Page 63 of A Flame of the Phoenix

Those eyes.

She was distracted from them only by a new sense that crawled over her. Dark power emanated from something—or someone—within the tent.

“You have one role here, general,” someone else in the tent said resentfully toward Faythe’s target.

“I am in charge of this legion. Don’t forget that, or it’ll be the last mistake you make,” he said, so cold and unfeeling.

“You know nothing of our forces when you only just got assigned here,” another argued.

Then another added, “You said there would be a legion of Rhyenelle’s army here for us to slaughter.”

“They must have managed to spy that information from us. We have to be more vigilant,” her target answered cooly.

They weren’t fond of this general. Faythe’s intrigue heightened. He had Reylan’s amulet—and his knowledge. Faythe’s skin was burning like nothing she’d ever felt before, so all-consuming with a need to confront this general right now since he had to have her closest lead to Reylan.

She could test his mind, but it was a risk. There was a high likelihood Marvellas would have warned everyone to guard their minds against Faythe.

“Our travel to this town isn’t wasted,” her target said. “Faythe Ashfyre is here.”

Faythe froze as murmurs broke across the other soldiers.

“How do you plan to find her?”

“She’ll show herself—all we have to do is start painting the streets red.”

Her fury boiled at the suggestion to slaughter innocents to draw her out. She was going to kill this general before he got the chance to lead such a barbaric order.

Her target general leaned across the table, and Faythe’s purpose for being here was flaunted right before her. There was no mistaking the amulet when he slipped his cuff up to expose the ruby eye. It began to glow, and Faythe sucked in a sharp gasp, snapping her sight to her hip as the sister stone in the Ember Sword flared in recognition.

Faythe swore inwardly, and a cold sweat broke over her skin. The general’s eyes flicked up right to where she was, but Faythe was already darting away.

Where in the Nether was Nik?

She made it to the edge of the woods on the other side of the camp and pressed her back to a tree trunk, catching her breath and tuning her hearing in case she’d been followed. When she detected nothing, Faythe risked curving her head around the tree to survey the camp. She spotted the general from the spark of red she saw even from here, and she clamped a hand around the pommel of her sword to smother the direct beacon to her.

He ducked into a smaller tent at the edge of the camp, which had to be his own, to retire for the night. Was she really so desperate and foolish as to risk infiltrating his personal tent? If he was retiring for the night, he would surely remove the amulet. She just had to wait an hour, sure he would fall asleep. Faythe began to hash a plan in her mind. If Nik could keep him asleep with his mind ability, it would make the task easy.

Faythe squinted through the dark of the hills to try to find Nik and share her plan, but he didn’t reveal himself. She ground her teeth in irritation.

Faythe couldn’t last an hour. With Nik still not catching up to her, she was beginning to bloom a seed of dread. She wanted to retrieve the amulet so badly. It was right. There.

Yet with Nik and the wolf still out of her sights, her concern for him grew too much.

She hurried over the hill and kept hidden to scan for him. When a hand clamped over her mouth, Faythe almost summoned deadly magick before she was spun around to face the King of High Farrow. He let her go, and she whacked his arm with a scowl.

“Where have you been?” she hissed under her breath, aware they could still be overheard.

Nik took a hold of her arm and pulled her into a crouched jog to gain more distance. Even Asari seemed cautious and kept her body as low as possible.

“I was gaining intel in other minds,” he said proudly. “You never know what the subordinates are thinking compared to their superiors. It’s quite fascinating.”

Faythe was hardly in the mood for humor or gossip.

“Gain anything of value?” Faythe asked.

Nik stopped walking down an alley, and they faced each other.

“Marvellas is in Lakelaria.”

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