Page 101 of Feathers and Scales

She opened the door and faced the long stairwell. As she took slow and steady steps downstairs, the motion detection lights flickered on one by one. The chill of the air pressed in on her. She stepped down to the bottom, and humid air enveloped her. Each tunnel stretched long and dark ahead, like the hands of death.

A reassuring presence stretched along the link. A ferocity waiting to be unleashed.

But she was alone. Just how Fotios wanted her.

Taking another deep breath, she headed toward the right tunnel. Again, the lights flickered on, and with each step, her heart rate quickened until she faced the large door at the end of the hall.

A tomb.

Candlelight flickered under the door. He was here.

Her hand trembled as she reached for the knob.You can do this.Stomach churning at the idea of seeing Fotios again, she closed hereyes. Willing calm into her being, she opened the door that she had left closed for centuries.

Stagnant air met her nose as bright lights flooded the large catacomb. A hall of Fotios’s relics stretched before her. Mementos she’d been unwilling to part with. She walked down the hallway, gazing to the tall, cavernous ceiling.

At the T at the end of the hall, she turned.

Fotios stood next to his muscle cuirass, armor that had fit over his chest when he’d been in ancient battles. Now he stood hunched with ragged wings at his back, a pitiful shape beside the bronze armor that would never fit him again.

He grimaced but didn’t turn toward her. “I find this room the most deplorable. A marker of how badly you failed me.”

“Failed you?” Anger heated her chest. “You’re the one who abandoned me and killed my kind to become this monstrous being.”

His wing snapped out and knocked the cuirass into the wall. The resounding clank made her jump. He’d cracked the bronze.

Her vulnerability tightened around her heart. With shaking hands, she grabbed her sphalerite dagger and the pistol from her waist harness. She held the weapons stiffly in her hands and left them pointed down—ready. Their heaviness felt reassuring. She just had to get close enough so that he couldn’t dodge the bullets.

Fotios’s head ticked to the side unnaturally. “You think to battle me with those silly weapons, child?”

Child?There was a time when she might have condoned his referring to her in that fashion. But she had long grown into a woman far stronger than he’d ever given her credit.

“Tell me your plan,” she said.

“It’s interesting how you threaten an area and people flood out of it like ants. Protect the queen, and I wonder, will she suffer their loss?”

Her heart plummeted.

“Daxton,”she sent her thoughts, hoping their link was strong enough to send the message.“He knows we evacuated everyone, and he’s going to attack no matter what.”

“I’ll warn them.”His voice in her mind eased the tension in her shoulders, even if just the slightest.

“Don’t do this, Fotios. You aren’t evil.”

The crooked smile stretched across his face as he shoved the tan robe back, revealing a crude indigo blade strapped to his waist. “Is that concern I hear in your voice? I’m not evil, Izzy. I am logical.”

“You used to be caring once. What happened to the man, the mentor who believed everyone deserved happiness?”

“Shut up.” He drew his sword, the iolite surface reflecting in the light. “Happiness is nothing but the lack of wounds. But they come back unless you become resistant to all emotions.”

She dropped low and lifted her weapons into a protective stance.

“A reset is just what you need,” Fotios said. “I wonder how you’ll do this time after you lose your new Coheart.”

A fire burned within her. This was the last time he would threaten Simon. She ran at him.

He cut down with his blade. She crossed her weapons, catching his sword with a clash. Pressure strained her arms. She barely stayed on her feet as he continued to push down.

“Izzy!”Daxton raged into her mind.