The First Dawn (Daughter of the Phoenix Book Three)

by Victoria J. Price

  The city felt eerily quiet beneath the wall. Too quiet, but she didn’t have time for that now. Only the thread that tugged between them told her Alexander still had any time left at all. That’s what she told herself anyway. Lorn’s forces would be in the city soon enough, they had to get to the tunnels, had to stick to the plan.

  Fia rested Alexander against a barrel and braced herself as she settled in front of him. Her breath snagged as she knelt at his side. His head hung to one side, the side of his face and neck badly burnt even though his wings had taken the worst of it. He was breathing, but only just.

  She took his hand in her own, her fingers trembling. “It can’t end this way, do you hear me? We just found each other again.” The rain came down heavier, slicking his hair to his face and trickling blood down onto his chest, and a shadow passed overhead. He had only minutes, at most.

  “What were you thinking?” she whispered, as she brought her hands up to his wounds, trying to calm her breathing. She brushed her wet sleeve against her face to clear the tears from her eyes.

  She breathed in once. Out. A grey pair of wings flickered into view at the edge of her vision and she pressed herself close to Alexander to cover him as best she could, her heartbeat hammering in her chest.

  “What do you want?” Fia snapped at Erebus, not taking her eyes from Alexander. There wasn’t time for this. If Erebus took her from Alexander, she’d never forgive him.

  “I came to help.”

  Fia chanced a look at him then. Those black webs had spread further across his chest, his skin looked pale, and if it hadn’t been for the rain slicking his hair to his face she was certain he would have been clammy from whatever illness was spreading through him.

  “I can’t help you both,” she said.

  “I know,” Erebus said softly. The storm clouds in his eyes had calmed. “No one will see you. You’re cloaked in my shadows.” He flicked his chin in Alexander’s direction. “Losing Terah… It broke whatever was left of me. I would not submit you to the same fate.”

  Fia didn’t need him to tell her twice. She felt the thread between her and Alexander getting weaker, and her stomach twisted over itself.

  He’d been an anchor.

  All this time.

  He’d stopped her from coming adrift. She closed her eyes and brought her hands to his wounds again, steadying her breathing. I can’t lose you.

  She’d lied to him, she realised. She hadn’t really healed Erebus. And she’d barely healed herself, it was only a bite. This, this was… She breathed in again, trying to focus on that golden healing light from within her, willing it to fall from her to him.

  A gasping, rattling breath wheezed from Alexander, and Fia thought her own heart might stop beating if he left this world. She kept her focus, pulling with everything she had to that golden light that began as barely a spark somewhere deep within her. The end of the thread.

  No, the beginning of it.

  She felt the light well up from within her, felt the healing energy pour from her fingertips and she opened her eyes. Alexander’s wounds began to slowly knit back together, and Fia fought back another sob. He still wasn’t moving. His face and neck slowly healed; the skin sealing closed as her golden light poured into it.

  Another explosion shook everything, and Fia pressed herself over Alexander again.

  “Are you hurt?” Erebus asked, beside her once more. She hadn’t noticed he’d left.

  Fia didn’t break herself away from Alexander. “No. But something isn’t right. Alexander’s breathing is still too shallow.” She let out a deep breath to try and steady her nerves. Come back to me.

  Erebus placed his fingers at Alexander’s neck, and Fia willed herself not to smack them away.

  “He’s lost a lot of blood,” Erebus said, his tone flat. His face was in shadow, and she wondered if he’d done it on purpose so she couldn’t see what was written across it. “Keep going.”

  All the air left Fia’s lungs again, that sickly panic pressing against her chest. It has to work.

  “I’ll keep you hidden.” Erebus pushed up onto his feet, turning in the direction of another explosion, his wings spread out as if he were shielding them from rubble.

  “Why are you doing this?” Fia asked.

  “I’ve had time to think,” Erebus said over his shoulder.

  “There’s nothing like staring death in the face to make you reflect on your past misdeeds, I suppose.” She regretted the words as soon as she’d said them. He was afraid to die. That wasn’t something to poke fun at.

  He turned to look at her then, his face in shadow again so she couldn’t see his eyes as he looked down at her and Alexander. “You may never believe me, but I do regret what I’ve done. What I’ve become.”

  I started to forget who I was. What I was. His words from the last time they were in Djira together echoed in her thoughts. You know the weight he carries, Terah had told her.

  Fia turned her focus back to Alexander and studied his face for a moment. He still hadn’t woken up, and Fia felt sick to her core. The thread pulled taut between them, but he still wasn’t out of the worst of it.

  “I need a few more minutes,” was all she said to Erebus without looking up at him again. He stepped out of her line of sight, and she turned her attention back to Alexander. “Come on,” she breathed.

  She took a deep breath and knelt up to get closer to his wings. His right wing was the worst hit, where the damage had reached his face and neck too. She began there, focusing first on quieting her panicked breathing, on willing herself to be calm. Her hands steadied and she closed her eyes, calling on that golden light once more. She pictured his wings healing, the muscle binding back together, skin and feathers reforming and growing back to pristine white. A dull ache began to press at the back of her neck but she ignored it, pulling and pouring with everything she had.

  She felt herself sway, felt a wave of nausea wash over her and a hand touch her face. She opened her eyes to see Alexander’s gazing up at her and her breath snagged in her throat.

  “Incredible,” he murmured, reaching another hand behind her head, his fingers curling into her hair.

  Fia threw her arms around his neck, a broken sob rattling her shoulders against him. “Don’t you ever do that again,” she whispered.

  “I’d do it a thousand times over,” he said into her hair, his breath warm against her ear.

  Fia pulled back, resting her forehead to his and felt her warm tears mingle with the rain. “I thought…”

  He traced a thumb across her cheek and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I’m here.”

  Fia nodded. “Can you stand?”

  Alexander lifted them both to their feet, his wings flexing wide. There was no sign of his injuries on his wings, only the faintest pebbledash of a scar along his neck and the side of his face. She ran her fingers lightly along it, and Alexander kissed her again. If she lost him, she didn’t know how she’d face what was ahead.

  Erebus cleared his throat somewhere behind Fia, and Alexander stilled.

  He moved Fia to his side, one hand outstretched to Erebus and a muscle in his jaw flexing, and she felt the pull of his power, the rush of air towards them.

  “Wait!” Fia said as Erebus grasped at his throat.

  The noise of the battle rushed back to them, soldiers fighting around them. Erebus’s cloak had lifted.

  Alexander froze but didn’t release Erebus. “We can end this now. We’ll just have Lorn left to deal with.”

  “Alexander, please,” Fia tugged gently on his arm as Erebus still fought for breath. “He wants to help us. He can help us.” The thoughts were still forming, and she had no idea if Erebus would agree, but it was worth a shot.

  Erebus made a choking sound. “I know they both hold the fire mother’s power. I can help get it from Lorn. Fia can syphon it, and I can help her to get closer,” he said, gasping for his words.

  “We don’t need your help,” Alexander seethed, his voice sharper than
she’d ever heard it.

  Fia touched a hand to his face, and his gaze flickered to her. “I need his help.”

  The muscle in his jaw feathered again, but Alexander released Erebus and held her gaze. Erebus stumbled, rubbing at his neck. But he didn’t make a sarcastic comeback, didn’t hurl any shadows at them. Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance and the rain came down heavier. Something roared nearby, and a group of enemy soldiers burst into the street, a black bear chasing them, followed closely by a wolf. Nords.

  Fia sent a burst of flames into the line of soldiers closest to them and watched as it gave the black bear the seconds he needed to swipe them off their feet.

  “We need to go,” Alexander said, a hand on her shoulder. “Our friends are out there.” Alexander sent a pile of rocks slamming into the soldiers on a gust of air. The bear flicked its head as if in gratitude and ran off down the street beside the wolf.

  “Let me help you. I’m wounded, but I can still help,” Erebus pleaded.

  Pleaded. Maybe he had changed. Fia still didn’t know if she believed it. And even if she did, it didn’t just erase everything he’d done.

  “You do one good deed and expect us to forgive you?” Alexander asked, echoing Fia’s thoughts.

  “Of course not,” Erebus said. His brow furrowed, his arms folded across his chest. “But whether you believe it or not, I don’t want Ohinyan to die. I’ve always loved this world. I just… forgot myself for a while.”

  Alexander didn’t say anything, just listened to what Erebus had to say.

  “Gabriel was like a brother to me, you know. In another life, perhaps we could have been friends.” Erebus looked at both of them as he said it, and something told Fia he meant it. More of her thoughts took shape, but she didn’t get her hopes up, not yet.

  Another explosion sounded, and one of the grain towers fell. It slammed into the wall, and more soldiers began to spill into the city.

  Fia and Alexander moved together as if it were a practised dance, her flames fuelled by his gusts of air, and the first of Lorn’s soldiers fell.

  “We need to get to the tunnels, now,” Alexander called out over the rain that was coming down hard enough to stop the worst of the Makya’s flames but not enough to stop Fia’s.

  “Why?” Erebus asked from behind them.

  Fia didn’t dare glance over her shoulder. She kept her attention focused on the soldiers pouring through the rocks, sending bursts of blue flame to hold them back. Her head still pounded from healing Alexander, and she was wary of reaching the bottom of whatever pool of power she had. “To draw Lorn to me.”

  “Take her,” Erebus said to Alexander. “I’ll cover you.”

  The next thing Fia knew, Alexander’s arms were around her, lifting her off the ground as he pressed on into the rain, Erebus’s shadows swirling around them.

  Chapter Thirty–Five

  Alexander

  A lexander didn’t want to risk staying airborne for too long, even if Erebus was close by. Particularly because he was close by. But with Fia in his arms, Alexander knew they were a greater target and the quicker he could get her back to the ground, the better.

  Lorn’s forces had been larger than they’d expected and had more explosives than Alexander had ever seen. From this height, he took in the parts of the city that had been damaged, where rock had shattered under the force of the explosions as if it were nothing more than sand.

  Fia looked on too, and he allowed himself a moment to study the lines of her face, to marvel at how she’d brought him back. He’d almost died—he’d felt it. Felt his life ebbing away from him, and only a sense of her, tugging and pulling him back had remained.

  He spotted the entrance to the tunnels they wanted to take, but it was blocked by more shattered rock.

  “Could they have known?” Fia asked as another explosion sounded somewhere behind them, back near the wall. Wind whipped at her hair, and rain lashed at her face, but she didn’t seem to care, she just leaned into him as he flew over the city.

  Alexander hummed. “The tunnels are a well-guarded secret, but all secrets have a way of making themselves known.”

  Thunder cracked overhead, and the rain lashed down, slick and heavy. Below them, Mizunese threw shards of ice shaped into spears. The palace came into view, and a fight had broken out at its steps—a clash of so many it was difficult to make out friend from foe. Wings, fire and ice blurred in the rain, Nords and witches, and Lorn’s soldiers too. She would come here, even if the tunnels were blocked. She would take the palace for what it symbolised.

  As Alexander descended, he sent a wall of enemy soldiers hurtling backwards on a gust of air. A few feet from the ground Fia leapt and rolled, on her feet within a heartbeat, a dagger in her hand and a ball of blue flame in the other. She spun to dodge a blow from a soldier, twisting around and plunging her dagger into his side.

  Two soldiers came at Alexander and he fought back with his sword. He couldn’t use too much of his power all at once, couldn’t risk reaching the bottom of it until they had Lorn, and something told him Fia was holding back for exactly the same reason.

  A golden helmet caught Alexander’s attention, just as one of Lorn’s Makya soldiers sent a fireball at him. Alexander extinguished the flame, slashing his sword across the soldier’s chest just as his general called out to him.

  “Alexander!” General Jarl said, beside him now, two of his own swords cutting and swiping at the enemy.

  Alexander ducked as one of the pillars at the front of the palace fell, clapping his wings forwards to push away a row of their own soldiers. More angels dove down, picking at their adversaries and flinging them through the air.

  “They’re coming from the tunnels!” Jarl called out.

  “Erebus is with us,” was all Alexander had time to call back as an arc of flames shot over him. Arrows landed in the neck of the soldier nearest to him, and then two angels touched down, swords swinging at enemy soldiers and pushing them back with the force of their landing. Alexander didn’t have time to thank them, he pushed on through the onslaught of soldiers pouring down the steps, the general close behind him.

  “The airships are down,” the general grunted as he pulled his sword from a man’s chest. “But there are many more of them than we anticipated, and they’ve used the tunnels strategically.”

  That meant they had people inside the city. It didn’t surprise Alexander. Asharians could be bought just as easily as any other in Ohinyan. “Erebus!” Alexander called out. A shadow swung past him but didn’t re-emerge into the shape of an angel. If Evina came through on her promise, it was probably for the best. “We need to block the tunnels.”

  The cloud of darkness didn’t wait, and Alexander had no time to see if Erebus would comply. He swung around to catch sight of Fia’s blue flame and flew over to her to cover her back.

  She released a jet of blue from her palm, and he sent it surging towards a line of soldiers, fuelling the flames until they swallowed the soldiers whole.

  “Thank you,” Fia huffed as she took another soldier off their feet with a kick.

  Creatures roared nearby, and they turned to see a white tiger and a black bear charge up the steps, a wolf hot on their heels as they tore through soldiers. Maab, Henric and Milena. Henric reared up and swiped a paw at the nearest soldier; Maab had one pressed between his jaws, and Milena was circling, ready to strike.

  There were enemy soldiers everywhere. Pouring from the palace, pouring from the streets below. Alexander thrust his sword at another as he caught sight of Noor, twin blades swinging as she cut her way through the enemy. Seeing his friends, Alexander was thankful for the rain, because it quelled the fires that were breaking out from both sides. His suggestion of marking the Makya on their side had worked, and they were easy to identify in the blur of bodies that surrounded him.

  Another face he recognised fought his way through soldiers close behind Noor. Altair. The old man swung his battle staff, backed by a group of Mizunese s
oldiers who froze their opponents and drove weapons into their rigid bodies, before moving onto the next.

  In the moment he had dared look over at his friends, another cluster of enemy soldiers had him surrounded; Alexander didn’t hesitate, he could feel the air that each of them breathed, each staggered inhale and exhale. He tugged at it until they all clutched at their throats and fell to their knees.

  Something crackled, not lightning from the storm, but at the base of the steps, and his soldier’s instinct told Alexander it wasn’t from his allies. He pressed off the stone, taking to the air for a better look.

  Fia had caught it too, and she was running down the steps, engulfed in blue flame. But it wasn’t Lorn she ran towards. It was a woman with a sword, a sword that looked a lot like—No. It was Nuala, Randin’s general. It had been seven years since he’d seen that sword in action, and Fia was headed right for it.

  He sliced and slashed his way through soldiers, thrusting his wings wide to narrow the gap between him and Fia. The world seemed to slow as he closed the distance between them.

  Nuala ran for Fia, her sword high, ready to strike, but Altair pushed her aside with his staff. Fia stumbled, just enough that she was out of the path of the sword, as it slammed into Altair’s chest.

  Before Alexander had even released a breath, Nuala had removed it and turned to Fia. But this time Fia was ready; her flames erupted, and Nuala didn’t even have time to scream. Her body fell to the stones with a smack, just as Alexander touched down beside Fia.

  She was already twisting for Altair. They knelt beside him, a sob escaping Fia as she tried to heal him. But Alexander knew it was too late.

  “I go to my wife,” Altair whispered to them both. Alexander held his friend’s hand in his own, the rough callouses still familiar to Alexander. Altair had been a part of his life for as long as he could remember.

  The fight carried on around them, shards of ice and arrows still falling in the rain. Only seconds had passed, and if he’d only been a few seconds faster, he could have prevented this. Altair’s gaze drew absently up to Alexander’s. “Keep her safe, old friend.”