Drowning with Fire #3 ✔

Chapter 21 - Ember

I'd had dreams of flying my entire life – ever since I was a little kid. But never had I imagined that such a dream would come true.

I didn't even have to learn – I already knew how to do it. Or the Phoenix did, at least.

After emerging from the lake in my fully-fledged form, I spread my wings and soared up into the sky. The few people who stood on the lake shore were insignificant and irrelevant – I had my heart set on a target that I had to destroy.

For the first time in my life, I was truly one with the Phoenix – both in mind and body.

Shifting to my true form opened my eyes to the countless lives that the Phoenix had lived before coming to inhabit my body. All the Milburn women over centuries of time were present within me on that night.

I knew their stories. I knew their triumphs and their successes. I knew that many had tried to oppress the flames instead of letting them burn openly. I knew the pain and anguish that the Phoenix felt each time the fire had raged out of control and destroyed a Milburn woman.

Most importantly, I now knew that I was the only one to ever attempt to fully harness and own the Phoenix. For that, the mythical creature was grateful – hence why she tried to defend me on countless occasions; hence why I was now on a vengeance mission.

During my time in the void between life and death, I'd been almost entirely consumed with anger. Killian had stolen some of my fire before he killed me.

The Phoenix within me insisted that I had to exact punishment upon him. And deep down, I knew I was the only one with the power to bring harmony and balance back to Lake Oldoy.

My feathers fluttered in the wind as I glided over the forests of north England, looping over lakes and rivers and the sleeping towns below me. I was more in tune with nature than I'd ever been before – I could hear everything and see everything in minute detail.

And I knew exactly where Killian was.

He'd retreated back to Hopecliffe, so I flew seawards.

The dark spirit that disguised himself as my friend was one that the Phoenix had encountered once before – several lifetimes ago, in the Middle East. Destroying the dark spirit that time had resulted in the possessed person being destroyed too.

Needless to say, I'd been bargaining with the Phoenix to find some other way to help Kaden without putting an end to his life entirely.

So we decided to take things one step at a time – me and the Phoenix – we'd reclaim the stolen fire and then return to my friends in Lake Oldoy. Realising that I was the only means by which she could be set free, the Phoenix gave me more control.

The control that werewolves like Theo have to deal with is almost opposite to what I had to contend with in appeasing the Phoenix. Despite being part of me, the Phoenix was still a soul all by itself.

As I approached the moors above Hopecliffe, I stifled my fire a little. Settling down on a boulder, I shifted back to my human form – though I could sense the Phoenix's wings folded close against my back. I was human and I was not – I was the Phoenix and I was not.

But I am still Ember Hestia Milburn.

The fire was still burning in my heart, meaning there must've been flames dancing in my eyes. I used that heat-seeking power to focus on Killian. He was standing in the thicket that he'd angered the Phoenix to burn, along with another person.

"You don't even realise how powerful this is, do you?" Killian scoffed incredulously, lighting up a cigarette and blowing a billow of smoke in his companion's face.