41. Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty
Isoria
Mama’s eyes widened. “Oh. That was…”
“I know it happened fast,” I said, plastering on a smile that I hoped eased her and trying to appear nonchalant as my mind worked to twist the truth when I couldn’t outright lie like Archer could. “There’s a powerful bond between us.”
It was better than making Mama panic about the fact that he was my mortal enemy, the one prophesied to destroy us if I didn’t destroy him first. Or I hoped.
But Bren scowled. “He’s Crown Prince Archer Emberglade.”
The color instantly drained from Mama’s face, and I shoved my elbow into my brother’s side again in frustration. “Mama, please don’t panic,” I began.
“Please, I need to sit, and you can explain everything.” She swayed on her feet, grasping at the counter weakly.
My brother and I rushed to her side, helping her cross to the living room and get settled on some cushions. Archer hesitated near the doorway, looking uncertain for once.
“I’ll sit with him outside while you and Mama talk,” Bren volunteered, shooting Archer a dark look.
He patted Mama’s hand, glanced at me to confirm the plan—I nodded, feeling relieved I could discuss this with Mama alone—and strolled to Archer.
“Let’s enjoy the view out here, Your Highness.
” A hint of sarcasm edged my brother’s tone.
As the door closed, I leaned into my mother, and she wrapped her arms around me.
Weariness crashed over me, weighing down my bones, and I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore.
As she held me, I wept, in relief, in frustration, in fear, in sorrow.
I didn’t want to return to Rainsong and its atrocities and hatred.
And yet…I did. I needed Emberglade to be saved from the revenants. Needed to know my people were safe from them too.
Mama grasped my face in her hands, lifting it to meet her gaze as she tenderly wiped away my tears. “Before you tell me the whole story, I need to understand. You’re telling me that you have to go back with him?” Her voice broke a little. “That you can’t stay home?”
“Yes, Mama.” She caught another tear as it escaped down my cheek, swiping it away with her thumb.
“But I think I can save Emberglade this way. Maybe, because of the prophecy, we were always destined to be tethered together somehow. Maybe this is better because we cannot hurt each other. And even though it looks like I’ll have to marry him, maybe I can make a difference for our kingdom. ”
Mama’s expression was sad. “There are other ways to be hurt, my love. I don’t know what to say. How can I accept that you must live among our enemies? Marry one?”
I clasped her hand. “By knowing I will protect our people this way.”
She hesitated. “I thought Prince Archer had blond hair.”
“We needed him to look different to protect us both.” And so I poured out the entire story to Mama, clinging to her like she was my lifeline.
I shared how Archer and I had met in a graveyard after a revenant attacked, then explained all I’d learned about the blood bond and why I wouldn’t be able to stay at home but would have to go home with my enemy.
I told her the tangle of conflicting emotions I carried now that I’d seen softer sides of Archer and his determination to save his kingdom.
How, even though I’d compelled him to rescue Bren, he’d obeyed me without question when I’d asked him to send my brother to the dungeons rather than execute him at the party.
How he’d noticed how I took my coffee, how he’d sacrificed for his people, how even now, there were confusing moments of tenderness between us that seemed like maybe he no longer viewed me as a fire demon.
At last, I leaned back, wiping at my eyes as tears formed once more.
“If I go back, maybe we can save Emberglade. I don’t know what that means for the prophecy.
Neither of us can hurt the other without both being harmed, and I don’t think he wants to be a killer any more than I do.
But I’m afraid we won’t be able to stop the army of revenants either. ”
Mama sighed. “Sit and let me do your hair.” Like I was a child again, I sat with my back to her as she wove the strands into a long braid down my back, her hands working in soothing movements that eased my anxieties.
“I should be the one helping you. How have you been feeling?” I said, but she smacked my shoulder lightly.
“I’m your mother, and I’ve missed you. Today is the best day I’ve had in a long while. I’m a little tired, but nothing that would prevent me from tending to you.”
So I let her do that for me. Afterward, she fetched our mugs. Cross-legged on a cushion, I sipped the lemon tea she’d sweetened with the perfect amount of honey and felt my tension slip away. How I’d longed for a day like this, how I’d feared I’d never have time with Mama like this ever again.
“My dear girl,” Mama said at last, her hazel eyes contemplative as she stared out the window, sipping her own tea.
She’d always said that I’d gotten her dark hair but Father’s gold eyes.
“I don’t know what the gods have planned for you, between the bond you share and your strange prophecies, but the way you speak of him tells me more than a bond and a prophecy tie you to him now. ”
I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
She studied me with such affection, my heart ached.
I never wanted to leave her and her steady presence again.
Here, I wasn’t a phoenix shifter among my enemies or a fae bound to a prince trying to fight off a growing revenant army.
I was just Isoria. “I think there may be a deeper bond growing between you, one not forged by the gods.”
I chewed the inside of my lip. “You think I have feelings for him?”
She smiled and drank her tea like we were speaking about a male in Everhaven who’d caught my eye. “He certainly sounds like he’s growing fond of you.”
I shook my head. “If he could, he would kill me.” But the words tasted wrong. Was that true anymore?
Mama didn’t argue with me, only sipped at her tea, cradling the cup in hands whose fingers looked too swollen. The shadows under her eyes gave away the sleepless nights she’d faced, probably from a combination of worry and pain. My stomach twisted.
“I am going to find a cure for you, Mama,” I vowed, setting down my mug to hold her too-thin frame and lay my head on her shoulder.
“I know you’ll save the phoenixes, my love,” she said confidently.
“The sun hurts,” Mama had admitted quietly a little while later, when I announced I was going to check on Bren and Archer. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed and was a little shocked they hadn’t returned to the treehouse already.
My chest tightened. For Aunt Aurora and some of the other phoenixes whose afflictions began first, their symptoms grew significantly worse once they started noticing that the sun’s rays felt painful on their skin, like instead of feeding their magic and strength, it was depleting them further.
Solea’s flames, I thought. “When did this start?” I asked quietly.
“Not long after you left. I try to go out anyway. Staying cooped up in this house alone isn’t good for the soul.” She gave me a brave smile, but I ached.
“Mama…”
“Go on. I’m going to rest while you check on those two. And you should visit with Brook.”
Kissing Mama’s cheek, I slipped out of our treehouse and onto the balcony overlooking Everhaven’s clearing. Bren and Archer were nowhere to be found. I frowned, scanning the space, wondering where they would have gone and if I should be worried.
Had the others somehow realized who Archer was? I trusted my brother not to rat him out when my fate depended on Archer’s, but perhaps the potion had failed us or something else had made Hunter or Blaze or one of the other guards suspicious.
Children’s laughter and chatter drew me down our steps and out into the jungle, all the way to the edge of the Passionfire, where I could see a small crowd gathered. All were children except for the pair at the head of it, who I recognized as Bren and Archer with his dark hair and eyes.
“Throw it again!” cried Ash, a male youth of about six, leaping in the air in his excitement. He was in half-form, his fiery wings fluttering on his back.
Even Bren watched Archer with a wide smile as he lifted a ball the children must have been tossing back and forth.
He threw the ball into the air before twisting gracefully, catching the ball with the side of his boot and bouncing it before moving his foot again to catch it on the other side.
He kicked it high into the air, bouncing it off his head before spinning, catching, and tossing it toward the crowd of children, who scattered and squealed, each racing to seize it first. A few fluttered their wings, half-flying, half-jumping to grab it.
Laughing, I strode up to them, caught off guard by the warmth I felt. Was Mama right?
Archer glanced at me, the carefree expression on his face making him look perfectly at home. He was comfortable. Playing with phoenix children without scowling in disgust or trying to stay away.
“I didn’t know you were so talented at games of catch—or should I say kicking?” I laughed.
Archer lifted his eyebrows at me before sending a thought into my mind. I didn’t spend my whole childhood hunting your kind. I had time to play too.
My stomach clenched at the reminder that he’d started hunting our kind as a child, all at his father’s demand.
King Wystan had done all he could to craft Archer into the sort of prince he wanted him to be, and yet here he was, watching a collection of phoenix children playing with such warmth in his eyes, one could imagine he might have been enjoying himself.
I glanced at Bren, who’d lifted his arm to deflect the ball and send it soaring back toward the children. “How did this come about?”