I pass Ambrose in the corridor on my way to the training room. He's standing near one of the windows, perfectly still, his green eyes fixed on something outside that I can't see. The shadows around him are behaving strangely, stretching toward the counselor wing where Skye is, even though Ambrose himself isn't moving.
"You good?" I ask, slowing my pace.
He doesn't look at me when he answers. "The void is restless. It knows something's coming."
I want to ask what it feels like to be tethered to Skye the way he is now, to be the Original Darkness wearing a human face, but the distant look in his eyes tells me this isn't the time.
"The void isn't the only thing that's restless," I say instead. "We're all on edge."
Ambrose finally turns, and for just a moment, his eyes aren't green. They're black, a deep endless nothingness stretching on forever, like staring into the space between stars. Then he blinks, and they're normal again.
"If those hunters try to take any of our mates," he says quietly, "they'll learn what happens when you threaten something the darkness has claimed."
A chill runs down my spine that has nothing to do with temperature. But before I can walk away, Ambrose speaks again, his voice distant.
"I've been remembering things. People I used to know. Favors owed." His eyes are still fixed on something outside the window, but I don't think he's seeing the courtyard. "My mother was a contract demon. She taught me how to build networks, how to find leverage, how to make deals that bind tighter than any chain. I buried all of that when Dmitri trapped me here. Easier to forget what I was capable of than to mourn the freedom I'd lost."
"And now?"
"Now it's coming back." He finally turns to look at me, and his eyes are entirely green again, sharp and calculating. "I might be able to get us help. Outside help. People who owe me debts they've probably forgotten about, but debts don't expire for a Crossroads Keeper."
I nod once and keep walking, trying not to think about what Ambrose might be capable of if pushed too far. But there's something almost like hope in my chest now. If Ambrose can reach people outside Grimrose, maybe we're not as trapped as we thought.
When I reach the training room, Stellan is already there, pacing like a caged animal. I watch him for a moment before stepping inside, cataloging the tension in his shoulders, the way his hands keep clenching and unclenching.
I know why he's struggling. He's trying to suppress the phoenix and control it through sheer force of will, and that's the exact opposite of what he needs to do. Phoenixes aren't meant to be controlled. They're meant to be channeled, guided, and worked with rather than against.
"You need to be able to shift on command," I tell Stellan, the phoenix pausing for a moment before he starts pacing again. Over the past 24 hours, everything has started shifting, more than just Stellan’s essence but all of ours, too. I can feel the energy thrumming through me, a much darker essence than I’m used to just waiting to get out. The worst part is that I know it won’t be long before I succumb to the very essence I’m trying to contain, the same way Stellan is. "You won’t be able to hold it back or when they ask you to show control, you'll explode into fire. That means you need to learn what triggers the transformation."
Stellan laughs, but there's no humor in it, and my essence recoils from the bitterness. "Great. Except the only time I've everfully transformed was when I was emotional. When Skye was pushing me to let go. I don't know how to do it any other way."
I consider this, already formulating a plan. My instincts are sharper now, somehow telling me exactly what Stellan needs.
"Then we start with understanding what emotions trigger it," I say, prowling closer and letting my essence rise just enough to be felt. The others are spread amongst their own classes, Skye no doubt stuffed in his office trying to gain as much knowledge as he can from those ancient books along the walls. He’s found a lot of good information about phoenixes but we have no idea how much of it is true, legend, or downright false. For now, it’s just Stellan and I, and we need to focus. "Phoenix fire is tied to passion, right? To feeling everything at maximum volume. You transformed when you felt safe enough to release, when Skye made you feel accepted. So we figure out what else brings it out."
I'm close enough now to feel the heat radiating off Stellan's skin and taste his essence in the air, dire and fear and desperate hope all mixed together, the orange starting to bleed into his irises.
"We make you feel safe and wanted and then we see what happens."
Stellan's breath catches in his throat, and I catalog every micro-response. Pupil dilation. Increased heart rate. The subtle shift in his essence from suppression to interest.
"Jade..."
But I cut him off, needing to say this while my courage holds. "I've wanted you since the moment I saw you. Even before that night, you turned into a literal bird of fire. You fascinate me. The way you try so hard to be gentle when you're made of destruction. The way you care so deeply about not hurting anyone that you hurt yourself instead."
I reach out slowly, giving Stellan every chance to pull away, before cupping his face in my hands. His skin is fever-hot,and getting hotter with each second of contact. I purr at the sensation, feeding on the heat, on the emotion, and on the sheer potential coiled inside this phoenix who doesn't know his own power yet.
I thought his regular heat felt good, feeding into my own essence, but this? This is so much better.
"I'm a demon, Stellan." The word doesn't stick in my throat anymore or make me flinch the way it used to. Rumi helped me accept that truth, but saying it out loud to Stellan and actually owning it, that's different. "Do you know what that means?"
Stellan shakes his head minutely, his whole body trembling with the effort of holding back.
"It means your fire? God, your fire is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted."
I let a little of myself show, my horns budding from my forehead, my eyes shifting to solid purple with slit pupils, the changes I've been hiding finally allowed to manifest. It feels right to stop suppressing everything and let my mate see what I'm becoming. I used to be terrified of this change, but Rumi helped me see I'm not wrong.
Skye made it easier to digest that I’m everything I need to be.
