Page 3 of Dying in Flames (Reborn 4)
“Not just special, but not a normal phoenix.” Atlas chuckled. “She’s a Blue Phoenix.”
Anna went silent, staring at him before looking at me, realization dawning in her gaze. “That’s impossible… She would have to be…”
“The long-lost daughter of Queen Cyra?” I asked.
“Liar.” Anna’s face turned ashen as she stumbled back.
“Nope.” Henry offered her a smile, looking joyful. “You are taking a stand against the crown itself.”
The woman began to look around for an escape, her breathing panicked. “I need to go—”
Her words were cut off by Pastor Malcolm’s “No!”
Anna shook her head, looking horrified. “I can’t help you.”
“You can’t escape what you’ve done,” Ledger added happily.
Anna was gone in a flash, leaving Larry tied up and Pastor Malcolm looking furious. Almost immediately, with the absence of her magic, the flames completely died out. So it hadn’t been fueled by witch magic—that explained why it had been so powerful. I couldn’t help but smile a tiny bit at how Pastor Malcolm took a step back, the witches around him murmuring.
“We should go,” I pointed out to my mates.
“No can do.” Sai shook his head, his eyes on fire.
I frowned and motioned to the flames. “But we can leave now.”
“We can…” Marco hesitated before tilting my chin up, “but we don’t want to. I want this ended, but more than that, I want him to realize that he needs to stay the fuck away from our mate.”
“Fucking cunt!” Malcolm roared at Anna’s absence. He snapped back, looking at us as I leaned into Marco. “No matter, I will handle this myself.”
Even I knew that was a bad idea.
His magic suddenly lashed out, the other witches adding to it, as it came towards us in a wave that I easily deflected. My phoenix surrounded us in a protective gold shimmering barrier that had the power bouncing off and turning the surface into a mixture of blue, purple, and orange sparkles that would have been beautiful if it wasn’t protecting us from them.
“We should go,” I insisted again as I realized just how many witches were emerging from the pine-lined edge. I also briefly noticed that all of his coven members were male… Was that normal? It wouldn’t have surprised me, honestly—he had always talked poorly about women. Just one more reason to despise the man.
“Do you trust us?” Croy asked, coming up behind me and kissing the top of my head.
I smiled slightly. “That’s a ridiculous question. Of course I do.”
“Then trust us to do this,” Anani said.
“We can handle them,” Marco insisted quietly. “It wouldn’t be our first time dealing with witches.”
“I don’t want them hurt.” I nodded towards the younger flight, standing behind Atlas.
“So protective.” His smile was warm as Bella meowed softly from his shoulder, looking like a bold little warrior, still covered in black sparkles from his shadow magic. Honestly, the two of them were adorable together, and it had me feeling a rush of emotions that I didn’t have time to process fully.
Mainly, the ones revolving around Atlas—actually, any of my mates—and how they would be when we had real babies. Not that Bella wasn’t our baby, but the concept of being pregnant and having their children made me feel flushed, a thrill of excitement going up my spine.
“Ten minutes.”
I snapped my head over to Henry, who looked so eager for this that I almost felt bad for disagreeing.
“For?”
“Finishing this.” He motioned to the massive amount of witches that continued to assault my barrier, draining my energy a bit.
“Really?” I asked in surprise.
“Pull your barrier back and keep it around the young ones,” Croy instructed. I nodded and took Bella from Atlas and stepped back, curious to see if they could truly handle these witches in ten minutes. If they did, I would be way more than impressed.
As I turned to walk back towards the younger flight, Malcolm yelled my name, causing me to snap around right as I was blasted in the chest with a surge of power. The scent of earth invaded my lungs, and water seemed to rush over my ears as everything blacked out for a moment.
I was falling, and hands caught me as Bella’s meow sounded distressed, causing my phoenix to release a sound at my panic. A massive roar broke out that sent warmth through every part of my body, and my magic, despite my eyes staying closed, blasted out to protect those around me.
Malcolm may have hurt me, but he wasn’t going to hurt anyone else ever again.
