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As we speak, the sky crackles. Clouds race and the red sky brightens. When I look back at Nova, she is floating. Her feet are no longer on the ground.

Kicking off her shoes, she rises higher. She stretches out her arms and, just like when she appeared above the lake, wings of fire bloom from her back. As if she is suspended in water, her hair swirls around her face. The wind blows harder. Trees groan and creak. The water in the fountain bubbles like it is boiling. The ground shakes.

“I am The Phoenix,” Nova cries, her voice travelling through me like a series of electric shocks. Without thinking, I drop to the floor. To my knee. The way I did when I told Nova I would be hers forever. In the blink of an eye, the others follow suit. We kneel in a line in front of the steps while Nova hovers above us, suspended, heat and sparks raining down on us.

Her eyes flash orange. Flames dance in her pupils. Slowly, she floats back down to the ground. She smiles and reaches out her hand, telling us to stand.

As I rise to my feet, there is a swell of movement behind me, and I realize we were not the only ones kneeling for her; they all were. The entire town.

Pacing, Nova speaks more quickly now. “I need you to know is that if we work together—all of us—we can defeat The Shadow King. We can prevent him from destroying our town and, bigger than that, we can stop him from destroying the world.”

“How?!” someone shouts.

Nova tilts her head. Her eyes flicker in the direction of the woods that surround The Hollow. “It will happen soon. Watch the skies. Watch for a sign. You’ll know it when you see it.” She races back to the top of the steps and peers over the sea of faces at something I can’t see. “When you see my signal, come to The Hollow. That is where our final battle must be.”

“She’s talking in riddles,” a woman next to me mutters.

“She often does,” I reply, even though the prune-like woman wasn’t talking to me. “That doesn’t mean she’s wrong, though.”

“Something’s happening.” Tanner grabs my elbow. “Do you feel that? Something is…” He trails off, looking down at his feet. The ground is trembling.

In front of us, Nova raises her arms and throws them out sideways. Her wings are gone, but a pulse of air flies from her hands and splits the crowd down its middle, sending her spectators sliding to either side of the square, falling into one another and losing their balance.

Now, opening her palms, she repeats the movements she made last night. Two walls of fire appear, hemming in the people of Phoenix Falls. Then a dome-like barrier appears above them.

“What is she doing?” Mack asks. “People are panicking.”

“Eve…” Kole points into the distance. “Eve is coming for her. She’s protecting them.” Without hesitation, Kole races to the top of the steps. Nova glances at him, then widens her stance, bracing herself.

Tanner and I take the steps two at a time. By the time we reach Nova, Mack and Sam are no longer human. Sam snarls and gnashes his teeth. Snow opens his mouth and releases a gut-rumbling growl.

Then she appears.

The witch who sends shivers through all of us.

“Eve,” Nova calls. “I’m so glad you could join us.”

34

EVE

I felt her, but I thought I was imagining it. Yesterday, when that ghastly window of blue appeared in the sky, and the air became thinner and cleaner, and the beautiful darkness lifted, I knew the Fire Bird had returned.

I should have gone to her then. I should have ripped off her wings and torn out her song before she had the chance to fornicate, and rejuvenate, and plot, and scheme.

But I was lazy. I was lacking. I was naïve to my own senses.

It wasn’t until I felt the ground move, and the elements bend, and the earth grow warm beneath my feet that I knew I was right.

“Eve!” My master’s voice shakes the walls of The Hollow.

He doesn’t need to say any more. I know what I must do. “She will not live to see the sun at midday, Master,” I whisper, kissing his knuckles.

“Go!” He bellows, snatching his hand away from me. He wants to join me. He wants to destroy her himself, but he is still clawing back his strength after his long, long journey. So, I will do it for him.

I run to my babies in their stable and I wake them from their slumber. They are angry at being woken, but that is a good thing; I need them at their most bloodthirsty.

With the hounds baying at my heels, we move like shadows—weightless, dark, unbound by the laws of nature—to the town square.