Phoenix Chosen #3 (The Phoenix Guardians #3)

2. Kalistratos

2

KALISTRATOS

A stream of pungent herbal smoke wavers up from the nose of a bull incense lamp and fills the dim room with a gray haze. Two windows cut out of the wall are covered with woven reed blinds, and hot sunlight slices through the smoke like white blades. Tyler is lying on a hard wooden bed next to me, naked save for a thin linen towel over his groin. Zona’s fraternal twin Aylourosi assistants, Xanthe and Xanthos, work quietly attending to Tyler. They drape cloths soaked with warmed oil over his abdomen to help with the pain—but it doesn’t seem to be doing very much.

Zona stands at a table on the other side of the room, mixing up some concoction in a clay bowl.

“I was convinced I would never see your face again,” she says to me. “For a while, I thought you were dead until I heard rumors about a thief in the north who uses a black cat to make scores. What happened to your little pet, anyway?”

Zona never knew Alyx’s true identity and had only ever seen him in cat form. She doesn’t know we’re Phoenikos.

“My partner, not my pet,” I correct. “I lost him.”

She laughs. “You lost him, or he ran away?”

“Remind me, how long has it been since you and I last saw each other?”

I don’t know how much time has passed since Tyler and I were taken to Gaea. Have we been returned to the instant we left? Has the same amount of time passed that we spent in his world? Or…more?

“Since you disappeared without paying me?” she says. “You’ve forgotten?”

I shrug apologetically. “A lot has happened.”

“It was just after the winter harvest festival.”

Nearly a year, just as I remember it. So, at least I know we haven’t been thrown far forward in time.

“You know,” she continues, throwing a stabbing glare at me. “When the Keresians showed up looking for you, they stole three horses from the stables next door. I’m adding those to your debt, too.”

“Why are you helping me?” Tyler asks weakly. “Not complaining, by the way,” he adds quickly.

“Because I’m not heartless,” she says. “What kind of healer would I be if I didn’t take in a pregnant omega?” She looks at me. “Now, if it’d just been you with another blade wound, I might’ve just let you bleed out on my doorstep.”

“You’re a good person Zona,” I say. “A damn good person. And the best healer in Athenos.”

“Just in Athenos?”

I bow. “All of Circeana.”

She smirks and chucks a sheepskin bladder at me. It’s filled with a pleasantly hot liquid.

“Put this against Tyler’s belly.”

Xanthe and Xanthos move away from Tyler to help Zona with whatever potions she’s preparing. They glance sideways at me in that curt manner that many of the feline Aylourosi clan seem to possess, their slitted yellow eyes glinting in the shadowy light.

“How do you feel?” I ask Tyler as I put the bladder against his bare skin.

He takes a long breath and slowly exhales. “Honest answer? Like I have a fucking watermelon wedged up my asshole, and I might rip in half trying to get it out. I just want this to be over, Kalistratos.”

I snort and squeeze his hand. A smile cracks through his scowl for a moment—but it’s quickly wiped off his face as he lurches forward with wide, startled eyes. The way he screams raises the hairs on the back of my neck. It’s the kind of scream you only hear from a man suffering the worst kind of pain possible–when they’ve been cut down in battle. His forehead is suddenly drenched with huge globules of sweat. He looks at me, and my heart breaks seeing the fear in his eyes.

“Out of the way!” Zona says, elbowing past me. “It’s coming. Xanthe, the talismans.”

I stumble backward. “W-what can I do?” I say. “How can I help?”

“You need to leave,” Xanthos says.

“No!” Tyler cries. “He’s not leaving.”

“He’s an alpha, he’ll only interfere,” Xanthos protests.

“I don’t give a fuck !” Tyler shouts.

“Enough!” Zona says, waving her hand. “He stays. Tyler, come.”

The twins help him from the bed and move him to a chair with a half-moon cut out from the seat. Xanthe places three lit beeswax candles on the floor in front of Tyler, then a stone bowl of water into which she drops a ball of desiccated herbs.

“What is this, a sacrifice?” Tyler groans. “I hate this!”

“These talismans will help with the pain,” Xanthe says.

He shoots me a look of furious disbelief. “ Talismans ? I need a goddamn tailonoll , not a talisman.”

I can do nothing but shrug. This is far beyond my realm of knowledge.

“Deep breaths, Tyler,” Zona says. “Put your hands here. Hold tight. Breathe, and push!”

Tyler grips the armrests of the chair and strains. “Oh my God!”

Xanthos is shaking a bundle of wildflowers around Tyler’s head. Xanthe lights more incense and rings a bell next to a little shrine to the god of omega birth. Tyler wails in pain. This is chaos.

I move to his side and quickly glance through the slits in the blinds. The street is clear, but I still fear that we are being pursued.

Zona is looking at me. She has seen me checking the window, but before she can ask what I’m so worried about, Tyler interrupts with another anguished wail. I grab his hand, and he nearly cracks my bones with his grip.

“HNNNNGGG!” His eyes look like they might burst out of his skull.

“Maybe…I can…give you a hand rub,” I grunt, trying to pry loose from his death grip.

I can’t. He has me locked down like an enraged octopus.

“NO!” he grunts. “Goddamit! Oh, goddamit, you’re a real piece of shit, you know that?”

“I know,” I say encouragingly. “I truly am. And you’re doing wonderfully .”

Xanthos spreads the bundle of wildflowers around the birthing stool. Xanthe begins to chant something in a low purring voice. Zona is crouched in front of the stool, eyes fixed on Tyler.

Tyler’s golden hair hangs in dark streaks across his forehead, and I use my free hand to brush the clinging locks away. His eyes are squeezed tight, his teeth bared in mighty effort. The strength he’s summoning to endure this is beyond anything I can imagine.

“Fuck this, fuck this, fuck this,” Tyler strains out.

Zona swats my leg. “If you’re going to be here, the least you can do is make yourself useful.”

“Yes, thank you ,” I say. “Tell me what to do.”

“Be Tyler’s breath. Guide him, keep him steady.”

“I can do this,” I say.

Tyler breathes with me, drawing in slow, measured inhales. The pain, which had only subsided for a few minutes, has returned with a renewed intensity. Zona has returned to her work table to mix up some new herbal concoction, while the twins continuously resoak the strips of cloth in the warm oil and replace them on Tyler’s swollen belly.

“Breathe with me,” I tell Tyler.

“I don’t want to,” he grunts.

“You have to breathe. One… two…”

“God fucking dammit, Kalistratos, I know how to breathe!”

“One… two…” I repeat slowly. I’m trying my best to be helpful.

Xanthos suddenly stands, his tail pricked up in surprise. “Zona,” he says, and gestures for her to come over.

Zona crouches to take a look at Tyler beneath the birthing chair.

“What’s happening?” Tyler groans unhappily. “What is it?”

A look of confusion, then anger flashes across Zona’s already stern face. She stands up, grabs my arm, and ushers me into the neighboring room.

“I know we share the understanding that the less I know about my patient’s matters, the better,” she says. “But you’ve kept something very important from me, Kalistratos.”

“What do you mean?” I say, even though I know exactly what she’s talking about.

She gives me a hard look. “Don’t insult me, Kalistratos. I’m doing you a favor. Are you?”

There’s nothing for it. I nod my head.

Zona doesn’t reply. She stares straight ahead, her gaze hard with thought. When she finally speaks, her voice is quiet, like she’s speaking from within a memory.

“I always sensed you weren’t just a human, especially the way you could heal from your injuries. But I can’t believe I didn’t realize that you of all people were one of them.” She makes a quiet sigh. “I was so certain I would be able to know.”

Hearing this puzzles me. Was Zona looking for a Phoenikos?

“I’m sure you can understand why I kept it a secret.”

“Of course,” she says. “But this is information you should’ve told me. This is no ordinary delivery.”

“Because every healer would kill to get their hands on a newborn phoenix. Because of what they believe they can provide. The ‘power of rejuvenation,’ right?”

She shakes her head. “That’s not what I mean. I don’t believe in any of that. Kalistratos… do you not know anything about how phoenixes come into being?”

Why would one need to give any consideration to how they were born? It was not something I’d ever given any thought to, and if my parents had ever spoken to me about it, I don’t remember. I barely remember who they were.

“Most of what I know about my people I’ve learned in the last three days,” I say with a wry smile. “Perhaps when I was born, I popped out of a hole in the ground or dropped out of the sky. I don’t know.”

She looks sad for a moment. And it is sad. Sad that I should be ignorant of such a fundamental part of life. But such knowledge is a luxury.

“Phoenikos aren’t born, Kalistratos—they’re hatched.” She points towards the doorway. “Your mate has already reached the second stage of delivery, hours ahead of when I would’ve expected it to happen. The egg is coming, and I will need to change my approach to make sure it’s delivered safely.”

I feel like a fool.

Of course it would be an egg. As much as I hate acknowledging Tyler’s jabs, it’s true—Phoenikos and chickens share more in common than I want to admit.

Zona turns to go back out to Tyler.

“Wait,” I say in a voice that’s commanding but as calm as I can muster.

She pauses. “Don’t worry,” she says. “I didn’t build up such a reputation by giving up people’s secrets. No one will know you two are Phoenikos.”

“Thank you, Zona.”

She glances back at me. “You’re being hunted?”

“It’s likely.”

She sighs. “You certainly have a habit of making things complicated, Kalistratos. I would say this one is going to cost you extra if I had any hope of being paid.”

“I swear on the Gods, I’ll pay you back tenfold what I owe you.”

“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep!” she says with a laugh. “You’d need to give me a feather from the Great Phoenix himself to settle that amount.”

We return to the room. Zona speaks to the twins, and they work hurriedly, preparing whatever it is they need to do to deliver this egg. Tyler is too preoccupied with the labor to even notice. I go to his side and help him sip water from a jug with a reed straw. I dab the sweat from his face with a cool towel.

“Kalistratos,” Zona says. “We must move him.”

Tyler looks at me. “What is happening, Kalistratos?” he says.

I put my hand on his. “Tyler, you’re going to love this.”