Page 297 of A Flame of the Phoenix

Zaiana thought she heard water. Like waves gathering, rolling, preparing to crash against rocks. Through the dark night, the moonlight shimmered, and Zaiana realized she wasn’t mistaken—only, this was nothing of nature.

She yelled a warning below, but it was futile against the brutal wave of water that came rushing over them all. It hit mostly their side but sacrificed a few lines of the enemy.

An acute rage overcame Zaiana, who knew exactly who the conjurer of that magick-induced water attack would be. Her eyes darted through the sky then the ground, blade poised and magick humming.

But Edith already had her pinned.

An arm of water slammed into her, and Zaiana lost her flight. She tried to reorient, but she cried out when the water thatdrenched her turned to sharp ice, piercing her skin. Her wings were locked frozen, and she was plummeting in a fatal fall.

Kyleer caught her, but Zaiana couldn’t move. They landed away from the thick of the fighting, and Zaiana willed her lightning to the surface of her skin. It thawed the ice slowly, but Edith was already upon them. She watched with fear pounding in her chest as Edith moved fast, striking toward Kyleer, who stood in her way to Zaiana. Kyleer used his shadows to defend, creating plumes and sheets of rolling darkness that stopped the flow of Edith’s water attacks.

Zaiana wasn’t frozen stiff anymore, but she was so cold it made movement difficult still.

Until a circle of blue flame was cast around her, and Zaiana gasped, caught unawares by the new adversary. She stood, and while she firmed her guard, searching through the tall, flickering tendrils of cobalt, she was glad for the heat. Flexing her fingers and rolling her arms, the fire relaxed her body, though it trapped her in a lethal circle.

Then she saw him.

Maverick Blackfair.

He stared at her through the flames he’d ignited around her. His expression bore nothing at all. No loathing. No taunting. Though one thing was clear in their exchange: they were fighting on opposing sides in this battle.

“You’ve promised to kill me many times, Zaiana,” he called over the chaos of fighting close by and the crackling of his fire. “Maybe this time you’ll actually have the guts to follow through.”

He was goading her. Zaiana didn’t know why she was conflicted facing him now. Her focus was split between the threat of Maverick and concern for Kyleer, who was still battling Edith.

Zaiana had thought over many things since the revelation came about her father. She hadn’t cared to mention it before,convinced it didn’t matter or perhaps too afraid of how the truth could hurt her, but now she could use it as a distraction. “You’ve known who I truly am all this time,” she accused calmly.

Maverick stalked closer. His cold expression never flickered. “That you are the daughter of Mordecai Vesaria? Not all this time, but I suspected for a while.”

“When?”

She recalled the day Mordecai had visited the mountains and Maverick had goaded her into starting a fight.

I knew that if you attacked first, you would be far less likely to be given a death sentence than I.

Because he knew she was too valuable—not out of skill but a heritage she was kept in the dark from.

Her jaw tightened. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked bitterly. Why did ithurther that he’d kept that suspicion a secret?

“Because he didn’t deserve you. He didn’t deserve to claim any piece of you. The way he watched you every time he visited was like one would watch while sharpening their prized blade. If you knew who your father was, you might have doubted that all you became was because of yourself.”

She didn’t understand… How could he talk like he cared for her yet side against her at every turn?

“Why are you still fighting for them?” Her tone quietened as if they might share a secret. “You gave us the Aetherbonds and if they discover that betrayal they’ll kill you.”

He’d killed most of the masters yet he still fought on their side. He spoke of Mordecai like he didn’t hold esteem for him, yet he stood amonghisranks.

“You have to leave,” she whispered, pleading now with how dread for him began to fester inside her the more times she saw him. But somehow she knew he wouldn’t flee until this war was over one way or another.

Maverick came to the edge of his ring of fire. The cobalt marched in his irises, bringing back the color they once were as Callen Osirion, the Prince of Dalrune.

He reached a hand through the flames toward her face. Before he could touch her, darkness pummeled into him, and the ring of fire was extinguished around her. Maverick was thrown sideward, and Kyleer was upon him again in seconds.

The two of them clashed fire and darkness, and Zaiana was about to intervene when she remembered Kyleer had taken his sights off his mark. She honed her focus on the loose threat of Edith right before a spear of ice shot for her. Zaiana leaped into the sky with her wings to avoid it, sending a powerful stroke of lightning toward Edith in the same breath. With the water gathered in her palms, Zaiana’s lightning hit Edith more powerfully with the added conduction. Her half-sister couldn’t catch herself in time before she slammed into a tree, falling to her hands and knees.

Zaiana dropped down in front of her while she panted and trembled with the aftershocks. “You cannot contend with me,” Zaiana said icily.

She used her lightning to strike Edith’s chest, forcing her into a sitting position against the tree as their eyes blazed into each other. Zaiana retrieved the blade to take back Nerida’s power.

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