Page 330 of A Flame of the Phoenix

His little brother was brilliant.

Foolish, reckless, sometimes arrogant…but absolutely brilliant.

The black Phoenix landed in a gap that opened on their side. Everyone balked at the black Firebird as its shadows leaked around their feet. Izaiah’s chest heaved, and people cried out, trying to scramble for distance.

Thick darkness rolled off his body and projected from his breath. It didn’t harm any of the living. Kyleer didn’t know much about the black Phoenix, but he tensed, awaiting the outcome of what its power could do.

To his amazement and complete fear…its breath affected the dead, not the living.

Kyleer landed on a mountain peak, stunned by what he was witnessing.

“It can animate the dead,” Tynan informed him. “While Izaiah commands it, the corpses will fight for him.”

It was a morbidly fascinating concept. As he watched the bodies of the fallen arise again, the tide of the war shifted in their favor. The numbers they were severely outmatched by evened out, and they would tip more in their favor with every enemy slain that Izaiah would temporarily resurrect to fight against them now.

The advantage was unparalleled.

Izaiah was alive.

His mind tried to soothe itself, but until his brother stood in front of him in his fae body, Kyleer couldn’t let go of the terror of losing him.

Kyleer was about to go down and join the fighting alongside the black Phoenix, but an eruption of electricity and light cast his attention to his right. It was distant, wedged within farther mountain peaks on the fringe, but the sensation was unmistakable. The faint infusion of purple through the lightning attracted him like a moth to a flame.

Zaiana was in trouble.

His teeth gritted. Casting his sight back to Izaiah, he saw the Firebird and its army of the dead were dominating the battlefield, so he wouldn’t be much of an impact. Tynan would go to him.

So Kyleer set his sights back on the anguish that was casting from his beautiful nightmare, and he went to her.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

Zaiana

When the surge of warriors charging forward became too much, Zaiana lost sight of Maverick and Reylan. Her heart raced, pushing through the crowd, trying to catch an opening large enough to splay her wings and chase after them.

He’s going to kill him.

Zaiana should let Reylan have his revenge. Maverick had killed his mate right in front of his eyes, then he’d killed his king. Two unforgivable crimes that justified Reylan in his course.

She didn’t know what it made her to abandon her station in pursuit of stopping Reylan in the vengeance he was owed. Would she be Faythe and Reylan’s enemy again? She wouldn’t blame them. She could live with that.

It was Kyleer who crossed her mind. The thought of having to flee as the enemy once more and leave him behind.

He’ll get his memories back one day. Then he’ll be glad for it.

The thought didn’t make her heart ache any less.

Too much time was slipping by, and Zaiana grew frustrated at being smaller than most soldiers, pushing her way through like a fleeing child in an overcrowded market.

Finally, she’d made it back far enough to use her wings, and she shot up, scanning the ferocious battlefield for parrying strokes of blue. There were many. Firewielding was fairly common among the fae. Her attention darted from each fireball, but Reylan and Maverick had removed themselves from the thick of the fighting. Maverick’s instruction would likely be to get the general as far away from aiding Faythe as possible.

Zaiana flew around a small, sharp piece of mountain. Several warriors fought in the smaller passages through the mountain fringe. The sound of war lessened the farther she got from the main field. Then she caught the unmistakable sound of Maverick’s flame. It was unlike others, or maybe in all their years she’d become attuned to his particular sound of fire.How strange, she thought. It had never crossed her mind before, and she knew it was her panic tormenting her.

All she would do was make sure Maverick got away, far away, and that he would never come back. Zaiana justified her actions to defend Maverick by fairness. She’d been accepted by Faythe and her companions despite what she’d done…but the murders Maverick had carried out had come close to being her crimes. Even if he’d done it for his own gain, she couldn’t let him die for acts that should have madeherthe villain Reylan targeted right now.

Zaiana’s wings beat harder, flying around a tall, thin piece of rock.

She found them. Just them.

---