Solara Moonwhisper's Arc

Chapter 3 of 8

The purple phoenix stood between Solara and the open stairwell. Its wings stayed folded. Its gold eyes stayed fixed on her. Beside her, the man she was promised to marry gripped her arm and pulled. "Step back," he said. "Slowly." Solara did not step back. The bird had not struck. It watched her the way her sunflowers turned toward warmth. She let go of his hand and raised her own, palm open, the way she once calmed frightened animals in her field. "You're not here to stop me," she said to the phoenix. Her voice shook, then steadied. "You're here to keep the city safe. So am I." The heat off its feathers pressed against her face. She held still. She did not reach for her power to force it. She only spoke, slow and plain, the same words she used on the door. "Ver-Sathaan. I woke it. I mean it no harm." The phoenix lowered its arched neck. The fire on its wingtips dimmed from bright violet to a soft glow. It stepped aside. The stairwell lay open behind it, dark and steep. "You did it," the man breathed. "It's letting us pass." Then the ground below them lit red. A second cry tore up from the pit, higher and sharper than the first. Wings the color of hot coals burst from the dark. A red phoenix rose and beat the air above the purple one. Its feathers ran with lines of fire, like cracks in a burning log. The man stumbled back and shielded his eyes. "There are two of them?" The red bird did not look at Solara. It circled once, then dropped toward the man and hung close over his head. Its gold eyes locked on him. It did not attack. It waited, the way the purple one had waited for her. Solara understood before he did. "It came up after mine," she said. "The purple one answered me. That one answered you." He stared up at the red wings. "I never called anything." "You came when I called," she said. "You came down here with me." The purple phoenix settled at Solara's side. The red phoenix settled at his. Two guardians, one for each of them, both now free of the seal. The path down was clear. But the pair of birds had changed what waited below. Whatever slept in Ver-Sathaan would know its guards were loose. Solara looked at the dark stairs, then at the man beside her. "We can't leave them here," she said. "And they won't leave us." He wiped sweat from his face and looked at the red bird bound now to him. "Then we go down together," he said. "All four of us." Solara stepped onto the first stair. The purple phoenix moved with her. Behind them, the red one followed, and the man came last. The city waited below, and now she was not the only one it had marked.