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Mate?Soulmate? I didn’t want to look away from Calder and Lucius, not when Calder was about to raise his hand and slash my phoenix’s throat with his claws. The voice compelled me to look. It was too sinful, too tempting, and it promised me things I could never hope to achieve on my own.
“How?” I asked, my voice hoarse, and my mouth as dry as ash. When I glanced to my right, smokewascurling through the air. No, it wasn’t smoke, it was mist. It clung to the feet of a tall man standing at the side of the road, a ball cap sat backward on his head. His handsome face was set in sardonic lines, and silver and red glinted in his eyes.
It had to be the man who aided in my abduction last night, but why was he offering to help me now? I didn’t trust it, but I couldn’t deny that he seemed powerful, maybe even capable of saving Lucius.
He snapped his fingers; the sound echoed around me and the trees behind him froze in place. Not just the trees. When Iglanced from him back to Lucius, certain this distraction had cost him his life, I saw that they too had frozen. My beautiful phoenix was on his knees, supporting himself with a fist on the ground, his wings draped down his back, too heavy to hold them up. Blood coated every inch of his skin, and his head hung low. Calder looked like a conquering warrior as he stood over him, claws raised for that fatal blow.
“This is a crossroads,” the strange man with the scary eyes said with a laugh. “And I’m a crossroads demon. For a price, you can have anything.” His hand swept through my line of sight to point at the blood of the coyote that soaked the road. “Your sacrifice is acceptable.”
Ziv hissed at my side, his small body butting against my leg. Anything? I looked from Lucius back to the man, swathed in mist at the side of the road. He looked as mysterious and demonic as he’d proclaimed he was. I didn’t doubt that he could deliver.
“Can you break his curse?” I asked. That was the only thing I’d want, for Lucius to survive, to be free again. That might be worth whatever prize this demon would demand of me. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that the ‘sacrifice’ was enough of a payment.
He laughed as if I’d said something stupid. “Of course I can. Is that what you want?” He moved his hand and out rolled a parchment covered in fine print. I had this sick sense of doom fill me at the sight of it. Fine print meant tricks. It meant I’d find myself trapped in this deal in ways I couldn’t predict. But Lucius would be alright…
The demon’s footsteps were completely silent as he got closer. Ziv hissed and postured, but the cat didn’t attack, it knew it was outmatched. “I’m feeling generous. You’ve got pluck, human. And your soulmate, he’s suffered enough, don’t you think? I’ll let you have an entire lifetime with him before I come to claim my prize. Sound fair?”
My fingers tingled, and the parchment was right there, hovering in front of me. A dotted line glowing to tell me where to sign. A pale gray feather waved in the corner of my eye, the demon holding out an old-fashioned quill for me that dripped red at the tip. That red color was too much like blood for me, it turned my stomach.
I stepped back, my foot making a nasty squishing noise in the blood, and searched for a different answer. “Ticktock, the clock is ticking.” The demon wagged the feather in my face, and it reminded me of Lucius. I glanced his way again. The agonizing tableaux frozen in time; his imminent death. Calder’s claws were so close to his throat. Wait, were they getting closer? Was time not frozen but slowed?
Ziv meowed loudly, hissing when the demon sidled even closer, heat bathing my side as it wafted from his body like the fires of hell. I needed to run to Lucius, push Calder over. I needed a weapon. Serious firepower. Lucius would heal if Calder didn’t strike him, wouldn’t he?
My hand slipped into my pocket and brushed over the neat little bundle of phoenix feathers, Lucius’s gift. When I pulled them out, the demon hissed with displeasure, and that emboldened me. Instead of stepping back, I stepped forward. My eyes wereon the werewolf and the man who was my soulmate, according to that demon. I didn’t doubt that part, it felt right.
A truck was coming up the road. It was moving almost imperceptibly slowly, but I could see it now, even though I hadn’t before. Time was definitely moving, so this was my only chance. Picking the big flight feather from the bunch, I raised it as if I intended to use it to sign the demon’s papers. “A lifetime with him, and his curse broken?” I asked, stalling for time.
“Yes,” the demon hissed, eyes narrowed. I threw myself forward, the phoenix feather burning through the endless windings of paper. Sound rushed in my ears, the roar of a truck, the scream of frustration of the demon, and Ziv’s howl of fear. I had only one goal: to get to Lucius.
Chapter 13
Lucius
I was about to die. I’d defeated most of the shapeshifters, but this was an impossible fight and I’d known that from the start. It didn’t matter. I’d die with my conscience clear. Ava would be safe, out of Calder’s reach. Ziv had herded her away, and he was circling her with his magic. Soon he’d flash her to safety, and the werewolf could never find her then. It wasn’t quite the outcome I’d hoped for that morning, but it was good enough.
I felt light as a feather, lighter than I had in years. A stone had lifted from my shoulders, and tension left my flesh. My wounds were grave, but I could survive. Not so with the blow the werewolf was about to strike, and I wasn’t strong enough to avoid it.
Ziv’s howl was ice in my veins; that was a warning, a sound of failure. I saw what was going on in a fraction of a second, but it wasn’t enough to truly alter the outcome. The male watching from the sidelines was right behind Ava, and the silver and red of his eyes finally told me what he was. A demon.
Ava was coming toward me, holding one of my flight feathers like a sword in one hand, with a determined look on her face. Once again, she was facing danger head-on rather than running from it. This time, she was charging tomyrescue, but what could she possibly do against Calder? He was wounded, but not gravely, and was healing before my eyes.
Then I saw the truck, its metal grill gleaming in the sunlight. I had no fire left in me; I had no strength, but to save Ava? I’d do anything. As Calder’s blow collided with my throat, blood spurted and a roar burst from my mouth. With a last remaining surge, I pushed to my legs, tackled the werewolf around the waist, and threw the two of us straight into the path of the oncoming truck.
Pain exploded, white hot, and all-consuming. It felt like each bone in my body shattered, my heart pumping one final time, as my wings disintegrated into ashes and scattered on the wind. The truck rolled over us, crushing Calder, me, everything.
We flew across the road from the blow, and I couldn’t hold on to my enemy. I crashed against the trunk of a tree, and Calder was gone. This was it. With a herculean effort, I shifted my eyes from the wrecked truck to where I’d last seen my precious female. I soaked up her pale features, glasses askew and splattered with blood, but she was unharmed. Calder’s body lay between her and me, and he was definitely not getting up again. Good.
The demon had no leverage now, she was safe. Ziv would take care of the rest, he’d take her to safety, and make sure that Aries would find her. With that knowledge sinking in, I allowed the pain to sweep me away. It was time to give in, to surrender to the inevitable, but that was okay. My death would be worthwhile.
The flames took hold of me, consuming me until there was nothing left. I knew this feeling well. I’d gone through it before even if it had been well over a hundred and fifty years ago. Did a phoenix die the same way it was reborn? Once I was all ash, would I fly away on the wind? One last journey before I disappeared from the world forever?
“Lucius! No! Come back to me!” Ava’s shout tore at me, called me. I shouldn’t be able to hear her if I was scattering on the wind. I was dead, wasn’t I? But the heat was getting stronger, this wasn’t ash, this was fire, an inferno. A pang of hope struck my chest, but no, that was impossible.
Except, I could feel the thud of my heart in my chest, a powerful beat followed by another, and another. My body tingled, unfurled, and then a feeling struck that I didn’t think I’d ever feel again. The reforming of myself as the fire healed me. Like a bolt of lightning, I shot from the ashes and careened through the sky with unbridled energy. I could not contain my flight, barely managed to turn my body in a tight circle.
Then I saw my mate, my brave Ava, and like a comet, I plummeted back to Earth. She pulled me like a magnet, and joy burst in my veins like champagne. My curse was broken. I didn’t know how, or why now, but I was going to grab hold of what fate offered me with both hands. That was her, my woman.
I landed with a thud in front of her, my legs trembling from the energy still bursting brightly through my flesh. I’d be hyped like this for days, bursting at the seams with renewed power. I’d forgotten how much I needed these rebirths to feel strong, to feel whole, but I knew it now.
