Page 220 of A Flame of the Phoenix

Zaiana might have mistook the faint smirk from the shadows of his hood.

“I’m sure you’ll figure those out far easier.”

“Will you help Kyleer?”

“I’ll Nightwalk to him. Don’t bother waiting here—it will take some time.”

Zaiana wanted to argue, too on edge for answers with this budding seed of hope he could unlock Kyleer’s memories.

“You won’t harm him?” she added like a question.

How could she be certain he didn’t know Kyleer as an enemy instead?

Though she couldn’t see his eyes, she felt them upon her.

“No, I won’t.”

She knew he could be lying; could tell her whatever she wanted to hear and betray her. But somewhere along this unexpected path they’d joined, she’d given her trust to him, the kind that formed without effort—and that was most frightening.

Zaiana woke peacefully, but her head ached with her first movement from leaning against the iron bars. A warmth circled her, and she drew a shallow gasp, remembering Kyleer.

She didn’t have to look far.

Kyleer was already awake, but he’d stayed still and close, not waking her to take back the wing that had curved around her through the bars separating them. Her fingers curled around the iron.

“Do you remember anything?” she asked, assessing him for the answer in recognition.

Her small flicker of hope died out with the shake of his head.

She leaned back against the wall with him again, their heads turned to each other, and part of her was glad for the bars separating them that prevented her from doing something pitiful.

“Can I be honest with you?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I don’t remember what you did to me to make me hate you. Nor I to make you hate me.” Kyleer looked off for a second as if he wondered whether his words were worth saying.

“I hated you…only for making me want you so much,” Zaiana said. This tentative way of conversation was foreign to her and itched with vulnerability.

This had to be trust. Trading truths one by one like shards of a soul.

She didn’t know how, but the distance continued to erase fractions between them where they sat side by side.

“With you…” he said, “it’s like the pictures are gone but the feelings are left behind. Minute by minute they’re coming back. I don’t remember what we had before. What we’ve done to each other. But I don’t harbor resentment or fear or anger toward you. Truthfully, I’m confused by just how much I’m glad you’re here. I’m terrified, but it’s not for myself. And I know that if they came and tried to take you, I would fight with everything I had left.”

Zaiana fought against the defense inside her that was brewing a storm to snuff out any candle he could light, the voices that wanted to twist the words and find the trick.

She was too tired, and that wickedness couldn’t thrive as harsh as it once did.

Not toward him.

“You didn’t deserve to fall for a monster,” she said.

Kyleer reached a hand through the bars, and though her body tensed with the siren to reject it, she couldn’t. When Kyleer’s palm slipped over her cheek, Zaiana wanted to bow in defeat. Lay down her weapons against fighting what he invoked in her.

“Can I try something?”

Kyleer inched forward, and it was like her body had already responded. She wasn’t used to this tenderness between them, but it was necessary for what he’d lost.

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