me as a moderately useful weapon, but he saw my unborn child as the weapon to end all wars.
“You didn’t answer my call.” Disapproval flashed in his eyes.
“Heaven. That was you,” I realized.
“Naturally,” he said smugly.
I shook my head in disbelief. “I should have guessed.”
The God of Heaven’s Army. Heaven. Made sense.
“All right then,” Faris said, dusting leftover magic off his hands. “Let’s do what we came here to do.”
Table of Contents
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- Page 2
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- Page 4
- Page 5 (Reading here)
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