Page 103 of Of Flame and Fury

“Here,” she mumbled, eyes on the floor. “That gown can’t be very warm.”

Kel snatched the clothes—a sweater and brown trousers—and folded them against her chest, silent. She didn’t want anything from Rahn and she certainly wasn’t cold. But whatever came next, she didn’t want to face it in an open-backed hospital gown.

When no one spoke, Rahn sighed. “I didn’t know Savita was nearing a rebirth until the CAPR race with the sprites. Phoenix rebirths don’t come around often, and Cristo thinks that he’s finally found a cure. This is… this is his only chance. I am sorry—but not for refusing to choose.”

“Youarechoosing,” Dira cut in, nostrils flared. “This is not nature running its course. Cristo is murdering the creatures that created this island. What happens when there are no more phoenixes to bleed dry for his experiments? They’re gone, and a handful of people—chosen by Cristo—are allowed to escape their fates. You’re not helping people, or Salta, or Estra. You’re only helping Cristo.”

Kel frowned. She hadn’t mentioned Estra’s name. She hadn’t even thought about it since Cristo had spoken it. It was as if the name was too fragile to grasp.

Dira spoke it as if she knew the girl. But Kel had never even heard of her before Cristo mentioned her name. Kel felt like she was trying to jam the wrong puzzle pieces together.

Rahn’s throat bobbed. “Before I joined your team, I’d never spent much time with phoenixes. I helped develop tech, but this was my first time on a real CAPR team.” Rahn hung her head. “Ebrait made us worship phoenixes. They force us to worshipallmagic. I had no control over any of it. Tech gave me some control. And Canen… he didn’t just bring me here to work on tech.”

Rahn’s voice broke. Dira drifted a step closer to her, almost instinctively, before stopping herself.

Rahn went on, “Like I said, my mom’s an important figure in Ebrait. She has a lot of power in our temples. She… she’s worked with Fume delegates before. Trying to find a compromise. Trying to understand the best way to preserve Salta’s magical populations.”

Shock flooded through Kel, even as Dira spat, “You’ve told me all of this. What does it have to do with you locking us in a cell?”

Another tear trailed down Rahn’s cheek. “Canen knew my mom wanted me to take her place, eventually. I think he knew she’d passed on what she knew about Salta’s magic, the research Ebrait has done on its own. After a while, I trusted him enough to sharewhat she’d taught me. About how AB flares up the most in places cleared of magic. It made him think to look to phoenixes for a cure.”

Kel froze. She thought back to the annotated map she’d seen in Cristo’s files. The red dots clustered over Fieror—where most of Cendor’s AB cases stemmed from—and the black dots hovering over Vohre Forest—where Cendor’s remaining wild phoenixes thrived. There had been hardly any overlap of the two, hardly any red dots appearing in Vohre, particularly the border near the forest.

A startling laugh bubbled up Kel’s throat. “He thinks phoenixes can cure AB because there’s no cases near where they live. AB is thriving where wildlife populations have become extinct!”

Rahn merely nodded. “There are hundreds more cases in Fieror than Vohre, because Vohre backs onto the forest. And there are thousands more cases in Cendor and Ascira, because Ebrait and Dresva protect their animals. They don’t exploit them.”

Ebrait worshipped its sea monsters through religion. Dresva protected its serpents because magic bonds between snakes and humans helped their agriculture industries. But Ascira had no qualms about clearing sprites for new attractions. Cendor didn’t hesitate to kill phoenixes for entertainment or city expansions.

Could it really be so simple? Could AB really be the product of extinction? Of Salta’s magic withering away?

Answers slammed together in Kel’s mind. Cristo hadn’t just recruited Rahn for her tech aspirations. He’d known she might have knowledge of Salta’s magic that he wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Vaguely, Kel wondered if that was why Rahn had asked Kel so many questions about the Fume while she recovered in hospital. She was already connected to them, in some small way.

Bekn stepped forward, in front of Dira, Coup and Kel. “That can’t be right. Someone would have figured it out.”

“Not if he’s paid off anyone who realizes,” Dira muttered.

Adrenaline chased away the edges of Kel’s fatigue. “But this means there’s another way—no one needs to die.” Not Savita, or any other phoenix. “Salta istellingyou how to fix this. Cristo doesn’t need to do any of this. He can just—”

“He can’t just wait for Salta’s creatures to repopulate the islands,” Rahn said, her voice hardening. “It would take centuries. Estra barely has days left.”

“We know you see Estra like a sister,” Bekn said. “But killingphoenixes? Cendor won’t survive it.”

Confusion coiled tight in Kel. If Rahn saw this girl as a sister, wouldn’t Kel have heard of her before?

Bekn cursed under his breath. “Let me speak to Cristo. He can still stop all of this.”

“I’m sorry,” Rahn croaked. “You deserve answers—but I can’t let you out.”

“Estra can talk to him,” Dira pleaded. “She’ll help us.”

Kel’s frown deepened. She went to speak—but Coup beat her to it.

“I spoke to Estra a few days ago,” he said. “She still has enough strength to give us a chance. We just need to try to convinceherto talk to her father.”

“What?” Kel burst out. “Cristo has adaughter?”

Too many emotions—confusion, anger, shock—whirled through her. If Cristo had a daughter living in the compound surely Kel would have met her.

---