Page 317 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“When do I ever lead by good ideas?”

His low chuckle was heard over the cracks beneath her feet.

The nest wasn’t even. It had mounds, and Faythe only wanted to glimpse the middle of the incredible structure. Her foot caught the top, and she squealed, tumbling, cutting her skin on the protruding sticks as she rolled into the heart of the nest.

Reylan called her name, and when she stopped tumbling, she was about to answer, but what her eyes met made her words dissolve.

Faythe rose so carefully with the space clearly fragile. A chest holding the greatest treasure. Her wide eyes couldn’t tear away from what she’d discovered.

“I can’t let you out of my sight for a second,” Reylan rambled, much closer now. He climbed over the small mound to find her, and his speech faltered too.

“She didn’t stay out of guilt,” Faythe whispered. Her heart was so broken and full at the same time. “Atherius stayed to protect her egg.”

The shell was the most beautiful thing Faythe had ever laid eyes on. A brilliant red, with gold etchings.

“After all this time…it can’t be alive,” Reylan said.

“Do you know how Phoenix eggs are hatched?”

Reylan climbed down into the nest with her, crouching to examine it closer too.

“No, actually. Maybe it doesn’t hatch from a mere period of gestation like most eggs.”

“Then there’s a chance it could hatch. Surely Atherius wouldn’t have stayed if it were dead?”

“I’m not sure. Best not get our hopes up, but it is a truly remarkable thing to have found regardless.”

Faythe splayed her hands above it, carefully approaching.

“Never led by good ideas,” Reylan mumbled under his breath, watching her with as much anticipation as she felt. As though touching it could trigger something terrible and ancient.

When she felt the rough surface of the egg, she held her breath for a second, scanning around as if she might find the walls crumbling down at her audacity. Nothing happened, and Faythe lifted the large egg into her lap.

Her eyes watered as she traced the shell, mourning in her heart all over again for Atherius.

“I think she knew you’d find it someday,” Reylan said, offering comfort with his hand on her shoulder.

“Me too,” Faythe whispered.

The weight of the egg was surprisingly light, which only added to her doubt there was a hatchling inside. Still, she cradled it to her body.

Just as she stood, an ear-splittingboomshook through the cave. Reylan grabbed her, steadying them, but Faythe gasped at the large rocks that broke from the mountain, plummeting down around them. She cast her magick out as a shield, nearly buckling at the boulders slamming against it, but Reylan kept her standing.

“We need to get out of here,” he urged, guiding her while she kept her focus on shielding them from the crumbing rocks.

They raced out of the cave, emerging onto the mountain fringe, and the waves of power that slammed into her stole her breath. Faythe whirled. What she saw, piercing up into the sky, was a rolling dark beam of power.

“We’re too late,” Faythe said in horror.

“We would have been even if we’d kept flying,” Reylan said.

Marvellas had managed to place the Light Temple Ruin where it should never touch…in the dark temple podium. Marvellas was one giant leap closer to her goal of destroying the entire world.

Faythe gritted her teeth. Her Phoenixfyre wings manifested, about to shoot to the sky in a last attempt to stop Marvellas before she could make it to her own temple in the Sky Caves of Lakelaria and finish her task.

“It’s all too late, Faythe.”

Marvellas’s voice was like a snake coiling around her throat.

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