Blaze of Wrath (Phoenix Rising Book 5)

by Harper Wylde

  I will never forget you, Father. I don’t know what to say to you. Everything is falling apart. I was trying to find a way to save you in all of this, yet you’re the one who saved me. You’ve saved my brothers. You’ve saved my mate. Know that I will never forget you. That I forgive you. That I have loved you and will love you forever. You won’t be forgotten. I will make this count. My grandfather’s hold on me tightened, but it wasn’t necessary. My Gargoyle roared in my head, keeping me as still as stone as I said goodbye to a father I hadn’t cherished enough or understood.

  I love you, Mother, I pushed into her mind, afraid to do more, afraid she would be my undoing, and that my father’s plan would fall apart.

  I didn’t know if she could hear me, and my father’s shaky, tear-ridden mental voice echoed my thought as he added, They destroyed her mind days ago, Damien. I’m so sorry. They burned it out interrogating her. There’s nothing left. Mental skills were never her strength. His voice broke on that, as he must have remembered, as did I, their silly arguments over what strengths needed cultivating in the other. She had the strongest heart of anyone I knew, Damien. She fought for you until the very end. She didn’t run, didn’t hide, but protected you until they pushed too hard and shattered her. All that’s left now is the fear and pain they’ve pushed into her. She is a shell of her former self, nothing more.

  I will take your pain. My grandfather’s voice was soft, shaking, though his body remained still. I will take Celine’s as well. She will feel nothing, I promise you. Remember the happy times now, he ordered them. Image after image began to play in my father’s head as my grandfather pulled his pain, never showing the toll it took on him to control so many minds at once, to bear the brunt of the excruciating agony my father must have endured. My father was reliving our lives together, lost in his own head. My mother’s sobs had not stopped, but I could feel he held her as well. It’s your choice, Damien. You can go into the memories with them and I will guide you out of the council room. Or you can watch.

  I will honor them. I will be stone. Just— I watched in my head as my father threw me into the air, catching me and pulling me tightly against him as he ruffled my hair. Just don’t shut me off from the memories completely. I needed to pull from their strength.

  “For treason against the Council, Raphael LaCroix and Celine LaCroix, you are both sentenced to death. Your sentences will now be carried out,” Councilman Stepanov declared, glee ringing in every morbid word.

  Twenty-Six

  Nix

  I listened to every word said, even as my body refused to obey me. I could feel Gaspard’s continued grip on my shoulder, acting as a ballast against the storm raging inside of me. Somehow, I recognized Raphael’s grip on my mind also, but it didn’t lessen the fear flowing through me as swiftly as my blood. Shock clawed at me when Gaspard, then Damien, distanced themselves from Raphael and Celine, but enough logic remained in me to realize their plan. We couldn’t fight our way out of here—hell, a rebellion of thousands of members would still struggle against the strongest shifters currently known.

  We will avenge them, I thought over and over, my Phoenix offering a war cry of agreement.

  “Just think, Damien,” Councilman Ishida simpered, interrupting the low murmurs of the other Councilmen as they seemed to be deciding on who would get the honor of dealing the death blow. “If you had never met the little Phoenix here, never introduced her to your father, he may have never started looking toward a rebellion. He liked her, you know. Wanted her to have a ‘better life’ as he called it, not just be forced to breed.” Councilman Ishida’s words were a hiss, his eyes flicking between Damien and me. “If you hadn’t accepted her, hadn’t befriended her, hadn’t chosen her over my daughter, your father would still be alive and well.” He tsked softly, shaking his head as if in sorrow. “You must be wiser in your choices in the future. You don’t have much left to lose.” His hungry, mad eyes skated first over Gaspard, and then onto my other mates.

  Damien merely returned his gaze with a cool, collected calm, and Ishida hissed, realizing his blow hadn’t hid as hard as he had hoped. Well, it hadn’t hit Damien at least. I was bleeding inside, torn asunder by those jagged words. Cruel, assuredly, but correct as well.

  “If we can finish?” Councilman Williams spoke up, drawing his words out in a bored drawl. A slight sheen of sweat covered his brow, however, and he seemed to be fretting about something, though his movements were subtle.

  Joshua. The words was a mental plea, despite the hold still gripping me, and I wasn’t sure if I was pleading for him to come and find a way to stop this, or for him not to interfere in what would surely mean his own death.

  “Yes, yes.” Stepanov waved an agitated hand at his fellow Councilman. “We all have duties to attend to. Maldonado, I know you’ve spoken for the honor of the traitor. As is tradition, I shall finish the other first, so he may watch before escaping into the release of death.”

  I shouldn’t have been glad for the hold on my body, which was preventing me from acting on the desperation running through me and throwing myself at Stepanov. He slunk forward, until he was only an arm’s reach from Celine. Tears still traced her marble cheeks, her blonde hair was in complete disarray around her shoulders, and bruises bloomed like macabre flowers across expanses of her fragile skin. I hadn’t seen Stepanov use his power before, and I wondered if it would be as dark and twisted as Maldonado’s was. Surprisingly, there was only a shine of light from his hands, darkening to a glow of black and red, which edged forward until it washed over Damien’s mother. As soon as it touched her, her nervous guards backed away, standing well clear of the dark strands of magic.

  She didn’t stiffen, and there was no indication that the light hurt her in any way, but a white glow began to rise around her, flowing slowly at first, combatting the red and black that pulsed around her. I wanted to scream, to sob the desperation that was flooding me, filling me more and more with pain and fury as my Phoenix thrashed within the confines of these invisible shackles. The white pulse grew stronger, flowing faster and faster as it disappeared into the glow of black and red, and her body sank to the floor as the white light thinned, fading into a subtle sparkle before it disappeared altogether and her body hit the floor hard, her face connecting with the icy marble with a solid crack of sound that echoed sickeningly in my stomach. Gaspard’s hand tightened on my shoulder, the only betrayal of his emotion, and though it would bruise, I had no complaints.

  Stepanov stepped away with a wide grin stretching across his face as he breathed deeply, taking in whatever he had done to kill her. “Good, good. Maldonado, it is your turn.” He turned, striding from the body as though moments before it hadn’t been a sweet, gentle, kind woman rather than a toy to amuse himself with and then discard.

  Maldonado had none of the grace of Stepanov as he lurched past him, his alter separating out with a gruesome squelching noise. I wanted to scream, to sob, to dive at Damien and cradle him in my arms, to shield my eyes from what was happening as my Phoenix battered against the barrier, desperate to destroy these evil, corrupt creatures.

  A door flung open and Joshua lurched inside, unsteady on his feet, his eyes wide as they took in the scene. Before he could open his mouth, his father had him in his grasp, and Maldonado struck. His gaping maw dug into Raphael, causing an eerie, inhuman wail of torment to echo off the marble for a moment as Raphael fell, his blood pooling in a repulsive, scarlet puddle around him as Maldonado feasted. Khan laughed and Ishida joined him, the sounds high and depraved as they relished the suffering.

  The chain that held me snapped with such force, I nearly fell from my chair. My Phoenix cried out, her echoing screech radiating from my lips as the fury, the betrayal, the complete and utter horror that had been filling me rushed to the surface and burst forward.

  Twenty-Seven

  Joshua

  My father’s power had worn from my system slowly. His ability to freeze prey in their tracks had immobilized me without discrimi
nation. As soon as he had begun, I knew something terrible was about to happen, and even his plea not to come looking for them, to stay out of sight, was not enough to keep me from my mate—and my friends.

  I had come too late to stop it, and how things had taken such a horrifying turn was beyond my grasp at the moment. I could only gasp. Nix’s wail of pain had blasted through the room, the wall of sound knocking the lesser shifters clear off of their feet and rendering them unconscious. Even Gaspard had been blown slightly backwards as she strode forward. An invisible wind whipped her hair around her body and her eyes, usually golden when she called on her powers, glowed with an ethereal white, her pupils completely obscured as power pulsed from her in waves. The continued shrieking cry of her Phoenix caused the others to clamp their hands over their ears as goosebumps erupted across my skin.

  “Leave!” My father cried in my ear, trying to tug me through the doorway, but I merely shrugged him away, shoving him through the entry. I wouldn’t leave my mate now, no matter what was happening. From the complete shock on the faces of the others, they hadn’t been expecting this either, and all of us stood helplessly as chaos reigned around her. Flames licked up from her hands, swirling around her arms, weaving and winding like snakes to her call. Slowly, they shimmered, shifting in color as black grew up through the veins, the yellows in her fire turning to a brilliant gold so bright, it hurt my eyes.

  “Trap her!” Stepanov shrieked, his eyes wide, but Rahal had already brushed past me, darting out the door and away from what was unfolding around us like the coward he was. Ishida cackled with laughter, his mouth hanging wide open, before he disappeared with an echoing pop.

  “You killed them.” The words echoed as they fell from Nix’s lips, and I couldn’t be sure if it was her Phoenix speaking or her. Wind whirled around us, the sensation of wings brushing my skin, holding us away from her as we tried to approach. “For no reason. You enjoyed it,” she snarled. Her flames resembled lava now—molten, glowing, and deadly—as they lashed from her grip, striking out like whips. “You smiled. You laughed.” Khan wasn’t laughing now. Instead, he was taking a wary step away from her forward advancement.

  “You can’t kill death, girl,” Stepanov snapped, though he was pale. “We appreciate power, however, so you may be a good fit for this Council.”

  She shrieked then, her sightless eyes turning to him. “I will never join you. Never. You all will be wiped from the surface of this earth. Starting with him,” she roared, her power blasting forward toward Maldonado with unerring accuracy. With a speed I hadn’t realized he possessed, Maldonado pulled Khan forward, directly into the path of the blow. Khan screamed, but the sound cut off after a moment, the fire she directed consuming him in a single blow as he burned to ash, fluttering onto the floor. As Khan burned under her flames, Maldonado grabbed Stepanov’s arm, tugging him from the room before he had time to object, screaming for guards as he went. When she turned to follow them, she appeared to nearly float above the floor, her sightless eyes apparently no impediment to finding her target.

  “I can’t get in!” Gaspard cried in frustration, and Damien echoed the sentiment with a growl.

  “She can’t take on all of the sentries!” Killian said, his words desperate as he fought against the wind. “She’ll burn out first and be helpless!”

  “Honey,” I called as she approached, her eyes locked on the door, flames still winding thick and hot around her. “Nix. Nix!” I screamed her name as she stepped up next to me and paused, her blind eyes turning to take me in. “Stop now, baby. Please. We’re safe, but we have to go,” I pleaded.

  “Joshua,” she murmured my name, her voice still echoing. “Mate,” she added. The white faded from her eyes, the flames sputtering out. Her gaze sought Damien across the room as tears fell without pause, the smoke that remained swirling around her. “I’m so sorry,” she gasped before she collapsed, only my quick hands keeping her from hitting the floor.

  “Quickly,” a voice hissed behind me and my father’s pale face appeared in the doorway. “The guards are terrified, but they will be here in moments. Follow me, and I’ll show you to a place to say your goodbyes.” Damien had reached us, with Gaspard and my friends on his heels as they inspected Nix for injury. I looked to him for confirmation and he nodded sharply. Lines were carved deeply into his face now, ones that hadn’t been there this morning, and I wished I could help soothe him in some way, but now wasn’t the time.

  My father led us through the hall, slipping into corridors only used by the Council members, and winding us away from the crush of approaching guards. “I can only give you a few minutes,” he told me apologetically. “They’re going to be livid. They’re weaker now, and afraid.” His cautious, curious eyes danced over Nix. “I won’t see you die today.” He held up his hand before any of us could open our mouths. “I’m no idiot. She did not attack you. You went for her even after my warning. She’s your mate.” His eyes shot to the others and his brows rose for a moment. “Yours as well, I assume?” Though they didn’t answer, he shook his head. “You need to leave. Run, as fast as you can. Retaliation will be swift and brutal. I’m leaving now. I don’t need to be more complicit in this. Their other mind readers are weak, nothing along the caliber of Raphael…” There was genuine sorrow in his voice as he spoke the name. Shaking his head slowly, he continued, “If I don’t know where you’re going, I can’t be a danger to you.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder, laying his head against my mine for a moment. “Be happy, Joshua.” With that, he slipped from the room and let the echoing quiet surround us.

  Realization struck me like a rock and I passed Nix into Ryder’s waiting arms, allowing him to check her for injury. “I can’t leave,” I stated, my Basilisk thrashing inside of me at the idea of our mate disappearing into the rebellion without us.

  “What?” Hiro gasped, turning his attention from Nix to me.

  “You’re not coming?” Theo asked softly, his hand resting on Damien’s shoulder to offer support.

  “I can’t,” I said, trying to explain and looking anywhere but at my mate. My eyes sought out Gaspard’s first and he nodded, understanding faster than the others. “They don’t know I’m involved. They’re going to need another member to help with the Council work. They were short before all of this happened. Now, they’re down two members, Ishida’s mind is gone as well… Gaspard’s going with you, I assume, since it’d be suicide for him to stay.” Gaspard nodded. “There’s too much we don’t know yet. Someone has to stay behind.”

  “Not you,” Damien argued, his voice cracking as he spoke for the first time. His russet eyes were hot and hard as they met mine. “I’m not losing any more family, Joshua, and you’re my brother as much as any of these guys are,” he added with a wave of his hand. “You’re her mate. My friend. You’ve sacrificed for all of us.” His voice faltered, and he had to take a deep breath before he could continue. “I won’t put her through that,” he declared with his eyes on Nix, before turning back to me. “I won’t lose you, Joshua. I won’t lose a brother as well as my parents.”

  Damien’s words were all I had wanted to hear, causing gratitude and sadness to reverberate through me. “We don’t have a choice,” I told him quietly, reaching out to grasp his forearm in solidarity. “They’ll be looking to fill Council seats while they plot how to come after you. They have no reason to suspect me. I was a natural choice to take the next available seat anyway, you know that as well as I do. I can be your eyes and ears here, someone you can trust to feed you information about what’s happening.” I looked at each of them as realization dawned in their eyes. “I don’t do this lightly. But it will make her safer. I told her I would do anything it took to keep her, and all of you, safe. And that’s a promise I will keep.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Nix

  Joshua’s words echoed in my mind and I shoved from Ryder’s grasp. I hadn’t caught the whole conversation, but I knew he was staying behind—leaving me. “No,” I cried out, reachi
ng a hand for him and letting him tug me into his arms so he could bury his face in my hair.

  “Baby, it’s not forever,” he murmured softly, his warm voice in my ear. “It’s only a little while.” He pulled back, tucking my hair behind my ear as my other mates surrounded me. “Keep her safe,” he ordered, reaching out to clasp every hand in turn.

  “Always,” Hiro assured him, stroking a hand down my hair.

  “You can’t let him,” I cried out, desperate for their support. “We’re a family! We can’t leave him alone,” I sobbed. This was too much, too fast. Too much had been lost today, I couldn’t handle another goodbye.

  “I haven’t been alone since I met you, Nix.” He pressed my hand to his heart, cupping my chin as he drew my eyes up to meet his soft, damp blue ones. “I told you before you were my soul mate, that it wasn’t just a mark talking. I meant it then and I mean it now. I heard what you said in Denali that day, sweetheart, but I wanted to wait until we were alone. I’m not waiting anymore.” My mind raced as he tugged me closer. “I love you, Nix. You’re right here inside of me, a part of me, and I will keep our whole family safe. Just for a little while, lean on me. Let me prove myself to you—to all of you—and earn my place just like all of you have done. Let me love you from afar.”

  The others shifted to the side, allowing Damien to cradle me against his chest, his face out of my view, but his hands soft as they glided to my hips. “Kiss our brother, Nix. Remind him what he has to stay alive for. Show him how much we’ll all miss him, until our family is complete again.” A cry broke from my chest and I flung my arms around Joshua’s neck, letting him take my mouth in a hungry kiss, the heat of it scorching through me, though it didn’t warm the shattered, icy fear that lingered in the pit of my stomach.