Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (138 page)

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I struggled to hold on to consciousness. “I’m willing to die to stop you, Phoenix. Once I’m gone, Lincoln will return you.”

He smiled. “I know. But somehow I don’t think that’s going

to happen.”

With that, he put me down on my feet and withdrew my dagger

from its sheaf. I stumbled, unsteady, and blinked at the sight of my blade when I saw it was red.

From
where
my
angel
maker
smeared
my
blood.

I could feel the moment he started to heal me again. The wound

was closing and the pain receding, but I was already so weak, it felt as if I had no blood left to give. He kept hold of my hands and swung me wide, leaving me hanging over the crater and its

billowing hot smoke.

“Phoenix! No!” A desperate cry sounded. Lincoln.

I dangled over the mouth of the volcano while beneath me,

Tartarus stirred with anticipation.

“‘Six to the ground, in return for one,’” Phoenix said, reciting the prophecy. He knelt and placed my hands on the rocky edges of the crater, making sure I had a good enough grip. “‘An offering of pain starts the rivers of fire.’”

“Don’t do this!” I panted, the toes of my sneakers grappling for a foothold.

His sights paused on me for a moment. “Hold on!” He ran

my dagger down his arm, slicing it open and covering it in his

own blood. Then, he threw it into the volcano, screaming, “Your payment has been made by my hand! Deliver her!”

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He crouched down to me, adjusting my hold on the rocks,

though I was still slipping. It was so hot with the smoke that my hands were wet with sweat, and I wouldn’t manage for much

longer, but I had a good enough grip for now— my rock- climbing experience paying off.

“My word stands. Tell your nature wielders: I’ll do what I can—

wind will be at their side. Hold on, Violet; he’s almost here.”

“You think the human is gone?” I screamed at him with a sudden

burst of strength. “You’re so wrong. Exiles only want to destroy and take power, but I know you sent them to us so we would return

them. You control them even as you used them! Everything you’ve done, you’ve done to belong.”

Phoenix’s eyes were wide as he stood up, looking over the battlefield he had created.

“That’s human, Phoenix! It’s not the human in you that’s gone

at all!”

I could almost hear his heartbeat stammer and then pause.

His mouth opened, and he looked at me with utter surprise.

Then he took off, moving like the wind, disappearing into the

darkness, but his whispered words, and their sadness, lingered: “It’s too late.”

————

I could hear them coming. Lincoln was faster than Spence and

Griffin; he’d reach me first. I could sense the exiles moving around, and I let myself slip into my other sense.

My spirit lifted from my body and I looked down over the

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mouth of Hell. Exiles were everywhere. We were at the top, around the crater, while everyone else fanned out around the base, already fighting. I could sense signatures— some awful, some unknown,

many frightening.

Then I felt the warmth of my people, Grigori, some fighting

on the volcano and many at its perimeter and farther afield. At least a dozen boats surrounded the island, and I saw the glimmer of something linking each one, surrounding the volcano. A shield.

They were protecting the rest of the world from this site. But would they be able to hide the smoke and the darkness or what was still to come?

There must have been more than a hundred Grigori.

Where
have
they
all
come
from?

I came back to myself. The use of what Phoenix had called

“sight” had only taken a second or two, but my hands were starting to slip.

Phoenix had to be stopped. He had proved to me time and time

again that I could not fight him. He had too much power over me.

“Violet!” Lincoln yelled, sliding to the ground above me. He

leaned in over the lip of the volcano, arm outstretched. “Take

my hand!”

The volcano roared.

It
will
be
easier
for
them
all. Especially him, in the long run. This is
the only way to stop Phoenix.

I felt the blast below. The volcano was preparing to erupt.

A breath of fire shot up, and I couldn’t hold back the scream

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as the flames raged up the back of my legs and body, searing my flesh. I was so weak and so tired. I screamed again, but before I could let my hands slip from their rigid hold on the edge, Lincoln stretched out his own badly burned arm and grabbed hold of one

of mine.

I looked up, my eyes pouring with tears of pain and under-

standing. I had to look away. I let my other hand slip from the rock and hang loose.

“Don’t, Violet!” Lincoln’s voice was strong and unwavering. It

caught me by surprise. “Don’t. You. Dare. Look at me!”

It wasn’t compulsion, but I still couldn’t stop myself. I had to see him one last time. I opened my mouth to tell him good- bye, but he didn’t let me speak.

“If you let go, I’m jumping in there after you!”

My hand slipped in his hold and I did little to stop it, but he clung on.

“It’s better this way, Linc! You can fight him without me and

then you’ll be free!”

He looked at me like I was mad until his jaw set with determination.

“You smell of winter dew at the first crack of dawn and when

you use your power, it feels like being submerged in the most intoxicating vanilla cream that I lose myself in it every time and…and you
were
beautiful,” he blurted out, catching us both by surprise.

But he went on, ignoring the fact my hand was still slipping. “So stunning in that dress the other night, I could hardly look at you it hurt so much. You
are
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Violet, because…I love you so much that I can’t trust myself. I’d die for you, give up all my power for you. I’d give you my soul in an instant, even if it meant I had to spend eternity in torment— just for one moment with you as mine. Wanting you consumes me. I

dread you because I know the risk, but I’m so selfish, I want you anyway. I’d take you even though it could kill you.”

I cried out again, the pain now so much worse, inside and out.

My hand continued to slip as I looked into his eyes, intense with want, and I knew he was telling the truth. He would jump in after me. I forced my loose arm up and he grabbed it, leaning farther into the opening.

He lifted me out and as he did, the severity of my burns became apparent. I couldn’t hold back the screams and he placed me belly down on the ground.

“Fuck.”

It was bad. Lincoln never used that word.

“Oh, fuck.”

Or Griffin.

“Fuck.”

Spence said it quite a bit, but it was that third one that tipped me over the edge. I started trembling uncontrollably.

Honey and cream. Not as trickly and warm this time. No, this

time it enveloped me, then washed through me like a flood. I felt the worst of the pain ease. Lincoln was working his power over me as fast and hard as he could.

“We don’t have time!” Spence said urgently. I could hear him

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panting. He and Griffin had been fighting off exiles while Lincoln tried to heal me. “This thing is about to explode for real, and we do
not
want to be up here!”

Feeling returned to my legs, intensifying the pain from the

burns on the backs of my thighs and calves.

“She needs to be able to fight!” Lincoln yelled.

But I knew he’d keep going no matter what. I pushed myself to

my knees, trying unsuccessfully to hold back the tears.

“It’s okay. I can fight, but I don’t have a dagger.”

He cupped a hand around my face; his eyes seemed to say so

much— hold so much love.

“Stay next to me. Like old times.”

He meant when I couldn’t use my dagger. I’d fight them; he’d

return them. I nodded.

Lincoln helped me up, being careful where he touched. Then he

pulled off his T- shirt and started easing it over my head. When I looked at him quizzically, he simply shrugged.

“Most of your dress has melted to your back.”

Splendid.

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chapter
thirty- five

“Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.”
CHarLes MaurICe De TaLLeYraND

Spence moved ahead to intercept the exile approaching us. It was like
Night
of
the
Living
Dead
, everyone covered in ash and blood.

Not a pretty sight.

“Griffi n,” I said, my voice catching I was so glad to see him.

“Phoenix said to tell the nature users that wind will be on their side, though I don’t know what that means exactly.”

“We can’t believe anything he says,” Griffi n dismissed.

“Yes, we can,” Lincoln said. “It was part of the bargain. He will hold to it.”

I nodded, Lincoln supporting me, carrying most of my weight

as I leaned into him. “He doesn’t want everyone dead; he just wants her back.”

Griffi n was talking into a two- way radio. I heard Josephine

respond, and he relayed the message.

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“There’s something else,” I said, trying to hold my own weight.

“I sacrificed the three to the water. If three to the volcano makes it erupt, three to the water can’t be good.”

Griffin smiled. “We’re ready for that. Come on. We need to move.” It was an order and we followed. Behind us, the volcano started to rumble. It was about to erupt.

We picked up the pace, and when we neared the battle scene at

its foot, I turned back to see a bolt of liquid fire launch from the volcano’s opening into the afternoon sky that was dark as night.

“‘Flames will roar and spear the skies,’” I said.

Lincoln looked over his shoulder, but urged me on.

We leapt into the mix of exiles and Grigori, and I don’t know

where it came from— adrenaline, Lincoln, my angel maker— but

I summoned a reserve of strength. Side by side, Lincoln and I

battled, taking down exiles who stood in our path, flanked by

Griffin and Spence.

We maneuvered our way to the center of the battlefield,

finding Samuel, Kaitlin, Nathan, and Becca all fighting hard.

When we saw each other, we quickly converged, forming a circle

and putting our backs to one another to gain the advantage over our opponents.

Lincoln absorbed the brunt of the attack, and I managed to

bring down those who made it through before he stepped in to

return them. A couple of times I tried to use my power to stall them, but only succeeded in holding the odd one until Lincoln

took over.

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Every movement tore the flesh on my back and I fought the

building need to pass out. All the while, I could see lava rolling down the volcano toward us. We didn’t have long.

I looked everywhere to find him, knowing that even though my

choice was to live, it did not come before my decision to destroy him. But Phoenix was long gone. This entire battlefield had been arranged to mask his escape.

“We need to move, people!” Griffin called out the instruction again.

It was then that I noticed that all the other Grigori had boarded boats except for us.

“Let’s go, let’s go!”

As a team, we held our circle, fighting off raving exiles. They saw the lava coming too, and, like us, I was sure they could sense something else brewing, but still they fought savagely, needing the kill, needing to be the most vicious and believing they

would prevail.

“Go!” Lincoln yelled at me, as we neared the boat. But I didn’t move from his side. He shot glances at me, between hits with the exile he had well in hand.

“Griffin!” Lincoln called out. “We’re on board!”

He grabbed the exile he was fighting, drove his dagger into his chest, then spun round, lifting me up in the same motion, ignoring my cry of pain, and running onto the boat. When he put me down, he smiled. “Must you always be so difficult?”