Page 179 of By the Flames of Her Fury

Odessa nudged my shoulder. “Do you think you’ll ever come back?”

I took in the scent of fresh parchment and old tea. “I don’t know. I don’t really have a plan. I just…I want to be present. For the first time, I’m not running from something or chasing someone. I can do whatever I want.” The thought brought a smile to my lips.

“As long as you’ll stay with me for at least a little while in Drakorum,” she said. “I’m a bit nervous. I don’t know how your people will react to someone without magic living there.”

“Oh, you’ll be fine. Everyone will love you. Besides, you’re not the first one from a different land who’s come to live with us. Devora, my brother’s fiancé, came from another kingdom called Mysthelm. Well, he kind of captured her and dragged her there, but that’s another story.” I waved my hand in the air. “It’ll be great, I promise.”

Watching the white sand dunes and hills of Saltmourne fade into the sky as we sailed away the next morning made me feel more nostalgic than I expected, but it soon morphed to excitement the closer we got to Veridia. We made it through the Shattered Spine with minimal damage to the hull and only a couple close calls.

Everything was different this time. Brighter and lighter, with hope moving me forward instead of loneliness and anger. I was going to see my family again. I would get to start over with the life I should’ve had, the future I’d been too scared to dream of.

I stared off the bow of the ship as dark lines marking the shore slowly revealed themselves. The Veridian Empire. We should be passing through the borders any second now…

Right on cue, a jolt of power crashed into me. I gasped and gripped the rail, arms shaking as magic filled the empty well inside. Heat licked along my spine, my waist, my skin, and the air was heady with the weight of it. I took what felt like the first real, deep breath since our magic had disappeared again. It was such a relief to feel my phoenix half come back to life, to feel its wings fluttering excitedly in my chest.

Footsteps sounded behind me, and I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. Familiar hands wrapped around my waist. I smiled as warmth hovered behind me.

“Did you feel that, sweetheart?” Everett murmured.

I tilted my head to the side so he could fit his chin in the crook of my neck. “We’re almost there.”

“I knew this day would come, you know,” he said, voice low in my ear. “You and me, here again.”

“Such a hopeless romantic,” I teased softly.

“Not hopeless, Songbird.” He kissed my neck. “Not anymore.”

I was still for a moment, watching the shoreline inch closer. “I’ve been trying to remember something,” I whispered. “The first time you called me that. Songbird. I know I should remember, but it’s just—it’s gone.”

His arms tightened around my waist. He was quiet for long enough that I craned my neck to look at him, and his soft expression made my chest ache. “It was your first night in the cells. I could tell you were scared, and I wanted to make you feel better, but I had no idea what to say. And then you started humming. It was the most beautiful sound I’d heard in years.” He kissed my temple. “Like a songbird. So that’s who you became to me.”

I exhaled slowly. “What was the song?”

“It’s a lullaby you told me your mother used to sing you to sleep with.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “I don’t remember that, either.” My words were so soft, I could barely hear them.

But then he said, “Let me show you.”

Warmth spread from where his hands touched my waist, all the way up my neck. My mind became soft and supple as the water before us dissolved. The dark stone walls of the cell surrounded me, but it wasn’t the one I remembered. This was slightly different. The cell bars weren’t positioned the same way, and the wall separating Swift and me was on my right instead of my left.

We were in his cell. I watched a seventeen-year-old Everett lean against the wall with his eyes closed, the hint of a smile on his tired face.

And then there was a sound. A soft hum that resonated through the illusion, echoing off the walls. It was a beautiful, peaceful tune that made my shoulders instantly relax, even though I hadn’t heard it before. But I knew it was me humming on the other side of the wall. This was a memory I’d lost, a defining moment of my life that was stolen.

“That’s pretty,” young Everett said, getting on his knees to look through the hole. “It’s been years since I heard a song.”

My muffled voice came next. “Wait, I thought your eyes were green?”

In the illusion, I stepped closed, transfixed by the moment. I ventured near enough that I could see young Everett smile against the wall.

“They’re both. One gray, one green,” he said. “Yours are gold. I’ve never seen eyes like that.”

“I get that a lot,” the younger me said. “By the way, my name’s⁠—”

“Don’t,” he said. “Don’t tell me your name. I know it sounds weird, but down here…it’s better if things just aren’t real, you know?”

“Then what am I supposed to call you?”