Chapter Fourteen
While the blue phoenix guards were distracted by the fight overhead, Zahra managed to slip past them and rush toward the cliff the phoenixes fought above. The cliff rose steeply toward the sky, an unfortunate mass of red rock, slippery sand, and pokey brambles.
It was the only way up.
With determination steeling her nerves, she glanced up at the tall cliff and made her resolve. Weiyu had brought only shifters with him. All except two. Kai would not arrive in time. The only person who could help was her.
She didn’t want to risk slipping, so she kicked off her shoes and climbed up the cliff face with bare feet.
Rocks dug into her skin. Jutting branches scratched her hands and ankles.
But she kept climbing, refusing to glance down to find out how far she’d climbed.
For Weiyu. She must be brave for her mate.
Her foot skidded across loose rocks. She gasped, clinging onto rough rock and scratchy branches. Her heart thundered in her chest like a summer lightning storm over a forest. Every second counted, so she allowed herself only a few moments to catch her breath before she continued to climb.
Her hands began shaking. Her arms threatened to give out. But just the thought of Weiyu alone and outnumbered up there gave her the strength to keep going.
Finally, after what felt like forever, her head crested the top of the cliff.
She grabbed onto a branch, weakly pulling herself up and over the lip.
Out of breath and heaving from the effort, her body threatened to collapse and not get back up.
But she forced herself to climb to her feet.
Hand hand. Foot foot. Until she stood unsteadily staring back at a red, translucent barrier.
Through the barrier, she noticed Weiyu struggling to keep up with each attack aimed toward him. His strength was clearly waning. Each evade took more of his energy and his focus.
He slowed, opening himself up to more attacks. If she didn’t act now, it might be too late.
Without another moment of hesitation, she sprinted through the barrier and placed herself between the enemy and her mate.
She ripped her protective charm from her hair and braced herself as she held it out in front of her, breaking the seal.
A burst of protective energy countered the red phoenixes’ next attack, hitting them square on and shoving them outside the red barrier.
Blue phoenixes descended upon them like vultures to a carcass.
The charm only had one use, so she threw it aside and prepared herself for the next strike.
Weiyu seemed to understand what the protective charm was capable of. He transformed into his human form and stood in front of her. He held out his charm just as the next group of phoenixes struck. They, too, were blasted outside the barrier, leaving only Mogwai.
She spun around, trying to put distance between her and her father, but he transformed as a quick blur, wrapped his arm around her neck, and pressed a knife to her throat.
Weiyu froze.
The world seemed to fall silent.
Zahra gripped Mogwai’s arm, desperate to keep the sharp blade of the knife away from her throat, but he only tightened his grip.
“How interesting...” Mogwai chuckled as he ripped her necklace from her throat and held it in his palm. “I knew the blue phoenix clan kidnapped my daughter. I had not realized the king had mated her.”
“Daughter?” Weiyu gasped, his shocked gaze finding her own.
She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to witness the look of betrayal surely staring back at her. “I’m sorry,” she whispered just loud enough to be heard over the breeze. “I was going to tell you. But I didn’t want you to send me away.”
Mogwai laughed again, seeming to find this situation rather amusing. “You stole Zahraniyah away on her wedding day. I thought that was strange. Why would anyone want my worthless non-shifter daughter?”
She dared to open her eyes. But instead of finding betrayal and disdain in Weiyu’s eyes, she found panic and fear.
“Don’t hurt her,” Weiyu begged, holding up a placating hand. “What do you want?”
“You know what I want.”
Weiyu touched his chest, right over where she assumed his Aquatic Core resided. He must give it with his own free will. It could not be taken from him.
“Don’t!” Zahra shouted in caution. “Your people will not be safe. All those non-shifters will be beaten, used, and killed. Shifters will be made an example of. Dozens of lives are more important than my own.”
Mogwai growled in warning, tightening his grip on her. The blade sliced through her skin, and she felt a warm, wet tendril of blood drip down her neck.
Despite her bravado, a whimper slipped past her lips. She wanted to tell herself that her father wouldn’t kill his own daughter. That he wouldn’t be so uncaring and cruel. But he’d attempted it before.
And judging by the pinch of Weiyu’s expression, that was likely running through his mind as well.
“I don’t need her to make you comply,” Mogwai reminded as some sort of twisted formality. “Five more seconds before I end her life. Then you and I will continue where we left off at the Perch.” His expression contorted into a cruel grin. “Five.”
“Weiyu, no,” she warned. But then another dig of the knife effectively silenced her, fear running rampant through her body.
“Four.”
“It’s yours,” Weiyu gasped. “I need your word that you’ll let her go.”
Mogwai’s face split into a triumphant grin. “You have it.”
She knew her father’s word meant very little and wanted to caution her mate against accepting it, but when she opened her mouth, the only thing to escape was another whimper.
The sound seemed to rush Weiyu into making one of the worst mistakes of his life. His hand glowed a faint blue, and then he winced as his magick reached through his chest and extracted the Aquatic Core.
The Core hummed as it left his body, a sphere of swirling blue energy brimming with power.
A gasp of pain escaped her mate as he swayed on his feet. He barely managed to toss the Core toward them before he collapsed dizzily to his hands and knees.
Mogwai deftly caught the Aquatic Core in one hand, holding it next to the piece he’d stolen from Zahra.
She released a muffled scream as she struggled, but her father’s grip tightened on her. The damage he could do with the Core was unfathomable. How many people would suffer under his reign, shifters and non-shifters alike?
Mesmerized by what lay in his hands, Mogwai’s arm slackened on her just enough for her to take advantage.
Heart in her throat, she moved quicker than his blade as she snatched another woven charm from her pocket and slapped it onto Mogwai’s wrist.
Her father’s aura of power immediately dimmed. His strength visibly waned. In his distraction, and before he found a chance to react, she grabbed the Aquatic Core and ducked out of his hold.
“Zahra!” Mogwai snarled, tugging at the charm snug against his wrist to no avail. “You have no magick! You’re not a shifter!”
“I don’t need magick to take away yours. I learned that from you.”
Mogwai charged at her, reaching for the Core she held. She danced away from him, keeping out of reach but placing herself between him and Weiyu. At least until help arrived.
“I was wrong about you.” Mogwai lunged at her again but missed. “We don’t need to do this song and dance. Hand over the Core, and you will regain your place in the family. No, not just regain but acquire all the glory and recognition of a clan shifter. You can have power, Zahra.”
Recognition and belonging was all she’d ever wanted at the Perch. For a place in her family. For her father’s love and her sisters’ acceptance.
But...
“I do not want those things. I have everything I need right here.”
Mogwai’s face contorted into a wicked snarl as he lunged for her again. This time, the attack landed, sending her flying backward and hitting the rocky ground with a painful thud.
He attacked with his knife at the ready, stabbing downward toward her heart. Her eyes widened, and she cried out in alarm, bracing herself for the sting of death.
But before the knife pierced her, a mass of white polar bear leaped over her head and tackled Mogwai in the air. Her Core necklace clattered to the ground, and then the two were slipping and sliding against rocks before disappearing over the edge of the cliff.
Zahra’s throat constricted in horror, not at her father’s sudden disappearance but because Shanmei had slipped over the edge.
But she didn’t spare any more thought when her mate’s distress burned in her soul like an echo of memory despite the Aquatic Core no longer resting inside his chest.
She snatched the fallen Core necklace, spun around, and scrambled toward him where he braced himself against the ground.
She latched onto his elbow and pulled him onto unsteady feet. He appeared shaken and weak but overall unharmed.
“Weiyu,” she rasped, looking him over for a third time just to make sure he was whole and uninjured. “Weiyu, are you alright?”
He chuckled shakily as if his body was filled with trembling nerves. Or because his body was exhausted after a twelve-on-one fight. “I did not expect my mate to come to my rescue. I was so terrified for you.” He squeezed her hand. “My brave mate. I am in awe.”
Her cheeks warmed at the praise, but it didn’t stop her from throwing her arms around his waist and holding on tight with her head resting against his chest.
“I was so scared.”
“Mm,” he grunted. “Anyone would be scared in your shoes.”
Shaking her head, she pulled away slightly to look into his eyes. “I was scared for you.” Her voice cracked. “I almost lost you.”
“Ah. Well. We got lucky this time.” His hands roamed across her back and through her hair as if he wanted to make sure she was unharmed herself.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth about my identity,” she whispered, voice muffled against his chest. “People got hurt because of me. I put you in danger.”