Page 328 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“Maybe in another life,” the dark fae threw those words resentfully.

Izaiah almost flinched. “Your reading is coming along, I see.”

That was the note he’d given him, though Izaiah didn’t expect him to find the time to figure it out so soon with all the mess they were tied up in.

“I’m not going to let you do this. Sacrifice yourself. Because if that was your cowardly attempt to confess you care about me too, then you’re staying the fuck alive to say it better.”

Izaiah could have laughed. A delirious grin split his face because it was too late.

“Maybe in another life I’ll give you the grandest confession you desire, Tynan Silverfair. In this one, I’m afraid I’m the asshole who let you down. That should make it easier for you.”

Tynan’s jaw worked and his stance shifted, preparing to fight him to stop him if that’s what it took. Izaiah didn’t want to hurt him, but he had to… to save him.

The void sounded like trapped roars and strained wails swirling in powerful gales of wind behind him. It tousled Tynan’s dirty blond hair, lashing strands across his pleading eyes.Godshe was beautiful. In a way so precious Izaiah had never admired a person like it before when it struck him far deeper beyond the surface of natural attraction. Izaiah had come to look at Tynan as though he werehis.

“What do you think you’re doing?” That harsh demand didn’t come from the dark fae, and Izaiah’s sight slipped to Kyleer as he landed.

“We’re not children anymore. I need you to stop acting like a damned suffocating parent for once.” His bitter words carved in himself as much as they caused a wince on Kyleer’s expression.

Izaiah had thought Kyleer missing his memory might be a temporary blessing. Just for this. Yet his brother was still looking out for him as fiercely as ever.

“We don’t know how to close that void,” Tynan argued. “I assume that was your objective.”

“We do know how,” Izaiah argued.

Tynan’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not walking into that thing. If it wants a life, I’ll go.”

Izaiah gave a dark chuckle. “Don’t act a hero for me. It’s pitiful.”

“Arrogant of you to think I’d be sacrificing myself for you.”

Izaiah took a long backward step closer to the rift behind him, and both Tynan and Kyleer jerked forward as if they could stop him if he twisted and ran. His frustration grew.

In his peripheral, Izaiah caught the moving shadows. They were seconds from being swarmed, and Kyleer’s eyes widened on him, terrified.

“You’ve always looked out for me, brother. Always sacrificed for me and shielded me.” Kyleer’s eyes widened on his, and the pain slashing through him for this goodbye was immeasurable. “It’s my turn for once. Because you deserve to be happy in this life that has made it difficult for you to find those things.”

“IZAIAH!”

Kyleer’s scream of his name attacked his very core, while Tynan’s pierced his heart. Neither could stop him as the shadow creatures reached them first and they were forced to fight, giving Izaiah the opportunity to spin on his heel, sprint toward the rift, and leap through into cold, reaching arms of Death.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

Kyleer

Kyleer fought harder than he ever had before. Hehadto stop Izaiah from sacrificing himself to close the rift. The drum in his chest amplified. His mind spun too fast as Izaiah ran toward it.

My little brother.

He was supposed to protect him, and yet Kyleer had failed him. He screamed Izaiah’s name again as his brother leaped into the rift, and Kyleer’s mind…erupted.

So many reels of moving images hammered through his head that he lost focus on his fighting and fell to his knees. Shadow creatures lunged for him, but Kyleer didn’t really care anymore. He couldn’t tear his sight from where Izaiah had been swallowed by the rift.

Tynan defended him, cutting through the shadows that raced for him while he kneeled there helpless and devastated.

He remembered everything. His past with Izaiah were the first memories to tear through him. They weren’t all joyous, but the company was. Without Izaiah, Kyleer didn’t know whohe would have become. Izaiah had given him light in all the darkness. A purpose and a will to fight against anything that tried to hurt them growing up.

And he’d let his little brother die.

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