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The mark sears and burns even brighter before it stops completely. Gone was the gray of Kalen’s name now etched in a bright blue like the others. I stare at the marking, clutching my wrist, only to see Tobias and Lycus doing the same, when magic erupts in my chest, making my heart swell.
Kalen's magic.
Kalen's bond.
I gasp, looking toward where his body lay, only for him to jolt upright with a harsh wheeze as he sucks in huge lungfuls of air. The ash and soot that covers every inch of him cascades off of him, his clothes now gone.
“Kalen?” I murmur. Kalen breathes as if he has been holding his breath for a long time. He clutches his chest, then his throat. “Kalen!” Lycus shrieks a sob, making Kalen look around frantically before he turns his head to look at us.
The phoenixes weren't eating him; they were resurrecting him. With a choked cry, we are all on our feet, racing towards him while he looks down at his naked legs covered in soot and ash. I crash against Kalen first and clutch him tight, immense relief washing through me when he hugs me back.
I kiss his face, every part of it when he makes a strangled noise, making me realize my relief of him being alive is now strangling him.
I pull back and look at him, seeing Darius, Tobias and Lycus racing toward us.
They are meters away from him when he reaches between our bodies. I move off him, thinking that I am hurting his legs. Yet, Kalen is cupping something in his hands. He turns to look up at me and all I can do is blink wondering why he is clutching the soot.
He throws his hand out, and our mates slow, stopping as he looks around himself. I look down at the ground, wondering what is wrong, fearing he is leaving us again, when I see something move in his hands.
The ashes ripple as a featherless body shakes off soot and ash. A long tongue slivers out, and I look to the ground, the ash shifting as the phoenixes come back in tiny featherless bodies.
“Phoenix chicks,” I whisper, and Kalen chokes back a sob looking at me. I hold my hands out as he drops the featherless little body in my hands. The phoenixes that saved him move the soot and pop their heads out, giving a chirp.
Ryze flies over and perches heavily on my shoulder, his tongue sneaking out and licking the chick's face. I giggle as the force of his tongue makes the squirming chick fall on its side in my palms.
“They saved me,” Kalen murmurs as our mates fall on the ground beside us, careful not to crush the phoenixes hatching from the ashes.
Lycus clutches Kalen's face and kisses him, a whimper leaving his mouth as he squeezes him. Kalen laughs, pushing away from Lycus to scoop up another chick when Darius and Tobias grab him, crushing him in their embrace.
“The chicks! The chicks!” Kalen shrieks at them. He is more worried about the birds than the fact he was just dead moments ago. Darius mutters something at him that sounds vaguely like a curse.
“Yes, watch the chicks!” Lycus snarls, shoving Tobias back and scooping one up.
“You hate phoenixes!” Tobias snarls at him.
“Who said I hate them? I love phoenixes!” Lycus snarls back at Tobias, cuddling the tiny bird.
“Such pretty little things,” Lycus coos, smooching its face when the bird screeches at his mauling lips, biting him, making Lycus hiss. “Stupid bird,” he growls.
“I thought you said you loved them?” Darius laughs.
“I do! Just not that one. It has your temperament,” Lycus says, thrusting the bird at him. Darius chuckles, taking the featherless thing while I look around at what has become a battlefield. Some of Darius' recruits survived, but only around one hundred and twenty or so. They are scooping up fallen baby phoenixes as they make their way over to us. So much death surrounds our group.
“Aleera?” Kalen asks, drawing my attention back to him, only to see his hand reaching toward my face. His hand doesn't touch my face, but instead goes right past it.
“You have wings,” Kalen murmurs, and I gasp when I feel his fingertips brush what feels like a weird tickle on my back. As I turn my head, I realize he is right. I have wings!
ChapterThirty-Six
“There's just one more,” Darius murmurs as I stagger along, trying to keep up with him as he steps through portal after portal while putting wards back up. Darius wants to infuse them with my magic to strengthen them.
The exhaustion I am experiencing is excruciating. The amount of power I used earlier has exhausted me, making me queasy and light-headed. My wings drag across the ground behind me because I can’t figure out how to make them go away. Needing a break from the heavy weight of them on my back, I sit down on the moss-covered ground. My body feels like it has run a marathon.
“One more and I promise that is it,” Darius says, looking down at me from where I sit next to the ward he has just set.
“Just let me lay down for a second,” I tell him, and he sighs loudly.
“We need to get the last ward back in place, then you can rest,” Darius murmurs as he leans down, scooping me up.
