Page 285 of A Flame of the Phoenix

Izaiah looked at the markers with amusement. “Your position is uncertain for now. We don’t know where Marvellas, Dakodas, or Mordecai will be. They might not be among the battle at all. Some things we can’t prepare for. They are our ultimate target. Eliminate them, the battles end.”

The pressure weighed on her shoulders, but she would not cower.

“You won’t be alone,” Reylan said, resting a hand on her shoulder and curving it around her nape. “I’m staying with you.”

“You’re our leading general—your position is with our soldiers,” she protested.

“We’re wielding that ruin together, and Zaiana will stay with us as the only other who can wield one of them. If Dakodas and Marvellas arrive together, we’ll need all three of us.”

Tarly asked, “We have Marvellas’s ruin to kill her, but how do you plan to stop Dakodas?”

Izaiah answered. “We’re still trying to figure out where the Aetherbonds are. They won’t kill her, but they would make her powerless.”

“I have them.” Everyone’s attention snapped to Zaiana who spoke.

“What do you mean you justhave them?” Izaiah said.

“I don’t think the how is as important.”

“Of course it is!”

“Then make it unimportant.” Her tone warned against arguing, and when she placed the metal manacles on the table, Faythe didn’t care about questioning it anyway.

“How can we be sure they’re the Aetherbonds?” Reylan asked skeptically.

“You’re more than welcome to try them,” Zaiana said.

That couldn’t happen. For it would silence his magick completely and the only way to release them would be to lose what he values most in the world.Her.

Nerida picked one up, studying it. “I have a strong belief they’re true. The markings on them are not of any language I’ve seen before.”

They had no choice but to trust they were the real bonds when the time came.

“This is excellent,” Izaiah muttered to himself, seeming lost in his own strategies.

Nerida said, “Has anyone actually seen Dakodas and Marvellas together again since they ambushed you in Rhyenelle?”

Most looked to Reylan, who was the point of all spy and scout communications.

“No. Should we be concerned?”

Nerida looked to be puzzling in her mind. “I’m not sure. Don’t you find it odd though? Marvellas wanted Dakodas here with her. You’d think they would be planning together a lot. And Marvellas doesn’t seem to know that Dakodas switched their ruins and betrayed her.”

Tauria said, “I last saw Dakodas with Mordecai in Valgard. They looked…close.”

“What if they’re conspiring to betray Marvellas again?” Izaiah posed.

Faythe’s mind spun with the new possibilities. “Or they already have,” she said quietly, turning over the thoughts in her mind. “Marvellas told me a dark fae reign wasn’t part of her vision. Think about it… Mordecai was the one who wanted to Transition Tauria, Nik, Tarly, and Opal in Olmstone, because it was he who realized Callen Osirion, a royal, Transitioned as one of the most powerful dark fae. Dakodas is the Goddess who protected the dark fae from extinction millennia ago. She’s always favored them. What if she was the one who urged Marvellas to raise Mordecai when that was never part of her plan? For this—for a second Dark Age with more power behind it than ever before. Marvellas wants a world of power and peace for the fae. Dakodas wants a world dominated by dark fae.”

Everyone digested Faythe’s suggestion in thick silence.

“If that’s true, what does that mean for us?” Tarly asked.

Faythe said, “Marvellas is vulnerable. She’s not our biggest threat, but she’s mine to kill.”

Reylan let her go, pacing away. Faythe watched him, feeling his rising distress.

“If we assume Mordecai and Dakodas are together and this army is theirs, not Marvellas’s, then we have a chance to draw Marvellas to us before the dark fae battles,” Izaiah said.

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