by Emma Hamm
Bluebell stirred inside his mind. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
He furrowed his brow in question as Mercy stared off into the distance.
“It’s just, well, she doesn’t seem like she’s in a place to be meeting gods. Perhaps we should give her a little more time,” Bluebell said quietly.
The problem was that they didn’t have time. He had already been gone long enough. Guilt ate away at him. While the others were likely fighting battles, risking their lives, and attempting to fulfill the prophecy, Jasper had been galavanting in the woods. Worse, he’d known for a while that Mercy was part of the prophecy.
He had been so captivated by her that he couldn’t bring himself to leave. It was as much his fault as hers that they had been found. That others had died.
“Okay,” Mercy replied. “Take me to your people who think they are gods.”
“We’ll have to teleport a few times to get rid of any Trackers. I can’t risk Malachi following us back to them.”
“I would imagine not.”
She took his offered hand. He pulled her lithe form against his chest and held her close. His shirt, though tattered, had remained upon her frame. The fabric was soft like silk against his skin, but Mercy did not melt in his embrace. She coolly accepted his touch and shivered.
He remembered suddenly that he had left Ella’s horn somewhere in his tent. But last he had looked, all the tents had burned to ash.
There was no time to go look for the horn, not even time to mourn its loss, though it had come at great cost. If they wanted to protect the people they cared about from further harm, they needed to go
A sharp stab in his pocket hindered his movements as he shifted his weight.
“A Unicorn horn always shows up when it’s needed,” Bluebell explained. “They’re rather sticky pieces of magic. Keep following people around even when they aren’t wanted.”
“I do want it,” he replied, cracking his neck to prepare for teleporting.
Mercy stirred at his words, and he realized they applied just as well to her. He did want her. It was just a shame that the two of them had found such hardship while in each other’s company.
He worried the memories they shared would always be a black stain they could not get rid of. Sighing, he curled his arms around her back. Wings flexing, he began the long series of jumps back towards Haven.
13
Mercy’s fingers dug into Jasper’s back, holding onto him for dear life. Teleporting had a way of making one feel formless, but the sensations lingered too long. It made her feel both aware and corporeal. She did not enjoy feeling as though she were dead.
Everything he said lingered in her mind. He was a good man, this Fairy who seemed to be an endless well of patience. And he liked her.
When was the last time someone had liked her for being herself?
She pressed her cheek into the crook of his neck and wished they could have started in a different time. A kinder time, when there would have been a chance for a sweet love between them. Her chest ached, not from emotion but from the lingering cold of the river. He had been right to throw her in. There had been no controlling the rage that had bubbled over until she was little more than a thing made of anger and hate.
Still, it was dangerous for her to be so cold.
Her heart had been replaced by Ignes's Ember long ago, and she'd grown used to the stillness that took place of her heartbeat. But something stirred within the depths of her chest, and then she heard him.
Ignes. It was one of the rare times he would speak inside her mind.
“He is a good man.”
Mercy nodded. Jasper really was one of the few precious men who were kind at their core.
“I want you to listen to me,” Ignes firmly said. “I understand you’re attached to him. You remember that Phoenix are not like humans? Jealousy is not an emotion we frequently feel. At least when it comes to our mates. And you are not going to be a Phoenix for a while yet. Enjoy yourself. Find your happiness in your human life so that when you are like me, you will bring something more to our kind.”
She nodded again and bit her lip. There was something strange about what he said, and she couldn’t put her finger on it. His words had an air of importance that he rarely spoke with.
“I want you to be happy.” Ignes laughed. “So go and be happy! The more humanity you retain and remember, the more we will fit into this world where humans outnumber us. Volcanoes and the core of the earth are only good for so long. I want us to remember these people so someday we may protect them. If we can find a way to connect with them, it’s better for us.”
At least he was the voice of reason. Mercy certainly couldn’t seem to find her own voice.
Jasper’s teleporting slowed, and she wondered if he was tiring. They had been traveling for hours now. First, he had only teleported as far as he could see. Then, he had teleported farther and farther jumps.
They were on the edge of a cliff one moment, and the next there was sand under her toes. Scorching heat had soothed her pain for a moment before snow had set her shivering anew. Every jump, every time they moved, she felt as though she left bits of herself behind.
Teleporting wasn’t natural. Only a few creatures could do it, and she wasn’t certain how they kept their sanity. Mercy wanted it to stop an hour ago, but she understood why they couldn’t. Malachi could be tracking them, planning to find where they would go next, and they had both learned their lesson the last time he had caught them. They would not bring death with them to Haven.
Dark memories burned the edges of her vision, but she could do nothing about them. Even Ignes couldn’t raise enough heat to feel true anger. There was nothing left inside of her but an aching numbness.
Hard stone materialized beneath her feet and remained there. That was new. She lifted her head from Jasper’s chest and blearily looked around them.
They stood in a back alley of a crumbling city. It had been a long time since she had seen the high towers of concrete and stone. Mercy tilted her head up to look at them, but all she could see were the changes.
Greenery grew everywhere, even in the cracks of the buildings. Moss had wedged itself into the grooves underneath her feet. Even roots were bursting through the nearest window, leaving shattered glass scattered over the ground like stardust.
“Where are we?” Mercy asked.
“Home.”
She didn’t correct him. She didn’t want to tell him that there wasn’t a home for her, not anywhere humans could exist. The volcanoes were already calling to her. She wanted their heat, and they wanted to dissolve her soft human shell.
“Mercy.” Jasper extended a hand. “Come home with me.”
She hesitated for only a moment before she reached out and took his hand.
Jasper reeled her into his arms and tucked her against his shoulder. Mercy wondered for a moment if he thought she wouldn’t come with him while she relaxed into his grip. She didn’t want to teleport anymore, but if they had to, she would.
They didn’t teleport. Instead, he seemed to only want to hold her. Relaxation sank into her tense muscles as she listened to his heartbeat. The soothing thuds stilled her mind and soul.
“Ready now?” His deep voice vibrated against her.
“I’m just so tired.”
He ran his hands up her arms. “And cold.”
“I can’t get warm.”
“It’s making me worried. We’ll get you inside and near a fire.”
She shook her head against the heat of his skin. “Inside the fire.”
“Is it that bad?”
She didn’t respond. Mercy didn’t know how to tell him that it was worse than he imagined. That he was somehow hot against her fingers, and no one had ever seemed warmer than her before. Fear made the words stick in her throat, and there was no flaming shield between herself and the foreign emotion.
“How do you do it?” she asked. “Be afraid without knowing you can protect yourself.”
>
“You survive it. You use the fear to be stronger.”
“I don’t feel stronger.” Even Mercy could hear the dull tones in her voice. “I don’t feel right at all.”
He hooked his hand around her waist and turned the both of them towards a cracked wall. “Then let’s not waste time.”
He reached forward and ran his palm along the crumbling stone. It reacted to his touch, shimmered, and disappeared. A ward, she realized, created from pure magic, untouched by any earthen creature. It had been a long time since she had seen something like this in practice.
They passed through the magical barrier as though they were stepping through a bubble. She felt it pull her backwards until it suddenly snapped back in place, and she was standing in a well lit, golden hallway. Bright marble floors met delicate wallpaper that shone with glimmering fleur-de-lis. Floating candles cast away the darkness from their glow.
Jasper squeezed her. “Welcome to Haven.”
As they walked forward, she turned to see the wall had vanished. “Portal?”
“Portal and hidden doorway. Probably a few other tricks thrown in there as well. The Five are well protected.”
She still wasn’t certain they were going to meet gods. What woman would have been convinced of that? The gods had no reason to be interested in her. They certainly hadn’t been there for her when she had been locked away in a prison and losing her mind.
An itch tickled the back of her neck as they wandered through corridor after corridor. This place was as much a maze as the World Tree’s challenges. Ignes had shown her many travellers lost in their attempt to find her.
“This feels familiar,” she told Jasper.
“Why’s that?”
“It’s like the labyrinth that people tried to get through to find me.”
He opened a door and gestured for her to walk through it. Yet another hallway stretched before them. “I suppose so. But at least this doesn’t have the tempting traps and monsters made of light.”
“You mean Ignes?” She managed a weak smile as even more energy drained out of her.
“That was Ignes?”
“A man made out of light. Who else did you think it was? The Wisp had no right getting so close to me. The World Tree did not like it.”
Jasper guided her hand to his arm. It seemed on the surface as though he just wanted to touch her, but it was more likely because he saw how quickly she was tiring. She leaned against him, silently grateful.
He snorted. “The World Tree, huh? I thought that thing was more plant than thinking creature.”
“Don’t let it hear you say that. It’s very much a talking, thinking creature, and it has a lot to say. Its roots stretch farther than our minds could even comprehend. And it gets ornery.”
“Of course it does,” he murmured as he paused in front of another door, exactly the same as the others. Mercy didn’t know how he could manage to find his way. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“To meet my family and the Five.”
No. She wanted to say no a thousand times over and run back to her Tree. She wanted to hide her head under her arm and sleep for a thousand years. Even better, she wanted to throw herself over the edge of a volcano and accept what fate had in store for her.
But she did not say any of the things exhaustion begged her to say. Instead, she nodded.
Jasper leaned around her, placed his thick hand against the dark wood, and pushed.
There had been conversation. Mercy managed to catch the tail end of words before they were silenced. Now, a room full of people all standing around a center island in a bright kitchen stared at the two of them.
They were all very different. Tall, small, strong, lean, startling, unusual. She couldn’t really make heads or tails of the people, not while her head was spinning.
Only one detail stood out above all others. They were all very obviously human.
“Jasper?” The whispered sob wrenched out of the smallest woman in the bunch.
She was dark like the night and quick like a river. Mercy watched her vault over the island, a feat she would have said impossible for such a small thing, and sprint towards Jasper.
There was hardly enough time for Mercy to step out of the way before the tiny woman wrapped her arms and legs around Jasper’s torso.
“Jasper, I knew you weren’t dead. I could feel you out there! How did you get back? Are you okay? What happened? I cannot imagine what you’ve been through. We’ve been looking for you! Please tell me you’re okay. Why aren’t you talking—”
She was silenced by Jasper’s hand, which he wedged between the two of them and placed over her rapidly running mouth. He laughed at her bugged-out eyes. Mercy hadn’t seen joy like that on his face before.
She realized with startling clarity just how far she had to go before she truly was one of Ignes’s kind. A Phoenix did not experience jealousy, but Mercy felt it now. A dull ache clenched her stomach as she watched them. The ease in which they touched each other. Not for personal gratification, only to make themselves feel better.
Had she ever touched another person simply because she wanted to? With no end goal in mind, just a desire to feel skin against skin? Mercy wasn’t certain she had. Now she wondered just how much she had been missing.
She took another step away from them, hoping to give them the space they needed. Certainly this was Lyra. This was the woman who haunted Jasper’s dreams. He had a right to see her.
But Mercy’s body was rapidly failing. While the others rushed towards Jasper, she was falling. Her ankles couldn’t support her weight. She tried to adjust her balance, but then her knees buckled.
She watched as though time had slowed. A large blonde man and a woman with purple hair were already at Jasper’s side. A tall, thin man with tattoos wrapped around his throat hesitated but his back was turned to her. Three strangely beautiful people walked towards Jasper with no regard to Mercy standing a few paces away from him.
Hitting the floor would hurt, but it might be better to be asleep. At least she wouldn’t be aware of how utterly alone she was in a room full of people.
Strong arms cushioned her fall. Her butt still struck the floor, but she barely felt it as muscled arms bunched beneath her back. Her head lolled onto a shoulder that smelled strongly of ashes.
“My child.” The voice rippled through her body. Mercy shuddered in the man’s arms and opened her eyes. She recoiled at the sight of his hauntingly familiar face
The man’s features were sharp and angular. Gray hair highlighted his temples, but he remained youthful in appearance. His jaw was square and his nose aquiline. His gaze flashed yellow, then orange, then burned red.
Mercy had never been so frightened in her life.
He reached up to brush his fingers reverently through the long strands of her red hair. “My child,” he repeated. “How is it that you live?”
“I am not your child,” she croaked through lips that were turning blue.
“But you are, Phoenix. I created you.”
In that moment, she knew with all her soul who he was. Nurin. The manifestation of Fire, and indeed, the father of all Phoenix kind.
She shivered.
“Oh.” His gaze seared through her soul. “Oh, who did this to you? Who harmed you, little one?”
His hands were running over her now, stroking her body as though she were little more than a lost dog or a toy he could do with as he pleased. In a way, she was. Mercy had no idea what he was capable of. No one truly knew what the Lord of War and God of Fire could do.
Finally, his palm stopped over her heart. His eyes flashed red once more.
“An Ember? In a human?”
“My Phoenix is very intelligent.”
“Intelligent indeed,” he repeated. “But a dim Ember, and water logged. This would have killed you. But I will make it better.”
Heat poured into her. Comforting and soft, it was as though she had been wrapped in a woolen blanket and gi
ven hot chocolate. And it grew, until it was too much. She was burning. She hadn’t burned in such a long time.
She sucked in quick, shallow gasps as her body arched in his arms. All the while, his palm pressed firmly against her sternum, and his ever-changing eyes stared deeply into hers.
Strange. She hadn’t thought this was how she would die.
In a burst of heat and power, flames exploded over her arms and legs. They crawled along her body as though they had missed her. A thump in her chest made her ache even more. Ignes wanted to be let out. But she couldn’t move, couldn’t think, let alone tear open her chest to release him from his cage.
Mercy grunted when she felt Ignes roll inside her. It was like having an alien in her boy; this was a creature moving against her ribcage. Her eyes widened, and her head tilted back.
Ignes crawled out of her chest cavity, wiggled his way through her throat, and scorched her tongue as he pulled himself into the world. Immense pain made her body shake and dance on the edge of shock. Her mind wanted to splinter, but Ignes was healing it already. There was nothing she could do. Mercy was forced to remain sane, while begging for the release of darkness.
Laughter poured out of Nurin, and his arms tightened around her. His hand lingered where it should not have as the power he had given her slowly subsided.
Obviously, Ignes was not pleased that there was another touching her. He was already allowing Jasper to touch her. That was more than he had ever permitted before. She knew before he even landed on the floor that he was about to make a scene.
The Phoenix grew, larger and larger, flames billowing from him until he had reached his full height. Nurin dropped her, the pain dull compared to the trauma she had just experienced, and she rolled her head to the side. Her arm flopped onto the floor with a hand outstretched towards her Phoenix. Ignes would be able to protect her. He always had.
Though it hurt her eyes to look at him, she saw the barest hint of a man in Ignes’s flames. He was there. The creature who had been her lifelong companion, who would eventually be her mate.
