Page 121 of Of Flame and Fury

The muscles in his face tightened and moved again, and Kel thought he might unhinge his jaw and swallow them whole.

Instead, his hand around the sancter steadied, and he aimed the weapon at Coup.

Shivers wracked Kel’s body. She wanted to shout,No! Coup, you fool—move!

But she couldn’t form the words. Not loud enough for him to hear. She could only shake and stare at Cristo, silently begging him to lower his rifle.

“You won’t believe me, but this is kinder. It is,” Cristo added under his breath, like a prayer.

Kel tried as hard as she could to keep her eyes open—but she couldn’t. She couldn’t watch Coup die.

She heard Cristo cock his rifle.

“Coup,” she breathed, as a scream tore open the sky.

The sound—so familiar and yet so alien—filled Kel with electricity. Summoning every ounce of strength she had, she glanced up.

And then there was Savita, nothing but flame and fury as she barreled straight toward Kel.

FIFTY-FOUR

Savita blazed across the night sky, no more bird than a bonfire was. Cristo raised his head to the stars as she soared closer. His jaw fell slack and his fingers loosened around the sancter.

Kel felt Coup move from her side, but she couldn’t look away from the fierce mass of red that vaulted across the sky. Savita was almost too bright to look at.

She was here, a growing shape that tore toward them like a comet. Her firebird. HerSavita.

The phoenix released another long, earsplitting screech, and it broke Cristo from his trance. His gaze darted to Kel.

He lifted the sancter, pulled back the hammer with a sharpclick, and fired.

Kel wasn’t sure whether the sound that came next was lightning or a phoenix scream.

She didn’t realize she’d closed her eyes until red flared through the darkness. She waited for the familiar, electric pain to replace the lead in her bones.

A tiny, petty part of her hated that Cristo had beaten her before AB could.

But no lightning came.

When Kel finally opened her eyes, there was no rifle pointed at her. No weapon or even Cristo. Just a pink pile of shredded muscle and skin.

Splattered blood covered her trousers. Small, splintered bones stuck out at angles from the torn skin and oozing red, but Cristo’s skeleton had been obliterated to white ash that glowed against the night.

Settled behind the mess, picking at scattered remnants of Cristo’s carcass, was Savita, burning hot enough to evaporate the blood seeping toward her.

Kel didn’t have the strength to process what she was seeing. She forced every scrap of adrenaline in her body to help her stand up. As she wobbled to her feet, Savita looked up. Those ink-black eyes pinned Kel in place. Kept her standing.

Coup was at her side a moment later. He lifted a palm to her cheek. “Are you okay?”

Kel nodded, slowly, though the question almost made her laugh. “Are you?” she croaked.

Coup only offered a shaky smile.

Then, Kel did laugh. A desperate, hoarse sound that tore through her throat, though there was nothing funny about what lay ahead of her. Cristo was gone. Savita had left him as little more than a few scraps of pink.

As though she’d heard Kel’s thoughts, Savita snapped her beak. Ducking her head to Kel’s height, Savita crept toward her tamer. Kel felt the phoenix’s temperature lower, and her presence was like rain against her skin. Painful, but bearable.

Kel couldn’t make out any of Savita’s body. No feathers or wings or beak. Just two eyes staring at Kel.

---