Page 83 of Inflamed By an Incubus

Some unknown part of her recognised Fenix as her mate and had reacted violently when the witch had suggested he found another woman to kiss. That couldn’t be good. Just the thought of him with someone else had her skirting the edge of lashing out again, filled her with a fire that blazed so hot she feared she wouldn’t be able to control it and might go nuclear, just as Mackenzie had said.

“I need some air.” She started to walk away from everyone.

Fenix appeared in front of her and she stiffened as she came to a dead stop, sure he was going to order her to remain where she was, was going to lay down the law and forbid her from leaving his side. Only his hard expression softened as she looked at him, waiting for that to happen.

On a long, weary sigh, he stepped aside and cast her a hopeful look, one laced with worry. “Promise you won’t stray too far?”

She nodded.

And ended up standing there staring into his eyes.

In fact, she stood there for so long that he rubbed the back of his neck and canted his head slightly as he murmured, “Not going for a walk?”

She shook her head. “Apparently not. I don’t know what I want anymore.”

That was a lie. She was deeply aware of what she wanted.

It was standing right in front of her.

“Fenix,” she whispered and he tensed. Because she had spoken his name? She sighed and tried to let the tension melt from her body, but it was hard with so much spinning around her head. “Will you finish telling me why we were cursed?”

His look softened again, that spark of hope she kept seeing in his eyes shining more brightly now. Because she had revealed she was beginning to believe him.

He heaved another sigh. “I was helping you locate mages. You wanted to open the gateway to the phoenix realm again and believed mages had the knowledge of how to make that happen. It was important to you. You’d lost all your family a long time ago and thought you were the last of your kind in Hell.”

He looked beyond her towards the others and then his gaze slid to meet hers again.

“It’s the reason I called myself Fenix. I gave myself that name because I didn’t want you to feel alone in this world. I wanted you to feel there were others like you… and there are, Evelyn. Hundreds of them. In the years we’ve been cursed, I’ve freed dozens of phoenixes. The only one I haven’t managed to free is you.”

That look in his eyes touched her soul and warmed her heart. It told her how much he wanted to break this curse and she knew it wasn’t because it affected him too. He wanted to save her and stop her from suffering.

He wanted to stop her from dying.

“You were close to finding a way to open the path between the phoenix realm and Hell. We found the mate of a mage and you befriended her. He knew how to open it. We were both sure of that. She… You discovered she wanted to lure you into a trap to capture you so she could give you to her husband, and there was a fight. You killed the female and he came after us. I was injured so we withdrew.” He twisted the band around his finger, his gaze solemn but laced with darkness, with a hint of accusation. “You didn’t want to wait.”

Even though she didn’t remember any of it, a feeling stirred in her gut and she pressed her hand to it, trying to calm the turbulent sea of acid that scoured her insides.

“What happened?” She searched his eyes for the answer to that question.

“I passed out when you were healing me and when I came around you were gone.” Fenix ran a hand over his hair, mussing it, and let it fall to his nape. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I knew where you had gone. I got there too late. The mage had already won. He was taking your blood. He blamed us both for destroying the quiet life he had wanted to lead with his wife. Apparently, he’d planned to live as long as he would have naturally with her and then die, and he didn’t believe me when I told him his wife had planned to gift him with your blood to make them both immortal. He was angry.”

Evelyn could understand why. The whole thing sounded like a series of betrayals to her. The wife had betrayed the mage by planning to make him live forever, despite what he wanted. The wife had betrayed her by pretending to be her friend and help her. She had betrayed Fenix by going against his wishes and heading out to fight the mage alone.

“He cursed us to make us suffer for what we had done by taking his love from him. His words that day are seared on my soul and I can’t forget them.” Fenix looked at the ring on his finger and then into her eyes, his tone empty as he recited, “I condemn you both. Her to die and forget you if she ever recalls her love for you. You to forever chase her ghost, desperate to make her love you again.”

His gaze grew bleak as he looked at her, his brow furrowing slightly, and she swore she could feel the pain that beat inside him, could feel how he had suffered since that moment, afraid of her falling for him but desperate to be with her as he had been before the curse, and driven to find her whenever she inevitably died and was reborn.

She wasn’t sure what to say as sorrow swept through her, as his pain became hers, and she tried to remember something. Anything. Everything before the moment she had met Archer was blank though, like a void in her mind. No matter how hard she pushed, how desperately she tried to remember the Fenix she had known back then, she couldn’t.

But while her memories of what had come before were gone, her mind scrubbed clean, some part of her did remember him.

She knew him.

Was it like the witch had said and her instincts as his mate still existed within her? Was this feeling her soul recognising his and the bond they shared?

“I know this is a lot for you to take in… that you need time… but Archer isn’t going to wait. Archangel have Aryanna and it’s only a matter of time before they find a way to use her or that warlock gets his hands on her. If he does, I’m not sure what will happen. None of us are.” Fenix glanced past her again as the witch spoke.

“Whatever he plans to do with the sorceress, you can bet your balls it won’t be good. That Crow wants her for a reason.”

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