Page 90 of A Flame of the Phoenix (An Heir Comes to Rise #6)

CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE

Reylan

D akodas was defeated, but he didn’t take a breath of relief nor celebrate a beat of triumph.

Because Faythe had fallen too the moment the Spirit’s body turned to black sand. Reylan caught her before she hit the ground, then the race against time began.

While Faythe had been giving everything she had into killing Dakodas, Livia had arrived before he was about to yell for help.

His cousin flew down on a Phoenix far smaller than Atherius, but Reylan was still incredulous as to how Livia had crossed the sea and made treaty with someone from Salenhaven to have come to their aid in this dark time.

“We need to get her to the Eternal Woods in Farrowhold—fast!” he yelled, letting Livia and Samara take Faythe from his arms.

Having to let her go and fly across in eagle form was the most soul-tearing thing he’d ever had to do. The distance felt endless even though he pushed himself harder than ever before.

Time mocked him, tormenting him that it had been too long since they’d left the fringe and landed in the fields before the woods.

Reylan didn’t waste a single second. Faythe was back in his arms within a few breaths of landing, and he raced through the trees, bursting into the waterfall clearing.

He hoped he was right—that the yucolites in this pool would give her back the life she needed. Reylan slipped into the pool fully clothed, then he lifted Faythe in with him. He stood while the water helped carry Faythe’s lifeless body.

Lifeless.

He had to shake his head to dispel the dizzying sweeps of panic.

“Please, please, please.” He kept chanting, with his eyes darting from her stunning, peaceful face to the glowing orbs that floated around them. “PLEASE,” he yelled desperately.

Gods, she looked so at peace, but he promised with everything he had that he would not let this world harm her anymore. If she just came back to him, he’d become whatever he needed to be to spare her from anymore pain.

Reylan brushed the tangles hair sticking to her face and rested his forehead to hers. “Faythe, my Phoenix, you can hear me. I know you can. After all we’ve been through, don’t you dare leave now.”

He kissed her cold lips and held her floating body, willing with every fiber of his being for life to be breathed back into her from this source of magick itself. She deserved this. Faythe Ashfyre deserved to see the world she’d saved. The world she would build now she’d rid the evil from it.

The yucolites gathered around her body, and with a jolt of relief, he watched as they attached themselves to her. They surrounded him too.

“Use me. Take whatever you need from me,” he begged them. His life, his soul, his heart—it was all hers anyway.

The tiny prickles of magick grew over his skin, and Reylan closed his eyes, welcoming their presence. All he could do was hold Faythe and wait. There were no Gods to pray to anymore.

Her chest was so quiet it made every passing second grow with a misery he would never forget. Reylan knew this would come; that despite all she’d given already, it would come down to a sacrifice for her rid the land of Dakodas. He couldn’t stop thinking of this place and the stories he’d heard of the yucolites. To restore life might be beyond what they were capable of, but they owed her this. The world owed Faythe her life back for all she’d sacrificed long before now.

If she didn’t come back…Reylan feared what he would become in his grief.

Perhaps that was why Faythe had taken his memories before she died a long time ago. Not because he would follow her, but because she might have returned not to stop Marvellas but him, for the rage he would have poured into the world in his vengeance.

It made him no better than Marvellas, and for a moment, it was grim to acknowledge that there were no heroes or villains, only those who had reason to live and love, and those who had none at all.

The backs of his closed eyelids grew so bright he peeled them open to find Faythe glowing. She was so breathtaking. Ethereal. There were no yucolites in the lake anymore—they’d all absorbed into her.

Within, Reylan felt something snap, and he clutched her tighter with a horrified gasp.

Their bond.

“ No… ” he breathed. “You can’t have her.”

Maybe he’d been mistaken. Instead of bringing her here to save her…he’d brought her to her resting place, and they were taking what was left of her.

Absolute terror held him hostage. Frozen.

A sharp yank inside made him grit his teeth, and then…

He felt her.

He heard the gentle beat in her heart slowly growing stronger.

He saw…

Faythe’s gold eyes fluttered open. Her hand rose to touch his arm.

“Reylan,” she whispered. “Did we make it?”

A breathy, delirious chuckle left him, and he kissed her. Faythe managed to straighten and stand in the water with him, but he held her in a tight embrace.

“We made it,” he mumbled into her neck.

“I thought…I thought I wouldn’t. I don’t think I’m supposed to be here.”

“You’re supposed to be with me.”

Her weak arms tightened. Then she released him to rest her head against his chest. Faythe’s fingers swirled over the surface of the water.

“The yucolites…”

“Know you belong here too.”

He scented the salt of her tears as they mixed with his. He couldn’t stop them. There were very few moments that invoked tears in him, but this joy was worth them.

Faythe stared into his eyes and he found the world in hers. Every day of misery, every hour of torment, it was all worth it to reach this moment with her.

Reylan braced his hands on her waist, lifting her out of the water to sit her on the edge. He looked up at her with the sun glowing behind her and the pride growing in his chest was a beautiful ache. She ran her fingers through his damp hair and the silence they basked in tender touches felt sacred.

“I love you,” he said. “I love you more than those simple words could possibly convey. There isn’t a language that translates what I feel for you.”

Reylan lifted himself out the water and Faythe moved like they were magnets until she lay back and he hovered over her.

“There is,” she said quietly. “There’s a language that exists only between us that is louder than words.”

Reylan’s lips crashed to hers and Faythe’s body arched into him as he pressed tighter to her. This was infinity. A vow to find her in every lifetime because what they had couldn’t be lost or broken by time.

They might have won the war but their battles weren’t over yet. He was ready to face everything that came next so long as he was by her side. To be whatever she needed him to be to begin to live the life she deserved.