Chapter 9

Chapter

Nine

Iwas dead. Just a ball of awareness floating in the void. There was no pain, no light, no long-lost relatives to greet me. I was floating in a black sky with no stars and only the voices to keep me company.

"What happened to her hair?" It was my father's voice.

"We think she partially bonded before she died," a stranger said.

"Bless you, child. May you have your place among the stars with your mother." It was Elaine.

"I can't announce this yet. The city is still reeling about Kohen bonding with a Talanagi," my father said.

Shock laced through Elaine's voice: "What will you tell the people? They'll wonder where she is."

"That she's healing from extreme wounds. We can announce her death next week. I don't want to start a panic," my father said.

"What creature did this? Do we know?" Elaine asked.

"She was burned alive. And considering Kohen Badshah just bonded a dragon…" the stranger mused.

Elaine gasped. "You think Kohen killed her?"

They had it all wrong, but I was helpless to comment, floating in my black void.

"Or they fought for the same creature and he won," the stranger said.

My father sighed. "Dammit, Aisling." The words were angry, but his tone was not. His voice was broken. Like maybe the words I love you were burning a hole in his tongue just as they had on mine so many times. "Zip her up. I can't look at her like this anymore."

Zip.

Silence.

I floated in the darkness for hours, maybe even days, my mind subdued. I didn't have any entertainment yet I wasn't bored. It was like I was frozen in this moment and fully content with it. Only when a golden glowing sun appeared on the horizon did I feel my mind become fully alert. I began to get memories and thoughts. I remembered being in The Wilds and watching Kohen fight a dragon, I remembered the firebird.

Liana.

My heart hammered in my chest as if I were suddenly thawing from a long winter's sleep, like a bear about to leave hibernation. Panic rushed through me as my mental faculties became sharper.

Where was I?

I… died. My father and Elaine, I heard their voices but… the sun lifted higher in the sky and I began to grow warmer.

Be strong, Aisling. For the both of us. Liana's words came back to me as the sun suddenly wasn't a sun but a ball of fire. And I was no longer floating in darkness but on top of Liana's back. Her wings flapped madly as she turned in the opposite direction of the fire and tried to get us away from its flames. Was she there the whole time? Carrying me on her back?

The flames licked across the sky like lightning and I instinctively pulled my sword with one hand and gripped the feathers on her back with my other. Standing atop her shoulders, I turned around, rocking to keep my balance, and held the sword out to fight off any danger.

"What's happening?" I asked her. There were no mountains below us, only clouds, as if we were above the world I knew and loved, in a different place I couldn't explain.

‘You have to be strong. I will survive but you might not. Others haven't. Fight, Aisling. Fight!' Liana said.

"Fight what?" I yelled, terrified as the now wall of fire rushed towards us.

Then, like magic, Liana disappeared, beneath me one second and gone the next, and instead of falling I was consumed by the wall of fire.

With her wisdom in my head, I slashed out like mad as the fire tried to consume me. It was like a living beast with arms and tails of flame and eyes of smoke. It tried to suffocate me, but I hacked and cut as its fiery appendages were separated from it and then disappeared. I was sweating, burning; everything hurt and yet this bastard didn't know that I was too stubborn to die.

"Come on!" I screamed, continuing my slashing, blindingly fast and repetitive. My arms strained from the action, but each time I cut into the fire, it grew smaller. I wanted to give up, I wanted to drop this sword that weighed a thousand pounds and go back to floating in the darkness, but somehow I knew it would not be like that again, that if I died this time it was real. Every time I cut off one of its eyes, or tails, another popped up.

My arms were so heavy, so battle weary, and yet I dug deep down inside of myself for that place that every warrior has, that small pocket of reserve energy.

"You can't have me!" I screamed to the fire beast, spinning in a full circle with my blade, cutting more and more of it until the heat ceased, and I was suddenly staring at a four-foot ball of fire perched above a cloud.

It had only one eye left, and a few fiery feathers, and I slashed through it with ease. "Just die already!" I commanded.

The fire monster dissolved to nothing then, and I collapsed backward onto the cloud, which somehow supported my weight.

I panted, looking up at the crystal-clear blue sky, and that's when the cloud ceased to exist and I fell.

I screamed, and the sudden weightlessness caused fresh hot fear to seize me.

Then everything went black.

My eyes flicked open and I gasped, panicked to find that I was still in darkness. I thrashed around, and then heard a strange male voice scream.

"Help me!" I shouted, and then rolled to my side. Bad idea. I was on top of something and fell down, hitting the floor and my right shoulder hard.

I was trapped inside of something, like a sleeping bag…

The sound of an opening zipper pulled my attention to the top of the bag as light splintered into the space and I stared into the horrified expression of an older man with wide eyes and shaky fingers.

He unzipped what I now saw was a body bag and I fell out of it, onto the tile floors of what I was pretty sure was the Riverine City Morgue.

And I was naked.

Awesome.

"M-m-miss Everhart?" the man mumbled. I recognized his voice from my dream, the one where my father and Elaine were talking about me like I'd died, except I now didn't think it was a dream.

"Can I have some clothes?" I covered my chest and the man snapped into action. He rushed across the room and grabbed me a lab coat. It was freezing in here, probably to keep the bodies from decomposing. A charming thought that made bile rise in my throat.

Then he gave me his back while I dressed in the long white coat that hung past my knees, and tightened the waistband.

"H-how is this possible?" the man asked, clearly trying to figure out how the chick from the body bag had just suddenly come to life.

I wasn't sure what to say. "I don't exactly know the answer to that myself," I told him honestly. "But thank you for your help."

There were dead bodies everywhere, some of which I recognized as my fellow candidates. I wanted to get the hell out of here.

"I'm gonna go now," I told him, a puff of mist coming from my mouth from the cold temperature in here.

He spun around. "No. Let me call your father."

"I don't think that's nec?—"

"I'm calling your father," he warned.

Crap.

He walked over to a phone on the wall and spoke into the receiver. "Hello, operator, I need to be connected to the emperor immediately. This is coroner Davis."

He paused, flicking a nervous gaze over to me. I took this moment to step in front of a mirror he had hanging on the wall and check my appearance. No doubt my skin would be burned and bruised.

Shock ripped through me at my reflection. My skin wasn't burned or bruised. And not just that—my hair had changed.

I sucked in a breath as I reached up and fingered the new orangish red coloring that encompassed the left side of my hair. The right side was still black.

"Emperor…" The coroner's voice was high-pitched. "We… ahh… have a situation that I feel is very delicate. Can you come in person immediately?"

Pause.

"Sir, your daughter is alive." The man winced and then hung up the phone.

"He's coming to get you," the coroner told me.

Great.

"Can I use the bathroom?" I asked him, panic fully rising up inside of me. Was I scared of my own father? Unfortunately yes. He took his role as emperor and his legacy very seriously, and I'd gone and bonded to a potentially immortal creature that made me more powerful than him, which would embarrass him.

You didn't want to embarrass my father.

"Sure." The coroner pointed to a door in the back wall.

I rushed over to it and threw myself inside. Splashing warm water on my face, I sucked in deep lungfuls of air.

Where was my bonded? Was she okay?

Of course she was, she was a freaking firebird.

I splashed more water on my face, trying to regain control of my breathing. I needed to play this cool. Like I was excited to see my father and had no idea what powers I had now acquired.

No. That would scare him.

I needed to seem in control, like I knew exactly what was going on, and yes I'd just escaped death, but only this once. Only because of the bonding.

Yes. That was how I needed to play this.

I dried my face and smoothed my hair.

There was a bang at the bathroom door and I steeled myself.

"Aisling!" My father's shout was frantic, and I swung the door open only for him to stagger backward in shock.

He looked like he hadn't slept. His eyes were puffy, like maybe he'd even cried. Did I underestimate his love for me? Would he choose me over being emperor given the chance?

I'd never ask it. I didn't want the answer. He was the only parent I had left. I had to believe he'd choose me.

"Father." I stepped out of the bathroom, keeping a military posture as my gaze flicked to Zuri. His creature stared at me with an unreadable expression.

"You're alive." His voice was breathless.

He reached out and grasped my shoulders, squeezing as if to make sure I wasn't a ghost.

"I am," I said, reaching up to grasp his hands.

We didn't hug, but this was the closest thing.

My father said affection was a weakness, so he was sure not to show it, but this tender touch told me so much. He cared.

He released me, reaching up to rub the sides of his face.

The coroner was still in the room behind him and I knew my father would want to speak privately. "Go wait in the car," my father commanded, and then walked over to the coroner's desk.

"I would like to keep this private," he told the man as I walked to the door, Zuri following me.

"Of course, my liege," the coroner said, and I grabbed the handle of the door.

"I know that keeping secrets can be a burden. So what does a secret like this cost to you?" my father asked him and I left the room.

Zuri stepped in front of me, showing me the way out of the building and to the motorized car. My father was going to pay the coroner to keep my secret. That meant it was a big deal. Of course it was a big deal! I just woke up in a body bag! My mind raced with all of these thoughts.

Zuri stood by the door of the long black car, motor still running with my father's driver at the front. Was Zuri simply showing me the way as a kindness? Or making sure I didn't run?

I slipped into the backseat and saw that the partition had been raised so that our driver, Verik, could not listen to or see me.

My father came outside a few moments later and slid across from me, with Zuri leaping on the seat next to him as the driver took off.

My father peered at me with concern. "Tell me everything. Leave nothing out."

It was the worst thing he could ever ask of me. It made me wonder what he knew and how much to say. Had Kohen or anyone else seen my dead body? Had they seen me bond with the firebird? Had they told him? A lie could get me in trouble. When I was seven, my father told me that Zuri could smell a lie. I didn't know if he'd said it to scare his daughter into telling the truth or if it was in fact the truth. But I didn't want to find out.

"I was in The Wilds, nearly going on day three," I told him, "Then I happened upon an egg."

He frowned. "An egg?"

I nodded. "A large golden one. Then… I saw her… a Talanagi."

My father's sharp intake of breath confirmed my suspicion. He had no idea that's what I'd bonded with.

He leaned forward, as if to sharpen his hearing, and Zuri just stared at me, unmoving from where she'd perched.

I breathed the next two words in fear: "A firebird." Telling my father the truth was inevitable. Liana would show up and reveal it anyway.

My father's gaze narrowed slightly, but otherwise there was no way to tell how he was feeling.

"Go on," was all he said.

"I'm not stupid!" I told him animatedly. "I tried to run. I knew that there was no way I was going to survive a bonding with a Talanagi. So I gave her my back… intending to sprint away from her… and she drew my blood."

My father nodded. "But you did survive, didn't you?"

There was tension in the car. I wasn't sure what to say, or what he wanted me to say.

He smiled then, a rare emotion on him. "My daughter bonded to a Talanagi. We need to celebrate."

I released the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Yeah… holy crap, I can't believe it."

"Where is she?" He peered outside, eyeing the skies as if expecting Liana to be flying circles above us.

I cleared my throat. "I don't know… there was an explosion of fire and then I woke up in a body bag."

He nodded. "So you can escape death?"

"I don't think so. Just this once I think," I hedged.

He raised one eyebrow. "You bonded her, right? That means you should know things. Are you immortal, Aisling?"

My heart picked up a notch. I hated how I always felt like I was walking on ice with this man. My own father. He didn't know when to stop being emperor and just be Dad.

"My creature is," I said, my gaze flicking to Zuri. She probably could smell a lie and I didn't want to give my dad a reason not to trust me right now. "But I had to fight to be… reborn?" I used the word, unsure if it was the right one. "And she gave me the sense that I could have died and stayed dead had I not been strong and fought. I doubt I could do it again." Fighting the fire beast had been tiring, and I was speaking the truth. I wanted to tell him that the Talanagi we'd found had been just across the Luska border, but I feared it was an irresponsible act he'd never let me live down. So for now I kept it to myself.

My father relaxed a little then and nodded. "The Talanagi are very powerful. And now I have two at my command."

"Two?" I acted surprised.

His gaze narrowed. "Kohen Badshah? He carried your dead body out of the woods. He bonded to a dragon."

Kohen brought my body back? That was typically something left for the cleanup crew.

"Incredible." I tried to act surprised again.

"How did he know where to find your body? Were you both hunting Talanagi together?" my father asked.

My stomach clenched and I burst out in laughter. "Father, don't be ridiculous. But Alek and I did suspect that Kohen was tracking us in The Wilds the entire time." I hoped it sounded believable. It was half true.

He smiled, nodding. "I knew my daughter wouldn't do that to me." He reached out and grasped my hand. A rare show of affection. "She wouldn't align with my sworn enemy."

I cleared my throat. "Kohen is in your Imperial Fleet now though, right, Father?" No longer an enemy was what I was trying to drive home. Spending the last three days with Kohen had completely changed my mind towards him, towards all of the Imbrians if I was being honest.

My father sighed. "For now."

For now.

"I'm sure he will be loyal to his emperor," I said.

My father raised an eyebrow. "Are you? Then you have much more to learn before you are ready to take over for me."

I lowered my head. "Yes, Father."

We drove home the rest of the way in silence.