Page 319 of A Flame of the Phoenix

The Spirit yelled in anguish, seeming to decide the fight wasn’t worth the risk.

Snarls and hisses divided Faythe’s attention from the Spirit to glance in the direction it was coming from.

Reylan swore, announcing, “Skalies.”

Her gut plummeted. Faythe caught a plume of smoke around Marvellas and lunged a step.

“No!”

Marvellas escaped through Shadowporting.

Faythe didn’t have a second more before the vicious creatures that lived in these mountains came pouring out of various crevices.

Reylan called her name, and Faythe caught her sword as he threw it to her. Before she could summon wings to flee, she was forced to fight back-to-back with Reylan against the foes that snapped jagged teeth at her.

She’d faced skalies before, when she was still human. They’d arrived in a force as overwhelming as this, and they’d only escaped them thanks to Atherius.

“We can’t fight this many for long,” Reylan said.

Her blade kept severing limbs and cutting down the flesh-rotted bodies, but the pressure of the force didn’t ease.

“Marvellas can’t get to that temple,” Faythe panted.

Her urgency clashed with her frustration that these creatures were stealing precious time she should be using to stop Marvellas. Faythe yelled in anguish, summoning Phoenixfyre in a wheel that cut through the closest skalies. But without Atherius, her Phoenixfyre was becoming weaker by the day, and weaker each time she used it.

Reylan took her hand, tapping into her essence of Shadowporting and using the seconds of reprieve she’d gained them to pull them across the fringe. Again, that power was too weak to get them off this mountain. All they could do was use what they had in small doses.

“I don’t know if I have enough Phoenixfyre to fly for long,” Faythe said in panic, back to swinging her sword since the skalies were immediately upon them again.

“If I shift into a lion, I can carry you. Our best bet might be to try to outrun them that way.”

Faythe didn’t like that idea, but she agreed it was their only hope.

Her blue Firewielding wasn’t as effective against them, so Faythe conjured another flare of Phoenixfyre to give Reylan the opening to shift. The moment her wheel of searing flame left her, Faythe twisted on her heel, gripping Reylan’s fur as he crouched and swinging her body onto his back.

She didn’t like this plan, because it left her useless and helpless, having to focus on clamping her body tightly around him to avoid being thrown off. Reylan was more vulnerable to attack from the skalies that pounced on him as he darted through the masses, tearing through them with his giant claws and jaw, but there were too many. They weren’t going to make it out of here like this.

They swarmed them until Reylan couldn’t run anymore. Faythe tried to let go enough to attack, but she was thrown off him and buried under the stampede. She curled into herself to protect her head while summoning whatever force she could within her. Then…

Heat.

It blasted over her like a blanket of protection, with a familiar essence. Faythe dared to open her eyes and found herself surrounded by the most beautiful red flame. Her hand rose, and it bent around her touch. It morphed from the protection of the Eye of the Phoenix on her amulet.

Then it parted, revealing Reylan, with the twin eye blazing in the pommel of the Ember Sword at his hip, protecting him too. He kneeled, helping her up, and they stood, defiant, in the storm of glorious Phoenixfyre.

Reylan cupped her cheek and kissed her. It were as if this powerful moment demanded it, and her chest burst with euphoria.

But she hadn’t summoned this fire…

When it finally stopped blasting around them, the last lick of heat was stolen by the bitter air. Snow had begun to fall, and her body broke with a violent shiver at the sudden contrast.

The plummet in temperature was forgotten completely when she glanced sideward and saw one of the most beautiful creatures in the world.

“Did we die?” Faythe muttered in disbelief.

Reylan released an incredulous, breathy laugh. “I’m debating that myself, because I’m looking at my cousin on the back of a Firebird long believed to be extinct…for a second time.”

“Are you waiting for another round?” Livia called from atop the Firebird. Samara had her arms wrapped around her from behind.

---