She rammed her head into his.
Rhaif stumbled on his feet, chest heaving. Aydra straightened and dusted off her shirt.
“You’re getting slow, sister,” he breathed.
Rhaif lunged at her again. Her blade struck his again and again, her backing him up, and then he backing her up, over and over until she felt her arm begin to feel heavy. She felt for the core of the phoenix outside, and its purr reverberated through her insides.
“Enough of this.”
Glass shattered in slow motion behind their heads. Rhaif ducked to his knees. The phoenix came swooping inside the room. Its black shadow invaded every corner, and it landed behind Aydra. Aydra’s chest heaved. She didn’t bother shaking the glass from her hair. She could feel the heat of its feathers behind her, and its tail swept across the floor.
Rhaif’s eyes bulged upon his seeing the beast. “What—Where—”
“This is for my sister—” she drove the hilt of her sword into his nose. Rhaif screamed in agony, but Aydra didn't pause.
“—this is for my raven—”
Her knife thrust into his eye.
Rhaif wailed with pain, his screams echoing off the walls. She straightened once more, watching as he grasped his face in his hands, blood pouring from his face.
“And this…” The phoenix wrapped her in cold black flames that felt of water and satin, and she allowed her hands to open at her sides. “This is for me.”
The black flames wrapped into his blue ones, and she watched as they devoured his fire. His skin singed red. She felt her body shaking at the scene of the blisters rising on his skin, the black flame eating his skin. His screams pulsed around the room. The screech of it shattered her to her core, and she suddenly felt nauseous at the scene before her.
The memory of his younger self cowering on the floor beneath their mother’s grasp pulsed through her mind, and she couldn’t shake it.
Stop, she told the phoenix.
The flames evaporated slowly on his flesh. Rhaif continued to scream and shake in agony. He hugged his legs into his chest, face askew with terror. A glisten rose in her eyes that she wasn’t prepared for. Her heart shattered at the sight of him, the brother she’d once loved so much withering in pain.
After a few moments, he laid his arm down, propping himself on his elbow as he found a sliver of strength. His trembling body kicked, and he looked up at her through the strangles of his navy hair.
“Kill me,” he begged. “Do it. Strike me down. Send me to the Edge.”
Her breath choked on the snotted-nose sob she didn’t know she possessed. She didn’t realize she was screaming until the noise of it sounded in her ears, bawling tears and cries emitting from her strained throat.
“Do it!” he begged.
The agony of his words tore through her. Her muscles edged, and she bent at the waist as another mortified sob left her lips. The memory of the smile he used to look at her with broke her heart. The promises and the laughter. Her body came crumbling down, and she felt herself sinking into an abyss.
Her brother. Desperate for love. Desperate to prove himself worthy of their mother’s love. Desperate not to be who he would inevitably become.
This was not her brother.
This was not the same brother who had once promised her life without fear of fire.
This was not the brother that she had once loved.
This was the King of Promise.
The monster in his true form.
Consumed by fear.
Finally brought to his knees by all the Queens of their past.
She forced herself to straighten with the wrap of the phoenix’s cold flames hugging her from behind, and she pushed the screaming sobs back down into her core. Her jaw trembled, and she sucked in a jagged breath as he pushed to his knees, his fire flickering around his body.
