Page 249 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“Echoes of it are still there. I don’t think we can share power anymore, and our mental connection is weaker, but there will always be a part of her living within me.”

Nik missed their full mating bond terribly since it had been broken by Marvellas. It would always be like a severed limb, but it didn’t change a thing about their feelings.

Making it back to Nerida and Tauria, Nik had never seen creatures like the three that surrounded them and the wolves.

“What depths of the Nether did they crawl from?” Tarly said, as horrified as he was at the wraithlike beings.

Tauria attacked one with her wind at the same time as Nerida animated a stream of water to drown another. He thought they’d succeeded in killing them, but as powerful as Tauria and Nerida were, he should have anticipated by their appearance it wouldn’t be that easy to eliminate shadow.

Katori lunged for one, but a shadowy arm slammed her to the side as thoughshewere as light as shadow. The wolf wailed, careening into the nearest tree and whimpering as she tried to stand again. Asari growled deeper, lowering her stance as if to try next. Nik might joke and pretend he didn’t want the wolf’s companionship, but the truth of his feelings was exposed right there in his surge of fear for Asari.

Nik didn’t know what to do, quickly discovering these creatures didn’t have minds for him to tap into. He freed his blade just as a rock went flying by him.

Nik was about to throw sarcasm at Tarly for the pathetic attempt of an attack, but the rock actually proved useful. Ithitone of them, knocking their head to the side and proving they could be struck. Then how had they dissipated and reformed at Nerida and Tauria’s attacks?

The one Tarly hit emitted an eerie hiss before spinning its attention to him.

“Do that again,” Nik said, swiping up a rock too and aiming it for the one closest to Tauria.

The rocks hit the other two, who targeted Tarly and Nik now.

“Strike them now!” Nik called to Tauria and Nerida.

They didn’t miss a beat. Nerida’s strong tide slashed through one, while Tauria’s cutting wind sliced through another, both forces of nature colliding in a breathtaking spectacle to blast the middle one apart.

When the water crashed to the ground and the wind stopped howling, the four of them stared at the air, dumbfounded and catching their breath. No trace was left of the shadow beings.

“What were they?” Edith squealed, appearing from her cover behind Tauria and Nerida.

Nik pressed forward, reaching Tauria to scan her from head to toe for injury. Finding her unharmed, he began to relax from the adrenaline, kissing her forehead.

Katori whined, and Nik watched Nerida and Tarly kneeling by her. Nerida’s hands glowed blue, and Nik marveled at her wonderful ability.

“We were practicing to try the passage to the cave when they came out of nowhere,” Tauria explained.

Nerida said grimly as she worked, “I have a theory it has something to do with the quake we all felt when Faythe broke the ruin. I think it’s opened a passage into our world for the shadows lost from their bodies to crawl out.”

“How do we close it?” Nik asked, horrified by the concept.

Nerida’s wince confirmed she didn’t have that solution.

“We need to get to the cave,” Tauria said. Her exasperation made him tense, and he tried to soothe her with a touch around her waist.

“We will,” he said.

“Now. We keep losing, keep having odds stacked against us and people dying. We need this upper hand. We need towin.”

When her voice cracked on the last word, Nik pulled her into an embrace. She let him hold her while Nerida finished tending to Katori, who jumped back onto her feet in perfect health.

“We can wait another night to try to reach the cave if either of you need more rest. We couldn’t have predicted that ambush,” Tarly said, concern written all over him.

Nerida smiled, placing a hand on his good arm. “I’m perfectly well. My Waterwielding is much stronger than usual. I think it was the Phoenix Blood I drank.” Her expression fell as she looked over his sling and the graying skin of his neck and jaw. “But I really do wish it had amplified my healing instead.”

Tarly pulled her to him, and Nik looked away.

He said to her thoughts,“You’re going to reach that cave, love. I know you’re strong enough to work with Nerida and make it.”

Tauria peeled herself off him, speaking her gratitude in her hazel eyes.

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