Page 23 of Wildfire Witch

“Of course, sir,” answered a less familiar man.

“My father will want to see her as soon as she’s awake. Keep her hands behind her back and wear the gloves. Don’t forget that she possesses unpredictable magic.”

A nervous quaver entered his voice. “Yes, sir. Perhaps we should move a few of the new recruits here to guard her? Just a suggestion.”

The dragon shifter growled, a booming rumble that sounded like it came from a creature three times his size. “I know who you’re asking for, wolf. Don’t forget who runs things around here. That ‘new recruit’ already outranks you.”

A submissive whine left the wolf shifter, followed by the shift of clothing and retreating footsteps of the dragon leaving. It took a good five minutes or more before he muttered, “Fucking dragons. They think they’re so superior.”

“Interesting,”I said to Aodhnait.

“That’s all you have for me? Your listening skills are an inspiration,”she said dryly.

“I can’t even move. And considering how far this wolf shifter tucked his tail up his ass when the dragon was talking to him, I doubt he’d lift a finger to help us,”I remarked.

Aodhnait shifted in my chest, rolling her heat through my midsection.“He is not a big concern. The dragon shifter and his father are. Remember ‘we all have things we want’?”

In retrospect, it had been an insensitive thing to say to a grieving man who’d wanted Aodhnait to restore his mother’s life. He didn’t understand my curse, or the fragility of phoenix rebirth magic. But no amount of explaining dissuaded him from killing me multiple times and degrading me into an object in the process for his ultimate goal.

The first leader of the Fire Brotherhood had made me enemy number one for his organization, a grudge that spanned most of my lives, and carried down his bloodline to present day.

“So, he and his father are descendants of the original dragon I pissed off,”I said, guessing that was what she was trying to point out.

“They are the people you need to convince to let us go. Tell them the truth. Let them know that butchering us over and over won’t result in them getting us separated. We know the answer to ending this curse. Draw them the diagram.”

“Why would I do that?”I asked in disbelief.

“Because you’re going to offer them a partnership. Once the curse is broken, I will go with them.”

“Aodhnait!”I protested. I’d never let her fall into the fire bro’s hands. They would kill her, trying to get her to resurrect someone for them.

“Donottell them how my rebirth magic actually works,”she added sternly.

She could hear the chaotic whirr of my thoughts, the protests so loud I was practically screaming at her. Phoenixes had been next to extinct when we’d first bonded as witch and familiar. After all this time…she could be the last. It would make sense, considering how motivated the fire bros were for sniffing me out so quickly. Considering the circumstances, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had literally had their wolf shifters scent my location.

She sighed, tone weighed down by the considerable time she’d been alive. Decades, maybe centuries, longer than me, in lives separate and distinctive from me and our curse.“Give them what they want.”

“I couldneverdo that to you. You’re my familiar. My literal other half.”The corners of my eyes burned, but no tears came. My body just didn’t have the spare moisture right now.

“Have you considered I would rather be in a cage in my own body than stuck in a loop of dying and rebirth trapped in your body?”she sneered.“Think of it as doing me a favor. The curse is your fault in the first place.”

The sensation of my crying attempt dried up. I cracked my eyes open, slowly focusing on a cinderblock wall just a foot away.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”I demanded.

Her ancient, crackling presence had an unmistakable edge of cruelty. This restored version of her spoke with contempt.“If your failures with the fire element weren’t so well known, Morfran wouldn’t have thought to punish usbothwith your curse. Your actions dragged us both into hell. Do us both a favor and do what I told you.”

“Aodhnait, what?—”

“Take someresponsibility for what you’ve done. You’re not the only victim here, no matter how sorry you feel for yourself.”

Heat kindled in my clenching fists.“I have never assumed you weren’t suffering, too.”

She hissed back at me.“Yet you would keep me inside of your body out of some misplaced sense that I belong here,”she said.

“Fine!”I snarled.“You’ll be free of me before you know it.”

“Good,”she sniffed.

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