Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) by Emma Hamm (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

bars. She had been dead, he was certain of that. Her body had become a bonfire and was as close to ashes as flesh could be. Yet now she was breathing. What miracle unfolded before him?

She continued to cough as she rolled to her side. Propped on her elbow, the flames covering her retreated to reveal flawless skin. No bruise or scrape remained. Long, wheezing breaths shook her shoulders.

What words he might have said caught in his throat as his gaze caught on the bloody slash across her forehead. His eyes widened as the flames danced across the weeping wound. It was closing. The sliced skin that had been dripping blood into her eyes sealed like a zipper. The flames traced her body, healing any remaining injuries and licking the blood clean.

He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

“What are you?” He uttered the words as though they were poison on his tongue.

She placed her hand on the floor and pushed herself up, wincing in pain. A trickle of blood ran from her mouth. She scooped a handful of fire from her torso and lifted it to her lips, holding his gaze as she opened her mouth and devoured the flames.

Her eyes drifted shut. She was shaking; he could see that from where he stood. But now he was cautious. He had never heard of what she could do, had never seen a creature so powerful.

“I am mercy,” she told him quietly. “I am the beginning and the end. I am flame and ruin.”

“What are you?” Jasper repeated.

“Phoenix.”

“Impossible. They are a myth even in the old dimension.”

She shook her head. “We are not a myth. There was one left before the collision.”

The man made of flames. There was no doubt she spoke of the creature conjured in her injuries, but this only raised more questions.

“Your creature can leave your body?” Jasper couldn’t believe that he even voiced the question. It was absurd. The creatures had taken the punishment of human bodies in exchange for life. They could not separate themselves.

“Yes.”

Her frankness stunned him.

“Impossible,” he said again. “Our creatures are bound to us. They cannot leave our bodies.”

“Mine can.”

Mercy lifted the lizard from her shoulder and placed it on the ground. Its claws tapped against the stone as it made a loop outside of her cell and returned to her side. Jasper watched with wide eyes. He didn’t know if he was disgusted or intrigued.

“Ignes has always been unusual,” Mercy said. “Even before the dimensions combined.”

“How long were you locked away in that tree?” Jasper asked.

“A long time.”

“How long were you there?” His heart crashed against his ribs. His vision blurred, his short panicked breathing likely the cause. She was a Pheonix, and long ago they were legends told to children at night. Bluebell had told him the stories. He wanted to know if they were true.

A shudder made her shoulders shake. She wrapped her arms around her smooth legs and began to rock back and forth.

“Many years,” she answered.

“How many is ‘many’?”

“What year is it now?”

He told her without hesitation that it was 2800. Perhaps she had lost track of time in the prison. He certainly didn’t know how long he had been locked in Malachi’s prison. The news made her flinch forward, pressing her chest against her knees. She was making herself as small as possible he realized. Why would the year make her react so violently?

The lizard crawled up her chest to snuggle into the hollow of her collarbone, curling its tail around her bicep.

“Mercy?” Jasper asked. “How old are you?”

“Two hundred and twenty four years old.”

Once more, the breath wheezed from his lungs. “That’s impossible.”

She shook her head. “Not for me.”

“We don’t live two hundred years. Were you cursed?”

“No.”

“Then how?”

She pressed the back of her hand against her mouth, mumbling around it. “When I merged with my creature, many strange things happened. I may be wrong, but I believe I am immortal.”

Only a few small patches of light remained on her body. She covered herself as best she could, her arms trying to be everywhere at once, but there were very few places to hide in the cages. Jealousy made his cheeks heat.

“Someone give her a shirt!” Jasper said.

There was no movement from the other cages. The others did not often have much to do with him, but they had seen her creature walk out and return to his cage. He couldn’t understand why that wouldn’t inspire them to action.

“Now!” His shout echoed down the rows of cells, a flurry of movement suddenly creating a cacophony of sound. A shirt was passed through the ends of the cages, tossing from hand to hand until it landed at her feet.

“Thank you,” Mercy said as she shrugged it over her shoulders. “Thank you all.”

Ella moved from her corner to stand in the dim light. “What does Malachi want with you? And why were you harmed when you returned?”

Mercy spat upon the ground and her lips curled into a sneer. “The Void will regret bringing me here. He needed proof I was what the legends said. Now he has it.”

“What can you give him?” Ella asked. “He has all of us here to fuel his power. He has me for immortality. What can a Phoenix give him?”

“It’s not what I can give him. It’s what he can command me to do.”

Jasper didn’t think he heard her right. “Command? How can he command you to do anything?”

“A Phoenix has a master,” she told him. “We are not free-thinking creatures. Though wild and unpredictable, a Phoenix in captivity naturally desires a master. Typically, this transfer happens when we are reborn.”

“Malachi wants to be your master.” It was a horrible thought. Jasper thought he knew what the villain was preparing for. “What will he ask of you? What could a Phoenix be commanded to do?”

A muscle in her jaw ticked. “Fire is best used for destruction. I could turn this planet into hell if I wished it.”

“Would you want to?”

“I wouldn’t have a choice.”

Jasper’s mind reeled.