Page 62 of A Flame of the Phoenix (An Heir Comes to Rise #6)

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

Nikalias

W hen Tarly returned, Nik was both surprised and unsurprised Nerida had found him first. They’d let Nik get a few hours of sleep alongside Tauria, but he’d expended it on an urgent call he’d felt from Zaiana through Nightwalking.

He was still dealing with the devastation of Marlowe’s death, now discovering Kyleer had almost met his end too. It was another blow to those he considered dear and friends. Nik didn’t know if becoming dark fae was a fate much better, and he was dangerously antsy to be reunited with Faythe and the others.

Faythe. He couldn’t begin to fathom how she was coping with her grief. She’d suffered and lost more than any of them, and he feared deeply for her well-being with these catastrophic events.

He felt deeply for Jakon too, haven grown somewhat close to him and Marlowe after Faythe first left High Farrow. Nik trusted Jakon as a close friend.

Tauria’s presence wrapped around him from behind, soothing some of his sharpness. Her delicate hands massaged his shoulders before slipping around his chest. Her soft lips pressed to his jaw, and he drowned in the bliss of her touch and scent for a moment.

“Did you get any sleep at all?” she asked, already knowing he hadn’t.

He really needed it, but the never-ending movements of war made such a thing scarce.

“I’ll be fine. It’s you who needs the strength for today. How are you feeling?”

Tauria shuffled around on her knees until she was in front of him. Her face of sorrow spoke all. “I know war is unbiased to pure hearts, but Marlowe…how is that fair in any sense?”

“It’s not. Her death was senseless and brutal, but it won’t be in vain nor forgotten. Faythe will exact her vengeance on Malin, and we’ll help her take on the world that has turned too cruel.”

Tauria sighed, and he shared her burden of tiredness and fading hope. She sat back, fiddling with the loose ends of her wild, unbound tresses. “Can you braid my hair?” she asked.

Nik smiled. “The last time I did, you took it out immediately and called for a handmaiden.”

“They might have better skill, but I much prefer your hands.”

Her quick wink at him before she turned around made his length jerk in his pants. Nik gripped her hips, yanking her back against him as she squealed.

“My hands are itching to feel you in ways you can’t imagine.”

“We’ve explored quite a lot—my imagination knows no limits.”

He groaned, burying his forehead into the back of her neck, and the devious thing rubbed her ass against him. Nik turned his head just enough to be sure Tarly, Nerida and Edith were still out of earshot by the lake, watching the wolves catch fish for breakfast.

“Do you want a braid, or do you want me buried where you’re teasing me?” That made her stop her ministrations, and he could practically taste her uncertainty and curiosity with the suggestion. “I know you, Tauria. Your imagination has been there before, hasn’t it?”

Her desire ruined his senses, and before she could answer he’d clamped an arm around her middle, pulling her up with him as he stood. Nik spared another look across at Tarly and Nerida, still laughing and engrossed in the wolves’ attempts.

Nik ran two fingers down the base of her spine. Tauria gasped, pushing into him as he curved down the seam of her pants, right to the front.

“Breakfast is going to be a while anyway, it seems,” he said huskily. “So what do you say we backtrack to that small cave we passed on the way here for a while?”

Tauria nodded, and Nik dragged his teeth along her collar.

“Lost your words, love?”

“Yes—I mean, no—I want…I need you now.”

He bit down shy of breaking skin, and she choked on her moan.

“My favorite words.”

When they returned to the shore of Stenna’s fall, the scent of freshly cooked fish was a blissful welcome.

“You must be famished,” Nik said, pulling Tauria to him as they walked, with a teasing squeeze of her waist. “With the amount of noise you made?—”

He adored her shyness, playfully whacking his chest.

“Where have you two been?” Tarly inquired, finishing half his fish before throwing the rest to Katori.

“Scouting,” Nik said at the same time as Tauria answered, “Training.”

He slipped her a devious look, saying to her thoughts, “We’ll definitely be working on that particular training again.”

Tauria smiled innocently at Tarly, pretending she hadn’t heard him.

Nik didn’t fail to notice how Tauria quickly looked away from Nerida. She tried a smile, but it was as if nerves took over. The two estranged half-sisters hadn’t had any time to talk, and Nik thought about diverting away from them with Tarly for a while before they would attempt to reach Hilia’s Cave far below the lake.

“Your braid,” Nerida said timidly. “I could fix it if you’d like.”

“She’s very good at it,” Edith said, admiring her perfectly woven twin braids.

Nik had tried his best with the attempt he’d made after making more of a tangled mess of Tauria’s hair. In his defense, with no comb, he’d found it twice as difficult.

Tauria ran her hand over her head, slipping him an accusing glare. “Thank you,” she said warmly.

Nerida’s body loosened at the acceptance. She handed the rest of her skewered fish to Tarly and got up.

Nik plucked a whole one off the fire and stood. “We should scout the area for bandits who know about the cave before we try to enter. We don’t want any altercations.”

He said it to Tarly, who didn’t immediately catch his hint to leave the sisters alone for a while.

Tarly frowned. “I thought you said you scouted already?”

Nerida giggled, and Tauria fought a sheepish smile.

Nik refrained from rolling his eyes before hooking Tarly’s good arm and hauling him up. “We’ll be close enough to hear if you call,” he said over his shoulder as he walked Tarly away.

The wolves stayed with Nerida, Tauria, and Edith.

Nik chewed at his breakfast, enjoying the peaceful walk with the crashing waves of Stenna’s waterfall. Tarly wasn’t always terrible company, he supposed. In fact, since he’d returned last night with Nerida, he’d noticed a change in the Olmstone prince—one Nik thought he could relate to.

“You had a mate who rejected you?” Nik said, realizing how insensitive it came out.

“Thanks for the reminder,” Tarly grumbled.

“I only meant… Shit, sorry. I guess I’m trying to say I’m glad you found a bond just as strong elsewhere.”

Tarly curved an apprehensive brow at him.

“Is this your attempt at atoning for centuries’ worth of being an ass to me now I’m dying?”

Nik’s mouth quirked. “Maybe.”

“It’s unnerving.”

He chuckled, tossing the stick after finishing his breakfast.

Tarly spoke again. “Do you think it’s possible for someone to have two mates? A second chance?”

Nik contemplated. “I don’t think anything is impossible, but I’ve never heard of such a thing. But people can find feelings for another as strong as a mating bond can inspire. That’s not uncommon.”

That didn’t seem to satisfy Tarly.

Nik added, “Is a mating bond really that important to you?”

“It’s not that,” Tarly defended. “It just…I can’t explain how I never felt this pull to Isabel. It was different, like I recognized her as mine instinctively, but the feelings took time. With Nerida, there’s a different kind of instinct. It’s like I’m in tune with her emotions, her actions…with her, it’s sometimes like we’re one person.”

Nik mulled over Tarly’s explanation. “Have you tried mating with her?”

Tarly’s cheeks flushed. “No.”

“That’s one sure way to know.”

“And what if it’s true and she is my mate?”

“What if she isn’t? Would it change your feelings at all for her?”

“No,” Tarly said immediately.

“Then just enjoy what you have. If you discover she is your mate, you can search for answers then, or embrace the blessing and forget about the tricks of fate.”

Tarly looked at him again like he didn’t know who was really walking beside him. “Who knew you could be kind of wise?”

“A lot of people know. My wisdom is a privilege.”

“Arrogant, as always.”

Nik didn’t see this coming, but Tarly had other sides to him he kept guarded from the world. Tauria had once said if he opened himself to see it, Nik would find he had more in common with Tarly than either of them wanted to admit. What he knew with absolute certainty: Tauria was always right.

Nik felt the tug of distress within him before any sound. His body whirled back, but they’d traveled through the trees and couldn’t see Nerida or Tauria anymore.

“They’re in trouble,” Nik informed him, already sprinting back with Tarly close behind.

“You can still feel Tauria without your bond?”

“Echoes of it are still there. I don’t think we can share power anymore, and our mental connection is weaker, but there will always be a part of her living within me.”

Nik missed their full mating bond terribly since it had been broken by Marvellas. It would always be like a severed limb, but it didn’t change a thing about their feelings.

Making it back to Nerida and Tauria, Nik had never seen creatures like the three that surrounded them and the wolves.

“What depths of the Nether did they crawl from?” Tarly said, as horrified as he was at the wraithlike beings.

Tauria attacked one with her wind at the same time as Nerida animated a stream of water to drown another. He thought they’d succeeded in killing them, but as powerful as Tauria and Nerida were, he should have anticipated by their appearance it wouldn’t be that easy to eliminate shadow.

Katori lunged for one, but a shadowy arm slammed her to the side as though she were as light as shadow. The wolf wailed, careening into the nearest tree and whimpering as she tried to stand again. Asari growled deeper, lowering her stance as if to try next. Nik might joke and pretend he didn’t want the wolf’s companionship, but the truth of his feelings was exposed right there in his surge of fear for Asari.

Nik didn’t know what to do, quickly discovering these creatures didn’t have minds for him to tap into. He freed his blade just as a rock went flying by him.

Nik was about to throw sarcasm at Tarly for the pathetic attempt of an attack, but the rock actually proved useful. It hit one of them, knocking their head to the side and proving they could be struck. Then how had they dissipated and reformed at Nerida and Tauria’s attacks?

The one Tarly hit emitted an eerie hiss before spinning its attention to him.

“Do that again,” Nik said, swiping up a rock too and aiming it for the one closest to Tauria.

The rocks hit the other two, who targeted Tarly and Nik now.

“Strike them now!” Nik called to Tauria and Nerida.

They didn’t miss a beat. Nerida’s strong tide slashed through one, while Tauria’s cutting wind sliced through another, both forces of nature colliding in a breathtaking spectacle to blast the middle one apart.

When the water crashed to the ground and the wind stopped howling, the four of them stared at the air, dumbfounded and catching their breath. No trace was left of the shadow beings.

“What were they?” Edith squealed, appearing from her cover behind Tauria and Nerida.

Nik pressed forward, reaching Tauria to scan her from head to toe for injury. Finding her unharmed, he began to relax from the adrenaline, kissing her forehead.

Katori whined, and Nik watched Nerida and Tarly kneeling by her. Nerida’s hands glowed blue, and Nik marveled at her wonderful ability.

“We were practicing to try the passage to the cave when they came out of nowhere,” Tauria explained.

Nerida said grimly as she worked, “I have a theory it has something to do with the quake we all felt when Faythe broke the ruin. I think it’s opened a passage into our world for the shadows lost from their bodies to crawl out.”

“How do we close it?” Nik asked, horrified by the concept.

Nerida’s wince confirmed she didn’t have that solution.

“We need to get to the cave,” Tauria said. Her exasperation made him tense, and he tried to soothe her with a touch around her waist.

“We will,” he said.

“Now. We keep losing, keep having odds stacked against us and people dying. We need this upper hand. We need to win. ”

When her voice cracked on the last word, Nik pulled her into an embrace. She let him hold her while Nerida finished tending to Katori, who jumped back onto her feet in perfect health.

“We can wait another night to try to reach the cave if either of you need more rest. We couldn’t have predicted that ambush,” Tarly said, concern written all over him.

Nerida smiled, placing a hand on his good arm. “I’m perfectly well. My Waterwielding is much stronger than usual. I think it was the Phoenix Blood I drank.” Her expression fell as she looked over his sling and the graying skin of his neck and jaw. “But I really do wish it had amplified my healing instead.”

Tarly pulled her to him, and Nik looked away.

He said to her thoughts, “You’re going to reach that cave, love. I know you’re strong enough to work with Nerida and make it.”

Tauria peeled herself off him, speaking her gratitude in her hazel eyes.

Nik and Tarly had no choice but to follow and believe in them. He felt utterly hopeless, unable to help even through their bond now.

They followed Nerida along the bank for a few minutes until she stopped.

“I’ve studied maps of Stenna’s fall before. There are multiple of them, so it’s hard to know which tell the truth of the exact location of the cave. If I’m wrong, we’ll have exhausted ourselves to the bottom for nothing, and I don’t know how long it will take to recover for a second try.”

Tarly said, “I trust your intuition.”

“As do I,” Tauria added.

Nerida gave a nervous laugh. “You hardly know me.”

Tauria reached for her hand, surprising the healer.

“I have good intuition too. It must be a Stagknight trait,” Tauria mused.

The casual statement expressed so much on Nerida’s face, and Nik’s chest burst with pride to witness their blossoming bond.

“Definitely,” Nik added.

Nerida squeezed Tauria’s hand before letting go, and her shoulders squared with confidence.

“Do you still trust me when I say I believe it’s right here, but this point has never been on any of the maps I saw?”

Nik tensed at that and sensed he wasn’t alone with an inkling of doubt in Tauria’s shift too.

“Yes,” Tarly said with absolute certainty.

She was the Queen of Lakelaria. A Waterwielder. Nik had to believe she had a connection to the lakes and oceans of their world that none of them could understand.

“You should wait here,” Tauria said to Edith.

“No way! An adventure to under the lake—I can’t miss out!” She skipped up close to Tauria.

Nik didn’t like the idea of another body to account for in this risky task. A quick exchange with Tarly told him he wasn’t alone.

Tauria stirred the air first, creating a sphere of wind around them all. Then Nerida disrupted the edge of the expansive lake, separating the water from the floor it guarded.

“It goes very deep, and we’ll be passing under the waterfall, which will be the biggest test of our strength,” Nerida informed them.

Tauria nodded with determination, and the five of them began to walk through the break Nerida made in the dominating lake.

Every minute was precious, every second uncertain. Tauria and Nerida moved their arms, channeling their magick with such elegant precision and grace. Nik hovered close to Tauria, occasionally reminding her of his presence to do whatever she needed with a touch to her waist.

“You’re both doing amazing,” he said, gentle in their focused silence.

They were deep under the lake now, within the eye of a tempest of air and water. Tauria kept their sphere of air strong, while Nerida controlled the water so it eased off Tauria’s current. They worked together flawlessly, and neither could have made it this far without the other.

Nik had felt Tauria’s growing strain for the past minute. Her forehead beaded with perspiration, and Nik wiped her skin carefully, slipping a hand around her to guide her steps while she focused on maintaining her magick.

Nerida wasn’t struggling as much, but Tarly kept close watch with her too.

“Are we close?” Tauria asked, her breath short.

Nik tamed his panic in concern for her.

“We’re about to go under the waterfall. It will fight against our magick more than the body of water.”

Tauria swore under her breath.

“You can do this, love. I know you can,” Nik said into her ear. He yearned achingly for their mating bond to soothe her senses within. There was nothing more he could do for her, and there was no feeling more tormenting.

Glancing up, Nik’s hold tightened around Tauria at seeing the thrashing water rejoining the lake they were about to pass under. The moment they did, their air bubble shrank, and Tauria faltered her walking, trembling to hold their pocket of air.

“We have to keep moving!” Nerida called.

“It’s too much,” Tauria wheezed. Their air pocket shrank again, shuffling them all closer.

“You’re stronger than you think, Tauria Silverknight. Push harder ,” he said firmly.

It killed him to encourage her to dip dangerously into her magick, but if they faltered here…the surface was too far for any of them to make it up by swimming.

Tauria cried out, her arms shaking, but her wind strengthened again, and Nik guided her walk with more urgency.

“That’s it. You’re incredible,” Nik murmured in her ear, continuing his words of adoration and encouragement as all he could offer.

“I see the entrance ahead!” Edith exclaimed.

Nik did too. A single circular stone door with a carving of a trident on its center. Around the trident was an ancient script he didn’t recognize. He didn’t breathe his relief yet when Nerida parted the water away from the seal as they reached it. Nik let Tauria go to approach the door, digging his fingers into the side and attempting to pull it open. It didn’t budge, not even when Tarly joined his efforts with his one good arm.

“None of your reading of the cave mentioned how to open it?” Nik asked Nerida, trying to keep his irritation dulled, but his concern for Tauria made him sharp.

“You need the blood of a descendant of Hilia,” Edith said.

Nik found her studying the circle of script.

“You can read that?” Tarly asked.

“It’s the old language. I know enough of it to read this.”

Nik’s eyes closed to collect himself. This had been a waste of Tauria and Nerida’s energy. Without the break they planned for inside for them to regain enough strength back, he didn’t think Tauria could last the trip back.

His mate wasn’t present in their conversation and dilemma. She trembled, struggling to hold her magick, and her skin was slicked with sweat.

“We need to retreat then—now,” Nik growled, returning to her.

“Wait,” Nerida said.

To everyone’s horror, Nerida let go of her magick. Tauria cried as the full force of the deep water compressed against her air. Nik caught her when her knees buckled, but she held onto her magick.

“Nerida!” Nik barked, whipping his head around to find her slicing Tarly’s palm before she pulled him, slapping his hand to the stone.

Nothing happened.

Tauria was faltering.

Then the trident… glowed .

To everyone’s shock, the trident began to flood with light before the door groaned, released of its tight seal.

“Hurry!” Nerida said, ushering them inside before taking stance and pushing the water off Tauria’s air again.

“I can hold the water if you can seal the door,” she said to Tauria as she slipped by and inside.

Tauria’s feet shifted back, and her arms moved, gathering a tight tornado before pulling her arms into her body, slamming the air she conjured into the stone from the outside. Then Nerida let go of her magick, and Nik tensed at the booming crash of water into the closed door. It didn’t flood past the seal.

Nik’s tension released all at once. He needed to pull Tauria into him, embrace her tightly and smooth down her hair.

“I knew you could do it,” he muttered.

“Thank you,” she said, gathering her breath.

“How in the Nether did my blood open it?” Tarly stared at his hand, which Nerida was healing. The blue glow of her magick provided the only source of light in the tunnel.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I was curious about your lineage when I sensed the essence of healing magick within you that you didn’t even know about yourself. Your mother had it too—you knew that. I didn’t know for sure, as it wasn’t directly documented back in your family tree in any books I found, but through several links and guesses, I began to believe your mother’s line came from Hilia herself.”

The claim was bemusing.

“Wasn’t Hilia a nymph?” Tauria asked.

“Yes. But one of her children gave up her life in sea to walk on land—a Transition achieved by the Trident of Everseas that was lost a very long time ago. So her bloodline spread throughout land and sea from then on.”

“I know how it feels to have a secret lingering in a distant heritage,” Nik said.

Like the revelation of Tarly, Nik didn’t think his connection to the Vesaria bloodline meant anything more than finally having a trace to his Nightwalking.

“Do you think I could ever… use the healing magick?” Tarly asked Nerida. “I mean, wouldn’t I have been able to by now?”

“I think it’s possible to tap into it, yes. After losing your mother and your… mate …it likely suppressed it deeper.”

Nik wasn’t eager to stay down here longer than necessary. He scanned down the dark passage, realizing they were a body short.

“Where’s Edith?” Nik questioned.

They all looked around, their fae sight adjusting to the pitch-darkness they were enclosed in.

“She has a habit of letting her excitement stray her away,” Tauria said, but even her tone turned wary at the dark fae’s absence.

“Let’s just hope the damned dagger is down here,” Nik grumbled.