Phoenix Rising (Maggie Henning & The Realm Book 1)

by Lisa Morgan

  The revenants came to the edge of the grass and pulled up short. They stared at the vampire, daring him to take that half-step forward, leaving the safety of the consecrated ground.

  Luc, his chest rising and falling from the adrenaline rush, taunted them, “What’s the matter, boys?”

  The leader who’d spoken earlier glared not at Luc, but at me. I could feel his stare and I watched as his eyes changed from the yellow illumination to a sunset orange.

  “How pretty,” Luc teased.

  The revenant went yellow-eyed again, raising to meet Luc. “You have made a grave mistake, Lucian de’Celine.”

  “Yeah, like I haven’t been told that before,”

  “The next time we meet, you will not be so lucky,” the revenant threatened,

  The creature and his minions stood still as my vision began to blur, taking on dark edges, my head throbbing. The last thing I saw before I passed out was the revenants fading into vapor and dissipating.

  Twenty Three

  “Maggie?” a voice called to me in the darkness. It sounded like an echo, searching for me from somewhere in the distance. I tried to make my way toward the words, but couldn’t get my feet to cooperate. I opened my mouth to call out, to let the voice know I was right here, but no words left my mouth.

  “No,” the voice pleaded. It was masculine and desperately concerned about me. “Maggie? Don’t do this … come back to me.”

  I felt ice on my back and behind my knees, my entire body growing chilly. It felt like I were floating, and the only thing keeping me from drifting away was the chilly embrace that seemed to grip me tighter as the voice continued bargaining with me.

  “I need you to wake up,” it begged me quietly.

  I felt the hard ground beneath me as the embrace slid away, and senselessly, I wanted to grab back hold of the frosty touch that had been carrying me. Ice pressed to my temple tenderly like a frozen kiss, and though it went against what rational thinking would describe, that chilled caress sent warmth up my spine.

  “Maggie?”

  I fought the weight trapping me in the pitch black, preventing me from rejoining the world. I focused on the cool touch against my temple as the breath of my name once more crossed my skin, like a beacon to bring me back. Using every ounce of strength I could muster, I forced my eyes to flutter and eventually open; the darkness behind my lids disappearing. As I became aware, the soft touch on my temple vanished, too.

  My vision was skewed, and I lifted my hands to wipe the distortion away. Pain crashed against the back of my head in a throbbing assault that made my stomach roil and the world tip to the side.

  “What happened?” I managed to ask.

  “Maggie,” the concerned voice exhaled in relief. With a great deal of effort, I turned my head to find the voice that had lured me back.

  With ivory skin reflecting the moon and his worry-filled iridescent eyes searching my face, I found Luc on his knees beside me. He held my hand in his palm as his other stroked my forehead, pushing my hair from my eyes with a tender sweep of his fingertips.

  “Luc?” I questioned as I tried to sit up and found my arms like Jell-O. I closed my eyes tightly and took a deep breath, attempting to clear my foggy mind.

  “Just relax,” he instructed me. “You hit your head pretty hard and passed out.”

  “Revenants!” I exclaimed as the events before my impact-induced nap rushed back to me. I tried with everything in me to scurry my feet and stand, dread filling me with a need to escape before the skeletal assassins got to us.

  “They’re gone, Maggie. You’re safe,” Luc offered calmly.

  “No! They were chasing us, Luc! One grabbed me, and it was pulling on my back. Oh God,” I broke off, my hands over my face. My head continued to throb, my own heartbeat drumming inside my skull and my breaths growing more ragged.

  “It’s done,” Luc comforted, putting his hand on my shoulder and gently holding me down. “I swear on my life, Maggie, you’re safe.”

  I removed my hands and looked in his eyes to be sure he was telling the truth and not just placating me with what he knew I wanted to hear. The silver flecks that speckled his irises danced with moonlight as he searched my face, and I could feel his worry for me.

  With an unsure move, Luc took my cheek in his hand, his eyes following his palm as he touched me. I held my breath as his gaze shifted to my eyes, and a sort of calm washed over me. My heartbeat slowed and the fear that had been welling up inside me since coming to, began to ebb. As if his palm were some sort of comforting balm, I felt at peace. I felt safe.

  As if he felt uncomfortable, he pulled his hand away and knelt back, giving me space.

  “Can you stand?” he asked me softly.

  I nodded my head and drew to my feet with far more effort than I’d anticipated I’d need. When both sneakers touched the dirt and I was upright, the world shifted once more and I felt as though I’d spent hours on some kind of spinning amusement park ride. I teetered, and Luc rushed forward, wrapping his arms around my middle to keep me on my feet.

  The pain in the back of my head was like a jackhammer, beating mercilessly against my brain. Instinctively, I reached to stop the hurt, wincing when I touched the painful area and pulling my hand away to find a sticky mess on my fingers. My legs shook and gave out on me.

  “Maggie!” He stepped closer, quite literally sweeping me off my feet before I could fall. He cradled me in his arms and slowly lowered us both to the ground, keeping my body from meeting the hard packed earth by clutching me against his chest.

  I stared at him and saw his features differently from the few exchanges we’d had at The Trust. The wicked, mocking grin he’d worn when I’d been near was gone. The goose bumps that enjoyed covering my body when he’d been near me in the kitchen were nowhere to be found. His face wore a mask that did nothing to shield his pain and concern for my wellbeing.

  “Rest,” he urged me in an almost intimate whisper, not releasing his hold on me.

  “Michel?” I asked, suddenly aware that his brother should be the one who was holding me, soothing me after the attack. Thoughtlessly, like I expected him to just materialize out of thin air, I looked around for him.

  Luc let go of me, enough so that I could slide out of his embrace. He leaned back on his haunches, a flash of darkness clouding his expression.

  “My brother is a damned idiot,” Luc complained angrily. “I know it’s crucial for you to learn to keep yourself safe, but to come at you in that manner? To try to entice you to fight by spitting vitriol that could break your tender, half human heart? What was he thinking?”

  I found myself feeling the need to defend Michel. I remembered the fight and the cruel words that had made me think I needed to get away from him, but now, after seeing these revenants and hearing their demands for Luc to turn me over? It brought clarity to what Michel had been trying to do.

  I defended quietly, “This is my fault, Luc, not his. I should’ve realized what he was trying to do and not let his barbs wound me to the point of running away. Like that would even be an option in a real fight? For me to tuck tail and run?”

  Luc stood and began pacing. His footfalls were heavy as he moved, shoving his hands into his hair as he glanced toward the starry sky. His words were hushed when he spoke next. “He was reckless. He claims to care for you, yet he would treat your life like something so easily replaced?

  “And me? I’m as much to blame for putting your life in jeopardy as he is. I know what is out there, Maggie. I’ve fought it before and know the risks. I should have stopped you from leaving, not taken the opportunity to be alone with you—”

  “Luc,” I offered gently, rising to my feet and taking a deep breath before I could speak. “I felt overwhelmed and wanted to get away. My feelings were hurt and—”

  “You don’t understand!” He spun around to face me, taking my elbows in his hands as he stared.

  We stood like that for several moments; Luc gripping my arms and his eyes
so full of hurt that it nearly broke my heart. He drew in a ragged breath and released me before turning his back to me.

  “You will never understand, Maggie.”

  “Then tell me!” I yelled back, my head pounding at my volume and frustration of Luc’s enigma. “I’m just some stupid, clueless human, you said it yourself. Throw me a bone, Luc!”

  “If something were to happen to you,” Luc explained sullenly, “Michel would be wrecked. He’d be changed.” I stared at Luc’s back, but didn’t interrupt him. His head and shoulders slumped forward.

  “It would be the death of him,” he continued in a whisper. “His soul, everything good and decent in him, would wither away like a flower without water or sunlight. Tonight, that could have very easily been the outcome. He could have been robbed of you, all because I feel … something I shouldn’t.”

  I could feel every ounce of pain that hung in his words. He seemed so fragile at this moment that it was hard to believe this was the same vampire who’d scared me earlier. I walked cautiously toward Luc. There was real suffering in his explanation and I sensed that in some way, he was broken, that he knew from experience what Michel would have gone through if something had happened to me. Lifting my hand, I reached for his shoulder to try to comfort him.

  “Don’t,” he ordered coldly before I could touch him. “I thought I was strong enough for this, Maggie. I thought I was different, that you were different.”

  Luc turned and looked at me, his eyes glistening. My heart broke for him and I didn’t even know why. I was still reaching out for him when he glanced at my palm. He took it in his tenderly and kept his eyes set on the place where we were now connected.

  “Maggie,” he exhaled my name. I stared at his hand, but didn’t try to pull away.

  I found it hard to take in a breath. My heartbeat quickened when Luc’s jade eyes raised to mine. The moonlight that peeked through the trees surrounding the graves reflected blue in the silver highlights. It wasn’t frightening; it was painful, like a heartache that would go on and on inside of him until the day he finally died.

  He dropped my hand and his face turned to stone. Whatever the emotion had been that seemed to riddle throughout him, it was gone now. I had nothing I could say to him, at a loss for words and stricken by what I’d seen in the hard man who had mocked me when we’d first met, suddenly melting down into a stranger standing before me.

  “Michel has arrived,” he stated, looking over my shoulder.

  I spun around to find Michel, standing next to an oak tree that shaded the light of the moon at the edge of the clearing. His face was stoic as he leered at his brother. Luc paid no mind to the expression his brother gave him and walked toward Michel, leaving me standing alone in the tiny cemetery.

  “She’s all yours,” he offered to Michel flatly, leaving the explanations to me. Without looking back, Luc moved into the shadow of the forest and disappeared. Michel watched his brother leave as he approached me.

  “You’re hurt,” Michel assessed softly, looking at the wound on my head. “You need a healer, Maggie.”

  “Revenants … they were in the road,” I absently explained. “We were on the motorcycle and they just appeared.”

  “Did they do this?” Michel asked, drawing me to him to closer examine my injury.

  I shook my head in answer, still looking to where Luc had vanished through the trees. “Luc … he threw me from the bike.” I felt a growl rising in Michel’s chest and pulled from him, shaking my head.

  “No, Michel. Luc saved me. This was an accident. If he hadn’t thrown me to safety …” I tried to tell him while pointing to my head, but my voice cut out as my eyes began to water.

  “Why did you leave?” Michel asked, leaning forward to press his lips to my forehead; his body stiffening and full of tension.

  “You were trying to hurt me. I thought, had thought, you—”

  “I do care for you,” Michel whispered, lifting my face to his. Softly, his thumbs wiped at the few tears that had escaped. “I was advised to tempt you, to anger you to a point where you would unleash the fire inside you.”

  He kissed my palm carefully, never letting his eyes leave mine and avoiding the blood that caked my fingertips. “Maggie, hearing your thoughts as I barked out orders, feeling the terror in your body when I had my sword to your throat, it almost made me come undone. I would have preferred to meet Shadow than to cause you pain.

  “When I watched you leave with Luc … it felt like someone had ripped me to pieces,” Michel murmured, his voice wavering ever so slightly. He looked worn and haggard, paler than normal.

  I struggled. “I’m sorry. I was scared, I thought you—”

  Michel stopped me with his lips, pulling my face to him and covering my mouth with his. The kiss was desperate, like he’d really believed he wouldn’t see me again. I placed my hands on his cool features, holding him to me. All of the fear I’d felt over the revenants, over Michel’s actions in the library, evaporated as he threaded his fingers in my hair, skillfully avoiding the sticky wound.

  Unfortunately, the kiss ended quicker than I wanted, and he drew away from me. Michel begged breathlessly against my lips, “Never leave me again.”

  I nodded as a wave of dizziness went through me, and I reached out to steady myself. Michel grabbed me and lowered me to the dirt.

  “We need to get back to The Trust. The healers will be able to help you,” he instructed.

  “I’m going to need a minute,” I warned, hanging my head and inhaling deeply, trying to force the illness in my throat to go away. “No way I can get on a motorcycle right now and expect to not fall off.” Michel nodded in agreement as he wove his arms around my middle, drawing me to him.

  “Luc,” I muttered. “He was really fast.”

  “He was a great soldier during the first war.”

  “But when I came to after hitting my head, he was … different,” I went on, turning my head to glimpse at the parting of trees where he’d vanished. “He was actually concerned about me. I wouldn’t have thought him capable of kindness. He even looked like he was going to cry.”

  “I had hoped him past this,” Michel offered, his voice grieving.

  “Past what?”

  “Irabella,” Michel whispered in my ear.

  “What is that?” I asked as softly.

  “Not what, but who. Luc loved her, pledged his life to hers.”

  “Where is she now?” I questioned hesitantly. Michel pulled me even tighter against his body.

  “She’s gone. She died during the Revenant War.

  “Irabella was a brilliant witch,” Michel began. “She had a natural affinity with the elements and could call upon them at will. Luc sought help after being injured in battle, and Irabella was the first magickal presence he sensed. He collapsed on her doorstep, gravely wounded.

  “Luc laid on the edge of Shadow for many days, neither fully alive nor fully dead. Irabella used all the magicks she knew to nurse him back to health, even going so far as to offer her blood to him.”

  I pictured Michel’s words in my head, playing the vision through as he spoke. I saw Luc stumbling, looking weaker and weaker. I could see him lying in a bed, a beautiful young woman feeding him age old remedies by the spoonful, probably handed down from family members as I had read happened in the history book.

  “When Luc woke,” Michel continued, “he found Irabella there. She stood above him, smiling, and welcomed him back to the world.

  “Luc refused to return to the war, feeling he owed a debt to the witch. I’ve heard rumors that the truth was he’d been so close to death that his lust for battle had lost its edge and appeal. He sent word to our father, telling him he relinquished his command. Many envoys were sent to retrieve him, to no avail. Luc was determined to stay with Irabella.

  “Over those months, Luc and Irabella grew closer, spending the twilight hours walking through the forest. Irabella taught him about the power the witches had, and he in turn shared our wor
ld, our life. Those walks and discussions melded into a respect for each other, and eventually, love.

  “When the war took a bad turn, the revenants having destroyed a clan of water pixies, the king sent me and a dozen or so knights to Irabella’s grove house to force Luc to return to battle.”

  “How did she die?” I managed in a whisper.

  “The war was going poorly for us, and Father knew that the only hope of getting Luc to return to battle was me. I tried to reason with my brother, but he’d turned his back on the kingdom, the war, and the king himself.

  “I’d begged him,” Michel strained. “Tried to make him see reason, but Luc was as stubborn then as he is now. He’d stalked off into the woods.

  “Irabella came to me while Luc was away. She was beautiful, Maggie. I could see how Luc had fallen for her. There was no evil in her, just genuine concern. I could hear her thoughts and I knew she loved my brother as much as he did her. She asked me what would become of Luc if he stayed with her, and I told her the truth.”

  “What would’ve happened?” I asked, a new lump in my throat, replacing sickness with fear.

  “If Luc refused to return to the war, he would lose all.”

  “All of what?”

  “His life, Maggie. You don’t refuse the king without some type of reprisal.”

  I twisted in Michel’s embrace to look at him. “You’re joking, right? The king would kill his own son because he refused to fight?”

  “Especially his son,” Michel stated in a way that left no room for doubt. “It would be a sign of weakness to have one of your own refuse your command. Luc had pushed our father as far as it could be done without punishment.

  “Irabella grew silent as she contemplated the information I’d given her. Without another word, she’d lifted her arms and became a mist, and then disappeared. Luc witnessed what happened before I’d realized he’d returned.