Page 82 of Feathers and Scales

She cleared her throat. “How are you here? You died.”

“In some ways, yes. But I had to die to become greater. You would have stopped me had I stayed with you and your compassion.” Fotios’s wing made a cracking sound as it snapped in and out. “I believed my death might teach you the truth behind your emotions. But it appears you have learned nothing.”

Izzy winced. “You abandoned me and became this…thing to teach me a lesson?”

His face twisted into a rage so unrecognizable, it made the hair on her arms stand on end. Daxton moved more in front of her, dragon raging along the link.

Fotios looked away from them until he schooled his expression to calm. “Remnants. Do you remember my theory?”

“I remember you experimenting on a pupil to prove your point,” she said.

“That pupil, Aros, opened the door. Your angelic existence before now was without emotion. Strong. Something humans could never achieve. But a Remnant? I had to harness that ability for myself. And here we are.”

We?An image of the Archfiend stabbing her flashed through her mind. His familiar yet ravaged face. The one she’d seen in her memory. Aros was the other Archfiend? Her hand rubbed at her aching chest. Humans—no, Remnants—really could turn into Archfiends.

Fotios’s jaw ticked. “Yes, hard to control that one, after he got his first taste of Fallen energy and immortality. Well, it didn’t surprise me when he tried to ruin my lesson and siphon your power by killing you. At least now he’s distracted.”

Glass shattering echoed in the street just outside the garage.I hope Serephina and Jamal can handle Aros.“Why are you doing this?”

That unrecognizable anger sliced across his face again. “I never understood why I couldn’t shake you from my heart. Why I was so devoted to you.”

His words pierced through her like a bullet, ricocheting agony throughout her being. She expected as much from her family, but not from this man, who had been a father figure to her. Yet, even as the pain seared, her mind registered the precise calibration of his cruelty, the calculated jabs at her deepest vulnerabilities. He was a master manipulator, dissecting her emotional responses as a scientist would data points.This is an attempt to destabilize me and exploit my compassion, she thought, forcing herself to breathe steadily.

“But then, I realized I was your Remnant,” he continued. “A part of you that had splintered when you fell. And now, to complete the transformation, I need you to join me. Step away from that emotional mortal shell and become more.”

“What?” Her eyes and throat burned.

Simon shouted, “You’re sick to think she would ever—”

“Shush.” Fotios’s tattered batlike wings snapped out and in, folded and lifted off the ground as he turned his attention back to Izzy. “I bet it hurt when your mother tried to take your life. And when I took your Coheart from you and nearly killed him twice. And now your precious foundation is under attack.”

With each reminder, despair sank into her spirit. Fotios hadn’t been in her life for a millennium, yet he still knew her like the back of his hand. He understood that each chink of emotion she allowed into her armor was a weakness he could exploit. Defeating him was an impossibility that chilled her to the bone.

“Not even finding this dragon will save you. I’ll always be a shadow, Isi. A constant barb in your Fallen heart until you learn you don’t need it anymore. Starting with that dragon you brought me.”

“Try me.” Daxton lunged, a flash of shifting light consuming him.

“No.” Izzy jumped and grabbed Daxton’s changing arm. Hot skin and scales met her grasp. Her mind, despite the terror, raced with tactical assessments. A confined parking garage was a death trap for a dragon of his size and power. Fotios, the ultimate strategist, would have accounted for this, likely having further traps set. Daxton shifting here wasn’t a solution; it was a predictable, fatal variable, leading to certain injury or worse.

She couldn’t live with herself if Fotios hurt Daxton. With her heart in her throat, she whispered, “Daxton, please.”

Daxton halted, body heating to scalding. Pain shot up her arms, but she held on, tears falling down her cheeks.

“Let go of me.” Daxton’s voice rumbled, barely discernible. “You don’t deserve this.”

“You don’t know what he’s capable of.”

“And you don’t know what I’m capable of.” Daxton ripped his arm free from her grasp. Light flooded from his pores.

No!She slammed a wall down along the link, cleaving him off.

Daxton roared. Energy smashed against her mental block with such rage, pain splintered across her skull. Daxton’s glow stuttered, and he stumbled forward.

Whipping around, he panted in breaths. “What the hell did you do?”

The words pierced through her, but the fear in his eyes of becoming Lost without her side of the link had kept him from shifting. Her desperate move had done what she needed.

“Hold his leash, Isi, but it still won’t save him.”