“Fia,” he murmured against her hair, his hands tracing the arch of her back, his senses flooded with the taste and the scent of her.
Her hips ground faster against him. “Fia,” he breathed against her neck as his nose grazed her skin. She threw her head back, and he carried her to the bed, unwrapping his wings and laying her down. She pulled her shirt over her head and fumbled with the buckles on the front of his uniform.
“Now I see why you don’t normally wear many clothes,” she said with a quiet chuckle, a frown creasing her brow. He laughed. He wanted to rip the damn thing off, but he took his time, watched her eyes on him as he undressed. He wanted to protect her from what was coming, to keep her safe, but the way she was biting down on her lip again had him wanting to taste every inch of her.
Fia unbuttoned her trousers, wriggling to ease them off, and Alexander tugged them away, his fingers brushing over three rows of silvery scars on one of her calves he hadn’t seen before. He took in every dip and curve, his heartbeat a pounding drum in his chest. He placed a hand behind each of her knees, his thumbs tracing circles as he pulled her down the bed towards him, another gasp escaping her.
He wanted time to slow. To bend. To stop. I can’t lose you.
She leaned up, her arms around his neck, her chest heaving as they looked at each other.
“No amount of time with you will ever be enough,” he said, his forehead resting against hers.
“I know,” she breathed, her fingers brushing the back of his neck.
Another tear rolled down her cheek, and he kissed it away as their bodies met, the warmth of her skin flush against every inch of his, her breath against his neck and her fingers digging into his shoulders as their hips moved together.
Alexander cast aside the thoughts about the coming morning. He let everything else fade away, his mind filled with nothing but the moment stretching out between them. All that mattered was this, here, with her.
It was all that had ever mattered.
Chapter Thirty–Three
Lorn
“ A storm is approaching from the north,” an engineer said to Lorn as she stood in the control room, looking out into the almost darkness. It should have been dawn. Soon enough, it would be. The moment the sun died, Lorn was convinced the first fire mother would come to her and show her what to do.
Only the fire mother could deliver Ohinyan into a new era. Only the fire mother… but what if she is the fire mother… That wretched girl. Her thoughts snaked around each other until those whispers of insecurity became a thundering scream, almost drowning out the thoughts that told her she was the fire mother, that Fia was nothing. Almost. She fought them down, trampled them until they smouldered.
There would be no hesitation in Djira. Any who stood in her way would fall. Including Erebus, if he dared to show up. She gritted her teeth against those snaking thoughts, sparks dancing at her fingertips.
“We’re going the wrong way,” an engineer muttered on the other side of the control room.
Lorn strode over to him. “What are you talking about, we’ve been heading north this entire time.”
“The compass says we’re heading east. We’ll be over the ocean within minutes,” he said, this time to his colleagues. The engine room erupted into life, engineers frantically pushing at switches and looming over control panels.
Lorn peered out into the grey but couldn’t see anything. “How close were we?” she called out over the commotion. Nobody answered. “I said how close were we to Djira?” She grabbed the collar of the nearest engineer, her fingertips glowing with embers.
“We were almost to the wall,” he said, swallowing slowly.
Lorn released him and ran a hand through her hair. “Everyone stop.”
They couldn’t have strayed that far off course since leaving Kaliz; they’d have been over open ocean long ago. Something wasn’t right. Witches. “Stay your course. The controls are wrong, it’s an illusion.”
Witches could have made their way onto the top of the ship if they truly were as close to Djira as the engineers said they were. Some might even be on board. Lorn grabbed another engineer, her fingers burning against his skin. He said nothing, just held her stare. Not a witch then. She grabbed hold of every engineer one by one to check none of them was an illusion, a witch in disguise.
“Sister, what is it?” her brother asked as he stormed into the control room.
“Witches,” Lorn spat, shoving the last engineer away. “Either they’re on the roof or we’ve been compromised. Trust no one,” she said and pushed past him out into the corridor. She would not be deceived by whatever pathetic games they were playing.
“Where are you going?” Jerum called out.
“To get ahead of the witches. The soldiers have their instructions. I expect them to be followed. Nuala too.” Lorn didn’t wait to speak to her brother, but she could tell by the sound of his footsteps against the metal that he followed closely behind. He was never one to miss out on an opportunity for glory, and for a moment she considered turning him to ash there and then for his excessive sense of self-worth.
Lorn made her way to the loading bay, snapping commands at the nearest soldiers. “You,” she said to one preparing the seedpods. “Goggles.” She clicked her fingers and held out a hand, and the soldier passed her a pair of flying goggles.
“I’m coming with you,” she heard Jerum say behind her. She didn’t respond, the image of him going up in flames still dancing behind her eyes.
A warm hand rested on her shoulder, and Lorn turned to catch her brother’s gaze.
“I’m proud of you, Lorn. You deserve this victory,” he said, his expression as earnest as she’d ever seen it.
Something flickered in her chest at his words, but she pushed it aside. He’d never complimented her, ever. “Of course I do. Let’s go.” That feeling swelled in her chest, and she told herself it was just the anticipation of arriving in Djira.
The loading bay door opened and wind whipped at Lorn’s face. Their plan was solid. She wasn’t going to let a handful of witches get in her way. She swung into the seedpod, pulling at levers until it whirred to life. A few soldiers gave her a nudge, and the seedpod dipped down out of the loading bay. But she wasn’t going down into Djira. Not yet. She could hear the hum of her brother’s seedpod behind her as she pulled up to the side of the ship, two of Nuala’s ships flanking it. They’d been tethered for most of the journey for speed, but now they’d broken off, as instructed.
Lorn could almost forgive the soldiers stationed outside for not spotting the witches. She kept her eyes peeled on the metal panels of her own ship as she pulled up to the roof. There. Crouched behind the tower. The young witch hadn’t spotted her, so deep in whatever trance he needed to send the engine room into disarray. She pressed the seedpod closer, close enough to see the way the wind pulled his hair back from his face, and unleashed her flames.
The witch cried out, pushing himself to his feet. Lorn hadn’t released too much—not enough to kill him right away. The witch rolled around on the metal, desperately trying to extinguish the flames, but it wasn’t enough. No, she hadn’t wanted him to perish immediately. She’d wanted the satisfaction of—the witch screamed, and threw himself off the side of the ship into the night air—of seeing him fall.
She caught her brother’s approving smile as she turned the seedpod around and pressed on ahead of her fleet. She’d never wanted his approval before, but now she had it, it urged her onwards. There could be space for him in her new version of Ohinyan. She could let him in, she supposed. She could do with one ally.
The horizon lit with blue dots, steadily growing larger. Lorn narrowed her eyes. What is that? she thought, just as one of the blue dots grew to a fireball and whizzed past her seedpod. They were arrows. And Fia had lit them all.
Rage urged her onwards. Lorn adjusted her goggles, diving just as another arrow clinked off the side of her pod. They’d do little damage against the seedpods or her ship, but Nual
a’s balloons… Lorn leaned out of the seedpod and swung to look back, but Nuala’s ships were fine. The soldiers that had begun to descend on ropes, however, were not so lucky. Some were struck and fell away, dragging others with them.
Lorn didn’t let it distract her. She pulled down towards Djira’s wall as another barrage of arrows shot past. The wall was hewn straight from the rock that surrounded the city on all sides except the north, but Lorn had studied its weaknesses—studied precisely where she could safely escape a seedpod and attack.
An explosion shattered the night, and she caught the unmistakeable swarm of Erebus’s shadows silhouetted by an eruption beyond them—one of Nuala’s ships. Lorn had already lost sight of him by the time she’d leaned out of the pod to assess the damage. The ship was going down. There was nothing she could do but let it go.
Erebus had picked a side. And he’d chosen wrong. Scattered, taunting words whispered at her, like claws dragging down her back. Never enough. She rolled her neck to shake them away, held on to that spark of rage until it tore through every other feeling within her, until everything else was obliterated and only her blazing indignation remained.
The palace was her goal but she knew Fia would be on the frontline with her pathetic friends, and Fia was an issue to be dealt with. More arrows pinged off the side of her pod. This time from above. Angels.
Lorn released a jet of flames at the nearest pair of wings, not waiting to see if they’d reached her target. The seedpod was approaching a piece of uncarved rock, right above the wall, exactly as she’d intended. She ignored the arrows flying past and focused. There would be only moments between releasing the controls and pushing herself from the pod to ensure she’d made the right decision. She wouldn’t have long before—something hit the wall to her right, and it exploded.
Nuala had already begun. Her weapons pounded into the rock below, and Lorn took that as her chance to leap from the seedpod, her feet sliding and fingers grasping for purchase until she steadied herself.
She peered below, to a line of Makya and Mizunese soldiers working together. The sight turned her stomach. She steadied herself and released an inferno on the soldiers beneath her. It wouldn’t be enough to kill the Makya soldiers, but she used their distraction to jump down onto the wall, drawing her blades made entirely from her flames. Her swords would take them down.
Her rage was euphoric, a wicked grin spreading across her face in delight at their impending doom. Lorn spiralled and ducked as soldiers came at her, and she took down each one with a swipe of her blades until there were none left standing.
She’d chosen this portion of the wall because it was small, just big enough for a dozen soldiers. She allowed herself one quick glance to the skies; in the glow of orange and blue flames she could make out angels and other things whizzing by in the air, all distracted by Nuala’s explosions still raining down on the wall. Lorn followed the line of blue flames to their source. Fia. On another section of wall, not far from where Lorn stood.
Rain began to fall in a thin drizzle, and though it would slow down the weaker Makya on both sides, it didn’t matter. Lorn had the numbers. Nuala had only brought four ships with her but each ship held a cohort of soldiers, significantly more than were stationed in Djira. Nuala’s soldiers might not have had magic on their side, but they had sheer brute force.
Lorn shoved her way into a tower taking out two more Mizunese soldiers with her blades. Fia was just on the other side of the wall. Lorn kicked open the door and an angel stood between her and Fia. Aura. Fia was busy fighting Nuala’s soldiers, but Lorn knew Aura would have been chosen to shield her. And Lorn knew she could cut through that shield if she truly wanted to.
“Lorn, please,” Aura called out, her wings spread wide, blocking Fia from view. Aura took a step back, pressing Fia closer to the second tower and the set of stairs that sat within it. The angel offered a tight smile, but Lorn knew it was genuine.
Aura smoothed a hand over her dishevelled hair. “I like you. You know I do. We could have had some fun, you and me, don’t you think?”
The angel was stalling, shuffling Fia back towards the tower as the girl still fought off her attackers. There was some truth to Aura’s words; there had been something, a small spark, perhaps. Something that might have made Lorn hesitate, not so long ago.
Aura threw out a hand and turned the ground before her to ice. Her line had been drawn. She’d chosen Fia over Lorn. And it cracked something inside of Lorn, whatever last shred of feeling she might have had for anyone else crumbled inside her. A cloud of rocks burst into the space between them and overhead, angels fought with soldiers dropping down from ropes. A roar cut through the noise and Lorn knew there would be Nords somewhere along the wall too.
Lorn stepped onto Aura’s ice, each foot hissing and melting right through it, and moved closer to Aura, snaking her way through the rubble. The angel was confident—too confident that her shield would protect her. Such a pity. Lorn raised her blades of flame, and brought them down across Aura’s shield, slicing right through it.
The shock written all over the angel’s face gave Lorn a shiver of satisfaction as she took a step closer. Too easy. Fia was already out of sight, pushed back into the tower. Right where Lorn wanted her.
Just as Lorn raised her blades to land a second strike on Aura, another angel landed before her.
“Alexander,” Lorn said. “Is this our official round two?”
He wore the same uniform as Aura and the other angels from Deganis, but he said nothing, only held her stare, his arms held up, ready to fight with his newfound powers, no doubt.
Lorn took a step towards him, but a jet of flames blasted at Alexander from the side. Jerum. He had come to her aid. Rather than burn the angel’s feathers and flesh, her brother’s flames diminished into nothing as if against an invisible shield. His magic. Alexander drew a sword of his own, and Aura stepped up beside him.
Jerum touched down on the wall beside Lorn. No one had ever fought for her. Perhaps he had truly meant what he’d said, after all. For half a heartbeat no one moved, and only the thunder of explosions and the stench of death flooded Lorn’s senses. But then Jerum charged for Alexander and Lorn for Aura. She wanted the leader of angels for herself, but she’d deal with Aura first.
Aura had made her decision. And so had Lorn. Shards of ice flew up from the wall and Lorn swiped them away with her blades. Aura pushed off and attempted to fly over Lorn, but Lorn was ready, her blades slicing right across Aura’s middle.
The angel cried out and fell to the stone, lifeless, her glassy eyes still open. Lorn pushed aside the faint crumbling, cracking ache within her. Aura had meant nothing, she reminded herself. You made your choice.
“Lorn!” her brother called out, and Lorn spun around to see Jerum clawing at his throat, Alexander’s hand held out but not touching him.
No.
“Stay where you are,” Alexander said.
But Lorn surged forwards—too late. With a sweep of Alexander’s hand, Jerum fell to his knees, and didn’t get up.
I’m proud of you.
The crack in her chest was torn open, rage filling the empty spaces. She threw herself towards the tower, but Alexander had turned on a gust of wind, accelerating himself out of sight.
Lorn ran after him, but he was already down the staircase, and she wouldn’t have a chance to catch up with him.
Her brother. He’d killed her brother. Blind fury bubbled under her skin and she released a jet of flames so fierce, anyone on the staircase would have been incinerated. She screamed as she let everything flow from her fingertips, her ears roaring with the force until she fell to her knees, gasping for breath until the sounds of the battle around her pulled her to her senses.
She pushed herself up and staggered back out onto the wall to find her brother’s body, Aura’s just beyond it, and fell to her knees between them both. The fire mother would not show weakness. Would not shed a tear. Her brother’s lifeless eyes gazed up at the sk
y, her chest aching at the sight. Aura’s blood had soaked into her wings, a few strands of hair resting across her parted lips, lips that Lorn had wondered how soft they might feel against her own many times in the last few days.
Both of them were a disappointment. Both of them had to be cut loose. She repeated it over and over until the tightness in her chest began to ease and she’d convinced herself it was the truth. Her decisions had brought her here. And she would see this through, no matter the cost.
Lorn took one last glance at her brother and the angel, redrew her blades, and pushed on into the heart of the battle.
Chapter Thirty–Four
Fia
F ia had just made it to the last step, Alexander right behind her when the explosion shot them both out into the street.
For a moment, everything was orange, but under Alexander’s weight, his arms wrapped around her, Fia couldn’t work out where it was coming from. Her head was throbbing, and dust filled her lungs.
Alexander’s arms loosened and he rolled off her. She pushed herself to her knees, unsteady, her ears still ringing from the explosion, and then she saw him, and her breath caught in her throat.
Alexander wasn’t moving. No. Everything seemed to fall away from her. The explosions, the screams. The fire and ice, the slick rain. She fell to her knees at his side and took in his injuries. His wings were badly burnt, feather had given way to sinew and bone. She needed to roll him over, but she was afraid of hurting him more. If he isn’t already dead. She shoved the thought away.
“Don’t you dare leave me,” she said, a sob escaping her as she tried to roll him onto his back. She hadn’t worn her wings—they didn’t fit with the plan. She’d never be able to lift him anyway. She dragged him to the shadows of the wall opposite, muscles screaming with the effort. He wasn’t moving. Why isn’t he moving… She didn’t know if he was breathing. All she could smell was burning—hair and feathers and something else she was certain was flesh, and she coughed back bile at the thought.
The First Dawn (Daughter of the Phoenix Book Three) Page 25
