Page 101

Pulling at the seam of my glove to check it was in place, I stepped towards him and gripped his shoulder. “It’ll take her to… a tower. Or maybe the Borderlands. Az, that’s a rogue phoenix and Rider. They can go… anywhere.” They were not oath-bound.

And when my brother and father found out—that there was a rogue set, and the Rider was a woman; a princess, no less—I would be ordered to shoot them both. Or imprison her. But that was a problem for another day.

Aster gripped the last column—his hands smeared in the blood of the Riders he had killed while trying to get back to Aliwen.

He hung his head. “I’d only just… She was free. For one moment, I thought…”

“And now she’s bound.” It was time for the harshest of truths. “You have to let her go. She’s Skyworld now.”

“How?” Aster laughed once, raw and broken. “I can’t shut it off. I… I’m not you.”

As if any of us had chosen this with our eyes open. But she had. She knew everything—the fire touch, the curse, the madness—and she had chosen it. To save him.

We had walked into the mountains together—me, Aster, Lex, Kit—boys stupid enough to believe the bond would make us heroes instead of weapons.

“None of us survived this untouched,” I said, squeezing his shoulder one last time.

“I just wanted…” And for the first time, I understood that he had never done anything over the last few years for his kingdom. He had done it all for her. He’d been asked to help her get her revenge, so he had walked into the mines and gained everyone’s trust and taken as many oaths as he needed. All. For. Her. So she would one day be able to return to Annatalia.

If she survived, kingdoms would move against her.

The Ash Phoenix was now circling my tower—of course it was—it had been terrorising Scar for years. One of the reasons that I lived with Kit was that I couldn’t spend all my time running air defence.

From below us, there was a thumping of boots on the stone staircase. More Barren Guards appeared along with Si, the King’s favourite Rider and torturer. The man who had burned her while I was oath-bound to watch and get the information my brother wanted.

“Az, we’ve got company.” I dropped my hand and strode towards the door. He didn’t even turn around.

“Just fly away.” His movements were slow and hesitant. Not the Shadow we all knew. Not the man who had saved us all over and over again. He was a different type of shadow now.

Scar, I need Kit to get Aster out of here.

Being a messenger pet is always my favourite pastime.

Thanks.

A huff swept down the bond.

My phoenix was cantankerous and older than most of the mountains. Normally I could come back with a quip about pigeons, make him laugh, but not today. Not when I stood next to one of my best friends, who was barely holding it together because of what she had done.

“Az, they need to think she died. We need time to work out…”

My guards left with a flick of my wrist, but the Barren guards had swept around into the cavernous space, swords and shields ready. It was sweet, really, the way they thought that they held power over me. I could have just slipped off my glove and ended it all there and then. But Aster needed a distraction, and I could give him that.

I never liked how my brother agreed to an exchange of guards. They were just spies in uniform, but he enjoyed having ours in the Barren, and apparently I was ‘no diplomat.’

“Which one of you split her lip?” Aster’s fists were already formed, and his stance was strong despite his injuries. I shut down the images of torture. I had carried him over my shoulder, telling him to turn around and go back to the Ruckus, but I wasn’t the one he’d listened to. Perhaps I never was.

One of the guards shrugged, and Aster took that as confirmation.

Scar had followed the Ash for some time before circling back, and I held up my arm and waited for him to get within reach. I’d go and do some damage control with the Barren and then get Kit to check on Aliwen. If the Ash had flown her to my tower, then I was going nowhere near it—Kit was far better at those things than I was.

If Aliwen survived the bond, then the flock would have to meet. Phoenixes were Flock through and through. There was a reason that the rogue birds were feared. Without a flock, they were unstable and violent even before Yule descended each year. And from what I had seen of the woman Aliwen had become, she was equally so. It was a fucking terrible combination.

Then the sky lit up in a blaze of red and orange, which danced through the clouds and exploded like fire magic. My eyes widened as my fists clenched. I was witnessing events that I had only ever read about in books. Rebirth. For the first time in a generation, a Rebirth had occurred. On the very night, a woman bonded to a phoenix. On the last night of Yule. It wasn’t a coincidence.

The Seer had seen it all along. “‘The sky burns… and then everything changes.’”

A phoenix, or a few, had been reborn, and that meant that the Lost Riders in the tower… Some of them had just regained their memories, their sanity… their fire touch. And some of them were not worthy of freedom.