Page 208 of A Flame of the Phoenix

Reylan sensed the attack behind them before Faythe did. She jumped in fright at his sudden movement, watching a dart of blue flame expel from his palm, casting up into the tree canopy. The piercing cry from the shadow creature he’d struck made Faythe wince with the pain in her ears.

The being dissipated, and it didn’t reform.

“If they anticipate the strike, they can easily avoid it,” Reylan concluded. “But fire will always consume the dark if you can make the hit while their shadows are gathered. If one person distracts, the other can attack.”

“How did you know that one was up there?” Faythe hadn’t felt anything.

Reylan didn’t get to answer before hisses caught on the wind. The wail of the one he’d killed summoned the attention of the half-dozen others.

“We just lost that element of surprise,” Faythe said, bracing for their advance.

They raced toward her. All towardher.

Faythe threw out lightning, then blue fire, then she even tried to stop or slow them by manipulating the snow with the small grasp of Waterwielding she’d acquired from Nerida. Though it was the wrong time to discover she could no long feel that particular ability.

Nothing worked since their shapes expanded before impact, only to rapidly reform while advancing closer.

She gasped when the first reached her, circling a shadowy hand around her throat, strong enough to choke her. It had bloodred eyes that captured her like stunned prey the moment she met them. Faythe couldn’t fight…then she began to forget why she was fighting in the first place. Her soul had been touched by this creature—that was what it fed on. Part of her mind was screaming to protect herself, but it was distant compared to the serene calm that overcame her in the shadow’s trap.

That calm illusion was severed like a broken limb, and Faythe stumbled back, gripping her throat with pure terror when she realized what had happened. The creature that had held her died in a plume of black smoke with a piercing wail from Reylan’s fire.

Faythe sparked blue flame to her palms in a panic when more shadow bodies raced for her, passing Reylan, with their full focus on her. Reylan struck them through the back one by one as they passed him, and Faythe couldn’t understand how it was as if they couldn’t even see him in their path to her.

When he destroyed the last, Faythe blinked into the still night in confusion while her adrenaline calmed. Reylan’s moan of pain snapped her out of her thoughts. She moved toward him quickly as he hunched, bracing a hand on his thigh.

“How did you do that?” Faythe asked, puzzled.

“I’m not sure…” he said through a labored breath. Even that small round of attack was too much for him right now. “When I was…dead, I think I went somewhere. Ever since waking I’ve felt strange. I can’t explain it.”

“So they can’t see you?”

“Or they recognize me as one of their own.”

A chill slithered down Faythe’s spine. She recalled the faceless, cloaked depiction of Death itself, chipped scythe in hand. Had that primordial bestowed a gift or a curse on Reylan? A final meddling before sending him back to her?

It had helped them this time, but a sense of worry crept over her that they could discover more repercussions.

A caw broke the eerie silence, and Reylan straightened immediately, folding an arm back around her and scanning the area. But Faythe looked up, finding an eagle flying overhead before it swooped low.

Her stomach flipped, and she gasped.

“Izaiah,” she said, right as she had to shield her eyes against his burst of light as he transformed back into fae and landed on his feet.

Faythe’s brightening expression faltered completely when she beheld the desolation in his. A look of pure ghostly shock she’d never seen on his usually bright face.

The most stomach-churning dread of her existence punched at her core.

“What happened?” she asked, already struggling to breathe with how fast her heart had picked up.

“Faythe…” He said her name like an apology, and Reylan’s arm tightened around her.

Faythe shook her head, denial building, though she didn’t even know what for yet.

Izaiah swallowed hard, straining to find his words. His skin was pale and clammy, as if he were recovering from some kind of wound too, but he’d had to make it to her regardless.

“I wanted to come sooner, but I was injured badly, and…”

“What happened?” Faythe snapped this time, dizzy from the anticipation.

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