Page 119 of Phoenix Falling
My heart rate sped up, thumping hard behind my ribs. A protest lodged in my throat.
“You are Helios’s second,” Sun said. “I remember you now. You like dragging women around by their hair.”
“They come equipped with such a handy grip. Seems a shame not to use it.”
Vomit rose. I tried to breathe through my mouth, praying I wouldn’t lose it now.
Sun brought his own sword up, and I felt inside me his surety that he could best this male. I prayed he was right.
“You’re about to die,” he assured the shifter.
“I don’t think so.”
When Sun would have lunged for him, the male nodded to someone my mate couldn’t see. Heavy hands grasped both arms. At the same time shackles wrapped around his ankles and pulled his feet out from under him. Sun landed with two sharp cracks on his knees.
He tried to swing his sword around, breaking the grip of the males who held him, but it was knocked from his hand with one strike from Helios’s second. Sun growled, his animal shining from his eyes. His enormous wings released from his back, knocking the males behind him to the sides.
The shifter swung his sword as Sun flattened himself on the ground, reaching for his own. He grasped the hilt, swung it around as he flipped onto his back. The stranger’s sword came down, stopped only by the guard on Sun’s weapon. Someone grasped the chains holding his legs, pulling him along, and the shifter’s sword slipped away from his.
Before Sun could bring his weapon around, the male had the tip of his sword at Sun’s throat.
“I’ve never killed a king,” the male said. “This should be fun.”
Sun let out an animal cry as his sword arced through the air. The shifter pushed forward before he could stop it.
A scream rose in my throat. “No!”
A flash, and the worst pain I’d ever felt exploded inside my body. Agony destroying every cell, every breath. Every thought. I wasn’t sure how long it lasted; I must have passed out. But when I came to, the first thing I knew was that my connection to my mate was gone. I couldn’t feel him, couldn’t feel anything.
My mate was dead.
* * *
LYRIS
Demetri was coming. I cut my twin off from my sight and focused on Jacob, looking smug as he stared me down in the dark hall. This asshole really thought I was going to let him win? No way. No way in hell.
“When did you get so big for your britches, Jacob?”
He laughed sourly. “About the time you turned me down.”
“For fuck’s sake, that was two centuries ago.”
“And I’ve been looking for a way to make you mine ever since. I finally found it.”
The arrogance was mind-blowing. “You think you’re strong enough to hold me prisoner?” Because that was what it would take to keep me.
“I think you won’t have a choice.” Jacob’s eyes lit as his emotions grew, glowing in the darkness. “Especially with the Anigma taking over.”
“If you think they’re going to win, you lost sight of who you live with a long time ago.”
Anger tightened his body. “I never lost sight of the fact that I was second best without a shifting form.”
“You were on the Warrior’s Council. You were on par with all of us. What else did you need?” He was right, he’d always been second best, not because he had no shifting form, which used to be looked down upon in Archai society. No, it was because he was always looking for a faster way up. It had been that way since we were children. Always reaching, never being satisfied with what he had. I’d think it was sad if the asshole wasn’t trying to gut me right now. Instead I was thinking he’d pretty much gotten way more than he deserved.
“You know Demetri will be here any minute.”
“No, he won’t. He’s too busy trying to find his mate.” Jacob circled me, keeping us moving, his sword catching hints of light as he looked for an opening. “Of course, she was the primary objective. Seems Helios caught sight of her on a tour of Maddox’s compound. Wanted her ever since. Now he’s got her. Sound familiar?”
