Chapter Five
In her panic, Zahra made a grab for the magick water snake around her ankle, but Weiyu snatched her hand and held it aloft above her head.
“You can’t,” she protested. “I am not worthy of the healing powers of the phoenix king’s tears. They are too precious to waste.”
“You are too precious to risk.”
The fluster of shock burned through her body and seared her face. No one had ever called her precious before. She must have heard incorrectly.
After a few more moments, the blue light from the tears flickered out, the liquid drying into salt on her skin. She moved her foot back and forth, and then in a circle when no pain accompanied the movement.
“You shouldn’t have,” she murmured, the guilt pounding on her skull like a door repeatedly hitting its frame during a hurricane.
“What’s that you said?” He held a hand to his still-covered ear. “Thank you? You’re very welcome, of course.”
Zahra chuckled, shaking her head wryly. “Thank you, Your Highness.”
“No need to be formal with me.” He nudged her knee with his. “Tell me your name. I want to know what to call you.”
“Zahra,” she answered without thinking, all too quickly realizing her mistake. If Weiyu learned of her real identity, would he abandon her here? Would he realize risking himself had been a mistake?
However, he gave no indication of recognizing her name. And if he did, the mention of her name didn’t seem to affect him negatively.
His thumb brushed against the edge of her jaw. As he spoke, a smile lingered in his voice, “Zahra... Now I don’t have to refer to you as ‘that girl from the Perch’. I much prefer calling you by your name.”
She opened her mouth to reply something either witty or stupid but lost the chance when someone shouted over her.
“Weiyu!” the woman with white hair called, rushing toward them with the tall, imposing man a step behind her. Worry knotted Zahra’s stomach when she didn’t spot the last teammate with the red-brown hair.
“I’m on it,” Weiyu answered.
The phoenix king unstopped the cap of his canteen, and with a slow, graceful movement, he used his magick to pull the water from within.
With the flick of his wrist, the water burst into a thousand droplets spread out around them, a dazzling light reflecting off each bead before slowing into languid movements.
The effect created a shimmering barrier around them similar to a mirage when peering at the desert sand from a long distance.
“This will camouflage us as we journey,” Weiyu explained. “We won’t make it easy for anyone to find us.”
“And if they do...” the woman with the white hair said with a large, excitable grin, “we’re more than capable of handling the threat.”
After climbing to her feet, Zahra eyed the set of daggers waiting on either of her hips before her gaze traveled up to her white hair and tan skin. “You must be from the north. Are you a shifter?”
Light laughter echoed to her left, and she turned to find Weiyu stripping himself of the rest of his dark clothing to reveal something lighter and slimmer beneath. “Shanmei claims she’s a polar bear shifter. But we have yet to see her shift.”
Shanmei laughed and lightly punched Weiyu’s shoulder. “I’m saving my shift for a rainy day. You’ll see.”
An inexplicable tightness gripped Zahra’s chest at the easy way the two interacted. But her uneasy feelings quickly melted away when Weiyu shed the last of his concealed clothing to reveal the handsome young man beneath.
Her next heartbeat snagged on a hook when a pair of golden-fire eyes met her gaze. Dark blue-black strands of hair blew around a smooth face with a strong, angular jaw. Thick eyebrows framed those beautiful eyes. A gentle nose. A pair of shapely lips.
Her gaze traveled over broad, bare shoulders peeking out from a blue vest embroidered with gold, feathered designs matching loose gold trousers embroidered with blue.
Thin blue slippers conformed to the shape of his feet, lending him a soft, agile appearance.
An earring dangled from either of his ears, one longer than the other.
The hair not flitting around his chin with the soft breeze trailed down his back in a tie to his lower waist.
Stunning. The phoenix king was stunning, enough for her to forget how to draw breath.
And when he smiled at her...
A sudden faintness claimed her head, and she forced herself to break eye contact and look away to hide the roaring fluster attempting to steal the strength from her legs.
“Between all the running and fighting and hiding, I seem to have forgotten my manners.” Weiyu bowed at the waist, the smile never disappearing from his face.
“Weiyu, at your service.” He gestured to the supposed polar bear shifter, the rows of golden bracelets and leather bands encircling his wrists clinking with the movement.
“Shanmei is an incredibly skilled warrior. Yinyu has a sixth sense for danger. They’re my friends. ”
Yinyu cleared his throat, his arms crossed.
“Bodyguard,” Weiyu corrected for Yinyu with a roll of his eyes. “Officially, at least.”
Zahra glanced between the two of them, noticing Yinyu standing much taller and broader than his counterpart. “Why was he not with you at the Perch when you were attacked?”
The taller man grunted, a scowl permanently etched into his expression. Weiyu answered sheepishly, “I sent him on another assignment, so he was away at the time. He still hasn’t forgiven me for it.”
A shout in the distance dragged her attention to the cluster of trees and the man striding toward them in a carefree manner. Although he glanced back and forth as if he didn’t see them with the camouflage barrier in place, he still strode in their direction, knowing where to go.
“I’m here!” the man shouted, waving his arm through the air. “And let me tell you, that was a wild escape. I wasn’t sure I was going to lose them for a minute there. Yuuuu Yuuuu! Where are you? Stop hiding from me already.”
“And this is Kai...” Weiyu said with a disgruntled frown, “who never stops talking.”
The king lifted a hand, and the barrier rippled apart enough for Kai to step in and pull off his hood.
Zahra inhaled sharply when she once again noticed the auburn color of his hair and the light green of his eyes to confirm him a red phoenix.
What was he doing in King Weiyu’s close-knit group of friends?
Kai placed a hand over his heart and grinned at her. “I know, I know. I get that stare a lot. Red phoenix non-shifter. Was in a bad situation as a young child. Rescued by the blue phoenix clan and grew up alongside Yu Yu.”
Another non-shifter...
Because of the man’s similar origins and circumstances, Zahra felt a sort of kinship with him already. To grow up as a non-shifter among shifters made one feel lowly, unimportant, like the bubbles at the bottom of a mead barrel.
Kai lifted his arms behind his head and groaned as he stretched. “Anyway, we probably should get going. Gotta confuse the trackers and flight guard before they catch onto our trail.”
As the five of them turned to continue on foot, Weiyu placed a gentle touch against her lower back to guide her forward.
The touch was brief. Fleeting. But it jolted her heart into a frenzied rhythm until all she managed to focus on was the warmth pulsing at her lower back and the heat climbing into her cheeks.
While they traveled, she couldn’t help herself from stealing several glances at King Weiyu. She’d never expected him to age years in the span of a month. Although she didn’t know how old he was supposed to be now, he appeared at least the same age as her.
“You’re staring at me,” Weiyu teased.
Zahra quickly glanced away, her cheeks flaming. “I last saw you as a child. I’m a little disoriented.”
Weiyu held out both arms and flipped his hands back and forth to show off the variety of rings climbing his fingers, around twelve in total. “I almost look like my usual self. Still need to put on a few more years, but I aged faster than anticipated.”
A few more years...
Then she put his normal age in the lower twenties or so.
The five of them traveled along the beach path until the sun lowered behind the horizon, bathing the world in a dark purple hue.
Yinyu called for a rest to stop for the night, though his attention lingered on Weiyu.
Only then did Zahra notice Weiyu’s slumped posture and slow blinks.
Keeping up the illusion barrier while his body regenerated from his last death was likely taking a toll on him.
The black sand lay soft beneath her feet before the ground transitioned into grass and dirt where they set up camp beside a ridge overlooking the sea. Of course, she’d always seen the sea from a distance. But up close? The view stole her breath away.
“I’ve never been outside the Perch,” she said quietly, mostly to herself. Which surprised her when everyone turned their heads in her direction, latching onto her every word.
“Never?” Weiyu asked, slumping onto a log Yinyu had rolled over to him.
She shook her head, turning her attention back to the sea to avoid looking into those gentle golden eyes.
She listened to the push and pull of the water before answering.
“As a non-shifter, there was very little I could offer my family, especially as a bastard child. Growing up, my father acknowledged me very little. He never took me out of the Perch with the rest of my siblings. It was a sort of...punishment. For what I lacked.”
Or perhaps for who she reminded her father of. When her grandfather had discovered her father’s love affair, he’d ordered her mother’s death. Father had been cold and icy ever since and rarely looked her way. Her inability to shift further drove a wedge between her and the rest of her family.
Yinyu was quick to start a fire, Weiyu’s shimmering blue barrier keeping their camouflage intact.
“You’ve been trapped at the Perch all your life?” Shanmei asked disbelievingly. “Why couldn’t you leave?”