by Jack Whitney
“Oh, right,” she mumbled, almost rolling her eyes. “Diplomacy.”
He huffed amusedly under his breath, and his arm wrapped around her. “You’ll get your chance to behead them when they inevitably piss you off. I’ll have my men sharpen an axe.”
“We should bring it with us,” she insisted. “You know, just as a precaution.”
He grinned, head leaning down towards her. “Wouldn’t leave here without it.”
A shadow passed over the sun then, quickly diverting her attention.
Aydra pulled back and squinted up, just in time to see the Orel drop something from its talons. A letter.
Draven frowned as Aydra began to unfurl the parchment. “Magnice?”
“Lex—”
Rupture and rapture
The flames blow
What do we do when the eagle grows cold?
Aydra’s stomach dropped.
Eagle.
Eagle.
—Nyssa.
Draven’s hand tightened around her waist. “Why is she speaking in Berdijay riddles?”
Her breaths shortened as she gripped onto his arm. “He’s hurt Nyssa.”
Aydra crumbled the letter in her hand and bounded up the stairs to Draven’s home. She started throwing things onto the bed, pulling her bag from the corner to pack it quickly.
“How do you know that?” Draven said from the door.
“Her core is an eagle,” she replied quickly. “Flames are Rhaif. He’s hurt her somehow. I have to go back,” Aydra argued.
“And if this is a trap?” Draven stated. “What if this is his way of pulling you back in? What if he is using her to get to you?”
“And what if he is?” she wept. “I cannot let her suffer. She is my sister. She doesn’t deserve to live beneath him as I did.”
“Your sister is strong.”
“I know she is. But that doesn’t mean she has to suffer in silence.”
“What about the ship?”
She paused, her heart tearing in two places as she contemplated her choices. “The ship can wait. This is my sister,” she answered. “Besides, I always told her she could come with me for negotiations when they arrived again. I will get her and bring her back here.”
“They will consider that kidnapping and take her crown too,” he affirmed.
“What would you have me do, Draven?” she snapped, rounding on him. “Would you have me sit back and do nothing while he hurts her? Ignore her as my olders did me when I voiced my own pains?”
Draven ran his hands through his hair, tugging at the roots. “Aydra, I cannot lose you again.”
The reality of why he didn’t want her to leave set in, and she crossed the space between them, taking his hands in hers.
“You’re not losing me,” she promised.
He swallowed hard and met her eyes. “If you go back there… You know he will try to hurt you. Punish you for leaving or imprison you in your own castle.” He paused, his thumbs rubbing her hands. “Are you ready for that?”
“My brother has hurt me for the last time,” she swore.
The noise of great wings flapped in the air outside the balcony, and the phoenix dove into the room. It stared down its long beak at her, amber eyes staring into her core. She felt its ferocity inside her own, and it gave her a slow blink.
She squeezed Draven’s hands and looked back at him. “He won’t know what’s coming to him.”
Draven sighed and rested his forehead against hers, and she closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of the forest around them.
“I love you so much,” she whispered.
He pulled back slightly and brought her hand to his lips. “I love you,” he said before kissing her palm. “And I support you. If this is what you need to do then… I will not stand in your way.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
AYDRA TOOK THE phoenix back to Magnice.
Anger flowed from her core into the phoenix’s, and she could feel it heating black flames beneath her legs and hands. Black flames that wrapped her as a cool breeze, that tickled her flesh as wind would.
They flew in shadow, the whispers of its feathers beneath her hands as they crossed the Preymoor in a matter of hours instead of days.
They flew over the town, all the way up to the castle gates.
She pulled her sword and jumped from the creature’s back upon reaching the courtyard.
Belwarks drew their swords as she landed.
Aydra straightened and whirled her blade in her hand. “Do you really want to do this?” she asked the men.
Behind, called the phoenix.
Her sword clashed overhead with the one behind her. He pushed her forward, their swords crashing together. Aydra ducked low and struck his knees, wiping him out to the ground. Her blade landed in his throat. As the crack of his neck filled her ears, she straightened and looked around her again.
The phoenix chirped overhead and circled the courtyard. A chill ran down Aydra’s spine at its anger filling her core.
“One last warning, Belwarks,” Aydra dared the men.
Two of them crouched low, swords at the ready. Aydra held a hand up.
Her fist closed as they launched at her.
Black flames swallowed the courtyard.
Aydra stepped through the cold fire and pushed her way into the castle.
Servants moved out of the way. A few of the Belwarks started to draw their swords, but the sudden sight of the phoenix flying beside her out the windows made them stop in their tracks. She kept her sword in her hand, all the way up to her sister’s room. Her foot met the door upon reaching it.
Nyssa yelped upon seeing Aydra, and then her gaze softened. “Aydra—”
She bounded across the room and dove into Aydra’s arms, wrapping her arms tightly around her. Aydra hugged her close and then pulled back to see her face.
“Where are you hurt?” Aydra asked quickly. “Where did he—”
“It wasn’t like with you,” Nyssa cut her off. “It was just my arm.”
“It is never just your arm,” Aydra affirmed. “Don’t ever let me hear that it was ‘just’ anything from you again. Do you understand?”
Nyssa swallowed hard and nodded.
Aydra’s weight shifted. “What happened?”
“I was arguing with him about you,” Nyssa answered. “I let it slip that I knew what he’d done to you. The flames grew on him instantly—”
“Where was your eagle?” Aydra cut in.
Nyssa’s jaw tighten, her nostrils flaring. “He was with me.”
“Did he defend you?”
A flicker of a smile found Nyssa’s lips. “You haven’t seen him yet.”
Aydra’s brows raised. “I came straight to you.”
The phoenix landed in Nyssa’s great window. Nyssa yelped and threw herself into Aydra’s arms.
“What—what is that?!” she shouted.
Aydra smiled at the beast. “She’s mine.”
“—Nyssa, are you okay—”
Lex froze in the door. “Aydra?” she breathed.
A broad smile rose on Aydra’s face, and she bounded into Lex’s grasp, hugging her best friend tightly as her chest swelled at the sight of her.
Lex pulled back and grasped Aydra’s face in her hands. “You’re burning the kingdom without me?”
Aydra almost laughed. “Just the courtyard,” she told her before hugging her again. “I got your letter. Knew I couldn’t stay there knowing what was happening.”
“But I just sent the letter this morning,” Lex argued. “I— what of Duarb’s cursed is that?!”
The phoenix screeched, and Aydra watched a visible chill run down Nyssa’s spine.
“Whoa,” Nyssa said, her eyes widened at her sister.
“I know,” Aydra agreed with a smile.
“What’s the plan?” Lex asked.
“Nope,” Aydra argued. “This does not concern either of you. This is my fight. You’ll both stay here—no arguments,” she added wi
th a glare at Lex.
“I think you’ll need this,” Nyssa said as she pulled something off her dresser.
Aydra’s crown glimmered in the sunlight coming through the window. Her fingertips trickled over the rough edged limbs, and the weight of it sat heavy in her hands.
“Take back your seat, sister.”
Aydra fumbled with it in her hands a moment longer before placing it on her head. The mirror caught her gaze, and she found herself staring at the woman in the mirror. The dark her hair looked in the shadows of the creature. The steel her eyes reflected back with the sword in her hand.
Her jaw tightened, and she looked up at the phoenix.
Follow me, she told it.
Rhaif was waiting for her in the Council chamber.
She ignored the outbursts of the Belwarks, her sword already pulled as she threatened them.
“Out of my way,” she demanded.
“Aydra, you are not allowed in—”
She thrust the Belwark into the wall and shoved her sword beneath his throat. “Why? Because he told you I am a Queen no longer?” she hissed at him.
The guard swallowed hard. “Y-Yes.”
“Allow me to remind you who I am.”
Her sword sliced through his throat, and his head rolled onto the ground.
His torso dropped out of her hand, fiery ash staining the white rock floor. She turned slowly towards the other guards.
“On your knees,” she growled at them.
The guards didn’t dare look between one another. Slowly, they each reached for their helmets and took them off their heads as they knelt to the ground before her.
“My name,” she asked of them.
“Aydra Ravenspeak—”
“Your Majesty—”
“My Queen—”
Aydra stepped forward in front of the one that had called her by simply her name, and she felt her head tilt down at him. The tip of her sword raked gently against his skin. “What was that, Belwark?”
The guard’s eyes rolled up to meet hers.
And then he spat at her.
Her sword met his throat without hesitation, and his head rolled cleanly to the floor.
Fire from his rocky insides caught the rug, and she stamped it out with her boot. She turned on her heel towards the door. A deep breath entered her lungs as blue flames flashed in her memory, but she squashed it with the adrenaline of the phoenix coursing through her bones.
Lies.
The word reverberated through her consciousness.
And she kicked in the door.
Rhaif was standing on the other side of the room, staring out of the window. He had his arm lazily crossed over his chest, one hand stroking the unkept stubble on his chin. He barely turned his head in her direction upon hearing her come in.
Rhaif’s brow raised as he looked her over. “Got a bit comfy in the Forest, did we?”
Aydra thrust her sword back into her belt and began to take her riding gloves off one finger at a time. “Spit it out, Rhaif,” she dared him. “Say what you really mean.”
He looked her over once more, watching her as she stripped herself of the leather braces on her arms, the tight belted corset around her midsection.
“Have you come to kill me?” he asked as he faced her.
She threw the leathers off her body and onto the floor across the room. “Is that what you think?”
“I think you came running in here after you found your sister had been hurt. Not a fault of mine, despite what she may say.”
Aydra almost laughed. “Not a fault of yours?” She reached for her sword on her belt and twirled it in her hand a few times. “Is that huge scratch across your face not from her eagle defending her?” she said with a point of her blade.
Rhaif’s jaw tightened. “Why are you here then if not to avenge your beloved sister?”
She scoffed and shook her head. “You know, I did initially come for her. I did come to avenge her, to protect her, as I thought she needed. But my sister has proved she can take care of herself.” She paused and allowed her eyes to flicker towards the window, seeing the shadow that passed over the sun, and she felt a fire rising inside her that she’d not anticipated.
“I am not here for her any longer. I am here for me,” she warned him.
“For you?” His eyes flashed fire, and she gripped the hilt of her sword tighter in her fist. “What will you do? Call the crows?”
Her neck cracked as she took a step back. She felt out into the void for the phoenix, feeling her eyes begin to flutter. The core of the great bird pulsed through her. She could feel the warming of its insides burning through her body.
“What do you say to a fair fight this time?” she mused. “No pushing me off ledges or killing my creatures. Fair. Flame for flame.”
Rhaif stepped away from the window, fingertips blackening by the second. He pushed his shirt over his head, and the blue flames began to wrap around his lightning streaked torso. He pulled his own sword from his belt, and the blade heated beneath his grip.
“By all means,” he mocked.
Her sword clashed with his above his head. Rhaif’s shouts and grunts echoed off the walls as he pushed her backwards. Aydra ducked and pivoted back, her sword barely missing his chest. She lunged forward and swung hard. His sword caught hers before she could slice his waist.
She rammed her head into his.
Rhaif stumbled on his feet, chest heaving. Aydra straightened and dusted off her shirt.
“You’re getting slow, sister,” he breathed.
Rhaif lunged at her again. Her blade struck his again and again, her backing him up, and then he backing her up, over and over until she felt her arm begin to feel heavy. She felt for the core of the phoenix outside, and its purr reverberated through her insides.
“Enough of this.”
Glass shattered in slow motion behind their heads. Rhaif ducked to his knees. The phoenix came swooping inside the room. Its black shadow invaded every corner, and it landed behind Aydra. Aydra’s chest heaved. She didn’t bother shaking the glass from her hair. She could feel the heat of its feathers behind her, and its tail swept across the floor.
Rhaif’s eyes bulged upon his seeing the beast. “What—Where—”
“This is for my sister—” she drove the hilt of her sword into his nose. Rhaif screamed in agony, but Aydra didn't pause.
“—this is for my raven—”
Her knife thrust into his eye.
Rhaif wailed with pain, his screams echoing off the walls. She straightened once more, watching as he grasped his face in his hands, blood pouring from his face.
“And this…” The phoenix wrapped her in cold black flames that felt of water and satin, and she allowed her hands to open at her sides. “This is for me.”
The black flames wrapped into his blue ones, and she watched as they devoured his fire. His skin singed red. She felt her body shaking at the scene of the blisters rising on his skin, the black flame eating his skin. His screams pulsed around the room. The screech of it shattered her to her core, and she suddenly felt nauseous at the scene before her.
The memory of his younger self cowering on the floor beneath their mother’s grasp pulsed through her mind, and she couldn’t shake it.
Stop, she told the phoenix.
The flames evaporated slowly on his flesh. Rhaif continued to scream and shake in agony. He hugged his legs into his chest, face askew with terror. A glisten rose in her eyes that she wasn’t prepared for. Her heart shattered at the sight of him, the brother she’d once loved so much withering in pain.
After a few moments, he laid his arm down, propping himself on his elbow as he found a sliver of strength. His trembling body kicked, and he looked up at her through the strangles of his navy hair.
“Kill me,” he begged. “Do it. Strike me down. Send me to the Edge.”
Her breath choked on the snotted-nose sob she didn’t know she possessed. She didn’t realize she was screaming until the nois
e of it sounded in her ears, bawling tears and cries emitting from her strained throat.
“Do it!” he begged.
The agony of his words tore through her. Her muscles edged, and she bent at the waist as another mortified sob left her lips. The memory of the smile he used to look at her with broke her heart. The promises and the laughter. Her body came crumbling down, and she felt herself sinking into an abyss.
Her brother. Desperate for love. Desperate to prove himself worthy of their mother’s love. Desperate not to be who he would inevitably become.
This was not her brother.
This was not the same brother who had once promised her life without fear of fire.
This was not the brother that she had once loved.
This was the King of Promise.
The monster in his true form.
Consumed by fear.
Finally brought to his knees by all the Queens of their past.
She forced herself to straighten with the wrap of the phoenix’s cold flames hugging her from behind, and she pushed the screaming sobs back down into her core. Her jaw trembled, and she sucked in a jagged breath as he pushed to his knees, his fire flickering around his body.
A final tear dropped down her cheek and landed on the stone.
“You don’t deserve the freedom of it,” she managed.
Her sword clattered to the ground. The noise of it reverberated off the walls as her senses paused at the scene.
Iron chains clanked behind her.
A sharp pain pulsed through her core, and she nearly fell to her knees.
The phoenix cried out.
Arms grabbed her from behind.
Leave me! she shouted to the beast.
The phoenix screamed, black fire filling the chamber.
Now!
Her eyes met its amber gaze over her shoulder, and the great bird gave her a slow blink.
I will see you again, she whispered to it.
The phoenix’s wings flapped violently as it rose off the ground. Shadow pulsed through the chamber, and the bird disappeared into nothing more than whisps of black fire.
Aydra sank to her knees as the fill of her core evacuated once more.
And the arms of Belwarks beneath her dragged her out of the room.
