He took a shaky breath, unsure what to do or say, when the girl stood up. She had surely overheard them and knew that he was no regular raider, but a soldier. The phoenix remained somewhere out of sight, and now that the danger had passed, Sev’s mind was free to face the knowledge of its existence for the first time.
They were supposed to be things of the past, snuffed out just like the rebellion they had symbolized. Once the war was over, the empire’s governors had deemed the creatures too dangerous to remain and too loyal to animages to be trusted. Phoenixes had been hunted into extinction within the borders of the empire, and in the early years following the war, poachers had tracked them into Pyra as well. While the empire’s laws didn’t exist in the Freelands, with the fall of Avalkyra Ashfire, there was no one in the now-independent country to defend them or their lands. No government, no soldiers or infrastructure remained. Each village governed itself and didn’t have the population or resources to unite with the others under a common banner or purpose. Pyra’s people might be free of the empire’s laws, but they were free of its protections, too.
Sev had often wondered why the empire didn’t march into Pyra with its full army and retake the lost province, but according to what he’d overheard, the answer was simple: It wasn’t worth it. The land was too wild and vast to easily reclaim and would require spreading the empire’s forces thin. Besides, Pyra wasn’t a rich country—its economy had all but collapsed during the war, when travel and trade became dangerous—and the cost of rebuilding would be too high.
But then Sev had to wonder—if there was nothing in Pyra the empire wanted, what were he and the other soldiers doing here?
He looked at the girl again. Maybe the Riders weren’t gone after all. Maybe this was why they had come.
“Is that . . . ? Are you a Phoenix Rider?” he asked, his voice soft. He hadn’t spoken the words “Phoenix Rider” in a long, long time. Since his mother and father had died. What if this girl was part of some new rebellion?
The girl crossed her arms, her expression stony. He might have saved her from detection, but he was still a soldier standing between her and her home.
The phoenix chirruped from somewhere behind her, and her harsh features softened somewhat. She crouched down and scooped up one of the tubers from her upturned basket and tossed it into the trees. There was a great crunch and a crackle and an erratic stirring of leaves as the phoenix devoured the treat.
The girl grinned—and Sev smiled too.
There was a moment of camaraderie between them, a heartbeat of relaxed tension, before her breath hitched and her dark eyes widened in alarm.
Sev understood a second later when the air stirred behind him, cooling the sweat that dotted the back of his neck. Before he could react, there was pressure at his hip, a barely audible snick, and then a rough hand jerked his chin to the side while another pressed the blade of his own knife against the exposed flesh of his throat.
I promised her the throne would not come between us. Nothing would. How I long for the foolishness of youth.
- CHAPTER 6 -
VERONYKA
VAL HELD THE KNIFE in a steady hand, a savage smile on her lips and murder in her eyes.
With her long red hair blowing in the breeze, she looked like a deathmaiden, one of Nox’s guides into the dark realms, and this poor soldier had been ensnared like a lost soul on a battlefield.
“Val, no—wait!” Veronyka shouted, her hand outstretched. “Stop.”
Val stayed her hand, though she didn’t remove the blade. She breathed deeply, and the boy shuddered. “He smells of the empire.”
“He saved my life!” Veronyka blurted, stepping closer again. The gravity of the situation hit home when she realized that Xephyra was still about, somewhere in the trees. If Val was mad now, she’d be a raging volcano if she knew Veronyka’s phoenix was out in the open . . . if she knew that this soldier—and that bondservant—had seen the phoenix.
If Val used her shadow magic to interrogate this soldier, she would learn the full truth, and he wouldn’t make it out of here alive. Even though he was an empire soldier, Veronyka didn’t want to see him die because of her.
She had to keep her sister distracted.
“He was here with three others,” Veronyka said, speaking fast, playing her advantage. Val was probably exhausted after a long day in the village, overusing her magic and pushing herself to her limits. If Veronyka stuck mostly to the truth and made sure to hide incriminating details deep down in the corners of her mind, Val might just take her words at face value. Veronyka was capable of lying to her sister if she worked hard at it, but it required intense focus. Val usually found her out eventually, but if she kept her wits about her, she could save this boy’s life.
“They were armed and came here looking to steal from us,” Veronyka continued. “He helped me hide in the bushes and didn’t give me up to the others. He saved my life,” she said again.
Val considered. “He also robbed us.”
“You know there’s not a damn thing worth stealing,” Veronyka said, using the other soldier’s words. The boy darted a glance in her direction, but Veronyka kept her focus on Val.
She considered the boy. “I can sense the coward in you,” Val murmured, her body shifting, her movements liquid as she moved the edge of the blade along his neck, almost like a caress. The boy’s throat bobbed in a tense swallow, and the tip of the knife bit into his skin. “She’s a sweet young thing,” she said, eyes flicking to Veronyka. “All alone in the forest, where no one could hear her scream . . .”
Veronyka almost groaned, realizing that her words had somehow become twisted in Val’s dark mind. She was inventing trouble now, looking for any excuse to hurt this soldier.
“Val, the others,” Veronyka said hastily. “They’re waiting for him. If you kill him, they’ll come looking—who knows how many. They’ll come back, and you can’t fight them all.”
“I can try,” Val said. But Veronyka saw a frown crease her forehead, and her face lost some of the fierce intensity that had come over it.
“He didn’t hurt me, never even touched me. He means us no harm—do you?” Veronyka asked, turning her question to the boy.
He was wild-eyed and panicked, and his olive-brown skin had lost its color like painted shutters in the sun. When Val loosened her grip, he slowly shook his head.
She looked bored all of a sudden, as if the joy had gone from the day. She removed the knife and gave the soldier a hard shove in the back. He stumbled and turned around, rubbing a hand across his neck, smearing blood from the small wound Val had opened there.