Page 36 of Mated in Flames

I smile grimly and look away. I don’t plan on allowing that to happen. I’ll either win this fight, or I’ll die trying, I decide as I look at Dane’s unsheathed talons.

I make the first move. I can feel my own talons shifting under my skin, my primary offense, but I shove them back. I will not use them on my brother. I have other ways to fight, after all. Dane might have been the fastest between us, but I’ve always been the strongest and the most interested in various martial arts. Dane on a good day isn’t able to keep up with me, and even less so now that he isn’t in his right mind.

I know I’m right as Dane takes a swing at my approach, his moves sluggish and slow. It’s child’s play to duck under him and swerve around him. He turns sharply, kicking out with a clawed foot, and I leap over it, turning and hitting him full on with one of my wings and making him tumble to the ground.

His body obviously remembers its lessons, however, because he drops into a proper roll and springs to his feet some distance away, obviously wary now. Perhaps the Supernaturals thought that I wouldn’t fight my own brother. But they have no idea what lengths I’ll go to in order to protect him.

I glance at Luciana. She’s hovering at the edge of the field, looking frustrated as she clenches and unclenches her fists. She and I both know that there’s nothing she can do here. This is a fight among creatures, and she has no way of helping out, not without getting hurt. She’s human, and so much more fragile than either myself or Dane. We’ll survive, as long as we don’t get poisoned. She will not.

It’s then that the thought hits me. It leaves me breathless for a moment as the magnitude of what I’m considering. I don’t know how to get through to Dane, but there’s one way I know that will purify him of all injuries and outside influences.

Death.

We were told, many years ago, that death for phoenixes was not always the end. It was a purification process, meant to wipe our bodies of all evil and return us to a state before we were harmed. Scars that had failed to heal, bruising, problems within our bodies… it was all wiped clean to start over again.

And that’s what should work here. If Dane dies and is reborn, the effects that the Supernaturals have over him should be wiped from him. But I can’t help but hesitate. Am I really about to consider killing my own brother? Even though I know it will only be temporary, I really don’t want to even think about it.

But what if it’s the only way to save him?

I avoid looking at Luciana as I ready myself. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. If I do fatally injure Dane, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to look either he or Luciana in the eye again. It will be a stain that’s forever on my conscience. If only there was some other way to prompt him into a blazing inferno.

But I’m unsure. Many of the secrets of our people were lost when our family was killed, and Dane and I are still learning things about ourselves that we never had the opportunity to be told. We document each thing that we witness, but it still means that our knowledge of our own bodies is worryingly small.

“Warwick, watch out!”

On Luciana’s cry, I look up and jerk to the side when I see Dane rushing at me. I expect him to skid to a halt and turn around, but he doesn’t. He keeps running, missing me by a wide margin, and I frown, wondering where he’s going.

A second later I curse myself for being an idiot. He’s heading straight for Luciana.

I don’t stop to think about it. There isn’t time any more. Luciana is now in danger, dragged into a fight I should have never introduced her to. The Supernaturals are watching impassively, though I can see them tensing as they see a human in danger, or perhaps in anticipation of what they know must happen next, and Dane is nearing Luciana, one talon raised in threat. It doesn’t matter that the poison won’t really harm her. The talon is sharp enough to do considerable harm.

I don’t remember running, the world blurring around me as I move. Fear gives my feet wings, and then I’m there, rushing at my brother and tackling him from the side. He jerks sideways with me and twists in my grasp, obviously expecting the move. It was an obvious trap, but one that I had to fall into.

Then there’s a sharp burn swiping its way down my shoulder. It’s a fiery trail that swiftly spreads, and I feel a scream of pain erupt from my throat as the world disappears from around me. Nothing makes sense any more, I don’t know what’s happening, and I’m left with the oddest feeling that I’m dying.

Everything goes black, and the last thing I hear is a scream that echoes all around me.

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