Wildfire Phoenix by Zoe Chant
Chapter 33
Uncegila didn’t give any of them time to react. She raised Ash’s hands, and an explosion of fire erupted from the possessed Phoenix.
On sheer instinct, Blaise flung herself flat, tucking against the ground in a futile attempt to protect her face. For a fraction of a second, a searing wash of heat slapped her skin, crisping the ends of her hair—and then it was gone.
Lifting her head, she found a sparkling wall of silver light holding back the flames, mere inches from her nose. The glimmering force field covered the whole group, protecting them from the blood-red inferno.
But Wystan hadn’t been able to shield everyone.
The Thunderbird fell like a meteor, trailing flames. The huge bird smashed into the clearing with the terrible crunch of breaking bones, and lay still.
“Zephyr!” Blaise screamed.
Wystan’s hands were outstretched, sweat beading his brow as he fought to hold back the flames. Arms shaking, he forced his shield further out, covering the fallen Thunderbird as well.
Scrambling up, Blaise ran for Zephyr. Hugh was right at her heels, his hands already lighting up with silvery radiance. The unicorn shifter took in the Thunderbird’s smoking burns at a single glance, and his mouth set in a grim, hard line. Laying his hands against the Thunderbird’s motionless side, he began pouring healing power into the stricken bird, without so much as a single sarcastic word. That told Blaise just how serious things were, and her heart clenched.
“Hang on, Zeph.” She held the Thunderbird, pressing against the side of its vast head, stroking the soft feathers under its closed eye. “I’m here. I’m right here.”
From the center of the inferno, Ash laughed again. Blaise’s skin crawled at such a cold, malicious sound coming from her father’s mouth.
“Oh, glorious, glorious!” One of Ash’s hands lifted, flames winding between his fingers like burning snakes. “Now this is a host fit for a queen. Such a soul, such power!”
“That’s Uncegila,” Edith breathed, her face white with horror. Rory hissed, his wings spread protectively over his mate. “She’s possessed Ash, just like she took over Fenrir.”
Ash’s mouth curved in a vicious, predatory smile. “Oh, no, little child. Before, you only tasted a fraction of my power. So many years since I was last able to fully emerge. So many years where I had to be content with mere puppets, barely able to contain a fraction of my majesty. But now, you have all so kindly brought me a soul great enough to hold my entire self. Now you will face my full wrath!”
She launched a fresh wave of fire at them. Wystan gasped, driven down to one knee as the flames gnawed at his shield.
“Wystan can’t keep this up for long.” Candice had her arms around him, bracing him with all her strength. “Hurry, Hugh!”
“Working on it,” Hugh gritted out through clenched teeth.
White light flooded from his hands, covering the Thunderbird’s wounds. Blaise felt the great bird twitch, stirring. Its eye slitted open, revealing a sliver of blank gray, like dense cloud. Blaise flung her arms as far around the Thunderbird as she could, holding it down as it tried to lift its head.
“Wait. Not yet,” she whispered, willing Zephyr to hear her, and understand. She raised her voice. “Mom—”
“Already ahead of you, love.” Rose studied the firestorm swirling around her mate. She clicked her tongue, as though Uncegila had tracked mud across a freshly cleaned floor. “Oh, now, really. No, this simply will not do.”
“Rose!” Wystan cried out, as she started for Uncegila. He stretched out a desperate hand, his fraying shield struggling to push back the flames. “I can’t cover you!”
“It’s all right, my dear.” Backlit by fire, Rose smiled at him. “Ash won’t hurt me.”
She stepped past the edge of the shield, strolling straight into the flames. They recoiled, parting before her.
Uncegila snarled. She hooked Ash’s fingers, trying to bend the fire to her will, to engulf Rose in flame—but nothing could make a shifter harm his mate.
Quite calmly, Rose walked right up to her possessed mate. Uncegila actually took a step back, a moment of uncertainty flickering across Ash’s features. Then she twisted his face into an arrogant sneer.
“Foolish mortal,” she spat through Ash’s lips. “You think you can stand against me? I shall feast on all your souls. I am Uncegila! Crowned queen, ruler of serpents, devourer of—”
“Oh, hush,” Rose snapped, in the same tone of voice she used when one of her patrons crossed the line from ‘drunk’ to ‘disorderly.’ She folded her arms, fixing Uncegila with a stern glare. “I think we’ve heard quite enough from you. Boys, ladies, a little help, please?”
Chase, John, and Griff came forward, flanking Rose. Their mates came too: Connie, fists clenched and jaw set; Neridia, tall and regal; Hayley, shorter, softer, and no less dangerous.
The flames drew back further, retreating in fear. Dai landed behind Alpha Team, red wings outstretched, Virginia like a warrior queen on his back. Ivy swooped in too, hissing defiance, her tail arched over her green back like a scorpion ready to sting. Hugh still had his hands full with the Thunderbird, but Blaise could sense him reach out telepathically, linking with the others. The unicorn shifter stood side by side with Alpha Team in spirit, if not in body.
Stepping in front of Zephyr, Blaise joined them, adding what little strength she could to the gathering group of minds. Rory was there too, and Wystan, and Callum, and Joe.
Rose gathered them all up, knitting them together into a single shining purpose. Alpha Team and A-squad, firefighters and hotshots; parents and sons and daughters and friends. She took them all, focusing all that love, all that power, and drove it like a spear into the darkness filling her mate.
Uncegila did not go easily. When Blaise had helped Darcy drive the snake demon out of Fenrir, it had been like banishing shadows by flicking on a light. But Fenrir had only hosted a portion of Uncegila, a fraction of her evil spirit. Now, they faced all of her, crammed into Ash’s skin, and she wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
Shecoiled within Ash, crushing his animal like a constricting snake. Even as Rose forced her back, driving her out, the snake goddess clung to her prey. Her fangs sank deep into the Phoenix, holding tight.
Ash’s back arched. Black smoke poured from his mouth—but brightness went with it. Golden fire unspooled from him, wrenched out by Uncegila’s grasping fangs. For an instant, a struggling shape beat frantic wings, trying to escape vast, shadowy jaws—and then it was gone, swallowed whole.
Ash collapsed, thin trails of flame bleeding from his eyes and ears. Above him, Uncegila tipped her huge, horned head to the sky, her vast throat rippling as she gulped down stolen fire.
“Now, Zephyr!” Blaise yelled.
The Thunderbird reared up, wings spreading wide. Charred black patches still marred the gray feathers, but the geometric patterns across the underside lit up with eye-searing power.
Storm clouds swirled above, blotting out all sunlight. Uncegila lunged, fanged jaws gaping, but the Thunderbird was already sweeping its wings forward. Its great beak opened, thunder drowning out the horned serpent’s hiss of rage. With a cry that shook the earth, the Thunderbird unleashed the lightning.
The brilliant, seething bolt hit Uncegila square in the heart… and splashed.
Electric sparks spluttered from dark scales, fizzling out. The last of Blaise’s hope died with them. Cold with horror, she stood frozen as Uncegila’s hissing laughter coiled around them.
Before the Thunderbird could try again, Uncegila’s tail whipped round. Contemptuously, she knocked the vast bird across the clearing. Dai roared, lunging, but Uncegila slapped the red dragon aside as well, sending him tumbling into the trees. The rest of the shifters were forced to scatter to avoid being crushed as the enormous serpent swept round. Uncegila reared up, cobra hood flaring, her shadow engulfing them all.
“Oh, you fool.” The horned serpent looked down at the Thunderbird, her burning eyes alight with triumph. “Did you truly think you could defeat me alone?”
“He’s not alone,” growled a voice.
Blaise had lost track of Buck in the confusion. Now the Superintendent stepped out of the Thunderbird’s shadow. He was unarmed, dwarfed by the monstrous serpent, yet he stood squarely between Uncegila and his nephew.
“You, little thunderkin?” Uncegila cocked her horned head, as though intrigued by this show of defiance. “You deny even the paltry power you possess. What do you hope to accomplish?”
“Me?” Buck’s fists clenched, and Blaise could have sworn that electricity crackled over his knuckles. “Mainly, to keep you distracted.”
Joe dropped from the sky, shifting as he fell. Uncegila shrieked as the sea dragon landed on her back. He was much smaller than her, but he still managed to pin her to the ground. Seren followed her mate, ripping and biting at Uncegila’s scaled hide.
“Took you long enough,” Buck muttered, still standing protectively in front of the fallen Thunderbird as the rest of Alpha Team and A-squad joined the fray. “Motherloving shifters.”
Every instinct screamed that she should be at her mate’s side. Her frozen paralysis breaking at last, Blaise ran for him, dodging round the fight. The clearing was a chaos of swooping wings and bared fangs, griffin shrieks mixing with draconic roars. Blaise ducked Uncegila’s lashing tail, and then had to leap back as Ivy flashed past like a green thunderbolt, spitting venom. She couldn’t even reach Zephyr, let alone help him.
Burn! Blaise’s animal shrieked in her soul. It stretched midnight wings, desperately searching for a spark that was no longer there. BURN!
But that was impossible. Even if she hadn’t severed her connection to the Phoenix, she had a sick certainty that she wouldn’t have been able to draw on its power. She’d seen that incandescent form sliding down Uncegila’s monstrous gullet.
She caught a glimpse of her father, limp on the ground. Hugh crouched over him, glowing hands pressed against his chest. Rose was there too, and Wystan, his shield flaring to deflect stray blows from the writhing Uncegila. Both unicorn shifters were white-faced with exhaustion.
All Blaise could do was pray that her father would be okay. She focused on Zephyr, trying to find a path to him through the chaotic fight. What the hell she was going to do over there rather than here was an open question. But he was her mate, and she had to be at his side.
Though at the rate things were going, possibly just to die together. Uncegila reared up, shaking off John and Joe. Even Neridia, by far the biggest of the three sea dragons, couldn’t get her jaws around Uncegila’s massive neck.
Uncegila swept her horns into Neridia, tossing the Pearl Empress aside like a farmer pitching hay. Before the demon queen could bite the fallen sea dragon, Rory, Griff, Callum, and Chase darted in, swooping around the giant serpent’s head and lashing out at her eyes with claws and hooves. They were barely more than annoyances to Uncegila, but at least they distracted her. She recoiled, snapping irritably at the griffins and pegasi.
“Everyone get back!” Virginia shouted from atop her mate. The red dragon had been circling the fight, looking for an opening. “Stay clear!”
The shifters scattered, giving Dai a clear shot at Uncegila. The red dragon breathed out a rush of fire—but the orange flames just splattered harmlessly across the horned serpent’s thick scales.
Uncegila laughed again as the dragonfire rolled off her hide like water. With a single sweep of her tail, she slammed Dai into the ground before he could make another attempt.
“Idiot mortals.” She reared above them, cobra hood flaring wide. Already the few wounds they’d managed to inflict were sealing over, scales knitting back together. “You think such feeble flames can hurt me? I am Uncegila, the devourer, the end of all things. I have swallowed the Phoenix itself and taken its strength for my own! Even now it burns within me, rich and sweet. No mortal fire can harm me now.”
BURN!Blaise’s phoenix shrieked.
But she couldn’t burn. And even if she had miraculously found a way to set herself alight, what good would it have done? Uncegila had shrugged off dragonfire, after all, and Zephyr had said that only fires started by lightning could destroy her corruption. Maybe even the Phoenix wouldn’t have been able to touch her.
Across the clearing, the Thunderbird struggled back to its taloned feet. Half of its pinions were snapped and broken, yet it raised its wings again, painfully. Uncegila laughed yet again, the sound mocking and triumphant.
“Go ahead, my old enemy.” She tipped her horned head back, as though inviting the Thunderbird to take its best shot. “Poor, lost child. Did you think a mate bond could save you? All you have achieved is my own ascension. Unleash your feeble lightning. It is nothing more than a spark.”
All it takes is a spark.
And Blaise knew what she had to do.
