Wildfire Witch (The Cursed Coven of Spells Hollow)

19. Aodhnait

AODHNAIT

At the dawn of my most important life, I had to make the willful choice to reincarnate. My kind was hunted for our powers for as long as we’d existed. I was no exception, and I’d burned myself to ash more than once to avoid having my one treasured spark stolen from me.

Something in the Carmine house felt different. I had rested in a near-death state for so long, I was considering leaving for good…but I gave life another chance instead. I’d sensed her . A child with tiny hands and a big heart. My witch, Verity Carmine.

She’d lifted me from my ashes and cradled my featherless, newborn body to her chest, where I could hear the thump thump thump inside her body. Even then, I’d known I’d made the right choice. She was worth the risk of living for. Someday when we were both grown, she would protect me from those who would kill me by trying to access phoenix resurrection magic.

A different hand lifted me now, cradling my body in a shower of ashes as I manifested from the fire of my cage burning. That big heart, rended from my witch’s chest and turned to dust. Her body collapsed as dragon claws closed around my torso.

“At last, you are free, noble phoenix,” Lance boomed over me. He was so much larger when I wasn’t a spirit looking through Nix’s eyes. I blinked eyes full of blazing white flame, stunned by the shock of my reappearance in the wrong person’s hold.

There was movement behind us. Nix’s men realizing she’d died, one by one. They’d entered a meditative state to give her so much magic, and that’d been the only opening the fire dragon shifter needed. Ceridor dropped to his knees, crying out. His hand, with the marks of their handfasting, clutched his chest, and the other grabbed his tattoos as the magic warped and reddened. Rusty whimpered, a most un-draconic sound, and dragged himself to Nix’s side. Seth was looking around in an unfocused daze, lost.

Though Lance made a sound of derision, he shifted further, extending out leathery dragon wings from his back. “Your new life awaits,” he said to me. “You will be the most pampered pet by my mate’s side. Anything you desire shall be yours.” Except he still didn’t realize that I would die trying to bring his long-deceased mate back to life.

Not that it mattered. As the shock wore off, flames erupted along my wing feathers, wrapping around my tail. I burst from his hold with a bird’s shriek and aimed my talons straight for his eyes. No one expected such a dainty creature as a phoenix to be strong, and I used that to my full advantage as I filled his face with furious wingbeats and a hail of scratches.

He snarled and tried to bat me away, attempting to be gentle. I was precious and rare, possibly the last phoenix left, and I took advantage of that too as I clamped my beak on his brow and tore. Lance roared and grabbed me. The world turned into a whirl of sky and earth when he reflexively tossed me away from his face.

Seth recovered first, pointing at the fire dragon shifter. Tendrils of water rose from the ground, some winding around Lance’s ankles, more bursting free to grab his thighs next. Orbs of dirty water hovered around him as his face contorted with realization and rage. An angry set was a terrifying sight. Especially when he solidified water and sent ice shrapnel straight for Lance.

He pumped his wings, shedding rivulets of blood from where I’d wounded him and ice punctured his skin. But the big shift was coming. I sensed the change of power around his form as scales rippled and clothing seams stretched to their limits. It’d be impossible to fight him if he transformed into his second form.

Another dragon roared, splitting the still sky of Spells Hollow. Rusty didn’t have the magic to shift, but he still barreled forward with claws and fangs extended to grab Lance’s leg and slam him to the ground. The earth quaked from the force, and Lance lost the concentration to fully shift. Rusty was on his former boss with a snarl, punching and ripping at scales while Seth summoned more water tendrils to hold the leader of the Fire Brotherhood prone.

I landed beside Ceridor, nudging his arm with my beak. He’d gone quiet, the air too still around him. His head was bowed, but when his eyes opened, they glowed from within like pure pits of silver radiance. I don’t think he saw me, just the fading marks on his arm. Loss and pain contorted his sharp fae features into a hateful mask.

My neck feathers stood on end as he rose and drew his staff from his back. The wind answered his fury, blowing into an echoing blast as he spun his weapon and wrapped his element around him. “What have you done!” Ceridor shouted, and the wind screamed with him.

His magic rose to the force of a tornado around him, so strong I wasn’t sure he could maintain control. I flapped up to land on his shoulder, my feathers pulling in all directions even as he served as the eye of his personal storm. “She was so close,” he muttered. “She was…she almost made it…”

Lance had managed to break the water tendrils holding him and gained the upper hand on Rusty in their fight of fists and claws and bared fangs. He had his hands around Rusty’s throat, squeezing and shaking him. But he turned to see the cyclone of wind fae magic walking in his direction, and his draconic pupils dilated.

Lance flared out his wings and shot into the sky. “Face your fate, coward,” Ceridor hissed. He pointed the end of his staff and the wind whooshed past us, flattening my feathers to my back and blowing my tail over his shoulder.

The first cut of honed air sliced through the middle of Lance’s wing, exposing bone in the joint that held its webbing together. He was already falling when several brutal cuts opened the scales protecting his torso, leg, and neck.

Ceridor gestured and skidded Rusty and Seth away from the fire dragon shifter, blocking them with a wall of dense air. They beat on the invisible force before Seth gestured and said something. They went around it to face Lance with the slowly advancing fae.

Lance was still alive when Ceridor’s boots stopped at his side. He was a fire dragon shifter, after all, born to be a king of the sky. The growing puddle of his blood steamed from the chill radiating off the wind fae. He lunged upward, claws closing around my neck. I screeched in surprise as he jerked me to his torso and squeezed until I was forced into silence.

“This is mine,” he hissed, shaking me. “Now that I’ve had my revenge, I’m taking the bird and leaving.”

A piece of jagged ice embedded in his wrist with pinpoint precision. He roared and flashed his fangs as he was forced to drop me and I flew to safety behind Ceridor.

“You are delusional if you think you’re leaving here alive,” Seth snapped. He sent out a wave of water that splashed into Lance’s open mouth and rapidly froze it. I thought it was to seal his mouth shut so there wouldn’t be fire, until the fire dragon released a pained moan as something in his jaw popped audibly.

The ground quaked and a massive rock slammed into Lance, spreading into rock shackles that weighed down his arms. He flopped onto his back and struggled to stand as his shift failed him, scales disappearing, and mangled wings shuddering in agony as they failed to retract.

Lance tried to gasp something as Ceridor loomed over him once more.

A high-pitched, discordant laugh escaped the fae’s lips. “You killed my wife. What mercy were you expecting?” He lifted his hand, and another slice opened up across Lance’s chest, cutting diagonally.

Blood leaked from the corner of the shifter’s mouth. His body jerked when Ceridor hit him again in the same place. Another strike like that and he’d bisect the dragon’s heart.

The wind slashed down, an unforgiving final blow. Lance fell still, but the air did not, cutting him over and over in different places. Ceridor’s trembling hand remained extended, directing the magic. I flew up to perch on his shoulder. “He’s dead,” I whispered.

His whole body quaked, but he didn’t move his hand.

“Ceridor, you killed him. Stop this,” I said more firmly.

Something continued to possess him. Madness, I feared, giving his permanent wedding vows to Nix one last twist to break him. Nix wouldn’t want this for him, so I had to do something. I latched onto his pointed ear, giving it a good chomp that he wouldn’t be able to ignore.

He gasped and leaned his head away, but the hostile air died down completely. His hand fell limp by his side, and his staff thumped into the grass, slipping from nerveless fingers. The glowing magic in his eyes dimmed, his gaze darkening to the hue of old steel. “Aodhnait,” he said with a sob.

The next thing I knew, he’d slipped me off his shoulder and crushed me in a hug. While he cried, the wind picked up again, howling his grief for all far and wide to hear. I leaned against him, patiently enduring the embrace. Human-shaped friends liked their hugs too much. “Stop this,” I whispered, reaching up to nuzzle under his chin. “I’m going to bring her back, Ceridor.”

He stared through me. The words sank in painfully slow.

“I’m going to bring her back,” I repeated. “It’s not too late.” I purposefully angled my beak toward his handfasting marks, which were a light gray as they continued fading off his skin. But they weren’t gone yet.

“You would…use your spark?” he asked, realization dawning.

“Yes,” I breathed.

He carried me to her body, kicking Lance’s carcass as he passed it. Rusty and Seth had gone to her the moment the shifter died, kneeling in the grass and tending to her. One of them had straightened her head and closed her eyes.

Seth had taken off his shirt and wetted it, starting the process of washing the ash from her bare skin. Beside him, Rusty was struggling to produce wildflowers with a wiggle of his fingers over the ground. Some were already woven into her hair. Both of the men looked weary and puffy-eyed when they glanced up at us.

Ceridor placed me into the grass and I hopped onto Nix’s chest, inspecting the wound. The strike was cleaner than expected, as most of her skin had cauterized. “I can try,” I said, feeling some doubt now that I saw how deep it was.

“Try what?” Rusty asked dully.

Seth’s mouth dropped open. He elbowed the shifter and whispered, “That has to be Nix’s phoenix.”

With a snort, Rusty bounced his fingers off his forehead. “Talking red peacock…I should’ve realized,” he mumbled.

My feathers puffed out in offense. “Exquisite bird,” Seth said overtop Rusty. “Magnificent crimson phoenix restored to her glory.”

“That’s right,” I said proudly, taking in the three of them as my tail swished thoughtfully. “I’m going to try to bring her back. Most phoenixes die when they attempt this, but I’m going to do my best…”

“How can we help?” Rusty asked, his dull grief transforming into attentiveness.

I did a hop and flap, returning to my spot on Ceridor’s shoulder. He didn’t utter any complaint when my talons dug into his skin. “Normally, you couldn’t help, but I think you all might like to.” At least, I hoped they would. “The way it works is, I give Nix’s body the spark of magic in me that gives me the power to resurrect. A tether forms between my living body and her spirit. Best-case scenario, I pull her back to life.”

“Let’s do it. I’ll pull with you,” the dragon shifter blurted.

“It’s not quite that simple.” I shifted on my feet, still nervous. “If she’s been gone too long, or her body is too damaged for her to return to without immediately dying again, her spirit will pull me into death, and that is the end of things. My spark will heal her body some, so I think…”

I shook out my wings, scattering a dusting of ash. “Anyway, the only way for you three to strengthen the tether is to bind yourself to the process, too. I will have to stay close to her for the rest of my life, as she will hold my spark as her heart. When she dies again, I die, this time permanently. You’ve already bonded yourselves by magic, through mating. But if you do this, you will also be tied to her life force. If she dies, we all would die too.”

“Like a mating circle?” Seth asked.

“Yes, exactly, but one you can’t back out of.”

There were a couple exchanged glances amongst them. Seth was the most hesitant, while Ceridor was immediate in his acceptance. He reached into his pocket, withdrawing a badly wrinkled piece of paper. “Would we put this to use?” he asked me. Unfolding it, he showed me the rough draft of a magical array Nix had made as a theoretical piece of magic back in their Seattle apartment. It felt like I’d watched her sketch it out months ago, when it hadn’t been all that long.

It had a place for three people to stand, represented by the triangular symbols for air, water, and earth. I crackled deep in my throat as I looked it over again with approval. If these three mates of hers agreed, we would make a powerful tether together.

“Yes, we should use this,” I confirmed.

Ceridor bent, carefully picking up Nix’s limp form. “I will set up the ritual. Join me if you’re willing to do this for her,” he said. He’d expended so much magic, his voice held only wisps of chilled wind. But he held his head with fae dignity as he carried us to the ruin of the Carmine house.

The burned remains were ash now that the curse was gone, blowing away from the limp breeze he summoned. All that remained was the base of the house, with a pristine circle of unburned wood. The location of our original cursing, where she’d laid unconscious while fire poured uncontrollably from her, in her first life.

Ceridor placed her gently down on the grass and picked up the casting chalk she’d left on the ground. He tried to flatten the diagrammed array and began drawing the perimeter of the design.

Seth took the paper from him, holding it taut between his hands for the fae to reference. Rusty joined them a couple of minutes later with a chunk of white stone in his beefy hand. We all watched the fae bring the diagram to life, one bold chalk mark at a time. No one broke the reverent silence of the moment.

When the casting chalk was reduced to a nub, Rusty handed his rock to Ceridor. It continued the job where the chalk had stopped. Soon, the fae was carefully angling the rock to make three visible triangular symbols outside of the circle. The white marks stood out starkly on the blackened wood. Air, water, and earth.

“Should we lay her down on top of this?” the fae asked me.

“That was what she was thinking, when this was our plan to break the curse,” I confirmed. “You’re missing one symbol.” I launched from his shoulder and walked to the top of the array, tapping my talons where I wanted it. “Put fire here…for me.”

He obediently chalked the upright triangle where I’d indicated. Then he jerked his chin at Rusty. “Bring her,” he murmured.

The dragon placed Nix down on top of the array. It fit her perfectly as he arranged her limbs to be spread away from her body. Ceridor pointed where they should stand, and then three sets of eyes turned to me. “What now?” the fae asked.

“Be willing when you feel a tug,” I answered. There was no time for nerves or hesitations. The mating marks on them were mere outlines: Ceridor’s handfasting marks, the symbol of an anam cara on Seth’s palm, and the bold red phoenix on Rusty’s sleeve. But the connections remained and would pull with me to bring Nix’s spirit back.

No hesitation, I repeated to myself, setting my talons down after one last shift of my weight. I only had one spark, a single attempted resurrection in me. There was no practice, only a hope and prayer that this would work.

I drew in a deep breath and called on my instincts. A song wove from my beak, wordless and sweet. The golden spark ignited in my chest, shining through my feathers in a beacon of fiery light. It rose and rose, dancing like a candle flame as it emerge from my beak and spiraled down for a landing on Nix’s chest.

My spark shimmied into her body and took its place where her heart used to be. Flesh and blood mended at its touch, bone and skin setting back into place. When it had healed her as much as possible, it pulsated, beating and flexing.

I closed my eyes as the tether of magic formed and cast out into the afterlife. Earth, air, and water twined around the tether, lending strength and support. We sought my witch together and when we found her, I pulled hard, determined to bring back my best friend.