by Bella Klaus
I clapped a trembling hand over my mouth, blinking over and over, not quite believing how Kresnik had known we would come here.
In a voice thick with emotion, I asked, “Did you see what that was?”
“A dragon.” Valentine pushed me away from the edge of the pool and stepped in front of me. Raising both hands, he shoved the zombies back with several deep splashes.
His magic kept the dead bodies beneath the water, even though they tried rising to the surface and toward the edges of the pool.
An explosion sounded from the other side of the spa. Debris and wood splinters from the sauna flew across the basement, sending Hades and some of the mercenaries toward the pool. They bounced off Valentine’s barrier and toward the sauna full of blood.
With a furious roar, Hades flapped his wings, loosening black feathers as he rose off the ground. The sauna was now a pile of burning lumber, but something shifted from deep within the flames.
“Oh no.” My voice trembled.
A trio of alligator-sized salamanders crawled out of the wreckage, their glossy skin as orange as the flames, littered with a few black dots. They lashed their tails, which streamed three-foot-long jets of fire.
Every mercenary nearby fired glowing bullets into the salamanders, making them retreat toward the burning sauna. Hades threw a javelin of black flames into the middle salamander’s eye.
The creature screeched, its tongue uncoiling like a whip, encircling the nearest mercenary’s waist.
“Watch out,” I yelled, but the mercenary had already sliced himself free with a sword.
The salamander reared back and roared. Its companions skittered forward and blew sheets of fire at the surrounding mercenaries.
Palpitations pulsed through my heart, their reverberations rattling my bones to the marrow. Every ounce of moisture in my throat dried under the intense heat and chemical burn.
“Hades,” I shouted. “Can you break out of the extra wards?”
“Not without pulling down the entire house,” he shouted back.
Zombies in the pool. Dragons at the top of the stairs. Salamanders crawling toward us with lungs more powerful than any flamethrower.
Something rose from the jacuzzi’s depths that looked like an ifrit but twice its size and made of flames the color of blood.
My stomach plummeted. I turned to Valentine, who was now pushing down a bunch of bodies in orange jumpsuits that had emerged from beneath the zombies in dark denim. He couldn’t protect us from a falling house and hold down a bunch of undead fire users compelled to drag us into the water.
At this rate, we were all going to die.
Unless I worked out a way to break us free with my phoenix.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I pushed off from the basement’s stone wall, rushed to Valentine’s side, and grabbed his arm. He held his other arm outstretched over the water, with his muscles bulging through the armor as though it took every ounce of his strength to hold back the swarm of zombies lurking under the pool.
Chaos filled my ears. Mercenaries in gray armor rushed around the edges of the spa, searching for exits and stepping over the charred bodies of their comrades. The salamanders on the basement’s far right made screeching sounds that echoed across the space. In the jacuzzi behind them, the mass of red flames coalesced into a giant that made a low rumbling roar.
The only people who seemed calm were Hades, who hovered several feet above us with his wings outstretched, and Caiman, who stood at my side, holding himself rigid and expressing the British stiff upper lip. Valentine breathed hard, but I suspected part of his anxiety came out of worry for me.
By now, the water’s surface was a mass of indigo denim, prison orange from the jumpsuits, and the gray and purple of bloated and mottled flesh. Revulsion skittered through my insides. I snatched my gaze away from the sight, meeting Valentine’s violet eyes.
“Stay away from the edge of the pool,” he snarled. “I can’t guarantee that Kresnik won’t send more of these creatures to push against my barrier.”
“Alright.” I took a step back. “But I’m going to get us out of here.”
His brow furrowed. “How?”
“See those salamanders by the sauna?” I flicked my head in their direction. “I think they’re Kresnik’s weakest link. If I can injure them or scare them away, we can escape through the tunnel you once told me about.”
Grief crossed Valentine’s features, and his outstretched arm sagged. The water beneath us plopped and splashed and a bloated limb rose from its surface. He turned his gaze back to the pool and retightened his grip on his magic.
My stomach tightened and my heart clenched with an attack of guilt. I hadn’t meant to bring up such a painful memory. Valentine had told me about the escape route in the sauna as he lay dying from the dagger of solid flames. The dagger of solid flames he’d used against himself while half-crazed with the blood lure.
“Listen to me.” The sharp edge in his voice pulled me out of the remembered sorrow. It was the same level of exasperation he employed when he already knew I’d made up my mind and he was powerless to stop me from doing something stupid. “You haven’t tested your new body—”
“It’s the avian version of an ifrit,” I said. “You should remember from your fight with Kresnik that they’re impervious to physical attacks.”
“Don’t do this,” he growled.
“It’s not like we have any choices.” I stepped out of grabbing range, pushing my magic down my meridians and shifting my body from flesh to fire. “Kresnik has done something to the wards to prevent even Hades from transporting himself out, and at some point, he’ll probably make the house kill us. You’re not stopping me.”
The last word came out a squawk, and Valentine turned around, his eyes bulging.
“Magnificent,” Caiman said with a gasp.
I turned to the butler, inclining my head in thanks.
A few of the mercenaries around the pool turned in my direction, seeming to find the sight of a phoenix more riveting than the fire-spewing salamanders advancing toward them from the ruins of the sauna, or the dragon filling the stairwell with flames. Even the thing that looked like a fire genie occupying the jacuzzi stopped thrashing about and gaped.
Valentine’s snarl increased in volume. “Mera.”
I ducked my head, avoiding his eyes, and launched myself over the pool with my wings outstretched. He didn’t have to worry for my safety. It wasn’t like I could tackle the dragon and whatever else was waiting for us on the ground floor of the villa. A trio of salamanders couldn’t be that difficult to defeat.
All three of the slimy creatures stared at me through red eyes that resembled blood replenishing tablets. Their black pupils narrowed into slits as I landed three feet in front of them. Up close, their orange skin resembled the slippery exterior of a frog, and the black marks on their faces were composed of raised blemishes.
Some of the tension around my chest eased. They weren’t so scary and looked more amphibian than reptilian—just like elongated frogs, except with wickedly long tails that spurted jets of fire.
The one on the far left lashed its tongue at my leg. The slimy appendage turned to ash on contact with a limb, and the salamander reared back with a screech.
Satisfaction filled my chest, and I advanced toward them, clacking my beak. My fire could hurt them. It made a sick sort of sense considering that legions said that phoenixes had the hottest flames of all supernatural creatures.
“Get out of my way.” My words were a series of menacing caws, but I punctuated them, making shooing motions with my wings.
The salamanders slithered back toward the splintered sauna, their limbs trembling.
Hades flew overhead on his feathery black wings. “Kill them.”
I clacked my beak at him and hissed, “No.”
“Miss Griffin,” he said, sounding exasperated. “This is war.”
Before I could reply, the mercenaries rushed forward, skewering the sa
lamanders with swords of firestone. The creatures’ shrieks rang through my ears like alarm bells, making my flames flicker.
My heart lurched, and a caw loosened from my throat. The salamanders had already retreated. We could have forced them to shift back and interrogated them about Kresnik’s plans.
As the last of the salamanders died, a flash of red filled the right side of my vision. I glanced up to find the fiery creature in the sauna stretching toward me with a muscular arm drawn back as though ready to throw a punch.
Except he was frozen.
Icicles hung off his scowling face, and his blue eyes stared out at me with an expression of alarm.
“That was a djinn.” Hades smashed his fist into the creature’s face. His head flew into the stone wall and smashed into pieces. “A particularly vicious form of ifrit but lacking its mobility.”
I jumped aside with a questioning squawk. Did Hades really just kill that djinn?
“The ice? You should know that the coldest part of Hell is always reserved for betrayers.” The corners of his lips quirked into a smile. “And you’re welcome for the valiant rescue.”
As the ice melted, it reverted into flames that rolled across the floor toward the djinn’s frozen body. I stepped out of its path, my chest filling with hope. Not because the creature survived, but it confirmed something I’d told Valentine about creatures of fire being impervious to harm.
“Bloody Hell,” Hades muttered under his breath. “I’d forgotten it had the perseverance of a cockroach.”
Tearing my gaze from the creature trying to re-form, I continued toward the sauna. Wood splinters seared with every step, turning everything I touched into ash.
“What are you doing?” Hades hovered above me.
I gestured with my wing toward the collapsed wood structure, loosening bits of debris and making him flinch backward.
“Sorry,” I squawked. Hades knew firsthand never to come into contact with the flames of a phoenix. It was a testament to his bravery that he even came this close.
I spread my wings over the wood, shaking out bits of loose fire and trying to set the wreckage alight. When that didn’t work, I spat fireballs that sank through the pile of planks but not quickly enough.
An avian growl warbled in the back of my throat. There was so much of my power I didn’t know how to use, such as how to throw flames and set things alight from a distance.
Hades swooped down. “What on earth are you doing?”
“She’s trying to find the passage that leads us out of the ward,” Valentine said from the other side of the pool.
“Allow me, Lady Phoenix.” Caiman appeared at my side. With a few deft flicks of his wrist, the ancient vampire raised the wood pieces and arranged them into neat stacks by the wall.
The salamanders had left most of the sauna’s floor intact, and the dented stove continued to burn pine-scented coals. A few feet away was a hole big enough to accommodate a large man or a woman-sized phoenix if she folded her wings. I continued toward the secret passageway.
“Miss Griffin,” Hades hissed.
I glanced at the Demon King, who now stood three feet away with his arms folded across his broad chest.
“That tunnel likely contains even more traps,” he said. “At least let me throw a few of these hired soldiers down first.”
I shook my head, not bothering to explain that I couldn’t get physically hurt in this form, and jumped down the chute.
The drop was mercifully short, although my stomach didn’t lurch the way it would have done in my usual form. I landed in a crouch with my wings splayed for balance and my flames illuminating the passage’s stone walls.
Footsteps rushed toward me, their sound picking up in volume as I progressed. Zombies in orange jumpsuits lumbered out of the dark, staring out at me through milky eyes.
“Mera,” Valentine barked.
“What are you doing?” I yelled over my shoulder, my words coming out an indecipherable screech. He was supposed to be holding back the masses of the undead under the pool.
Dipping my head low, I charged forward with my wings outstretched. Damp patches dulled my flames and sizzling filled the air as I barreled through the zombies, setting them alight with my flames.
A wall of fire filled the edges of my vision, presumably from the flames consuming their undead bodies. Shudders ran through my insides as I continued my awkward run, making a mental note to gather up those ashes later before they could regenerate into something nefarious.
Several steps later, I reached the edge of the wards, which fizzled and cracked on contact with my fire. This had to be the edge of the villa’s footprint. If I could push through to the boundary of the house next door and keep going, I could lead Valentine and the others back to Notting Hill Gate.
Just as the wards began to yield, an explosion of white light filled my vision, and everything went black.
Time passed. I wasn’t sure how long passed before I regained consciousness. It could have been a nanosecond, minutes, hours, days, or even weeks. It was like being in a void of black but without a body or a sense of my surroundings. There was no heartbeat, no breath, no ringing in the ears, just an unending nothingness.
I would have parted my lips to croak Valentine’s name, but I had no mouth. I wasn’t even sure how I was even thinking or if this was what it felt like to cease to exist.
My mind rolled back to the explosion—another of Kresnik’s traps. If I was anything like that djinn, then my flames were scattered across the walkway, trying to regroup.
Shit.
Valentine saw me get blown into pieces. If I ever survived this, he would kill me. Worse, lock me up in a pocket dimension and never let me see the outside world.
I pushed away those selfish thoughts. Valentine was out there, his heart shattering at what he might have thought was my demise. I had to put myself back together again to end his suffering.
Crown chakra. Since I had no mind’s eye, I had to think of the word and remind myself that it was the violet energy center at the top of my head like a sphere of amethyst. Something pulsed, sharpening my thoughts, and I summoned my third eye, an indigo as deep as lapis lazuli. As soon as it slotted into place, my ears rang.
I opened my eyes to find pieces of fire clinging to the walls and ceiling of the stone passageway.
Valentine’s snarl echoed through the narrow space. If I had a spine, it would have stiffened. If I had a heart, it would have ached. I had to push that thought aside and focus on pulling myself back together.
Throat chakra was next. I imagined a ball of magic in a soft aquamarine and inhaled a shallow breath.
“Hello?” I cawed.
“What did I tell you?” Hades said with a nervous laugh. “Miss Griffin is indestructible.”
My mind conjured up the image of a green calcite where my heart should be, and I inhaled an even deeper breath, and filled my lungs with air.
“Mera,” Valentine said, his voice hoarse. “Keep pulling the pieces back. You’re nearly complete.”
A tight fist squeezed my heart. I wanted to shift back and let him know I wasn’t in pain, but that would be disastrous in my current state. As the solar plexus chakra slotted into place with a flare brighter than firestone, my surroundings returned to sharp focus.
I lay on my back, with my neck twisted at an awkward angle. My head pointed toward the hole in the ceiling that led to the sauna, where Valentine, Hades, and Caiman stood several feet away among the other mercenaries. In the space between us, flames coated the walls, the ceiling, the floor, with drops of molten fire falling from the ceiling making it impossible for anyone to get close.
Even in the poor light, I could tell their expressions were grim.
“Sorry,” I cawed before pulling in the orange ball of energy that represented the sacral chakra.
A curtain of fire dropped down from the walls and ceiling, snaking its way back toward me. I pulled the magic close, heaving ragged breaths in and out of my lungs. At th
e final chakra—a deep red sphere of bloodstone—my legs twitched, and I rolled onto my left wing.
Valentine rushed to my wing and stared down at me, his eyes burning redder than flames.
My wing shot out, holding him at bay. I cawed, “Don’t come any closer!”
Hades appeared at his side. “Give Miss Griffin a little more credit. She’s a lot stronger than she looks.”
I clacked my beak. Valentine just saw me get blown into pieces. Of course he’d be distraught. Ignoring Hades, I braced my left wing against the wall and pushed myself up with my legs. It took a bit of stumbling forward, loosening flaming feathers as I moved, but I managed to pull myself upright.
Valentine stepped close, his palms outstretched. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
His eyes squeezed shut for the few heartbeats it took for him to exhale his relief, and he placed one of his hands against the wall. My heart lurched, and it took every effort not to throw myself against him and bury my head in his chest.
Each time I saw Valentine get hurt, from dying that first time, having his arm sliced off by Jonathan’s flames, the sword through his chest, and losing his head, it had been agony. But I doubted that any of us could have survived that explosion except perhaps Hades, who I suspected still had his immortal body from his days of being a Greek god.
Valentine’s face hardened. “Never do that again.”
I shook my head and flung my arm toward where I’d last sensed the ward.
Hades stepped forward with a frown. “Do you sense anything straight ahead, Miss Griffin?”
With a nod, I turned my gaze away from Valentine’s red eyes and waddled toward Notting Hill station. Valentine’s magic hung over me as heavy as storm clouds before a hurricane. I trudged forward, trying not to flinch at the force of his anger.
“Everybody stay back,” said Hades. “It looks like Miss Griffin is searching out more traps.”
“My fiancée is not a sniffer dog,” Valentine snarled.
“Of course not,” Hades replied in a voice as smooth as butter. “She’s more like the miner’s canary only with her own source of illumination.”