Mom’s lack of confidence in me made my heart ache. Whatever. Sometimes I wondered why she was pushing me to step in as clan leader so soon.
Focusing on the harpy bitch in front of me, I asked, “What do you want?”
“Why would we want anything from you?” Stacia advanced closer to Lucent and I tensed. So help me if she touches him…
Lucent may be my best friend, but he was so much more. In recent years, I’d discovered that the thought of another female touching him gave me murderous intentions.
He was mine.
Although I would never let him know that. Or anyone else. The fear of losing what we had weighed heavy on my heart. So I was happy with being his best friend. For now.
“Cut the shit, Stacia. You faked the cry of a child to lure us out here. You want something.” I glared at her as she stepped into Luce’s personal space.
Luce snarled at her but didn’t back off. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of affecting him. Even if that affect caused him to want to rip her head off her shoulders. The visual that thought formed in my mind made me smile. I didn’t care if it made me a little blood thirsty.
Stacia had always enjoyed baiting me. She was, after all, her clan leader’s daughter just as I was. So we had a future of agreeing to disagree.
And I’ve had about enough of her attention-getting crap for the night. I walked over and took Luce’s hand and pulled him away from her. “Whatever you want can’t be that important. I’ve called off the guards and Pyra was never coming. So go on home.”
I turned and started walking off, but her words stopped me cold in my tracks.
“But you invaded our territory and killed my personal guard.”
What the… Slowly, I glanced at her from over my shoulder in time to see the crazy-ass harpy form a fireball and threw it at her guard. By the open mouth shock on the guard’s face, I was guessing that wasn’t in the plan.
Stacia really was crazy. And to prove my point, she started screeching to alert her clan and screaming at the other two harpies with her to capture me.
“Fuck,” Luce said, his eyes darting from the harpy on fire to the three charging at us.
Twisting around, I kicked out, hitting one of the harpies in the chest. Taylor was Stacia’s younger sister and just as mean. All harpies were mean, but Stacia’s family was the royalty of cruel harpies.
Taylor stumbled back a few feet before regaining control and rushing back at me. I was ready. I punched her in the jaw, making her head snap to the side. Without hesitating, I kicked her knee. She crashed to the ground and I was over top of her instantly.
I raised my fist to hit her again, to knock her the fuck out, when someone jumped onto my back. Debra. Stacia’s cousin or another sister. I didn’t know, nor did I care. It was clear that Stacia planned to either kill me or pin a crime on me that would get me killed.
Not happening.
Debra wrapped an arm around my throat and squeezed, cutting off my airway. I relaxed my body and let it fall backwards until we hit the ground. The force of impact knocked the wind out of Debra. Her grip on me loosened and I rolled off her.
I called to my inner fire. Flames covered my hands and I raised one fist over Debra, about to deliver her the death she was begging for. I was beyond pissed and beyond reasoning with. It was what my mother hated about me. The side of me that was too much like my father.
“Enough!”
Stacia’s scream made me glance over my shoulder at her. My blood froze and my fire shifted to the ice flames I got from my father. Stacia had one hand wrapped around Luce’s neck with her claws cutting into his flesh. Her other clawed hand was positioned over his heart.
I locked gazes with my best friend, and he started shaking his head, knowing all too well what was coming. He knew I wouldn’t let Stacia get away with hurting what was mine.
Luce was mine.
“Let him go and face me like the strong warrior you pretend to be.” I straightened and faced her, not releasing my ice flames.
Lucent cursed and he started to struggle. “Em, don’t do it. She’s baiting you. Don’t let her win.”
Then he called to his own fire, making it cover it his body. It wasn’t the death fire that our kind used to die and be reborn. The flames were enough to make Stacia release him with a yelp.
She backed away from him cradling her hand. “You won’t get away with killing my sisters and my guard.”
I wasn’t buying her poor-me cries. She was speaking loud enough so those who were headed in our direction would hear her. So I spoke just as loud. “You killed your own guard to pin it on me.”
A smirk formed on her face before she conjured a staff with a razor-sharp point and threw it at Lucent. I screamed, teleported to stand in front of him, and threw a spear of ice into her heart all at the same time. Stacia’s staff pierced my heart at the same time my ice spear went right through hers.
Stacia gasped in shook and stumbled back a few feet before dropping to the ground. Her body covered in ice as my magic spread through her system.
I fell to my knees and Lucent caught me. “Fuck, Em. Why?”
“I can’t lose you.” I touched his face as my vision blurred.
“You are crazy. I would have survived. Well, died, but I’m a phoenix and I would rise again.” He gripped the end of the staff and pulled it out, then placed his hand over the hole left there. His head snapped up as if hearing something. “They’re coming.”
Who? Oh, yeah, the harpies and Mom.
“She set us up.” I coughed and closed my eyes.
“Doesn’t matter. We’re on their property and the harpy princess is dead. The evidence is against you.” Luce cursed again and met my stare. “I’m sorry. It has to be this way.”
What? Understanding dawned on me as he conjured death fire and pushed it into my chest. I shook my head and tried to speak but no words came out. In the next moment the world faded around me. The shithead teleported me away.
There was nothing I could do because the death fire consumed me, pulling me into the ashes of death. The ashes I would rise from in a few hours. After Luce was executed for a crime I committed.
Sorrow filled me and I wasn’t sure I wanted to rise from the ashes if it meant Lucent wouldn’t be there when I woke.
2
Ember
Seagulls called out to each other, sounding like they were laughing. They probably were with me being the butt of their joke. Ocean water lapped at the shore a short distance away, telling me I was on the beach.
Fucking Lucent.
Slowly I opened my eyes and sat up. A low hum of a headache echoed in my skull and I smelled like ash. I never knew what to expect when I woke from my first rebirth. Mom said it was different for each person and got easier as we grew older. Since I was only half fire phoenix, we never knew what would happen.
I’m glad this little test run resulted me being reborn. But why wouldn’t it? Because my father was a god? In my book that would ensure I would wake from death fire.
I’ve watched a phoenix die and then rise from the ashes before. It was during a battle with a rival phoenix clan. One of mom’s guards was attacked while she was flying in her bird form. Her attacker broke her wings, making Judy drop from the sky and land on the ground. Moments later she was covered in fire while several of our clan members circled around her, forming a barrier to protect her body while she regenerated.