Page 132 of Inflamed By an Incubus

“Nothing like having a goddess on your side, huh?” Rosalind nudged Fenix and he grunted, still sore from whatever they had done to him.

“Goddess?” He pieced it together. “Nature.”

Elves all had a connection to nature, one that varied in strength. As a member of the royal bloodline, Vail’s connection to her was far beyond that of any elf other than his brother, and Vail had told him how his bond with her was weak because he was tainted. Being with Rosalind hadn’t only allowed Vail to claw back his sanity and step away from the darkness. It had allowed him to reforge his bond with nature.

Fenix had never thought of her as an actual goddess before though, a power that was shaping this world and all in it.

Vail and Rosalind helped him up into a sitting position.

His heart wrenched as he stared at Evelyn where she now lay on the patio, writhing as flames flickered over her, bursting from her bare back as she moved onto her hands and knees and then guttering as she rolled onto her back. She screamed, flinging her legs and arms out, and another wave of fire surged towards them.

It hit the barrier still in place around them.

“I’m sorry.” Archer came to stand beside him and offered a delicate round red bottle that had gold filigree decorating the surface. “It will protect you from the worst of her fire while you—”

He looked from the bottle to Archer. “You’re not seriously suggesting I kill her?”

“She’s going to die either way,” Mackenzie put in.

“Yeah… but killing her?” Fenix swallowed hard at the thought. He wasn’t sure he could do it, but as he looked at Evelyn as she battled the shift and fiery wings blazed from her back, he knew deep in his heart that it was his only option.

He had to kill her and hope the mage hadn’t been lying.

He took the vial from Archer.

Archer’s expression grew grim as he looked from Fenix to Evelyn. “I’ll monitor her once she’s—and if it feels like something is wrong, I’ll take a concoction and go into the dark realm between life and death to bring her back.”

Rosalind rounded on him. “No. You can’t do that. You need to let that moment of rebirth happen. We’ll build a cage of magic for her so she won’t be transported elsewhere upon death. That way, if the curse activates, we’ll still have her.”

The small seed of hope inside Fenix grew, spreading tendrils through him to give him the strength he needed. If killing her with his own hand failed to break the curse, and Rosalind and Archer could stop Evelyn from being transported away for her rebirth, then he wouldn’t have to search for her. He could have Rosalind or Mackenzie take care of her until he found the real way to break the curse.

Archer nodded, seemingly satisfied with that suggestion too, and moved past him. He paused and looked back at him. His throat worked on a hard swallow, his dark eyes glittering with regret and pain, and he held his hand out before Fenix.

A jagged obsidian dagger appeared on his palm.

“It will grant a swift and painless death.”

Fenix swallowed thickly as he looked at it, as he fought to find the strength to take it and do this.

Evelyn screamed.

Fenix snatched the blade, popped the lid off the vial and swallowed the contents. Frigid cold rushed down his throat and spread through his limbs, making him shudder as he flexed his fingers around the hilt of the dagger. He could do this.

Mackenzie was right. Either way she would die, but also either way she would come back, and if there was a chance the mage hadn’t been lying, he had to take it. He thought about how Evelyn had looked at him as he approached her, filled his mind with how afraid she had been but also how much love had shone in her eyes.

Her next scream became a keening shriek as fire exploded around her, great plumes of it twisting and swirling to engulf her body.

His heart lodged in his throat, his breath hitching as she shed her mortal form, shifting into a great raptor made of flames.

It was now or never.

He reached the edge of the fire and steeled his heart as he forced himself to keep moving, to ignore the instincts screaming at him to keep away from the blazing flames. The heat of them wrapped around him, their brightness stinging his eyes, but they didn’t scorch his flesh or burn his clothes.

Archer’s potion was working.

Now all he had to do was convince the phoenix hovering in the air before him, a great beast that was three or possibly four times taller than Evelyn was in her human form, to come down to him.

Fenix stopped beneath her and held his free hand out, concealing the one that clutched the dagger behind his back as his heart raced, his pulse pounding quickly in his ears as nerves rushed through him. He wasn’t sure what she would do if she realised he was going to kill her.

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