Aria's POV
We're falling.
No—we're flying, but it feels like falling because the wind tears at my face and I can't breathe and Ravenor's grip around my waist is the only thing keeping me from plummeting to my death.
"Stop squirming!" he snarls in my ear.
"I can't help it!" My fingers dig into his arm. Below us, the world is a blur of green and brown. We're so high up that people look like ants. "I'm going to be sick!"
"If you vomit on me, I'm dropping you."
He would too. I can feel it through the bond—his irritation, his pain, his barely controlled rage at having to carry me like luggage.
Another explosion of magic erupts behind us. I twist to look back and immediately wish I hadn't. Seraphine is riding a wave of stolen phoenix fire, her white robes billowing around her like wings. She's gaining on us.
"She's getting closer!" I scream.
"I'm aware." Ravenor's wings beat harder, but I feel his exhaustion through our connection. The prison damaged him. He can't keep this pace much longer.
We need to land. But where? The Scorched Wastes stretch ahead of us—black mountains and dead earth and nothing alive for miles.
"Hold tight," Ravenor growls. "This is going to hurt."
"What's going to—"
He folds his wings and we drop like a stone.
My scream tears out of my throat as the ground rushes up to meet us. Wind screams past my ears. My stomach lurches into my throat. We're going to die, we're going to crash, we're going to—
His wings snap open at the last second.
We slam into the ground hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. I roll across black sand, my dress tearing, my skin scraping against sharp rocks. When I finally stop, everything hurts.
"Get up," Ravenor orders, already on his feet.
I can't. My whole body is one giant bruise.
He grabs my arm and hauls me upright with no gentleness at all. "I said get up. She's coming."
Sure enough, Seraphine descends from the sky like an avenging angel, power crackling around her. She lands fifty feet away, and the dead earth beneath her feet turns to glass from the heat.
"You cannot run from me, Ravenor," she says, her voice echoing with stolen magic. "I've hunted phoenixes for thirty years. You think I don't know how to cage one?"
"You think three centuries in your prison taught me nothing?" Ravenor pushes me behind him. "I learned patience. I learned hate. And I learned exactly how to kill you."
"Bold words from a broken king." Seraphine's smile is cold. "You can barely fly. Your wings are in tatters. And you're protecting a weak human girl who will burn out in days." Her eyes shift to me. "Give her to me, Ravenor. Give me the girl, and I'll let you go free. You can disappear into the wastelands. Live out whatever years you have left in peace."
"Peace." Ravenor laughs, and it's the scariest sound I've ever heard. "You think I want peace after what you did to me? To Meridian?"
"Meridian made her choice. She chose you over her own kind. Over humanity. She deserved—"
"FINISH THAT SENTENCE." Black flames explode from Ravenor's body. "I dare you."
The temperature drops and rises at the same time, like the air can't decide whether to freeze or burn. My skin prickles with power—his power, barely contained.
Seraphine takes a step back. Just one. But it's enough to show she's scared.
"The girl is dangerous," Seraphine says, trying a different approach. "She has untrained Phoenix Keeper blood. She could destroy the kingdom without meaning to. I can teach her. Control her. Keep everyone safe—"
"By draining her like you drained the others?" Ravenor's voice is pure venom. "By chaining her? By turning her into another power source for your stolen magic?"
"It's not stolen! It's—"
"BORROWED?" He takes a step forward, and Seraphine actually stumbles backward. "Is that what you told yourself while you tortured me for three hundred years? That you were borrowing my power?"
Through our bond, I feel his rage building. Feel the black fire gathering, ready to explode. He's going to attack her. Going to kill her right here.
And the power required will destroy him.
He's too weak. Too damaged. I can feel it—his body is barely holding together. One more major spell and he'll collapse.
Then Seraphine will take us both.
I don't think. I just move.
My hand grabs Ravenor's wrist, and golden fire erupts where we touch. Not my fire or his fire—our fire. The bond flares to life, connecting us, sharing power between us.
He gasps, his eyes widening.
And I feel it too—his strength flowing into me, my strength flowing into him. Balancing. Equalizing.
Healing.
The tears in his wings begin to mend. The exhaustion in his bones eases. He stands straighter, taller, more dangerous.
"What—" he starts.
"We're bound," I say, my voice steadier than I feel. "That means we're stronger together. Right?"
Through our connection, I feel his shock. His confusion. His... gratitude?
"Right," he says slowly.
He turns back to Seraphine, and now he's smiling. Really smiling. And it's terrifying.
"New offer," he tells her. "Leave now. Run back to your temple. And I'll let you live long enough to see everything you built crumble to ash."
Seraphine's face twists with fury. "You arrogant—"
She raises her hands, and stolen phoenix fire erupts from her palms.
But Ravenor is ready now. His black flames meet her golden ones mid-air, and when they collide, the explosion throws me backward.
I hit the ground hard, my ears ringing. Through blurry vision, I see them fighting—fire against fire, magic against magic. Seraphine is powerful, drawing on decades of stolen essence.
But Ravenor is ancient. And angry. And no longer alone.
His flames consume hers. Push them back. Drive her to her knees.
"This is impossible," she gasps. "You should be weak—"
"I was." Ravenor's hand closes around her throat, lifting her off the ground. "Until my daughter gave me a reason to be strong."
His eyes meet mine across the battlefield, and something passes between us. Understanding, maybe. Or acceptance.
"Last chance," he tells Seraphine. "Run."
He throws her.
She crashes into the black sand twenty feet away, scrambles to her feet, and for the first time, I see real fear in her eyes.
"This isn't over," she hisses. "The kingdom will hunt you. Every bounty hunter. Every soldier. Every—"
"Let them come." Ravenor's wings spread wide, fully healed now, magnificent and terrifying. "Let them all come. Because every single one will learn what happens when you cage a phoenix king."
Seraphine opens a portal—a tear in reality—and stumbles through it.
Gone.
The silence that follows is deafening.
I push myself to my feet, my whole body shaking. We won. We actually won.
Ravenor turns to face me, and his expression is complicated. Not quite warm, but not cold either.
"That was stupid," he says. "Touching me during battle. Sharing your power. You could have burned out."
"But I didn't."
"But you could have." He walks toward me, and I resist the urge to back away. "The bond isn't a toy, Aria. It's dangerous. Unpredictable. Sharing power like that could kill you if you're not careful."
"Then teach me how to be careful."
He stops right in front of me, studying my face like he's seeing me for the first time.
"You're not what I expected," he admits quietly.
"What did you expect?"
"Someone weaker. Someone who would give up." His hand reaches out, hesitates, then gently touches the mark over my heart. "But you're Meridian's daughter. I should have known better."
Warmth spreads through my chest—not from the mark, but from something else. Something that feels dangerously like hope.
"So you'll train me?" I ask.
"I'll try." His hand drops. "But don't expect miracles. I'm not a teacher. I'm barely functional. And you..." He sighs. "You have power, yes. But you also have twenty-three years of abuse to overcome. That's harder than any magic lesson."
"I know."
"Do you?" His golden eyes bore into mine. "Because understanding it in your head and feeling it in your heart are different things. You still want them to love you. Celeste. Dorian. Lyanna. You still think if you prove yourself, they'll—"
"No." The word comes out harder than I expected. "I know they never loved me. I know that now."
"Knowing and accepting are different."
"Then help me accept it." I hold his gaze. "Help me become someone who doesn't need their approval. Someone strong enough to—"
The ground beneath us rumbles.
We both freeze.
"What was that?" I whisper.
Ravenor's face goes pale. "No. No, it's too soon—"
The earth splits open twenty feet away. Black flames erupt from the crack, and something rises from beneath the dead soil.
Not something. Someone.
Another phoenix.
But this one is wrong. Twisted. Its feathers are made of shadows and its eyes burn with madness. Chains still hang from its neck and wings—broken chains, but the marks remain.
It sees us and screams.
Not a cry. Not a song. A scream of pure, insane rage.
"What is that?" I breathe.
Ravenor grabs my shoulders, his face grave. "That's what happens when you imprison a phoenix for too long. When you break them beyond healing." His voice drops. "That's what I almost became."
The twisted phoenix launches itself at us.
Ravenor shoves me aside and meets it mid-air, black flames against shadow flames, and I realize with dawning horror:
This thing—this broken, insane creature—is what three hundred years of torture does to a phoenix.
It's what Ravenor could still become if the damage runs too deep.
And we're bound.
Which means if he falls to madness...
I fall with him.