The smoke binding me shudders as the demon’s fury spikes, its focus splintering. The magic pinning me to the ground loosens, just enough. I seize the opening, tearing one wing free, then the other, ripping through the choking mist with a roar that shakes the scorched ground beneath us.
I meet the demon head-on. We collide in a violent tangle of power and rage, the demon striking with brutal precision, every blow meant to weaken, to break.
My claws slam into mist and flesh. My fire scorches through its darkness, burning holes that sizzle and reform, over and over again.
But I don’t fight like I should.
Not really.
Because every strike lands hollowly. Every breath of fire tastes like ash.
Haven is gone, and the world feels smaller for it, emptier, quieter in a way I don’t know how to survive.
The demon knows it.
“You ended her,” it snarls, its darkness tightening around my throat. “And now you’re nothing.”
It slams me to the ground, magic crushing my chest, driving the air from my lungs. I snap my jaws, rake my claws, but my movements are slower now. Sloppier. Grief drags at my limbs, heavier than any chain.
What’s the point?
Without her?—
The demon rears back, power gathering in its grasp, mist condensing into a blade of pure darkness. I know this moment. The final one.
Part of me doesn’t fight it.
Part of me welcomes the end.
Then—
The ash stirs.
A sudden rush of magic explodes outward, sharp and brilliant, forcing the demon to stagger back.
Its death blow never lands.
I twist my head just in time to see the gray remnants on the ground ignite, not into flame, but into light.
A phoenix erupts from the ashes.
Red and gold blazing wings tear into the sky, radiant and furious, a scream ripping from its beak that rattles the heavens. The air vibrates with raw power as the phoenix crashes between us, shielding me, flames whipping outward in a protective arc.
The demon’s dark smoke shrivels and recoils as fire burns through them like sunlight through fog. It howls as its magic burns away under the intensity of her fire.
Her fire.
I recognize it instantly.
Hope slams back into me so hard it steals my breath.
Haven. I think her name like a prayer, like a lifeline, like the only truth left in this broken world.
The phoenix turns its blazing gaze on me for half a heartbeat. And even without words, even without her human form, I know.
She’s back.
Forty-Two
