The First Dawn (Daughter of the Phoenix Book Three)

by Victoria J. Price

  He’s manipulating you. But she knew what it felt like; to feel like you’d do anything to see someone you’d lost. Sometimes that gaping hole in her chest that Sophie had left behind was punched right open, and it still left her gasping for air just as badly as it did the day Sophie died. Erebus knew what that was like too. It was written all over him. Don’t fall for it, she told herself.

  “Terah was—” He sucked in a breath. “She was everything to me. When she died, and I couldn’t be there with her in her final moments, when I had to watch from the confines of my prison…” His knuckles turned white as he gripped the stone wall, but his expression held no anger. Only loss. Grief.

  And then she saw again, what she had seen that day he rescued her, when he’d pretended to be someone else. The broken young man who had lost his father, and his love. The only two people who had ever mattered to him. She saw a flicker of the man he could have been, had he lived a life full of love, rather than one full of hate and vengeance. And it struck her, then, why he kept pleading with her. “You’re afraid,” she said. “Afraid to die.”

  He turned to look at her, those storm clouds in his eyes quietly swirling. “There were so many layers to my punishment. Being separated from Terah. The prison. Losing my physical form.” He held a hand to his chest, as if to feel his heartbeat was truly there, and Fia wondered if he truly had a heart at all. “This body was made new upon my release, but it is weak.”

  Good. Fia didn’t say anything. Just quietly watched him as he offered up his strange confession.

  “In Ohinyan, when we die, we either join the sky spirits, or we sink to the depths of Ohinyan, and simply cease to exist. What I was during my imprisonment—it was barely an existence at all. A half-life.” His face darkened. “How do you torture someone? You don’t kill them, you keep them half alive. I loathe my shadow form. It has its uses, but I have no idea how my father tolerated it. It is an absence of everything, to exist that way.”

  Fia told herself not to feel sorry for him, not to feel anything for him at all. “And now you’ve been damaged.” She saw the way his hand still clutched at his side, the black veins that spread across his chest. It wasn’t that she hadn’t healed him properly, it was more than likely that it wasn’t possible, and he knew it.

  Erebus didn’t reply. He closed his eyes, breathed in the scents of the harbour that carried to them on the breeze. “Azarna spice,” was all he said, as more of the spicy scent wafted over to them. “Your skills are developing. When did you realise you could syphon?”

  Syphon. So that’s what it was. It had happened so many times now; with Lorn, with Jax, even with Erebus. Little pieces of their power had seemed to slip away into her grasp, but only when they touched. She wondered, if she reached out for him now, if she could syphon whatever power he possessed, and leave him as nothing but an ordinary angel. If he so badly wanted his body, why not let him have it. Instead, she held onto the information for another time. He was no threat to her in that moment. She didn’t even think he knew what he was, or what he wanted.

  “You said we want the same thing.” She looked up at him as she spoke. He’d schooled his expression back to bored, but the tightness in his jaw told her it was taking a lot of his concentration to do so. “I want to rekindle the sun. To ensure Ohinyan doesn’t die. Whether it’s me, or Lorn, it doesn’t matter, but I’ll stop at nothing to see it done.”

  “I too want to rekindle the sun. But...”

  And there it was. The wild goose chase he’d been dragging her and Lorn along for. “You don’t know how, do you? You said as much. You weren’t paying attention.” It was a low blow, but she wouldn’t let herself feel sorry for him. She still saw his shadows around Alexander’s throat every time she looked at him, and it took all her restraint not to press a hand to his arm and see what power she could syphon from him, if she could, but she knew he’d be waiting for it and would disappear the moment she tried.

  He didn’t rise to her bait. He simply said, “I have a few ideas. I had…” He cleared his throat. “The angels’ ancient texts were destroyed, and as far as I know, there are no records.”

  “Why would you have the records destroyed if you want to rekindle the sun?”

  He rolled his eyes, and she saw that boyish charm flicker across his face again before his expression darkened. “Retribution. Have you never done a thing in anger, Fia?” He cocked his head as he looked at her, and he suddenly seemed so young. Like the young man he was before his imprisonment.

  She wanted to ask him then, what he had done to be imprisoned in such a manner. But she wasn’t sure she could stomach it. It had been enough just to stand beside him this entire time without the sickly panic of him surprising her with one of his awful visions.

  An idea struck her. One that had to be carried out without him. “I have an idea. Go and find Lorn. Between the three of us, we’ll rekindle the sun. We can work out what comes next after that.” She didn’t mention anything about healing him. Neither did he.

  “And simply let you run away?” he asked.

  Fia straightened, her gaze drifting out to the harbour, to the white sails of ships barely visible against the darkness of the ocean beyond. “You said it yourself, you can find me anywhere.” She wouldn’t let him know that she was afraid, wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he had any effect on her at all. She folded her arms across her chest and turned to face him, and she could have sworn he almost swayed from his injuries. “You’d better hurry, we don’t have a lot of time.”

  Chapter Twenty–Five

  Alexander

  Y our bird is a snake. He knew Evina didn’t mean Jalmar and Olmar, the brothers who could shift into eagles. He watched Osara’s white Igran fly away as he left his tent and again thought it odd that her animal form was not well suited to the Nords’ colder climate. He would deal with her later.

  Only a few hours had passed since he’d seen Fia, and already it felt like a lifetime ago. It seemed a cruel twist of fate to hold her in his arms for a moment, only to have Erebus snatch her away, but still, he was grateful for those few moments together, determined that they wouldn’t be their last. He promised himself if he saw Erebus again he would find a way to immobilise him, to return him to his prison; whatever it took to stop him, Alexander would find a way.

  Jax had taught the Nords how to play a card game, Rapt, and they were still playing when Alexander had stepped out for some air. He hadn’t been able to rest. Aura had found him a spare uniform so that he blended in better, and he walked the camp observing the way the other angels went about their duties.

  He made his way past two soldiers sparring in the early dawn light, wooden training swords clacking against each other and marked a few points that were wrong with their form, making a note to tell Rainn. The scent of fires being stoked as angels awoke drifted through the camp, along with the unmistakable stench of unwashed soldiers and something plant based, not unlike the menta plant they used to dress wounds back in Ohinyan.

  Alexander had seen many wounded on his walk and added it to his list of questions to ask Rainn about; there seemed to be no healer among them. The angel had gone ahead to the gate to scout, and although Alexander had insisted on going with him, Rainn convinced him that the tethers binding the other angel’s to Randin were too fragile; there were only so many ways around the magic. Their presence at the camp was a great risk. All it would take was one angel too weak to resist Randin’s power for them to fly to his city and inform him.

  Alexander had conceded that it was safer for the Nords if he remained with them, for the time being. They were strong, but they had no magic, and in a world where it was abundant, he could be their only line of defence. He laughed to himself at the thought. The Nords were formidable fighters, and shifting was its own kind of magic, but not enough against the likes of the Tahjiik, and there were more out there.

  Two more angels sparred, this time, with powers of their own. A female threw a gust of dirt into a male’s
face, and he summoned a vine that shot up from the earth and wrapped around her leg. She laughed in response, but Alexander’s surprise was not so easy to hide. Not wanting to venture too far from the others, he made his way back to the tent, eager to leave as quickly as possible, his own magic singing beneath the surface of his skin, already impatient for release.

  He turned a corner and caught a flash of red hair just like Fia’s, but it was another angel, and he silently chastised himself for believing it would be anything but. He caught sight of Noor talking with a soldier, they were handing her something wrapped in a leaf and she returned a leaf of her own. A healing poultice, no doubt. The witch was always experimenting with her environment.

  “We’re leaving now?” she asked as he reached her, as if she’d understood the look on his face.

  Alexander nodded. “We’ve waited long enough. I know it’s a risk, but everyone knew what they were getting themselves into when they left Ohinyan, knew that it might be our lives on the line.”

  “I agree,” she said, reaching for his arm. “Watch yourself at the gate, Alexander.”

  She looked as if she might say more, but Maab came to join them, his armour fastened and ready. “Rainn has returned, the route to the gate is clear.” It was half a day on foot, and Rainn had cleared the distance in a few hours of flying. Had Alexander come alone, he would have flown for the gate and not stopped, but he couldn’t leave the others behind. He wouldn’t abandon his friends.

  “And Osara?” Alexander asked, Evina’s warning still fresh in his thoughts.

  Maab’s expression was just as stoic as ever, no hint of worry or concern. “She’s taken up her shift after Olmar, she’ll catch up with us on the way.”

  “Do you trust her, Maab?” Alexander remembered the scroll of parchment tied to Osara’s foot as she’d flown away from their resting place, the way the tiny petal creatures had woken him up to watch her. But Osara was a Nord, and Alexander didn’t want to overstep Maab’s position.

  Noor shot him a look that felt like a warning but didn’t voice any concerns, and Alexander wondered if she’d seen something in Osara too, the same way Evina had, but knew Noor well enough to be certain the witch would reveal any necessary information when it was needed.

  “With my life,” Maab finally said, leading the way back to their tents.

  As the others prepared to leave, Alexander’s thoughts drifted to Erebus and Randin’s alliance. Erebus had used Ohinyan’s dying sun to his advantage—used Randin to his advantage. There had to be more to the story with Evina, whether she knew the truth of it or not. Alexander felt certain her power served a greater purpose for Erebus than simply breaking the wards on his prison. He’d seen the Earth witches do that.

  Rainn followed the others out of the tent, Evina a step behind him. She caught Alexander’s gaze as she did so, but Jax said something to her quietly and she turned away.

  Alexander felt the anticipation of finding Fia ripple through him, dragging a hand through his hair—an old habit—to calm himself. It had felt like a dream to hold her close, one minute she was there, the next she was gone. It was as if he’d imagined it. He had to make it back to Ohinyan for so many reasons but he couldn’t hide from the knowledge that she was the most important one.

  ***

  The walk to the gate had been tense. A thick fog had rolled in. Rainn had assured them it was normal this close to the mountains, but it unsettled the Nords. Alexander didn’t like it much, either. He’d remained dressed in the soldier’s attire. He hated the restrictive feeling of the garments, the way the openings in the back rubbed against his wings, but as Rainn had pointed out, they were lucky they’d found such a friendly camp as other angels were not as amicable after their years of serving Randin. Some would do anything to earn a place in the king’s city.

  His magic seemed to rattle against his bones as they neared the gate. The air was thick, and though he’d considered sending the fog away on a gust of air, he’d decided against it. Whilst they could not see far ahead, it meant no one would be able to see them either. But they all remained on high alert. The forest seemed unnaturally still; the ground beneath their feet was damp and the only sounds were their breathing and the occasional snap of a twig.

  Something wasn’t right. Alexander took a few steps to clear himself of the others, pushing himself off the ground to look above the fog. There was movement in the grey, trees shaking as if something were moving towards the group.

  “Look out,” he called just as Maab’s roar tore through the quiet.

  Alexander sent a gust of air to clear the fog away from his friends, revealing two Tahjiik and a host of angels surrounding them.

  Rainn, Jax and Aura had positioned themselves defensively around Evina, but it was too late, the Tahjiik had already seen her.

  “Seize her!” one of them called out.

  The forest floor below exploded into a flurry of movement. Alexander dived down towards the two Tahjiik, one male, one female, as they both turned their attention towards Henric, the black bear, sparks shooting from their fingertips.

  This time Alexander didn’t hesitate. He threw himself at the male, knocking him over and rolling with him through the mud. Steel cut through the air around him as Randin’s angels fought against his friends. But he didn’t need a weapon. The Tahjiik’s eyes flared amber beneath him, and the male muttered something in a language Alexander couldn’t understand.

  “Yield. Call back the soldiers, and I will let you go,” Alexander breathed, a knee pressed into the Tahjiik’s chest.

  Sparks crackled at the Tahjiik’s fingertips in response, and without hesitation, Alexander pulled the air from the male’s lungs. The sparks fizzled to nothing, the Tahjiik’s fingers clasping at his own throat, gasping for breath.

  “Yield,” Alexander said again.

  The Tahjiik shook his head. Stopped clutching at his throat. His fingertips crackled, and Alexander pulled until there was no air left. No life. Until the Tahjiik lay still.

  “Lamont!” a woman screamed as Alexander stepped away from the body. She threw herself over the male, cradling his head in her lap. She narrowed her eyes at Alexander, whispered something in that strange language, and they both disappeared.

  Alexander didn’t have time to register it. A pair of arms wrapped around him in an attempt to tackle him, but he steadied his weight with a gust of air, pushing it back at his attacker. Another angel. Alexander sensed no magic in him, and sadness washed over him as he knew this would be no fight, that the angel would lose their life if they did not give in.

  “Please, you can walk away from this. Yield,” he said as the angel tried to push against his magic.

  A shadow passed over them, and the angel rolled away. Alexander swung around just as Noor landed a kick in the centre of his chest. He coughed back his surprise, but she was already on her feet, coming at him with a sword.

  “Noor, what are you doing?” Alexander asked, catching his breath as he took a step back. The witch looked a little off balance—not just off balance, but something seemed off about her entirely.

  She said nothing, just drew a blade and charged at him. Alexander swung out of the way, pivoting to miss her strike.

  “Noor,” he began, diving to miss another blow from her sword. “This isn’t you, whatever this is. We can help you.” He sent her sliding back through the mud on a gust of air, surging himself forwards at the same time to disarm her. The only way to restrain her completely would be to pull the air from her as he had with the Tahjiik but he wouldn’t do that. This wasn’t right. One of Erebus’s tricks, perhaps. But Alexander wouldn’t give up on his friend so easily.

  Noor pulled another blade from the sheath across her back, circling him. Still she said nothing, and still, something about the way she moved seemed wrong. Her blue eyes were empty of their usual lustre, but she seemed to know what she was doing; her movements were not those of a stringed puppet.

  Milena rolled past them, fur and paws tangled wi
th the wings of an angel, but Alexander held his attention on Noor and the blade she pointed at him as they circled each other. He didn’t draw his sword, no good would come of it if he used it against his friend. The fighting continued around them in a blur, roars and screams of pain from all sides, but Alexander couldn’t take his attention from Noor.

  Not until Milena’s piercing cry broke through everything, and he turned to check if she was okay. It was a mistake. Noor lunged at him, and he pushed off into the air to escape the piercing tip of her blade. He swung around to face her, just as she gasped, and stilled.

  Blood trickled from her mouth. A sword surged through her chest. She let her own sword fall, hands pressing around the wound as the sword withdrew as quickly as it had come.

  “Noor!” Alexander called out, flying back down to catch her, but before he could reach her, she shifted. Osara. The real Lady Noor sat behind her, braced on one knee, and caught Osara as she fell back.

  Alexander landed beside them as Osara whispered, “You knew.”

  “I did,” was all the witch said in response.

  Our hearts are not so easily taken. Noor’s words echoed in Alexander’s thoughts. How long had she known?

  “Do you serve Erebus?” Alexander asked Osara as she lay in Noor’s arms.

  Osara said nothing. She reached for Noor’s face, but her hand didn’t make it. It slipped away, and the woman fell still.

  “She served Randin,” Noor said quietly, closing Osara’s eyes and laying her on the ground. The fight had slowed around them.

  “She wasn’t a Nord?” Alexander asked. Osara had looked just like Noor, it was uncanny.

  Noor gently tugged at one of the metal adornments in Osara’s hair and slipped it into a pocket. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and caught his gaze. “She was a shifter, but she could shift into any form she chose. Her Igran was just for show.”

  It gave Alexander no satisfaction to know his suspicions about Osara had been right, but there would be time later to discuss this with Noor and Maab.