Page 335 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“Do you want to go after him?” Kyleer asked tentatively. He would follow her if she tried.

“He’s nothing more than a rat who escaped with a new trick to play with. Dakodas is our real threat.”

But a large part of Zaiana didn’t want to fight anymore. She wanted to sink to her knees with grief. She couldn’t look at Maverick’s body, instead throwing her head back and closing her eyes to keep her eyes from spilling tears. They wouldn’t help her. Nothing could help her.

She would avenge Maverick. She would make Mordecai suffer greatly for it.

In the darkness of her own mind, she knew what Maverick would say right now.

Get yourself together, Delegate.

Her eyes pricked more, but her resolve sharpened.

The war was still raging. Their enemies were still circling. She had to go on.

As Zaiana found the will to open her eyes, she grounded herself, facing the world that would always have an empty space now.

She sealed the vault on her heart that bled and grieved. It was the only way shecouldgo on.

Zaiana turned her gaze and set her steel course of anguish on the sky, illuminated with light and dark.

“If we end Dakodas, we end the war.”

CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT

Faythe

Faythe Ashfyre had come for the one enemy to end all. Her heart had turned black, decaying in the wake of Jakon’s death, and all she knew was that his sacrifice could be traced back to here.

Dakodas was the most cunning of them all. At least, the Spirit of Death believed she was, and she appeared so as the last one standing.

That is until Faythe arrived.

She didn’t have any words, only vengeance, as she clashed power with Dakodas the moment she landed on the battlefield, and the two of them became a devastating blur of darkness and light.

Faythe clutched the Ruin Dagger, using it to build her power to contend with Dakodas. She was still aware of the innocents, her people, fighting on this battlefield.

So when Faythe got close enough that all it took was one reach, touching Dakodas, to drag them through Shadowporting, but Dakodas fought her for control within the void they traveledthrough, Faythe lost the power struggle within the shadows that answered the Spirit of Death over her.

While Dakodas landed effortlessly, it was like Faythe had been spat out. Her body rolled against the harsh ground, but she caught herself, pushing to her feet in the same breath.

Faythe didn’t know how this battle would end, but after all she’d lost, if she had to go down in this fight, she was taking Dakodas with her.

“Your fight is futile, Faythe Ashfyre. There is no weapon that can kill me now—you made sure of that,” Dakodas taunted.

They circled each other, charging with tension.

“I’ll admit, it’s impressive how you’ve been the true driving force of this war. For centuries, you let Marvellas believe it was all her.”

“You killed my sister, didn’t you? I no longer feel her heavy, insufferable plague in this world.”

“You never cared for her at all.”

“I am a Goddess. I do not attach sentiments that serve no purpose to my duty.”

“How is this your duty? You are annihilating an entire species. Favoring another.”

“No—you are. You send all these fae and humans to their slaughter in resistance to my new order.”

---