Page 209 of Wings of Ash & Flame
He turned his head as a mix of sob and cough tore through him. He spat out black bile tinged with red.
“I watched over you. Always.” His grip slackened. “I’m sorry I had to leave you just when I found you.”
He tugged her hand weakly, pulling her close. His breath warmed her ear.
“Your people wait for your return.” She tried to pull back to look at him, but his grip kept her there. “The shadow remembers what we forget… but light reveals where to look.”
What did that even mean?
“Your parents would be so proud. You’ll make a magnificent queen.” He gulped air. “I’m sorry for the role I was forced to play in adding to the burden of your suffering.” Tears shone in his eyes.
“It’s okay.” Her voice cracked.
“Never forget where you come from, whose blood you carry in your veins. Finally, you will be free.” He released one hand to pound his fist weakly against his chest. “From ashes to flames.” A final salute for his queen.
With one last shuddering breath, Professor Ross’s eyes went distant, body limp. She felt all the fight drain out of her along with his last exhalation.
Screeches echoed closer, the bats’ restraint fraying. Light scattered across the cavern, catching their red-rimmed eyes above her. She forced herself not to look.
Had she returned to Aurelia when she first bonded with her phoenix, as Solflara had urged, would Professor Ross have lived?
A tremor ran through her hands instead of the expected surge of power—an effect of the hybrid’s venom, if she had to guess. Pinpricks of numbness spread through her shoulders.
Alaire stared at the mix of crimson and maroon blood staining her palms. She wiped them down her legs, but it did nothing to erase the stains. Even clean, she carried the blood of so many innocents.
She had little left to give Professor Ross, but she could prevent these monsters from desecrating his body.
Everyone she cared for kept putting their lives on the line for her.
She dragged her blades across the ground, the scrape echoing into the abyss of this hellhole. Rage flared in her chest, white-hot and consuming—not the noble acceptance of his fate but fury at being hunted, at being used, at losing the only connection to her past.
This would be her final stand.
The larger bat, perched in the far corner as though presiding over entertainment, tilted its head. Its eight eyes studied her with interest.
“Enough,” it rasped, voice echoing in her mind. “Take her.But remember—she must live for the master.”
It wanted her to know that this was the endless pain and suffering it had promised.Fuck that.She’d show them what suffering looked like.
Excited shrieks rippled through the horde. Finally given permission, they unfurled their wings.
She would make them work for every drop of blood, make them remember why they should fear her lineage.
If Alaire knew anything on a cellular level, it was how to fight.
Raising her daggers, she screamed every ounce of her pain, anger, and grief, eyes locking on their leader. “Come and get me!”
“Now!” it screeched.
They descended all at once. She didn’t meet them with graceful movements, but with sheer brutality. Each strike aimed to maim.
She tried to hold her breath, but it was impossible in battle. They reeked of filth and blood—her blood, Professor Ross’s blood. She swallowed down the urge to vomit. The stench pressed in heavy around her with no breeze to carry it away.
Numbness spread down her arms, but she used it to her advantage. No pain meant no limits. Her movements grew reckless.
Her bond with Solflara remained out of reach.
The magic Professor Ross had promised didn’t flow through her. Instead, something colder settled in her bones. Not power, but the absence of it—a void severing her from everything around her.
