Changed by Fire (Phoenix Rising #6) - Harper Wylde Page 0,172
The moment I saw the ward flicker, I attacked. Fire flew from my talons so fast Ishida had barely realized what was happening before my heat was upon him.
The flames licked at his arms as he threw them up to block his face. I was happy when Killian had the Harpy on the ground several feet away, and Tao was running to safety with Emy while Theo converged with him to cover his back. Cedric bared down on the Harpy, and Killian smirked, moving aside so the werewolf could rip her wings from her body, silencing her screams as he tore out her throat.
In a flash of brilliant turquoise, Ishida transformed into his Kitsune. Standing taller than Hiro’s alter, he shook out his pale fur. Furry, navy socks decorated each of his legs while turquoise markings glowed on his tails in intricate patterns. The animal narrowed his eyes on me and chuffed.
Nix! Watch out! Damien’s scream echoed through my mind.
It was the only warning I got as meteors blazed past me, their burning tails twining with my flames as they crashed to the ground, one after another. My mates scrambled, but I lost them in the fray. A burning rock plowed into my back, knocking me tumbling toward the earth. I screeched as pain shot through my body, my Phoenix’s flames burning out as we crashed into the snow. All the breath whooshed from my lungs, and I rolled over as Ishida pinned my wings with his front two paws.
His eyes were wild as his tails flicked to and fro, their patterns glowing as he bared his sharp teeth and lunged, ripping out mouthfuls of feathers and leaving deep gouges in my body, spilling my blood as he attacked in swift bursts.
My Phoenix blazed to life, burning the shit out of his feet, while my talons clawed at his tails. Getting a good grip on one, I used his momentum as he scampered back to avoid my fire and pulled his tail taut, clamping down on it with my beak and severing the appendage from his body. Somewhere, in some lore or dark fairytale I’d read, I remembered that kitsune drew their power from their tails, and I was willing to do whatever it took to end this fight, despite how my stomach churned.
Ishida howled in agony, stumbling back as his eyes grew wide. My power rose within me, fiercer and stronger than ever before, and I spread my wings wide as I let out a cawing cry of victory. Time slowed with the magic that seeped from my Phoenix, and I swooped again, stealing another of his tails, and another, until the meteors raining from the sky finally ceased and faded into the ether. On a ragged breath, Ishida lost his grip on his Kitsune and shifted, pushing himself up from the dirt with a villainous sneer.
I shifted and stood in the charred remains of the clearing, the snow red and the flames flickering to ash, the bodies of the fallen grimly lying in the debris and craters left in the wake of our fight. My flames flickered over my body, providing a covering for my nakedness, the fire a part of me rather than singeing my skin.
I glared down at Ishida, and I don’t know what made me do it, but I opened my mouth. “Yield.” My voice was an echo of my former self, my hair whipping around my neck and shoulders with an invisible wind. My eyes were as hot as my skin, glowing white every time I blinked. I felt my power pulse and throb in waves, matching the rhythmic flickering of my fire, and my Phoenix felt as though she was a part of me instead of a separate being, our souls in a perfect, harmonious meld. I didn’t know where I stopped, and she began.
Ishida spat in the snow, his teeth bloodied. His eyes were full of misery from both his pain and the realization that he’d lost.
My mates stood behind me, their magic swirling along the edges of mine, but I paid it no mind, unwilling to be distracted from the enemy at my feet.
The flames licked from my fingers, the oranges and reds shifting to pure, brilliant gold. They lapped at Ishida as he thrashed. Black, as pure as darkened ash, shifted through the golden blaze, shimmering like onyx under the light.
“You were the worst mistake we’ve ever made,” Ishida hissed, before my flames consumed him. His screams ripped through the