Chapter 74 Nox
Nox
Vera descended on Everett and me in a cyclone of fire, her phoenix wings ablaze and her eyes as molten as the sun. When her feet hit the ground, it sent up a shockwave of light. I quickly shifted my wings and spun to cover Everett right as she struck.
I braced against the impact, the force of her light sword scorching the outside of my scales.
“What happened to her?” Everett asked, eyes still fixed on her over the tip of my wing.
“I have a few questions of my own,” I grunted. “Namely, what do you mean, that’s your girl?”
His neck jerked up. “Watch out!”
A shower of shadow blades fell from above, and we barely leaped apart before they embedded themselves into the ground, one after another with quick thwacks.
I whirled to face my sister. She blinked out of existence, then reappeared mere inches from my face. Her expression was blank. Unknowing. Unseeing. Just another one of Scarven’s puppets. She wrenched out a hand and wrapped her long fingers around my throat.
Searing pain surged through me as she pushed her light magic into my skin.
“Come on, Vera. We’ve done this before,” I hissed as I gripped her wrist and yanked it back, shoving her chest with all my might.
She went flying backwards. Her blades of shadow and lightning soared from her reach as she hit a tree all the way across the property.
“Nox!” Everett snarled. “Don’t hurt her!”
I cracked my neck back and forth. “Trust me, I didn’t hurt her. I just pissed her off.”
A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. Flames erupted along my sister’s entire body as she stalked toward us, fury in her gaze.
“That doesn’t seem any better,” Everett mumbled.
“If you have any ideas, I’m all ears,” I snapped back as I grabbed my blade from its sheath. My hand brushed over the blood bead in my pocket.
Vera threw out an arm, and her discarded light sword flew into her grasp. She raised it to the sky as another bolt of lightning crashed around us, illuminating the entire battlefield.
I growled and broke into a run, unfurling my scales across my skin—not a full shift, but enough to give me protection. My talons and fangs shifted to partial length as I lunged for her.
We clashed in midair. Fire with fire, lightning against steel. She brought her sword down, and it sang through the air as it bounced off the hardened scales on my upper arm.
She summoned a small shadow dagger and tore after me. Her blows were deadly and precise. She aimed to do whatever her master commanded. She aimed to kill.
I never struck back. I countered with my own blade and talons, redirecting blow after blow, waiting for an opening. Our motions were a blur in the night, with her fire shimmering around us.
“Come on,” I gritted out. She spun in place and delivered a strike to my stomach with the hilt of one sword, then swung high to reach my throat. I instantly shifted the scales on my neck to block the blade and seized her outstretched wrist. “Come on, Vera. This isn’t you!”
Her eyes flickered. Just for a moment, barely a breath, but something changed.
Then she vanished.
I stumbled forward and let out a roar.
I felt the heat from her flames behind me. I spun to catch her, only to find a bloody finger raised to her lips, a spell on the tip of her tongue.
“Wait—Vera, wait.” I dove at her, and she turned both hands toward me in defense. Shadows and light coiled around her fingers, the opposite magics forming beautiful, glowing threads. She weaved a net of light and darkness between her palms and shot it at me.
I unfurled my left wing and rammed the edge of it into her.
She dropped with a gasp, skidding across the ground. I threw myself on top of her. Locking her wrists in my grip, I covered our bodies with my wings to block out the noise of the battle.
For a heartbeat, our eyes met. Her lips parted in a snarl as phoenix fire built in the enclosed space between us.
“Vera, please.”
A blast of her fire hurled me backwards. I slammed into the side wall of the mansion. Stone and bone both cracked, the sound reverberating in my ears as my shoulder screamed in pain.
She was stronger. Faster. Deadlier. Scarven had turned her into his unbreakable weapon.
But she was my sister.
Scarven took her from me once before. And I left her there.
I claimed that everything I did was for her, and that was true.
But I hadn’t done enough. I hadn’t fought for her the way I should.
I followed his orders and kept my distance, lying to myself that it was the best thing for her, when I should’ve rescued her long ago.
I was done making excuses for myself. This ended now—either with her sword in my chest, or with her shackles off for good.
I dragged myself upright, feeling my Shifter healing kick in and mend the broken bones in my shoulder. I fingered the blood bead in my pocket and tucked it in my palm.
One chance.
I took a deep breath and folded my talons away. I let my scales of armor fade, felt my fangs and wings receding back into my skin.
Fire danced in my vision as Vera appeared before me again, golden wings spread out wide, her body a living, breathing flame. She brandished her lightning sword and drew her arm back, aiming for the killing blow.
I knelt to the ground.
“I won’t fight you,” I whispered. “Not because I can’t, but because I won’t.
You may not remember me, Vera, but I remember you.
” Snippets of our brief time together as a family flooded me.
“You—you loved the water. Even as a baby, your favorite place was the ocean. We’d go down to the cliffs to watch the waves roll in, and you were mesmerized. ”
Her features were full of wrath as she stared down at me, but she stilled with her sword pointed at my chest.
I kept going. “When Scarven took us away from the sea and into his home, the first thing you found was the fountain outside. You took your first steps there.” I licked my lips, my voice growing hoarse.
“And—and you loved stories. Mama would bring us to the fountain when we were allowed to be together, and you begged for story after story. I always pretended they were too childish for me, but truthfully, I loved them as much as you did.”
Memories and emotions I hadn’t known I buried suddenly burst to life inside me, making the backs of my eyes burn.
A small smile tugged at my lips. “And when you got older, you used to sneak down to—”
Without warning, Vera struck.
Light emitted from her fist as she slammed it across my cheek. I grunted and fell to all fours, coughing blood onto the ground. Her sword fell from her grip, and I looked up to see her body trembling.
She lifted her fist again—and hesitated. The flames in her eyes shuddered.
“Vera—”
Her fist swung, landing another punch and flinging my head to the side. This time, however, the force brought her to her knees.
She was close. So close.
When her eyes met mine again, they were full of so much pain, it made my heart twist and shatter.
I surged forward and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. She thrashed in my grip, fire blazing back to life in her palms, but I brought my lips to her ear.
“I’m sorry.”
In one swift motion, I shoved the blood bead into her mouth and clamped her lips shut.