Page 121 of Phoenix Falling
“What are you doing?” He jerked back. The move tilted him off-balance, and he was forced to put a hand down to stabilize himself. Unfortunately for him, I already had the dagger in my hand. I stabbed upward with what range of motion I had.
Jacob screamed as the blade entered his inner thigh. “Fuck!” He wrangled the blade from my hand. “You’re not worth my time and effort.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” I spat out. As he flipped the dagger for a better hold, I tightened my grip on my sword once more.
“I love you, Dragon.”
“Lyris, no!”
Jacob lunged, the dagger headed straight for the middle of my throat. I brought my sword up at the same time. Before my life flashed out, I had the satisfaction of seeing steel cut through his windpipe on the way to his spine.
ChapterForty-Two
RISSA
Ihad no idea how the battle ended. Basile attempted to explain all the loose ends, but I wasn’t really paying attention. The Anigma, those who weren’t dead, were finally run out or captured. Raine and Clara were safe. Imogen was not. Lyris was dead. And my mate…
I couldn’t think about my mate right now. If I left my brain on autopilot, embraced the detachment, maybe I could make it through the night.
Basile left me in my room, and I curled up on the couch, waiting, knowing there was something I was required to do but having no idea what. Did it matter that Sun and I were matebonded? Did I need to act as his representative, his queen, some kind of something to pass the baton on to someone else? I assumed there was someone else. An uncle, a cousin, someone related. There had to be someone who could take over so I could crawl back into bed and stay there for the rest of my life.
I hadn’t told him I loved him. Those last few minutes ran through my head, over and over and over. I hadn’t taken the time to tell him, minutes before he died, that I loved him. That I’d be his mate in truth. I hadn’t walked inside his soul, touched his heart one last time while I had the chance.
I’d never imagined such emptiness. I couldn’t fathom living this way for eternity.
Eternity without my mate.
It was Grim who eventually came for me. I heard a knock at my door, but I didn’t bother to answer. When a few minutes had passed, Grim entered, with Raine following, without my permission.
I rolled over, putting my back to the door, and closed my eyes. Grim stood in front of the couch; I could feel him there, watching me. Expecting whatever it was they expected. I simply had nothing else to give.
“Risk.”
“My name is Rissa.” My voice sounded so tired. I was tired. So tired.
“Rissa,” Raine said quietly. “Sun would love that you’ve finally taken your name back.”
It was the name he’d given me. If I could do nothing else for him, I could honor that much.
“There are some things we need to discuss,” Grim said.
“Go away.” There was no anger in my voice, no emotion. I no longer possessed any. It was a request devoid of caring.
Raine sighed. “I understand that you’re hurting, Rissa, but this is important. Really important.”
“What could be more important than Sun being gone?”
“The fact that he can come back,” Grim said.
It took seconds for the words to register in my head, even longer for them to make sense. I sat up, turning to face the black-clad Aomai. “What did you say?”
“Sun is a phoenix,” Raine said. “What do our myths tell us about a phoenix?”
The most well-known thing about a phoenix is that it could rejuvenate itself. It didn’t have to die. “He can come back?” I asked aloud.
“The phoenix has the power of life and death,” Grim explained. “When they die, they may choose to come back.”
I was confused. “But Sun’s dad didn’t come back.”
