Page 207 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“You don’t have to,” he groaned.

“I want to,” she said, shifting down before adding playfully, “It’s a thoroughly proven method to aid rest.”

Faythe woke to an alarm piercing her within. She shot up, haven fallen asleep against Reylan. Just as he sat up too, the early warning she felt from Atherius turned to a piercing wail.

They both scrambled to their feet, but Faythe was aware they had no weapons, only her magick, and if Reylan was strong enough, he could use it too.

“Do you feel anything?” Reylan asked.

“Something’s here, but I don’t know what.”

“Marvellas?”

“I don’t think so.”

Atherius moved, and the harsh air whipped into them from the gap in the wall. It was the thick of night, and Faythe couldn’t see anything beyond the radius of the Firebird’s glow, which traveled away from them. Reylan curved an arm around her, and she felt him touch the well of magick inside her, preparing to use it with her.

“Do you sense anything?” Faythe asked.

The wind howled through the deep, ominous dark of the surrounding forest, rattling the bare branches like bones.

“Yes,” he said, turning more rigid.

Every hair on her body stood on end.

“What is it?”

“The shadows,” Reylan said with a chilling realization. “They’re alive.”

Just then, Atherius shrieked, a sound of distress, and Faythe launched into action, jumping through the broken wall and out into the night. She could hardly see through the depthless black between the scattered timber bodies. She followed the direction of Atherius’s glow and darted toward it.

Faythe found the Firebird in the clearing where she and Reylan had battled. Atherius wasafraid,backing away from creatures that only vaguely had a form resembling an unnaturally tall, slender human made of pure shadow that rolled off them in sinister waves, blending into the dark.

Reylan took steps away from her, and she followed where his attention led him.

A rift crackled violently, the sound a mix of roaring flames and grinding metal, muffled by the oppressive night. It hovered in the darkness like a wound torn into the fabric of reality itself, a thin vertical slit that pulsed and shimmered faintly. It resembled an eye, its jagged edges glowing faintly with a strange, unearthly light that flickered erratically, as if alive and struggling against its own existence. Despite its faint glow, it was barely visible in the black void surrounding it, but Reylan appeared compelled to it.

Faythe reached out a hand, which snapped him out of a trance.

“That has to be what’s conjuring them,” he said. “A rift opened by the breaking of the Death Ruin.”

Oh Gods.These new foes unleashed into their world were her fault.

“How do we close it?” Faythe asked.

“I have a feeling…it requires a life sacrifice.”

Faythe looked at him, stunned and terrified, but for some reason, she knew to trust his intuition on this.

“We don’t need to think about that right now. Let’s just get rid of these creatures before more emerge.”

Faythe nodded vacantly. All she had was her magick, and with Atherius retreating, fear pounded in her chest that it wouldn’t be enough.

Reylan’s hand grazed hers, and she felt his gentle touch within, reaching into her magick with her. “You try lightning, I’lltry fire,” he said, tracking the half-dozen foes that were fixated on Atherius as if she were food, not a threat.

Atherius puffed her chest, splaying her wings, then heaved a blast of Phoenixfyre toward the creatures. Faythe had believed the fire of a Phoenix was the most potent form of the ability, but these shadow beings mocked it, dissipating as the fire surged, only for their shadows to crawl through the air like a deep inhale to resume their animated shapes.

“I don’t think either is going to work,” Faythe said in horror.

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