Chapter Twenty-Three: Phoenix

 All of the pieces fell into place. 

History had never told me what happened to Emrys.  During the last eight years, I had searched tirelessly through books to find some closure, but it was all in vain.  After my death, the songs and poems told of a gradual shift in power.  Hordes scattered, eggs were smashed, and Emrys silently vanished from record.

Thane’s strained conversation with Gaia flashed in my memory.

“I would have reigned if it had not been for him.”

“There was finally nothing in my way.”

Me.  I had been in the way.

And when I was gone, Constantine had entered the picture.

It must have taken powerful magic.  Magic almost as powerful as that which was needed to cast the curse, and Watcher only knew if it could ever be reversed.  But somehow, Constantine brought the immortal master of dragons down from his high peak and locked him in human form.  Without him to lead them, the order of the ancient dragons weakened and the beasts faded into extinction.

Thane raised his hand, his wicked smile growing wider.  Flames appeared above his fingers, crackling with mad fervor as he clenched his hand into a fist.

“Burn.”  He whispered, and he lifted the fire to his lips and blew.

An inferno cascaded from his mouth.  My heart stopped.  In my memory, I saw the moment he opened his gaping jaws and drowned me in his hellish breath.  The heat pierced straight into my bones before a single spark could touch me.

“MOTHER!”  Evangeline screamed.  The sound of her voice sent life surging back into my limbs.

I dove to the ground and rolled away.  The fire surged over my head, sizzling against the hood of my tunic.  I covered my head and curled my legs against my torso, pressing my body into the cavern wall.

The onslaught was over just as quickly as it had begun.  When the skin of my back cooled, I leaped from the floor and whirled back around.  Thane’s wicked smile did not fall for a second.  He brought his hands up, and a hissing cloud of dark magic rushed towards me.  It clenched around my neck.  My back crashed into the wall.  I grasped at the phantom hands that tightened around my throat.  The roaring in my ears drowned out Evangeline’s frantic cries.

Then suddenly, I plummeted to the ground and gasped for breath.  One hand pressed to my thundering heart, the other groping along the cavern floor for my sword, I looked up.

Thane’s head was thrown back, and his eyes burned with white light.  He struggled, ripples of magic pulsating across his arms.

There was a sound like cannon fire, and the spell was broken.  His arms were back up, and his attention was directed to the entryway.

“Dude, what the reap happened to you?  Did you sell your wicked awesome car for fairy powers and a hideous bad-boy makeover?”

Hale stood in the arch, his arms crossed over his chest and his genie magic sparking from the tips of his fingers.  His face was covered in scruffy stubble and he smelled worse than ever, but I had never been so happy to see him.

Just behind him, Reece and Orland rushed in with their wands at the ready.  A straggled cry escaped my throat.  I reached out towards my husband.  His eyes were on me, his face twisted in terror and confusion.

“Daddy!”  Evangeline cried.

Reece’s head jerked towards her and his mouth dropped open.  He glanced back from me to her in quick succession.  I threw up my hands and shook my head.

“Oh, if we live through this you are so grounded!”  he murmured under his breath as he spun his wand in tight, twisting circles.

Crackling sparks flew from the tip of his wand towards Constantine.  The dark wizard’s lips merely twitched, and he stepped backward as Kyra hurled herself in front of him.  She held her wand like a warrior wielding an axe.  In one swift cut, she sent the magic crashing back towards Reece.

I screamed, leaping up from the floor.  Before I could take two steps, an icy blast of air slammed into me from behind and sent me rolling back onto the ground.  Quintessa stood over me, frost flickering from the tip of her wand, though it could hardly match the coldness in her eyes.  She pulled her wand back for a second strike.  I raised my sword and held my breath.

Something whizzed by my head and smacked into the side of Quintessa’s face.  She grunted in surprise and the frost on her wand melted.  The object hit the ground with a flutter of pages.  I stared at it, dumbfounded.  It was Mr. Peter’s book of maps.

A pair of feet vaulted over my body and hit the ground next to the book.  Droplets of blood trickled onto the cavern floor.  Regan stood with her wand clenched in one hand and her arm cinched against her bleeding abdomen.  Quintessa raised her wand again to strike, and Regan tackled her into the floor.

I whirled around.  Orland and Kyra had locked wands.  Reece slammed his shoulder into Constantine’s abdomen, and Evangeline scrambled away towards me.  I held out my arms for her.

Strong tanned fingers seized Evangeline by the hair.  She screamed, struggling with tears dripping down her face.  I felt the pit of my stomach drop.  My eyes followed the curling reptilian tattoos up the length of his arm to his simmering gaze.

“Let her go!”  I shouted, but my voice shook as much as my hands did as they clasped my sword.

Thane lifted his other hand.  A ball of flame gathered above his fingers.

Above the crackling of magic and the thundering of my heart, I heard the sound of my husband cry out my name.

I turned my head.  Constantine had seized Reece by the throat and slammed him against the cavern wall.  Reece’s feet kicked in the air.  His eyes squeezed shut in pain.  He gasped and wheezed for breath.

I felt a searing fire rip my heart in two.  Evangeline struggled in Thane’s iron grip before me.  Reece suffocated in Constantine’s embrace.

I screamed out his name.  His eyes opened, meeting mine.  His fingers steeled around his wand.   

In one desperate motion, he plunged the sharp point straight into Constantine’s heart.  There was a sound like lightning striking.  Reece’s wand let out a wild surge of power, and Constantine’s body shuddered.  His eyes widened and his lips parted.  His face froze in that expression.

Across the room, Gaia screamed.  Her hand curled against her own chest as she watched her husband’s body fall to the ground.

“CONSTANTINE!”

Her voice rang with insurmountable anguish.

Then the room was suddenly quiet.  Even Thane turned to watch as Gaia sprinted across the circle of candles on the floor, his mouth open in shock.  Evangeline wretched herself free from his grasp and threw herself into my arms.  I held her tight against my chest and backed away.

Reece staggered away as Gaia knelt down on the ground.  His wand was slick with blood.

Gaia gathered Constantine’s head into her arms and held it close to her heart.  She held out her wand and recited in a shaking voice.

“Sun flame and phoenix fire,

May this light quench death’s desire..."

The sunlight charm?  I bit my lip and took another step backward.  Reece had told me it could bring someone recently deceased back from the dead, ages ago when he first explained resurrection to me.

"...Banish the shadows that surround the gate,

And through the dark, Illuminate.”

 A torrent of light burst from the tip of her wand and engulfed Constantine’s limp body.  His vacant eyes glowed for a breadth of an instant.

Then the light faded.  Constantine remained still.

Gaia’s lips trembled, the wand shook in her outstretched hand.  She clenched her teeth and recited again, louder.

“Sun flame and phoenix fire,

May this light quench death’s desire,

Banish the shadows that surround the gate,

And through the dark, Illuminate.”

Once again, light flooded over Constantine’s body.  It wrapped around his torso like a shroud and entwined itself around each of his fingers.  Then, it seemed to breathe back into his skin.

But once the light was gone, Constantine still lay unmoving on the ground.

I glanced back.  Evangeline and I were only a few feet from the entryway.  My eyes met Reece’s across the room.  I curled my fingers around my sword, but Reece shook his head.  His lips mouthed one word.  “Go!”

Gaia slowly rose to her feet.  Her shadow seemed to stretch out over Reece and swallow him.  Her wand glowed white-hot and somewhere above ground, thunder rolled.

I clutched Evangeline’s hand, and tried to keep my voice steady as I whispered to her.  “Eva… on the count of three… we are going to run.  Okay?” 

Evangeline nodded her head, whimpering softly.

“One…”  I breathed.

Gaia turned her head towards Reece.  Her jaw was clenched and her knuckles were as white as the tip of her wand.  I felt a sick twist in the pit of my stomach.

“T-two…”  I stammered.

I felt the flutter of Evangeline’s heartbeat quicken against my chest.  Reece let a steady breath out and raised his wand.

“Three!”  I finished.

At that moment, Thane’s eyes snapped on me.

Evangeline and I bolted through the archway and took off running down the long dark corridor.  Behind me, I heard the sound of Gaia screaming in rage followed by a deafening crackle of magic.  I swallowed down the bile rising up my throat, tears dripping down my face.

The corridor shuddered.  I smelled smoke.

Red flashed in the corner of my eye.  I screamed, and yanked Evangeline back just as Thane came vaulting into our path.  He crouched down in front of us, his arms wreathed in flame.

“I said… BURN!”  He threw his hands out, and fire consumed the entire hall.

I did not think, could not think.  I only acted.  I wrapped both arms around Evangeline, pulled her straight off her feet and ran.  The heat grasped at my feet, growing hotter and hotter until at last I found a fork in the corridor and dove into it.  The fire surged by, roaring with all the power of a horde of ancient dragons.

“Come on!”  I shouted, breathlessly tugging Evangeline up to her feet and taking off running down the corridor.

I took one turn.  Then another.  Did I remember the way correctly?  The twisting turns of the catacombs all looked the same, and as I ran the air grew thick and black with smoke.

Evangeline stopped suddenly, pointing towards a light flickering at the end of the tunnel.

“There!”  she shouted.

I squinted in the dim light.  There was a flash in the direction Evangeline pointed, and I heard thunder.  My heart surged up into my throat.  We took off racing towards the flickering light of the storm outside.  I could see the stairs where I had entered!

The cavern walls glowed orange.

I quickened my step, taking the stairs in four-step bounds.  Evangeline lagged behind, her head turned behind us and her face frozen in terror.

I felt heat curl against my back.

“Come on!  Come on!  Up!”  I screamed.  “Up!”

I lifted her into my arms and took the final bound into the open air.

Just as we emerged, I felt the inferno rumbling beneath my feet.  I dove to the ground and rolled away, through the crackling green puddles that lined the street.

Fire roared out from the trapdoors, rocketing high into the sky.  Sparks caught on the surrounding trees.  Glowing embers dripped down onto the ground, and the grass around the golden statue ignited.

A shadow rose in the center of the flames.  Thane stepped out of the fiery geyser, his skin and hair untouched by the heat.  He took a deep breath in, his eyes wandering over the burning city square.  The corners of his lips twitched upward.

I pushed Evangeline onto her feet.  My heart was pounding at such a mad pace that it felt as though my lungs were collapsing around it.  Smoke burned in my eyes, and ash mixed in with the tears and sweat dripping down my face.

“G-go!  Run!”  I stammered.

Evangeline took off racing towards the street.  Thane’s head snapped in her direction, and he lifted his arm.  A stream of flames pulled away from the blaze behind him and streaked into Evangeline’s path.  She covered her face with both arms and fell backwards.

“No!”  I cried.

Thane’s eyes turned to me.  His face shimmered in the extreme humidity, and I could have sworn I saw the crimson scales that once covered his steel hide.  When he lifted his hand, I could no longer tell whether or not he bore fingers or claws.  My head was reeling between the past and the present.

“This time…”  Thane growled, his hand curling into a fist and flames flaring around his fingers.  “You won’t be coming back.”

His voice reverberated through the memories cycling in my mind.  His words transformed into a deafening roar.  The hellish column behind him curled into his colossal wings.

I lay frozen in the heat, my eyes wide as I stared up at him.  All the sights, sounds, and smells were the same as the first time.

Just barely audible under the rumble of fire and memory, I heard a tiny cry.

“Mommy!”

I could still see her face through the curtains of flame that separated us.  She stared up at me with her wide, pleading eyes.

Another memory pushed its way through the inferno of claws and teeth that had been my first life, drowning out the roaring of dragons with the sound of soft, winter wind.

I remembered the moment I had first awoken, and saw her father's eyes staring down at me.

I saw the childish spark that lit them when he spoke of growing up reading stories about me.  It was the same spark that I had seen in them when I told him I was pregnant the first time.  A spark I recognized in Gawain’s eyes when I tickled his sides.

Then the memories came in an avalanche.  Misty-eyed wonder in Mr. Peter’s face when he said that he would hire me.  Long afternoons Daria and I spent in the university library, drinking books in like other students guzzled caffeinated beverages.  Swimming with Nirina while the summer sunset cast a golden glow over the ocean waves.  Laughing hysterically for hours when Hale got himself turned into a toad.  Reece’s arms wrapped around me when he told me that he loved me. 

My wedding day.  Holding Evangeline in my arms for the first time.  Graduating after months of sleepless nights studying in the nursery.  Landing the job at the hospital.  Welcoming my two sons into the world and watching them play with Daria’s children on the floor.

I had been alive again for eight years, less than a quarter of my first life.  But the memories were so much brighter, so much stronger, that they drowned out the memories of war and fire.

I turned away from Evangeline and stared back into Emrys’s burning eyes.  His entire body burned, lit like a torch against the night sky.  There would be no getting close to him without being burned.

I knew that even if he failed to cast the curse tonight, he would try again one day.  He would not rest until he held the world in his wicked talons once more.  There was no blade that could pierce his immortal heart, no soul who could slay the master of all dragons.

Save one.

“No…”  I swallowed, shaking my head as I staggered to my feet.  I lifted my sword.  “Not this time, Emrys.  You will never burn Dragon Valley again.”

Emrys’s eyes narrowed.  He threw his hands out.  Fire rushed through his fingers, devouring the stone beneath us and the sky above us.  I heard Evangeline scream.

I clenched both hands around my sword and dove straight into the storm.

His eyes widened for just a moment.  I forced my feet to move, even as the waves of heat rushing over me turned into agonizing waves of pain.  My blade passed through his outstretched hands, glowing red hot.  I threw all my strength into my final step.  My sword sliced straight into his heart.

Heat seared into my skin, my flesh, my bones.  I held onto the sword and clenched my teeth together, refusing to scream even as the fire surged through me.  Scarlet coils of flame wrapped around my body, burning into my lungs, scorching into my heart.  It filled my vision, until all I could see was the raging inferno and Emrys’s eyes.

I had been here before.  Burning to death while the blazing eyes of a dragon watched me. 

But this time was different.  This time, his eyes did not glare down at me in triumph.  His head bowed down.  His eyelids fell until only a silver of light shone through them.

Then he was gone, his broken body falling from my sword.

As he fell, the green droplets of rain striking his skin seemed to melt through him.  Magic crackled within the blood flooding from his chest.  The fire surrounding us folded into his flesh, turning the flames into sizzling emerald waves.  With one final burst of light and power, his body disintegrated.  Magic flashed up through the air and into the storm clouds, spreading out over the sky.

I stood, even as the fire consumed me.  Even as my body shrunk away and my skin melted into ash.  The vast, cold hands of the Netherworld pulled at me.  For a moment, I stood on the threshold between life and death.

 Then I let go.  The charred remains of my body fell, and all plunged into darkness.

“Ice!”  

A blast of cold air swept over the blaze.  Frost gathered on the statue of the warrior woman until icicles dripped down from her arms, but the onslaught did not stop until every last spark of the inferno had gone out.

Evangeline knelt on the ground, tears streaming down her face.  Her gaze was fixed at the foot of the statue.

Reece raced across the city square.  His lips bleed and he favored one leg.  He stopped at the base of the statue and let out a straggled cry.  A charred body lay crumbled in the blackened grass.

He gathered her blistered, burned body into his arms, his wand still clenched in his trembling fist.

“Oh, Watcher…” he breathed, his voice shaking.  Tears glistened at the corners of his eyes.

Evangeline crawled closer.  “M-mommy?”

Reece pressed his forehead against the charred flesh of the body he held.  “Sophia…”

His wand glowed, and he whispered a chant. 

“Sun flame and phoenix fire,

May this light quench death’s desire,

Banish the shadows that surround the gate,

And through the dark, Illuminate.”

He pointed the wand forward, and the sparks dancing from the tip went out.

He grit his teeth and squeezed the wand even tighter, waving it again, choking out the words of the incantation through his gasping sobs.

“Sun flame… and phoenix fire…

May this light… quench death’s desire…

Banish the shadows… that surround the gate…

…and through the dark… Illuminate.”

There was a shower of sparks.  Then, silence.

"Told you she was too old.”

"Hang on! I'm going to try a double trigger spell."

"Reece, what if it doesn't work?"

“It'll work this time."  

"It has to."

“ILLUMINATE!”