The Catalyst

Chapter 66

At dawn, all the soldiers had retired inside the houses, inns, taverns, and temples of Veicira's western district to rest in the aftermath of the battle.

Tessa sneaked into a discreet cobblestone alley and summoned her demon. No rest for the wicked. Just as she was about to hop on her phoenix' back, booted steps came to a halt behind her, the gait all too familiar.

"I thought you'd gone to sleep." She turned to face Tomas, pulling back her hood.

"None of us can sleep." His gloved hands clenched into fists at his sides. "Tessa, our men need to learn the truth as soon as possible. They got away with staying behind last night, but they know that won't be possible tonight, and now that they're here they realize they can't do this. They won't fight their own comrades. So we must tell them that they won't have to."

She spared him a nod. "I understand. Tell them, if you truly believe they can keep their mouths shut until tonight."

"They will." Tomas faltered as she climbed on her demon. "Why don't you come with me? Must you really go flying? Don't you think you've got enough . . ."

"Black marks?" Tessa glanced down at her hands, which gripped her phoenix' feathers at the base of her wings. Several thin black lines emerged from her fingerless gloves and twined all the way to her nails.

"That's not what I meant," Tomas replied, flustered.

"Yes, it is." She sighed. "This is important, Tomas."

"What could be so important?"

"I'm going to visit the barracks."

A frown wrinkled his brow, but he let her go without further questioning. As her bird leapt up in the sky, the first rays of sunlight warmed Tessa's face, and a soothing exhilaration spread throughout her chest.

What would've taken a full day on horseback, her phoenix crossed in only two hours, which Tessa hardly felt. Lately, these timeless moments spent soaring through the clouds had become her only solace. Granted, the cold wind lashed her face and froze her feet and hands, plus a new mark would snake its way across her skin. Yet somehow, none of that mattered anymore.

As the phoenix began her descent through the morning mist, the barracks resolved down below – a rigid, fenced pattern of squared buildings and extensive training grounds. Tessa was pleased to see many canvas tents around the buildings, and that the extension for the stables was being used. Whoever Jaden had put in charge here had been busy.

She locked her gaze on the central headquarters to set her demon's course. A few moments later, she landed gracefully in the narrow space between the back of the building and the side wall of another. The dry yellow grass crunched under Tessa's boots as she leapt off. She let her demon withdraw, the prickling of a new mark troubling the side of her thigh. She looked up as a patrolling soldier noticed her.

"Who are you? Take off that hood, show yourself!" The soldier seemed in her late twenties, with blonde hair cropped below the jawline and a tight-fitted black and gold uniform.

"I need to speak with the person currently in charge."

The woman's sword hissed out of its scabbard, the tip pointed at Tessa. "Who are you? Don't make me ask again."

A thread of magic surging up and out of her fingers, Tessa yanked the sword from the soldier's grasp and made it traverse the air to her waiting hand. She spun the blade – a trick Tomas had once taught her – before planting its tip straight into the ground. As she glanced back up at the soldier, a sudden wind gust pushed back her hood and revealed Tessa's face.