We’d been working to try and burn the curse out of her every day, merging our Phoenix fire and encouraging it to rush through her body in a similar way to how I’d managed to burn the Dark Coercion from Darius and his family. We were hopeful that it was making a difference, though it left her feeling wiped out every time we finished.
“Better I think,” she said. “Though I’m still exhausted.”
“You sure that doesn’t have more to do with the Vampire in your bed?”
“With Seth sitting there with front row seats? No thanks.” She wrinkled her nose and I laughed at that visual.
“Yeah…I get that. But maybe some more rest will help?” I suggested and she sighed.
“I don’t want to rest - I want to fight,” she replied firmly and I nodded, agreeing with that.
“Well if it isn’t my favourite sisters,” Gabriel called and we both looked up as we found him striding down the corridor towards us, shirt off, wings out. “Destiny is calling your names.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, kicking off of the wall I’d been leaning against to see him better.
“The stars haven’t told me much, but they did say this: it’s time for you to visit The Palace of Flames.”
Darcy’s eyes widened in surprise and her lips popped open. “Really?”
“I thought that place was just ruins now?” I asked, a shiver of anticipation running along my flesh.
“It is,” Gabriel agreed. “But apparently the ghosts of your ancestors have some secrets to share with you.”
“Right now?” Darcy asked and he nodded.
“I’ve left a note for the others. Come now, or fate may shift again and you’ll lose this chance.”
I exchanged a look with my sister but we were both already moving towards him, the heat of our Phoenixes burning brightly beneath our skin at the thought of heading to their homeland.
“Sounds like we need to get going then,” I said excitedly and Darcy grinned widely as we hurried to join our brother.
Gabriel slung his arms around our shoulders, guiding us towards the exit and leading us back outside through the farmhouse until we made it to the other side of the barrier where he pulled a pouch of stardust from his pocket.
“Shouldn’t we fly to save the stardust?” Darcy asked, twisting her fingers together.
Since Lionel’s restrictions had been put on the stuff, we were finding it harder and harder to get enough to complete supply runs for the rebels, and we had all taken to travelling without it as often as we could manage.
“Not on this journey,” Gabriel replied. “But I’m certain it will be worth it.”
He tossed the handful of glimmering stardust over our heads and we were whipped away through the stars before finally landing in the sweltering heat of a jungle with animal sounds all around us and humidity making the air seem to press in on us from all sides.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked curiously as Gabriel set off through the trees, seeming to know exactly where he was going, either through the help of The Sight or something else.
“We’re somewhere in the far south,” he hedged. “Likely not even in Solaria anymore, though I don’t actually know for certain. I only know how to get here thanks to my visions letting me see enough to travel here via stardust and I haven’t visited often. Once, several years ago I was in desperate need of something to help me free my mind from the bonds of a monster and the stars told me to come here. That’s where I got my Phoenix Kiss.” He held his hand out to show me the tattooed ring of Phoenix wings which circled his finger much like the one I’d gifted to Darius in the form of a bangle.
“Was there a Phoenix here who gave it to you?” I asked, my eyebrows arching as hope filled me, but he quickly shook his head.
“No. I took the ring from the hand of a skeleton I found within the ruins below the actual palace. It would seem that the gift returns to its metallic form upon the death of the person who was offered it, meaning I could claim it for myself. I suspect the magic in it is hundreds if not a thousand years old and yet it still burns with all the heat of a shooting star.”
“That’s incredible,” Darcy murmured, her arm brushing mine as we walked side by side.
“It is. But I would hazard a guess that it is only one of countless treasures hidden here within The Palace of Flames. But I don’t believe that any of those secrets are intended for me.”
“You think our ancestors wanted us to come here?” Darcy asked, her voice filled with awe though my natural cynicism had to lay doubts to that suspicion.