Chapter 45
Elira
I was scared. Truly scared.
Not the kind of fear that came with battle or pain—this was deeper. Older. The kind of fear that crept in when someone you loved stopped being someone you knew.
At first, I tried reason.
“Finn, please,” I said gently. “Let me go back. Phoenix is hurt—I can help him. Please.”
“No, no, no,” he muttered, dragging me faster. His grip tightened like iron cuffs. His eyes darted left and right, wide and wild.
“You can’t go back. I’m sorry, you just… can’t.”
I tried to dig my heels in. “Where are we even going, Finn? You know they’ll find me. They always do.”
His gaze snapped to mine. “Not if we go into Darkmoor.”
I froze. “Darkmoor is impassable.”
“Not for us.” His voice rose, almost gleeful. “We’ll disappear. Like ghosts. No one will follow.”
“Finn…” My voice broke. “You’re hurting me.”
He stopped.
Turned.
Pulled me close—too close. His hands shook on my arms, breath coming in harsh gasps. His eyes—once warm, once safe—were empty now. Hollow.
I didn’t know this boy.
He wasn’t the one who held me through nightmares.
He was broken. And I didn’t know how to put him back together.
“I know you’re angry with me,” he said quickly. “But it’ll get better. Once we leave. You’ll see. Just us, like it was always meant to be.”
“Finn, I can’t leave Phoenix. Or Leo. Or Slade…” My chest ached. “I love them—”
“NO!” His voice cracked. “They got in your head! You don’t love them! You love me. You… you said you did.”
Then he hit me.
My head snapped sideways. Heat burst in my cheek. For a heartbeat, all I could do was stand there. Shock, not pain.
He’d hit me.
I cried out, clutching my jaw.
Finn’s eyes widened. Then he lunged, wrapping me in a suffocating hug. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to— They changed you. The Tower… They brainwashed you. But I’ll get you back…”
I tried to push him off, but he clung tighter—clutching me like a drowning man grips driftwood. He muttered nonsense as he dragged me deeper into the smoke and ruin, through the twisted alleys. My arms burned. My lungs wheezed.
Then—footsteps.
A figure staggered through the haze, one hand pressed to his ribs.
Jasper.
He looked like hell. Bloody, bruised, barely upright.
“Finn?” he rasped. “What are you doing here?”
Finn froze, his grip tightening again. “Stay out of this, Jasper.”
Jasper blinked at us, dazed. “Elira?” His eyes flicked to me, unreadable. “You’re hurt.”
“I said back off!” Finn growled. “Leave us alone!”
Jasper raised one hand in peace. “Alright, easy. Just trying to get my bearings.”
He took a slow step forward—limping slightly, weaving like he was hurt.
I didn’t trust it.
Neither did Finn.
Then Jasper’s hand slipped inside his coat.
“Oh, before I forget…” He pulled something out.
A dagger.
My dagger.
The one bearing the mark of King Virell.
Jasper turned it in his hand, letting the firelight catch the crest.
“I took this, remember,” he said casually. “When you first came to the Pit.”
My stomach dropped.
“Keep it,” Finn snapped, trying to shove me behind him. “We don’t want it!”
But Jasper didn’t move.
Jasper didn’t blink.
“It’s funny,” he said, his voice calm beneath the chaos. “When I first met you, Elle, I didn’t see it. Not right away. Then I saw your shadows.”
His hand dipped to his belt.
“And then… this.”
He pulled a dagger from his holster—almost identical to mine. He held it up beside the one he’d taken from me, the twin crests of Virell gleaming in the dim light. Symbols of a bloodline I didn’t understand—but felt in my bones.
Finn began to shake his head. Panic bleeding through.
I looked between them, heart pounding. “Jasper…?”
He turned to me, and this time his smile was sharp, genuine and reverent all at once.
“Jasper Hendrix, Virell knight,” he said. “At your service, Princess.”
Princess?
What?
Before I could speak, he stepped forward, voice steady and certain:
“Long live the one true queen.”
Then he threw the blade.
“No!” Finn screamed.
The dagger hit him square in the shoulder. A sound tore from him—half snarl, half cry—as he stumbled backward, blood pouring through his fingers. His grip on me broke.
I staggered back, gasping, heart roaring in my chest.
“Finn!”
I reached out. It was instinct. Habit. A thousand memories of safety tied to his name.
But Jasper grabbed me—pulled me back. “Don’t,” he said. Low. Final.
“But—”
“He’ll live,” Jasper said, firm but not cruel. “But not if you stay. Not if you let him drag you down with him again.”
I hesitated. One second. Maybe two. Because part of me still saw the boy who protected me. Who held my hand in the dark.
“Can you walk?”
I swallowed. “Phoenix… he’s hurt. We have to—”
“I know,” Jasper said, already moving. “I saw him fall. Come on.”
I looked back—just once.
Finn’s eyes met mine. Brown. Familiar.
But no longer soft. They burned. With devastation. With heartbreak.
I’m sorry…
I didn’t say it aloud.
We ran. And this time—I didn’t look back.
**
Phoenix
The pain was bad. And I couldn’t heal myself. My power was spent. So, I started to crawl.
I was going to save her. Or die trying.
The world was fire and blood and smoke.
I don’t remember hitting the ground. Just the way Elira screamed my name before everything went black.
Now—every step was agony. My body dragged itself forward on instinct more than will. My vision swam. My ribs were broken. Something deeper, too. Maybe more than one thing. But I didn’t care.
I had to find her.
Elira.
I kept moving.
The battlefield behind me had fractured—Leo and Slade lost in the fray, Thorne still fighting Vael. Shadows and flame clashed above like gods were warring in the sky. I didn’t have the strength to add to it.
But I had enough to crawl. To bleed. To burn my way through.
Smoke choked the alleys. Crumbling stone made every step a minefield. I staggered against a wall, my hand leaving a dark smear on the bricks.
I didn’t know where Finn had taken her. Only that she was gone.
And I could still feel her.
That thread between us hadn’t snapped.
Yet.
“Elira,” I whispered, and pushed forward.
There was no path. Just firelight and ruin. My magic was nearly gone. I’d poured it all into her—to heal, to help. I’d given her everything.
And I’d do it again.
Something flickered ahead. A shout. Steel against stone.
I moved faster—gods, it hurt—pushing through a shattered archway and into another alley. My knees nearly buckled. My shoulder slammed into a wall just to keep myself standing.
Then I saw them.
Two figures, running.
One was a man I didn’t recognise. He was tall, with midnight black skin. The other I did know.
Elira!
My whole body stilled. My breath caught. My knees nearly gave out. She was limping. Pale. Blood in her hair. But she was alive. Alive. A piece of my soul snapped back into place just seeing her.
“Elira,” I breathed. Louder now. “Elira!”
She spun.
And for one heartbeat, she just stared.
Then she ran.
“Phoenix!” she sobbed, stumbling into me so hard we both nearly fell. Her arms wrapped around me, and the pain meant nothing. I held her like I’d been drowning and she was the only breath left in the world.
“I thought—” she gasped, “—I thought he killed you—”
“Not yet,” I managed, pulling her tighter. “You’re okay. You’re safe.”
She was shaking. So was I.
Behind her, Jasper hovered warily, eyes scanning the ruins for threats.
“You’re bleeding,” she said, voice breaking. Her hands moved to my side, to the dark wound spreading beneath my ribs.
“I’m fine,” I lied. “Where’s Finn?”
She winced, tears falling freely down her face. “I … he…” she stopped and looked away.
Jasper stepped in gently. “He was hurting her, so I …I had to stop him.”
“Is he dead?” I asked carefully, watching Elle. Her eyes shuttered and she wouldn’t look at me. Shame and heartbreak radiated off her.
“No. I hit him with my blade, but he could be following us right now.” Jasper sighed.
“Elle? Are you ok?”
She forced a small smile. “Would you believe me if I said yes?” she asked quietly.
“No.”
She paused, breathing hard. “Then don’t ask. Not yet. I just… I can’t.” She shook herself and put more pressure on my wound. “We need to fix you up. Can you heal yourself?”
“It takes a lot out of me. I’ll need time to rest.” I said, but I was already feeling weak. Blood was steadily dripping from me. “I’ll be fine.”
When she saw the blood, Elira went white.
“Don’t lie to me,” she snapped. Her voice shook, but her eyes were blazing. “I can’t lose you, Phoenix. Do you understand?”
“I know someone,” Jasper cut in quickly. “At the safehouse. She might be able to help him—if we move now.”
Elira spun, scanning the rubble. “We need something. A cart, a horse—anything!”
“There’s a carriage shed, not far,” I said, voice thin.
“Where?” Her eyes locked on mine—urgent, demanding.
I told her.
Then we were moving—Jasper on one side, Elira on the other, dragging me between them as my legs began to fail.
I forced a pulse of magic through my ribs to seal the worst of the wound. It slowed the bleeding, but the price hit hard. My vision blurred. My lungs burned. I could feel it—my body fading.
“Stay with me, Phoenix,” Elira snapped. “Please.”
She didn’t see it, but I did—her shadows were moving. Slithering over my skin. Wrapping my side, stitching torn flesh like thread through fabric. They moved like instinct. Like they knew I was hers.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I murmured. My voice was breathless. But I meant it. I would drag myself to the ends of the earth if it meant keeping her safe.
By the time we reached the shed, my legs gave out completely. I hit the ground hard, gasping.
Elira dropped beside me, gathering my face in her hands.
“You’ll be okay,” she whispered, stroking my cheeks like she could keep me awake with touch alone. “You’ll be okay.”
Then she leaned in—and kissed me.
It was frantic and trembling and full of fire. Like she didn’t know if she’d ever get the chance again.
And gods, I kissed her back.
Then Jasper’s voice sliced through the moment—sharp and low. “As beautiful as this is—we need to move. Now.”
He was already at the cart, loading what little we had. Elira helped ease me onto the flatbed, her hands gentle, but my whole body flared with pain.
Jasper disappeared into the nearby stables, returning with a horse and fastening it to the reins like he’d done it a hundred times. Probably had.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
Not long ago, she’d clung to Finn like he was her anchor. Now she held me like I was the only thing keeping her breathing.
Some part of me knew—this might not last. But I didn’t care. I’d been pulled into her orbit.
And gods help me, I didn’t want to leave it.
I loved her.
I think I always had.
Jasper swung up once the horse was ready, and we lurched forward.
“Where are we going?” Elira asked sharply, already stripping off her coat to press it against my ribs. I tensed at the pressure, jaw clenched. “And what about the others?”
“We don’t have time to get to them,” Jasper said. “Vasquez’s Sentinels are moving in from the east. A full sweep. If they find us, it’s over.”
Her breath hitched. “But—Thorne, Leo, Slade—”
“We have to get to the safehouse, Princess! It’s the only way out!” Jasper exclaimed. “Then we can get a boat out of here. We will be safe.”
“I can’t leave them!”
“We have no way to communicate with them!” I gasped.
“Yes we do!”
Elira gripped my hand, then stilled, as a thought came to her. She touched the star shaped mark on my wrist.
“Call them.” she demanded. “Call them to us now.”
Of course!
I nodded in understanding and pushed down on the mark on my wrist, the small star shaped scar. I dug my nail in and sent a single thought towards them.
Find me.