Page 202 of A Flame of the Phoenix

There were no Gods to save them now.

When the rumbling stopped and her senses returned, Zaiana jolted up at the foreign sensation that slammed within her. She couldn’t survey her surroundings while her trembling hands rose to her chest, hoping it was just a taunting illusion. It couldn’t be real.

But there it was. A precious life beating too fast under her palms, and she didn’t know what to do with it. Her vision blurred. How often had she fantasized about owning this fluttering, uncontrollable beat in her own body? She knew the symphony of a thousand others, what it took to make them speed and slow, but this one would take so much more time andcare to figure out. Perhaps she never would and that was the true curse of having a heart—its ever-changing movement and the helplessness to fight against what disrupted it, good or bad.

Zaiana’s knees pulled to her chest, and her hands cupped over this new delicate thing as if it were cradled in her palms. It felt so vulnerable. Like her flesh and bone wasn’t enough to protect it and she didn’t know what else would be.

With the only sound coming from her, she realized she wasn’t alone when she took a long inhale and a familiar scent filled her. Snapping her head to the side, she saw a bundle through the thick iron bars beside her. The last memory she had lurched the beat in her chest, and she didn’t know it could choke in people’s throats like this. Her balance swayed as she crawled across the short space. Zaiana wept silently, completely numb to the Niltain steel around her wrists as she curled her hands around the bars.

Kyleer lay so peaceful. A few locks of brown hair fell over his eyes, and she yearned to be close enough to brush it away. For those moss-green eyes to open and tell her he was going to be okay.

He had no wings. Yet. Maybe not ever.

Zaiana searched for the cadence of his heart.

It was gone.

All she wanted in that moment was to rip out the one she now owned and give it to him. It was an impostor in her chest. Something Kyleer deserved to have, not her.

“Ky,” she barely croaked.

No response.

The despair that grew inside her could kill. Zaiana didn’t care. Of all her failings in life, she bowed her forehead to the icy metal, accepting this was the worst of them.

“If I hadn’t tried to stop you, she would have killed you if she didn’t get what she wanted.”

A hot rage clenched her fists to a white-knuckle grip at the sound of Maverick’s voice.

“I should have known your loyalty would always be with them. Always their precious, obedient pet.”

“A thank-you would suffice,” Maverick said.

“I’m going to get out of here, and you’d better not be within reach, because I will kill you,” Zaiana promised. Words so sharp and lethal.

“At least you’re alive to do so.”

She glanced at him where he stood with arms crossed, leaning against the wall, cloaked in shadow.

“Did Marvellas call for you to come here for this? You had no hesitation in killing Faythe, nor Agalhor, and she knew it would hurt Faythe more seeing you take her friend too.”

“Perhaps. But I had no hesitation in killing Faythe nor Agalhor only because you did.”

“You wanted the glory, and you got it.”

“Believe what you want,” he said coldly. “It makes no difference to me.”

“How can you do it…?” Zaiana got to her feet, stalking to the side he faced. “Betray those who were once your friends, like Nikalias?”

“Nik is no one to me.”

“Let’s not play games, Callen.”

He flinched at the name. Barely, but Zaiana had made her mark.

“Congratulations,” he said. “You may have brought back the heart of Callen, but it is too tainted by the deeds of Maverick. It means nothing.”

She heard it then. His heartbeat. It stunned her completely, making her forget everything for a moment. It knocked around behind his ribs, the song of a broken soul. Zaiana buried thenotes of tragedy that fluttered in her own heart for him. Shedespisedhim.

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