Page 86 of Of Flame and Fury

Savita had let her fall.

Kel shoved down the memory as her lungs seized. She barely felt herself bolt upright, adrenaline numbing the pain.

“Ashes!You’re awake!”

The book on Coup’s lap crashed to the ground and, faster than she could follow, he was by her side. His golden eyes lit the room, chasing away the room’s shadows.

“How do you feel? Should I call a nurse?” Coup asked.

Kel tried to suck in lungfuls of the cool night air, but all she managed were thin gasps. “Sav—is she okay? The other riders… are they alive?”

Coup’s brow pinched. He searched her face before the crinkles smoothed. “Four riders died. Three more are in critical care. Two phoenixes vanished. No one knows if they were uncollared or killed. Everyone else got out.”

Kel swallowed. Chills ran down her arms. “How did we—where am I—when did we—what—”

“You’re in Cristo’s hospital wing,” Coup said. He shuffled further onto her bed. Not touching her, but close enough to feel his heat. With the strange chill hollowing her bones, it took everything inside her not to curl into his unexpected warmth.

Slowly, she lowered herself back into the bed. “How did I get here? What happened?”

Coup helped her sink into the pillows. “One of the riders managed to get a message to the CAPR officials on-site. They found you at the forest’s edge, not long after you… fell.” Coup’s jaw tightened. “That was almost a week ago. They brought you straight here.”

Kel forced herself not to sit up again.Alchemists.Everythinghurts. “A wholeweek?”

The red burns at Coup’s neck had faded to pink scarring. A year could have passed.

“You were waking up when they brought you in, so they induced a coma and took you straight into surgery.” Coup sucked in a shaky breath. “The airbags in your leathers cushioned your fall. But the broken bones and internal bleeding… you were in surgery for so long, Kel.”

His voice was flat, careful, like a tamer approaching a new phoenix. “But you’re stubborn. I knew you’d never leave Savita.”

Even though Sav had left her.

Kel’s chest ached. “Where is she?”

“She’s safe.”

Kel frowned. The words should have been reassuring, but Coup’s tone was all wrong. “Is she in the aviary? Or—did the Fume get her collar off? Did she rebirth? Is she—”

“She’sfine. Breathe.” Coup placed a gentle hand on her left arm.

“What aren’t you telling me?” she demanded.

Coup made a sound—something between a sigh and a chuckle. “Savita is in her usual private suite, probably cleaning her feathers and demanding a second dinner. Dira’s been by her side every spare second.”

“There’s something else, though, isn’t there?”

Coup looked back, into the empty shadows. “Dira would kill me for telling you while you’re still healing. But you’ll kill me if I don’t.”

He leaned to the right, beside her bed. His chestnut curls fell over his forehead. She wanted to brush them away. She wished she could doanythingbut lie here and wait.

Coup sat back up; in his hand, harshly folded, was a newspaper.

“Page six,” he said, grimacing.

He helped Kel flick open the pages and propped the copy ofNova Presshigh enough for her to read. Even in the dim light, her eyes snagged on the giant headline branded across both pages. The image of Savita, more flame than phoenix, took up the top half of the feature article.

Day 70 of the Molten Season, Year 1509 of the Alchemy Age

HOWLERS' PHOENIX: THE DEBATE IGNITES

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