Page 334 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“You should leave,” she warned.

Zaiana couldn’t even turn to look at Kyleer. Anything kind and warm was a trigger to the loathing inside her that wanted tohurt.And when it became too much to bear within, the claws would come out, and they would make bright things bleed.

“I’m not going to leave you.”

“I don’t want you here.”

“I remember.” Those two words locked her spine. “I remember everything, and I’m still not going anywhere, no matter how many times you push me away.”

She was so torn between falling to her knees in surrender or hurting him; doing whatever it took to make him leave if only to spare him.

“Then you’re even more of a fool to be standing here.”

“I want you,” he confessed, edging closer.

“Stop,” she begged.

“No matter how many times you fight me. No matter how long it takes for you to want me back. I’m not giving up on you.”

How could he not know how desperately she wanted him already? Had she really been that awful to have not shown it enough to erase his doubt? She pulled him close only to push him away hard. He deserved better.

“I can’t love you, Kyleer. This is what happens,” she snarled, casting her hand toward Maverick, but she couldn’t look down.

“I’m not afraid.”

Zaiana mocked him with a cruel laugh. She was ready to unleash more of the ugly within her, stirring to hurt them both.

A flicker of movement caught her eye just over Kyleer’s shoulder. A flash of cobalt blue. Zaiana threw her lightningtoward it in the same breath. Kyleer pivoted out of the way, shifting back until he was beside her.

She stared at the threat, utterly shocked and building with a rage so fierce and deadly she could split this mountain apart with it.

Mordecai still lived. Of course he did. But what racked her body with an acute, blinding vengeance was the blue flame in his hand. The Firewielding he’d stolen from Maverick with the dagger before it had killed him.

The cobalt flame mocked her grief. It was an insult to Maverick’s sacrifice to save her, and Zaiana lost herself to raw anguish.

Her storm gathered in a lethal force, and she shot bolt after bolt at Mordecai. Though he’d only just been reunited with magick, his skill with it was so familiar. He moved like she did, in a dance of storms, displaying exactly where she’d inherited her powers.

Her teeth gritted, and her emotions chose the worst time to make her weak. Every flash of blue tore open her grief at the reminder of Maverick.

The distance had shortened between father and daughter, and when the last collision of amethyst and cobalt faded out, they stared off in a heated gaze of hatred.

“It’s not the power I desired, but it is a close contender,” he said, as if taking Maverick’s life for it meantnothing.“You are every part my daughter, Zaiana. Every year that passed, I grew more certain your potential was a reckoning to this world.”

“She’s nothing like you,” Kyleer snarled. Then a powerful blast of darkness hurtled for the high lord, striking him true.

Mordecai slammed against rock. Kyleer advanced again, but Zaiana stopped him with a hand around his arm. She wouldn’t let him fight this battle for her.

As Mordecai peeled himself off the ground and targeted them with a vengeful stare, a colossalboomresonated over them.

Zaiana caught the flares of dark and light collecting in a devastating hurricane across the fringe. Faythe was battling Dakodas in a ferocious war that could destroy much of their land.

“Despite everything, you became more than I could have dreamed of, Zaiana Vesaria. I hope you find the will to use your potential. It would be such a waste for you to let yourself be overshadowed by these pathetic world saviors.”

His words touched her like a goodbye, and she surged toward him, desperate with a shaking urge for violence to not let him get away with his life and Maverick’s stolen power.

He threw a large ball of blue flame toward her, and she had no choice but to defend with a shield of lightning. When the magick dispersed, he was gone.

Zaiana snarled in frustration, scanning the skies to chase the coward, but she couldn’t track him, and the blasts of world-shaking power coming from farther down the fringe tugged at her to answer like a call.

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