🐲 Dragon and Phoenix (Path of Light and Fire Book #2) (Completed) 🐲

Chapter 46

Nine Years Ago

Turrent lowered the girl to the floor of the sitting room. The northern lord's home was sparser than most of his station, and a thick tome propped under the leg of the chair from which he rose and now stood in front of trembling.

Scout's information was good; he'd feared for the girl's safety.

Lord Okkai exhaled deeply. "You've brought my daughter."

"You'll take care of her?" Turrent wanted to ask, but he stopped the words from leaving his lips. The girl looked nothing at all like his sister, black hair and eyes where Elise's had been golden like his. Her face was more oval and her voice softer, but despite that, he was happy she'd be safe.

He held his tongue and watched as Scout handled things.

"Unharmed as promised," Scout said.

"Yes," Lord Okkai said. "I will pay the Tsuchina handsomely for this task." He waved his hand, dismissing the two of them.

Scout nodded.

Then he yanked the girl up by the hair and put his sword on her throat. "The Collective sends its regards."

"No!" Lord Okkai shouted.

Fire and ash filled Turrent's nose, intermingling with the salty air of the ocean. He remembered this day. The day he'd lost his sister. He'd been playing at the docks one day, only to return to a burning home and a man holding his soot-covered sister with a knife to her throat.

"Elise!" Turrent shouted. He rushed forward, drawing his short sword. His mother was gone, but he could save his sister.

Yet again, he was too later.

The man slit his sister's throat with cold efficiency and turned on the boy. His eyes widened, not expecting a boy Turrent's age to be armed. His broken nose twisted, and he snarled and he reached behind his back.

He dumped Elise to the floor and swung his knife at Turrent. Turrent twisted out of its path, but somehow its tip carved its way through his cheek, just missing his eye. His face was on fire and it only made his more angry. He gritted his teeth and plunged his sword into the man's chest.

The hilt jutted from the body and he fell backwards, but Turrent ignored him, falling to the floor to hold Elise. He gripped her neck, trying to hold the blood inside. Blonde pigtails framed her face and her golden eyes looked into his own. Her once-porcelain skin turned a sickly pale.

"Hold on Elise," Turrent said. "Help is coming." Her finger pulled against his own, but he ignored it. She couldn't know what she was doing.

"Elise, Stop it. You-"

Her hand slackened and slid to her side.

"Elise..."

All the emotions he'd been taught to hold in, poured out in a stream of tears.

Training. What training?

"Get your hands off my daughter."

A rough hand touched Turrent's shoulder, and he snatched it by the wrist with his bloody hand. It was his father's old shipmate. The one that had stuffed him into the cargo hold and shipped him to Acadia to escape Baron Trufant's goons.

Acadia.

Turrent shook his head. No, I was in Birming and-

Lord's Okkai's heavily lined face came into focus. He released Okkai's hand and the girl's body. The one that no longer looked like his sister.