Page 83 of A Flame of the Phoenix (An Heir Comes to Rise #6)

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

Faythe

F aythe flew with her wings of Phoenixfyre while Reylan took the form of an eagle. They landed on in the Fire Mountains for rest before they would press on over to the Niltain Isles.

When her feet touched ground, her wings singed away immediately, and she caught herself on her thighs, exerted from the flat-out day of flying.

Reylan offered her water, and she drank too eagerly.

“We have to rest for at least an hour and find more water,” he said.

Faythe nodded even though everything in her wanted to push on despite the fatigue. They walked through the mountain, following a distant sound of running water. Reylan filled the waterskin he’d brought while Faythe’s eyes wandered over the chasm between peaks. This was close to where they’d battled Zaiana and Maverick, and she reflected on how much had changed with the dark fae since then.

“Do you think you could ever forgive Maverick?” The question slipped from her thoughts.

Reylan straightened. “No.”

Faythe looked at him, seeing no hesitation in that sure answer.

“Even knowing who he really is? Callen Osirion.”

“I don’t know that fae. I do know Maverick Blackfair, and if I ever get the chance, I will kill him.”

She understood and wouldn’t persuade him otherwise. Maverick had killed her… He’d killed her father, who was like a father to Reylan too. What he’d done should be unforgivable, but…Faythe was tired of carrying vengeful burdens, and she couldn’t help but wonder about the tragic Prince of Dalrune, who’d watched his family be slaughtered then been taken prisoner and Transitioned into a dark, bloodthirsty being against his will.

“Is it a betrayal to say I wouldn’t actively want him dead anymore? I don’t know what I would do if the opportunity was there, but he’s been through a trauma unfathomable to all of us. I can’t comprehend what it did to him.”

“No,” he said. “I think it’s a testament to your golden heart. I envy it.”

She smiled sadly, not receiving it as a compliment. Was it a weakness?

Faythe’s sight cast through the red rock, catching on a dark space that appeared like a large cave entrance in the distance.

“Think you’ll be able to fly the rest of the distance soon?” Reylan asked.

His question went unanswered when Faythe followed a pull she felt toward the cave mouth. All she knew was that he followed closely.

“We can rest for a few hours if you need,” he offered, assuming that was why she sought the shelter.

“You don’t feel the energy around this place?” she asked him. Her eyes were fixed on the darkness drawing her closer.

“I don’t. And I’ve come to brace for terror when you get a feeling .”

They entered the cave mouth, and Faythe summoned a small blue flame in her palm when they ventured beyond the cast of daylight.

Faythe was so focused on the tug of unexplainable energy that when steel pierced the silence, she jerked, spinning to Reylan.

He held the Ember Sword gripped firmly in one hand. “You have a tendency to be attracted to monsters and danger.”

Faythe smirked, continuing through the cave. “They’re attracted to me.”

“I can’t blame them.”

She pushed him playfully as she spied light spilling in through the end of the cave. Faythe’s feet pressed faster, and when she broke through the gap at the end, she was stunned still.

The cave expanded wide, filled with sticks and castaway hair and fur from animals. The mountain opened at the top, spilling the setting sun down over the entire circumference.

“It’s a nest,” Faythe said in disbelief.

“It must be very old, from the time of the Firebirds in Rhyenelle.”

There were none left now. Atherius had been the last to live in these mountains, alone for centuries after her kin were all slaughtered. Faythe harbored hope in her heart that wasn’t the whole truth; that some might have fled and lived on somewhere in the world that wouldn’t harm them as cruelly as the bloodshed that had happened on these mountains.

Faythe trod carefully as she stepped off the rock into the meticulously crafted nest.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Reylan called, staying behind.

“When do I ever lead by good ideas?”

His low chuckle was heard over the cracks beneath her feet.

The nest wasn’t even. It had mounds, and Faythe only wanted to glimpse the middle of the incredible structure. Her foot caught the top, and she squealed, tumbling, cutting her skin on the protruding sticks as she rolled into the heart of the nest.

Reylan called her name, and when she stopped tumbling, she was about to answer, but what her eyes met made her words dissolve.

Faythe rose so carefully with the space clearly fragile. A chest holding the greatest treasure. Her wide eyes couldn’t tear away from what she’d discovered.

“I can’t let you out of my sight for a second,” Reylan rambled, much closer now. He climbed over the small mound to find her, and his speech faltered too.

“She didn’t stay out of guilt,” Faythe whispered. Her heart was so broken and full at the same time. “Atherius stayed to protect her egg.”

The shell was the most beautiful thing Faythe had ever laid eyes on. A brilliant red, with gold etchings.

“After all this time…it can’t be alive,” Reylan said.

“Do you know how Phoenix eggs are hatched?”

Reylan climbed down into the nest with her, crouching to examine it closer too.

“No, actually. Maybe it doesn’t hatch from a mere period of gestation like most eggs.”

“Then there’s a chance it could hatch. Surely Atherius wouldn’t have stayed if it were dead?”

“I’m not sure. Best not get our hopes up, but it is a truly remarkable thing to have found regardless.”

Faythe splayed her hands above it, carefully approaching.

“Never led by good ideas,” Reylan mumbled under his breath, watching her with as much anticipation as she felt. As though touching it could trigger something terrible and ancient.

When she felt the rough surface of the egg, she held her breath for a second, scanning around as if she might find the walls crumbling down at her audacity. Nothing happened, and Faythe lifted the large egg into her lap.

Her eyes watered as she traced the shell, mourning in her heart all over again for Atherius.

“I think she knew you’d find it someday,” Reylan said, offering comfort with his hand on her shoulder.

“Me too,” Faythe whispered.

The weight of the egg was surprisingly light, which only added to her doubt there was a hatchling inside. Still, she cradled it to her body.

Just as she stood, an ear-splitting boom shook through the cave. Reylan grabbed her, steadying them, but Faythe gasped at the large rocks that broke from the mountain, plummeting down around them. She cast her magick out as a shield, nearly buckling at the boulders slamming against it, but Reylan kept her standing.

“We need to get out of here,” he urged, guiding her while she kept her focus on shielding them from the crumbing rocks.

They raced out of the cave, emerging onto the mountain fringe, and the waves of power that slammed into her stole her breath. Faythe whirled. What she saw, piercing up into the sky, was a rolling dark beam of power.

“We’re too late,” Faythe said in horror.

“We would have been even if we’d kept flying,” Reylan said.

Marvellas had managed to place the Light Temple Ruin where it should never touch…in the dark temple podium. Marvellas was one giant leap closer to her goal of destroying the entire world.

Faythe gritted her teeth. Her Phoenixfyre wings manifested, about to shoot to the sky in a last attempt to stop Marvellas before she could make it to her own temple in the Sky Caves of Lakelaria and finish her task.

“It’s all too late, Faythe.”

Marvellas’s voice was like a snake coiling around her throat.

Faythe turned, finding the Spirit of Souls with her creature, the Dresair, behind her. It hadn’t taken a mortal body yet, still standing unnaturally tall, with spindly black limbs and no face.

Marvellas said, “You should spend the last hours with your friends. The end is coming, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”

“I can stop you,” Faythe hissed.

“You have tried many times. When will you give up?”

“Never.”

Marvellas barely displayed any emotion. Her gold eyes cast up over the dark beam behind Faythe that stabbed into the sky from Dakodas’s temple. Then she turned her head to glance far into the north horizon. Her brow flinched as her eyes searched.

“The Light from Aurialis’s temple should have activated too,” she muttered absentmindedly. Marvellas turned to her with accusing eyes. “What have you done to interfere?”

Faythe didn’t know what could have gone wrong in Marvellas’s plan, but by the Gods, was she glad something seemed to be missing from what she expected or needed to carry out the destruction of the world.

When Faythe didn’t answer, Marvellas continued to accuse and assess while stalking closer. Her anger returned, and Reylan shifted to place himself between them for first attack if necessary.

“Something is guarding Aurialis’s temple, isn’t it?”

Faythe was confused, but she didn’t let it show. “I won’t let you destroy this world just because you couldn’t have it.”

Her mind was reeling with what could possibly be interfering with the catastrophic connection Marvellas had tried to make between the temples. Marvellas believed it had to be their doing…but Faythe hadn’t done anything.

Then she realized.

“Marlowe.” Her friend’s name slipped from her mouth, and it was like she’d smiled into Faythe’s mind.

Jakon had buried her in the Eternal Woods, and Faythe had thought it a beautiful and fitting place. Yet she hadn’t considered Marlowe could have made sure somehow that Jakon would know to place her there, where her soul could protect the temple for this moment. To buy them time.

Marvellas’s eyes narrowed on her. Then they relaxed, as if the Spirit had figured it out too. “I see…” she said. “I always knew Marlowe Kilnight had such brilliant potential. Such a pity her life was taken so soon. And I truly am sorry that she will die a second time, never to be reborn again, for I have to eradicate her soul that lingers as an interference around that temple.”

Marlowe’s soul lived in the Eternal Woods. Faythe’s eyes watered, but her resolve hardened.

“I’m not letting you get away,” Faythe said—a declaration of defiance as she freed her blade.

She used Shadowporting to cross the distance, appearing right in front of Marvellas. Faythe swung Lumarias toward her neck, but her steel slammed into an arm of charcoal that was like hitting thick wood.

The Dresair hissed at her, disarming her since the blade was lodged in its arm. It pulled it free, throwing Lumarias out of reach.

Yet that had only been Faythe’s distraction.

Reylan was beside her, the Ember Sword plunged through the gut of the Dresair, and it screeched, piercing Faythe’s ears painfully, but she didn’t falter.

As the Dresair burst into flames, Faythe reached for Marvellas with her heart in her throat. Marvellas ripped her arm out of Faythe’s grip with a fierce cry, but it was too late…

Faythe had managed to secure the manacle. The other was in Faythe’s hand.

Just one more.

But magick slammed into her. She hadn’t realized Reylan was behind her until his arms encircled her body, and they were both flying back before crashing into hard stone.

Faythe wasn’t spared from the impact despite Reylan’s protection. They both groaned, peeling themselves off the ground before Marvellas could attack again.

She peered up to find her enemy, but Marvellas didn’t advance. The Dresair was nothing more than smoking ash at her feet. Marvellas held up her manacled wrist, staring at it with the most terror she’d ever seen the Spirit display. It clearly hadn’t smothered her power completely, with Faythe failing to clamp the second Aetherbond on her other wrist, but it had to have diminished her power by half at least.

“Where did you get these?” Marvellas asked in a ghostly breath. Long ago, she’d been a helpless slave, used for her blood for centuries by being bound in these. “What have you done?” she yelled, looking at Faythe, with the heat of the Nether blazing in her eyes.

Faythe stood with Reylan. She held the other manacle while he braced with the Ember Sword. With gold locked on gold, fire on fire, Faythe dared Marvellas to come closer.

The Spirit yelled in anguish, seeming to decide the fight wasn’t worth the risk.

Snarls and hisses divided Faythe’s attention from the Spirit to glance in the direction it was coming from.

Reylan swore, announcing, “Skalies.”

Her gut plummeted. Faythe caught a plume of smoke around Marvellas and lunged a step.

“No!”

Marvellas escaped through Shadowporting.

Faythe didn’t have a second more before the vicious creatures that lived in these mountains came pouring out of various crevices.

Reylan called her name, and Faythe caught her sword as he threw it to her. Before she could summon wings to flee, she was forced to fight back-to-back with Reylan against the foes that snapped jagged teeth at her.

She’d faced skalies before, when she was still human. They’d arrived in a force as overwhelming as this, and they’d only escaped them thanks to Atherius.

“We can’t fight this many for long,” Reylan said.

Her blade kept severing limbs and cutting down the flesh-rotted bodies, but the pressure of the force didn’t ease.

“Marvellas can’t get to that temple,” Faythe panted.

Her urgency clashed with her frustration that these creatures were stealing precious time she should be using to stop Marvellas. Faythe yelled in anguish, summoning Phoenixfyre in a wheel that cut through the closest skalies. But without Atherius, her Phoenixfyre was becoming weaker by the day, and weaker each time she used it.

Reylan took her hand, tapping into her essence of Shadowporting and using the seconds of reprieve she’d gained them to pull them across the fringe. Again, that power was too weak to get them off this mountain. All they could do was use what they had in small doses.

“I don’t know if I have enough Phoenixfyre to fly for long,” Faythe said in panic, back to swinging her sword since the skalies were immediately upon them again.

“If I shift into a lion, I can carry you. Our best bet might be to try to outrun them that way.”

Faythe didn’t like that idea, but she agreed it was their only hope.

Her blue Firewielding wasn’t as effective against them, so Faythe conjured another flare of Phoenixfyre to give Reylan the opening to shift. The moment her wheel of searing flame left her, Faythe twisted on her heel, gripping Reylan’s fur as he crouched and swinging her body onto his back.

She didn’t like this plan, because it left her useless and helpless, having to focus on clamping her body tightly around him to avoid being thrown off. Reylan was more vulnerable to attack from the skalies that pounced on him as he darted through the masses, tearing through them with his giant claws and jaw, but there were too many. They weren’t going to make it out of here like this.

They swarmed them until Reylan couldn’t run anymore. Faythe tried to let go enough to attack, but she was thrown off him and buried under the stampede. She curled into herself to protect her head while summoning whatever force she could within her. Then…

Heat.

It blasted over her like a blanket of protection, with a familiar essence. Faythe dared to open her eyes and found herself surrounded by the most beautiful red flame. Her hand rose, and it bent around her touch. It morphed from the protection of the Eye of the Phoenix on her amulet.

Then it parted, revealing Reylan, with the twin eye blazing in the pommel of the Ember Sword at his hip, protecting him too. He kneeled, helping her up, and they stood, defiant, in the storm of glorious Phoenixfyre.

Reylan cupped her cheek and kissed her. It were as if this powerful moment demanded it, and her chest burst with euphoria.

But she hadn’t summoned this fire…

When it finally stopped blasting around them, the last lick of heat was stolen by the bitter air. Snow had begun to fall, and her body broke with a violent shiver at the sudden contrast.

The plummet in temperature was forgotten completely when she glanced sideward and saw one of the most beautiful creatures in the world.

“Did we die?” Faythe muttered in disbelief.

Reylan released an incredulous, breathy laugh. “I’m debating that myself, because I’m looking at my cousin on the back of a Firebird long believed to be extinct…for a second time.”

“Are you waiting for another round?” Livia called from atop the Firebird. Samara had her arms wrapped around her from behind.

Faythe couldn’t believe it. Her stupor was broken by Reylan tugging her.

“When you told me Livia went west to try to get help from Salenhaven, you didn’t mention this kind of help,” Reylan said.

“It was a mere gut feeling,” Faythe said, recalling her private conversation with the commander before they’d all gone their separate ways months ago. “Well, not entirely. I remembered a book Agalhor gave me to read about Phoenix migration. It was believed that if they felt themselves under threat, they would always travel west. Rhyenelle may not have been the first ever home of the Phoenixes if they sought a new safe haven here from somewhere else farther east a very long time ago.”

“Loyal creatures,” Livia commented, smoothing a hand down the Firebird’s feathers. “There aren’t many species that would stick together like that. They all migrate together.”

Except for Atherius. Faythe retrieved the egg before they mounted Livia’s Firebird.

Reylan sat behind Faythe, holding her tightly. She relaxed into him, letting her body and mind calm just for a moment as they took to the skies.

“I expected to meet you in High Farrow,” Reylan said. “When Faythe told me of your venture west, I was worried.”

“I knew you would be, which is why I asked her not to tell you,” Livia said playfully.

“The months by boat were awful,” Samara said, earning a chuckle from Livia, who ran her hand along Samara’s arm.

“What happened with Lord Zarrius?” Faythe asked.

Samara answered, “It was easy to get him into bed and kill him.”

The way she delivered this news was factual, her features expressionless. But Faythe thought it was only a disguise for how the deed would haunt Samara.

Faythe reached out a hand to squeeze her arm. “You’re incredibly brave.”

“I wish I could have done it myself ten times over,” Livia said, a hateful note to her voice.

Faythe couldn’t help but notice their mannerisms. Sure, they were forced to hold onto each other while Livia rode, but there was a new comfort between them, an ease in the way Samara wasn’t shy to subtly drift her touch over Livia or lean her cheek to her back. It made Faythe smile.

Reylan told Livia where they needed to go, and Faythe rallied her bravery and resilience to take Marvellas down once and for all to save Marlowe’s brave and brilliant soul.