Page 282 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“Hello,sister,” Edith hissed.

Stunned, Zaiana was unstable enough that Edith managed to jab her heel into Zaiana’s waist, flipping them. Zaiana’s hands lashed around Edith’s, which was clamped around the blade aimed for her heart.

“I am just as strong as you,” Edith said, her voice straining as Zaiana poured all her strength against hers. “I’m just as capable as you.” Edith leaned more of her body weight into the blade, and it inched closer to her chest. “And I will be as powerful as you.”

Zaiana’s arms trembled, but her rage in the face of the one who’d harmed Nerida gave her renewed resistance.

“You’re not even close to me,” Zaiana said.

Twisting their arms, Edith cried out as Zaiana dislocated her shoulder and threw her off. Before Edith could scramble back up, Zaiana kicked her with such force it sent her careening into the wall.

Faythe had the jeweled dagger. Zaiana had to drag Edith back to the pit. Her step toward the dark fae was intercepted by Nephra.

“You’re a spawn of the Nether,” she spat.

“Better than being a spawn of you.”

Her hand rose to conjure her lightning, but a hand wrapped around it.

Zaiana’s lethal glare snapped to them, but her fight faltered at who she saw.

“Maverick,” she whispered.

He was always stopping her. Always intercepting her triumphs.

“This mountain will bury us all in minutes,” he said calmly. Letting her go, he walked past her, taking in the five masters and Edith on the ground.

Zaiana’s emotions clashed from anger to grief.Why grief?As though, despite all he’d done, Zaiana still believed Maverick wasn’t her enemy.

“You’ve always been our favored,” Corrik said to him. All of the masters seemed to relax, as if their prized and ruthless savior had come.

Maverick turned back to her. She was completely outnumbered. He was the one person she’d fought enough times to know he could contend with her magick.

He said, “Which of them hurt you?”

Zaiana’s thrumming heart skipped a beat.

Because he’d asked her that before. In the baths, when he’d first seen the map of scars on her back.

Zaiana’s lips parted, and she whispered, “All of them.”

Blue flame grew in a blink, and Maverick’s twist was so fast no one could have avoided the fire that sliced like a whip in his spin, cutting through the bodies of four of the masters. They fell, torsos splitting from their lower bodies, their last wide-eyed looks of terror glazed on their wicked faces.

When Maverick straightened and turned back, he bore no emotion at all, but Zaiana was stunned, rooted to the spot. He approached her, saying close to her ear, “Snap out of it, Delegate. Last one is yours. Best make it quick. The biggest tragedy would be to see you buried in this wretched place.”

The mountain roared, collapsing more rapidly by the minute. The ground shook, and Zaiana had to catch herself on the wall at the same time Maverick hooked her waist. Her eyes snapped up at the strangled sounds, finding Nephra dangling from the opening, one wing limp as if a rock had dislocated it. Edith was safely out, holding onto her mother’s arm, but she didn’t pull her up.

“Help me!” Nephra cried.

Zaiana snarled.She was not getting away.Her lighting charged, and her fingers pointed up.

“Sorry, Mother,” Edith said, not in the least bit sentimental, before she let go of her mother’s hand, darting out of the way as lightning shot for the opening.

It blasted into the stone, which crumbled and fell, as did Nephra.

Zaiana stumbled over the debris, dodging falling rocks. Shereallyhad to leave.

Nephra lay under heaps of rocks, her face bloodied, wheezing for her last breaths.

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