Changed by Fire (Phoenix Rising #6) - Harper Wylde Page 0,42
instead of killing him.” Maldonado kicked the body with his foot as though it was inconveniently in his way when he strode toward the dais and climbed the stairs, pointing a finger in my face. “What was your plan, boy? To help him escape later? Perhaps to join him?”
The crowd murmured wildly, no one person speaking loudly enough to recklessly draw attention to themselves.
“You saw my lack of control for yourselves. This power is new to me, and not one I am accustomed to wielding. Why would you believe I have any control over it whatsoever?” I knocked Maldonado’s hand away, straightening to my full height. It helped that I was about two inches taller than the man and able to look down my nose at him. I knew the height difference bothered him immensely, wanting to be above me in all ways.
Maldonado’s face reddened in anger as I arched a brow at him, waiting for his rebuttal.
“Come now.” My father swept from his seat to stand beside me and clamped a hand lightly on the base of my neck. “My son is just coming into this new power. You cannot expect him to get it right on the first attempt. If I remember correctly, it took Griff many months before he’d even learned to fly, and his night vision is still being honed all these years later. Same could be said for Ahmya. When she first began learning to call her fire, she couldn’t make more than a spark. She had to learn to build it and control it. It’s merely the same for Joshua.”
“It is different.” Maldonado tipped his head up, trying to overcompensate for the height difference between us. I tucked my hands behind my back, portraying a perfectly haughty air I knew got under his skin.
“How so?” I tilted my head, studying the way he huffed air through his nose like an agitated bull.
“The phoenix blood makes all the difference. You didn’t kill that boy on purpose, you traitorous coward.”
“Those are some heavy accusations you’re throwing around, Maldonado.” I forwent using his title before his surname, something I knew made the Manananggal see red. It probably wasn’t smart to fuck with him, especially with my life potentially on the line, but I was past caring. Watching yet another shifter die at their hands had encased a part of me—the part with better sense apparently—in dry ice.
My only goal now was to get out of this throne room alive, grab Tao and anyone else who wanted to come, and leave this forsaken island behind for good.
“Santiago,” Stepanov barked, calling Maldonado by his first name. The warning snapped against us all. “Enough. Joshua is young, still learning his magic, and clearly lost control. His venom is unmatched in the shifter world.” He made sure that part of the conversation flowed easily through the room, highlighting our strengths to hide our weaknesses. “With some practice, I’m sure he’ll be a master at the death stare just like his father before him.”
“Perhaps,” Ishida interjected, as he steepled his fingers together, “we should inject our young Basilisk with more blood. After all, we’re all curious to see its full-fledged effects on a willing subject. Are we not?” Pure glee shone in his gaze at his suggestion that went far past normal fascination.
Maldonado’s lips pulled back to show off pointy teeth that weren’t half as bad as the razors that emerged in his shifted form. “There is no sense wasting precious resources on a rebel sympathizer.”
The scent of his fear wafted in the air between us, acrid and sour. I suppressed my grin, flattening my lips into a straight line to hide my amusement. So the big bad Manananggal was afraid of me getting ahold of more of Nix’s blood, was he? Interesting. I filed that information away for later as my father launched his protest.
“While I disagree with the reasons for Councilman Maldonado’s rejection, I am in agreement with the stance,” he declared. “We do not yet know the side effects of phoenix blood, nor how long it may take for the effects to take hold. Obviously, we saw some immediate reaction from Joshua, as we all expected, but who’s to say the magical boost may not grow as the blood is absorbed by his system.” His gaze sat heavily on Stepanov, who paced along the edge of the dais as he heard our case, standing as judge and jury. It was a bit ridiculous to me that everyone turned to