Chapter 63
Chapter sixty-three
Something inside her broke.
It wasn’t loud. Or violent. Not yet. More like the noiseless snap of surrender.
The years she’d spent holding back, choking on her own power, convinced she was too dangerous to be anything but caged, vanished in a single heartbeat. And in answer, an inferno burst up through the broken dam, filling every hollow space, until finally—
It detonated.
Her arms flung wide as it blazed through her veins, scorching everything in its path, consuming doubt until nothing remained but the fire itself.
This wasn’t the Phoenix’s flame, or anything elemental.
It wasn’t shaped by ritual or purpose or even Will.
It was older. Born of endings. The kind of fire that left nothing behind but silence and smoke.
Dragon fire.
Rynna’s body jerked backward as the power flared beneath her skin, pressure building.
Then—scales—ruptured through her flesh in a wet, gushing sound, gleaming like hammered gold as they swelled across her arms and legs.
Sobbing on the scream, her bones broke next in deep, splintering breaks.
Her arms lengthened, and fingers split, then reshaped into talons, white and gleaming, etching grooves into the ground as her legs bent into new angles, growing, expanding.
Becoming.
The pain was blinding, blasting down her spine, stretching it longer as vertebrae ground one over the next, until the bone popped free, coiling behind her.
A tail. Heavy, sinuous, and flexing with strength she didn’t understand.
Yet still, the fire climbed. Wings sliced through her back in a scream of torn flesh and reformed muscle.
The membranes stretched wide, leathery and vast, as sparks danced along their edges.
Her vision narrowed, and colors fractured into detail with every pulse of energy as her pupils thinned to vertical slits. Baring her teeth, flame poured through the gaps of her grin in molten liquid.
Rynna the human was gone. And in her place, something older stood. Something far more dangerous. Unbound.
Rising with a flap of her wings, she roared. And it broke through the air like a hurricane given voice—deep, and full of destruction’s promise. The Wraith reeled back as if struck, its shriveled limbs spasming, before dropping Fang Unit from its grasp like severed marionettes.
“Impossible!” Shadows condensed around it, shuddering as it tried to fold into the wall itself. “There are no more Wise Ones! You’re all dead!”
Rynna hovered above it, wings outstretched, her body a furnace of raw power.
“You’ve hidden long enough.” Her voice rang out with the relentlessness of truth. “Your time is over.”
Yet, even as the words left her mouth, the pain struck. Deep. Centered. A wrenching sensation that lanced straight through her dual hearts. And what was left of her soul shuddered, splitting clean down the center all over again without the Weaving’s protection.
But this time, it didn’t drive her to madness. This time, she held, gripping the fire, leaning into the ache. It would cost her, but she would last long enough to finish this.
“Lies!” the Wraith howled.
Then it launched itself across the cavern in a distortion of limbs and teeth, flailing over stone in jagged rage.
It didn’t matter, though. Rynna had already moved.
Wings folding in tight, she turned midair as her tail swept through a trail of smoke, letting the Wraith’s slash pass by her, close enough to feel the rush of air against her scales.
Pivoting, heat built in her throat as every muscle coiled with purpose. She could feel it now, the sheer magnitude of her power, and how easily she could unmake the world.
The flame within her pounded, ravenous. It had been so long. Every movement fed it. Every breath stoked it. She was winning. She was unstoppable. And she was seconds from losing control.
It had to end. Now.
Whipping her head around, she locked jaws around the Wraith’s head or whatever passed for it with a sickening crunch. The creature writhed and squirmed around her, but she didn’t break, clamping down with all her strength.
Then she finally let go. Gushing up from the deepest part of her, the place where grief and fury lived as one, the fire rushed through her, then scorched its way up her throat as it poured into the Wraith.
And the Wraith screamed. But the fire caught fast, racing through the creature’s form in golden veins, lighting it from the inside out. The cavern shook as shadows peeled away like dead skin, and the creature convulsed, each jolt more desperate than the last.
The flames didn’t care, though. They burned. Not just its body, but its presence. Its wrongness. Her power tore through every inch of it until there was nothing left, leaving only dust and ash falling between her teeth, dissolving around her in a splotchy cloud.
The enemy was vanquished.
A roar exploded from her, triumphant and absolute, and more fire followed, arcing high and wild in a column of heat. Rock split, and earth crumbled as her power seared straight through the cavern’s ceiling.
Sunlight followed, pouring down through the gash she had carved into the world, blinding in its brilliance, chasing away the darkness. And for a single, timeless moment, the fire inside her quieted.
“Control it!” The Phoenix circled around her. “You must pull it in!”
Why? The thought rose. Why should I ever go back to that sad, pitiful existence, living one life to the next, never even knowing who or what I am?
The hunger thundered, ravenous and wild, desperate to consume everything in its path. Anything to quench the agony gnawing at her insides, the urge to let it loose, to burn until nothing remained. What was one more world destroyed in the grand scheme of things?
But…hadn’t there been something? Some reason…
Do what he would do. A familiar voice rang through the growing confusion.
Rynna gnashed her teeth, tailing whipping, as she fought to remember.
A grin, always a little too sharp. The way he wore his human form, because she liked the feel of his hands that way.
The softness in his voice when they were alone.
But somehow different, this time. Fenrith.
Then Kaelith and Fenn. Each flash sparked into being, bright and brief, then vanished before she could grasp it.
Still, the draconic power receded as she fought for the memories, and in its place the will of the Weaving renewed its violent swirling around her, its fury mounting, enraged by her defiance.
She could feel its grip tightening, trying to pull her back under control before she destroyed the world it had sent her to save.
Sagging into it, her limbs drooped as her control waned.
It demanded so much, took so much, yet offered so little in return.
But she was tired. Tired of fighting, tired of being used.
Tired of being nothing more than a tool for tying up the loose ends of existence.
It would be so easy to let the fire take her.
Her eyes squeezed shut.
Not today. And not on this world.
Rynna filled her lungs, willing herself to focus, to rein in the last remnants of the blaze. And when she finally opened her eyes, her human form had returned—skin, flesh, and bone. The dragon within her was sleeping now, subdued but not gone.
The storm circled closer, now, ready to carry her away, and she could no longer muster the strength to resist. Stumbling, her knees gave way as she collapsed to the ground. She knew Kaelith would still be in his own battle with the vampire. And her friends…she couldn’t bring herself to look.
Wrapping her arms around herself, the sobs heaved from deep within. She could feel the fragile, newly healed fragments of her soul being rent apart again, the raw wounds reopening as she prepared to be ripped away from the people she had come to love.
“I’m sorry.” She rocked on heels, head bowed.
But before the vortex could take her, a deafening screech shook the remaining walls of the cavern.
Before her, the Great Phoenix ignited, rising from the ashes of the Wraith’s corpse, more massive and brilliant than ever before.
Her wings flashed wide, overwhelming the entire space, each feather a dazzling blaze.
“Your sacrifice is honored, Wise One.” Hika’s voice thundered through the space.
“What...?” Rynna’s palms pressed over her ears.
Then, more fire exploded from the creature’s massive chest in a brilliant, blinding torrent of surging flame that engulfed the storm.
And the fierce winds that had moments before threatened to drag her to another world were obliterated in an instant, reduced to nothing more than a soft breeze that barely stirred the dust around her.
“Without the Wraith weighing down my world,” Hika sang. “I’m finally free.”
Rynna blinked, staring up at the massive bird, her mind struggling to catch up. “What about the Weaving?”
“This is my world. And I owe you a debt, Wise One.” She let out a booming laugh. “Even the Weaving bows to the need for balance.”
Rynna stared in awe, and for the first time, the weight of the Weaving's control seemed to ease. “I don’t understand.”
“A life for a life. It’s a fair trade.”
“I really don’t understand,” Rynna repeated, shaking her head. “Did you plan this the whole time?”
The Phoenix, glowing brighter than ever, gave her a sly wink.
“All will be clear in time.” Then, her tone softened, pausing as if choosing her next words carefully. “However, I will not suffer another infection to take root here.”
She beat her massive wings once, and a wave of heated wind swept over where Fenn and Kaelith lay sprawled.
“I’m so confused,” Rynna muttered, her mind spinning.
“Thank you for the opening,” Hika added with a satisfied sigh, gaze shifting upward to the newly made gap in the cavern.
“You will have one life to live on this world as you see fit, with whom you see fit.” Her eyes flickered toward where Kaelith and Fenn were just beginning to stir.
“Use it wisely. When it is done, you will return to the Weaving.”
“Whaaaa…” Tears began to well in Rynna’s eyes. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
And as the morning sun crested the horizon, Hika's wings unfurled once more like a creature remembering how to fly after being caged.
Water streamed down Rynna’s face. “Thank you. I think.”
The words had barely left her lips when the Great Phoenix ignited again, sending a column of white-hot flame roaring skyward through the shattered ceiling, bursting into the world above.
Rynna watched as light spilled outward from the blast, golden and warm, sweeping across the ashen cavern. Wherever it touched, color returned. The stone walls brightened, shifting from dead gray to deep, earthy tones, and the air filled with the rich scent of fresh soil and sun-warmed moss.
Above, the scorched ground softened. Vines coiled up fractured rock, tentative at first, then bold, blooming with thick leaves and bright blossoms. Grass pushed through layers of soot, uncurling into green blades like they’d only been sleeping.
The wave continued, sweeping into the world beyond.
Rynna couldn’t see it, but she could feel it through the Great Phoenix.
Hills once choked by ash brightened. Trees cracked open their charred skins and reached skyward, reborn.
And still, the power moved. It found Taren, and his fingers flexed into the fresh loam. Then Elara’s shoulders shook with a sudden inhale. And Bran groaned, next, low in his throat, squinting into the light.
Life returned to them one heartbeat at a time, carried on the wings of fire and fate.
Rynna refused to breathe as she saw them recover. Then, struggling to her feet, she turned her focus toward Kaelith and Fenn, still lying on the ground from their previous struggle.
She approached them tentatively, a giant lump in her throat. “Kae? Fenn?”
Both men groaned, disoriented, then their bodies untangled quickly as they pushed themselves up, looking around in confusion.
“What happened?” Kaelith asked, glancing at Fenn, who wore an equally bewildered expression.
“You’re alive.” Rynna let out a shaky laugh, crumbling to the ground between them. “Both of you. And I’m still here.”