I whipped my head from her to the second bird above. Mora squinted at it, resting docilely in the tree. “You’re distracting it,” I gasped, and Mora shrugged like it was effortless to glamour some small forest creature into a second massive, flaming bird.
Once again, I wouldn’t admit I was impressed with fae magic.
“What’s your plan?” I asked, deferring to the fae though it was against my better judgment.
“We need to get it low enough to touch,” Lancaster said, and fire reflected in his dark eyes. “I’m trying to drag it down here but it’s repelling my magic. And we don’t have as much control on Gallantia as we do on Vercuella.”
I shuddered to thinkthiswas the less controlled version of Lancaster’s magic.
A high whinny pierced the air, and Sapphire came roaring through the trees, white wings flaring gold in the light of the flame. Zanox and Dynaxtar galloped along the path, corralling the rest of us as if in protection. The former quickly broke off into the jungle in the direction of my sister.
The khrysaor were too large to fly between the trees, but Sapphire, with her smaller wingspan, was a match for the bird of flame. She soared above it, driving it down toward Lancaster’s waiting stone shackles.
It wasn’t daring to fly low enough, though. My hand flexed around Starfire, but she was useless against the bird. If I got too close for too long, the heat might melt her blade, and my heart clenched at only the consideration of losing my sword.
But the shard of Angelborn at my neck burned. My weapons were not the only tool at my disposal.
It was reckless. I didn’t know why the magic had reacted so wildly tonight—if it had alerted the bird of our presence or why—but I had to try.
“Sapphire!” I whistled, and my pegasus swooped toward me.
She barely even stopped as I leaped, landing on her back. The wound in my shoulder tore deeper, but I let it bleed. Sapphire wove in and out of the trees to get us nearer to our prey.
“All right, Angels, let’s see what we’ve got.” And carefully, one by one, I called up the five strands of Angellight within me, making certain of to whom each belonged. I looped themtogether, willing them to unspool into one unbreakable sheet, and circled the bird, forcing it closer to the ground.
I was careful with the magic, not using too much. Not touching the heart where that unnamed source seemed to come from earlier. I didn’t want it sparking and rioting—didn’t want to know what resided in there at all.
But this felt different than that uncontrollable force. The light I wielded now was the soothing magic, cascading through the air like a waterfall of gold, like the most natural thing on Ambrisk. I fed it steadily, warily, and let the power expel into the night.
“More, Mystique!” Lancaster roared after a few minutes.
“I can’t give more,” I hissed, sweat pouring down my skin. The slice to my shoulder stung, but I couldn’t stop to heal it now. “I can only control so much.”
The male gaped up at me. “What do you mean you can’t control your fucking magic?”
“I haven’t been alive and learning it for centuries likesome of us,” I spat, but I tried to feed more Angellight into the air. Since I was holding back to avoid that untamed heart, it wasn’t as potent as usual, but a thin sheen formed around the path, like a bubble containing all the magical beasts within, warrior and fae alike.
It sealed across the jungle path, and together with my pegasus, we forced the phoenix down, down, down. A stray whip of magic tore off from the rest, wild and untethered. It lashed Mora’s glamour as it fell, and the false beast stuttered out, a midnight dove once more.
“What?” Mora swore, but I had no answer for how it happened.
The original bird riled when it realized the trick, and I plunged the Angellight deeper around the jungle. Tunneled all of the magic I could into this bubble without losing control of it.
Sapphire’s striking hooves and my light shoved the bird down, and when it danced above Lancaster, the male lunged. He shot into the air with a jump only fae strength could guarantee, and clasped one of the stone shackles around the bird’s neck.
It squawked as it was dragged to the ground, scraping and clawing. Leaving long slashes across Lancaster’s face and singing Mora’s dress with those wings.
Sapphire landed, and I ran toward where Lancaster wrestled the bird. “Let’s take it back,” I said.
But it was too late.
With one final screech that wrenched through my heart, there was a crack, and the bird fell still. And with its silence, the aura of death—the loss of a destructive yet mystical and magnificent creature—settled over the jungle.
“Wh-why did you do that?” I stuttered, voice low as Lancaster stood. The entire right side of his face was covered in blood.
“What?” he seethed.
“Why did you kill it?” I couldn’t explain it, but despite the fact that the beast had attacked us, the loss echoed along my bones.
