Rupture and rapture
The flames blow
What do we do when the eagle grows cold?
Aydra’s stomach dropped.
Eagle.
Eagle.
—Nyssa.
Draven’s hand tightened around her waist. “Why is she speaking in Berdijay riddles?”
Her breaths shortened as she gripped onto his arm. “He’s hurt Nyssa.”
Aydra crumbled the letter in her hand and bounded up the stairs to Draven’s home. She started throwing things onto the bed, pulling her bag from the corner to pack it quickly.
“How do you know that?” Draven said from the door.
“Her core is an eagle,” she replied quickly. “Flames are Rhaif. He’s hurt her somehow. I have to go back,” Aydra argued.
“And if this is a trap?” Draven stated. “What if this is his way of pulling you back in? What if he is using her to get to you?”
“And what if he is?” she wept. “I cannot let her suffer. She is my sister. She doesn’t deserve to live beneath him as I did.”
“Your sister is strong.”
“I know she is. But that doesn’t mean she has to suffer in silence.”
“What about the ship?”
She paused, her heart tearing in two places as she contemplated her choices. “The ship can wait. This is my sister,” she answered. “Besides, I always told her she could come with me for negotiations when they arrived again. I will get her and bring her back here.”
“They will consider that kidnapping and take her crown too,” he affirmed.
“What would you have me do, Draven?” she snapped, rounding on him. “Would you have me sit back and do nothing while he hurts her? Ignore her as my olders did me when I voiced my own pains?”
Draven ran his hands through his hair, tugging at the roots. “Aydra, I cannot lose you again.”
The reality of why he didn’t want her to leave set in, and she crossed the space between them, taking his hands in hers.
“You’re not losing me,” she promised.
He swallowed hard and met her eyes. “If you go back there… You know he will try to hurt you. Punish you for leaving or imprison you in your own castle.” He paused, his thumbs rubbing her hands. “Are you ready for that?”
“My brother has hurt me for the last time,” she swore.
The noise of great wings flapped in the air outside the balcony, and the phoenix dove into the room. It stared down its long beak at her, amber eyes staring into her core. She felt its ferocity inside her own, and it gave her a slow blink.
She squeezed Draven’s hands and looked back at him. “He won’t know what’s coming to him.”
Draven sighed and rested his forehead against hers, and she closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of the forest around them.
“I love you so much,” she whispered.
He pulled back slightly and brought her hand to his lips. “I love you,” he said before kissing her palm. “And I support you. If this is what you need to do then… I will not stand in your way.”
