Phoenix Chosen #3 (The Phoenix Guardians #3)

6. Tyler

6

TYLER

W e pass a small graveyard outside the city walls with headstones that look very similar in style to the ones on Earth—some tall with spiraling carvings around their borders, some painted with fading red ochre lines, many chipped and eroded down to nothing but lumps of rock after centuries of being in the dirt, the names engraved on them long forgotten. It’s yet another reminder of how much I don’t know about this world that I’ve chosen to call my own.

I’m never going back.

At one point, I thought Circeana was a place I somehow manifested out of a deep longing to belong somewhere; it all came out of my head. My personal Matrix . I’m pretty sure that was just my brain’s way of coping with the shock.

I’m still clueless, but I feel like my eyes are open now, and I’m doing my best to allow myself to dive into the deep end.

“We buried you guys there,” Airos says, waving his staff at the ground as we run. He’s concealing our tracks and scent from Praxis and any others who may have it. “It was a beautiful funeral. Alyx may have cried. I couldn’t tell. Do cats cry?”

“You had a funeral for us?” I say. “That’s cold.”

“It was purely for formality’s sake,” he replies, “in case you really were dead. You wouldn’t want to attempt to cross the river Theoheles without the proper offerings.”

“Right…”

He leads us off the road and straight into the woods. A small stream winds through the trees, and Airos wades in and begins to walk upstream, water sloshing around his ankles.

“It will help keep our trail hidden,” he says, beckoning us to do the same.

It’s dark, especially beneath the trees. I stumble around and nearly faceplant, but Kalistratos hooks his arm around mine and keeps me steady.

“Move it to your back,” Kalistratos says. “It’ll be easier to manage.”

“Here I thought I was used to carrying this weight on the front,” I grumble.

I pull aside my shredded cloak and shift the position of the egg sling so that it’s strapped securely to my back. It feels like I’m wearing a backpack stuffed with a boulder. Airos sees what I’m doing and stops.

“Gods be. Is that what I think it is?” he says.

“Freshly laid,” I say.

“Airos,” says Kalistratos. “Tell me what else happened after we were taken. How long has it been?”

“Not yet,” he answers. “Just a little further. We’ll speak where it’s safe.”

Airos’s hideaway is deep in the woods, inside an abandoned hunter’s dwelling. It’s not much more than a shack made of mud brick and logs, but it feels safe and isolated. He’s kept any potential visitors away with magic spells to make it seem haunted, and by the way it looks, it definitely feels like it could be the home of some restless spirit.

Airos lights a small fire in a clay stove, barely bright enough to cast a dim light around the shack. A couple of small glazed amphorae lie empty on the ground next to a straw bed, and the faint smell of wine drifts from their open mouths. Airos kicks them into the shadows.

“Please, make yourselves comfortable,” he says. “That’s a good stump for sitting on.”

“The ground is fine,” Kalistratos says, groaning as he leans against the wall. “Cheesus. I have no stamina left.”

“Try this,” Airos says, fishing his red gourd jug from somewhere. He uncorks it, but Kalistratos holds up his hand.

“I don’t need wine. That’ll put me out.”

“No, not wine. I’m all out of that—sad, I know. This is a herbal tea. It will aid in the quick recovery of your powers. Made it myself.”

Kalistratos takes a drink and grimaces. “Tastes like dirty swamp water.”

Airos takes the jug back and swigs from it. “Mm. There’s a good reason for that. I?—”

“Don’t really want to know it,” Kalistratos says. “As long as it helps, that’s all that matters.”

“Nearly a moon cycle,” Airos says. “That’s how long it’s been since you two were spirited away. It was Alyx who was convinced you weren’t dead, by the way. He suggested you’d been transported somewhere. I’m glad he was right. Where were you taken?”

“Right back to Earth,” I tell him. “Er, Gaea.”

Airos rubs his face and shakes his head. “Gaea, of course,” he says, chuckling. “It should’ve been obvious. And tell me… did you meet the Great Phoenix, Lord Aethereos?”

“How did you know that?”

“We haven’t been idle here, Kalistratos. I’ve spent the last month traveling between Athenos and Delphos, searching the libraries and Gnosis archives for information. I take it then you know of Umbrios, his twin brother?”

“Unfortunately,” Kalistratos says. “We were there when Umbrios overwhelmed the Great Phoenix’s sanctuary.”

“Gods,” Airos mutters. “So, Lord Aethereos…”

“He’s gone. Until we can revive him.”

“The egg,” Airos says reverently.

I untie the wrap and hold the egg against my chest. It’s warm. With a look, Airos silently asks permission to touch it, and I nod. He places his hand on its shell.

“So, this is what will bring him back,” he says, almost whispering. “Planted by the Great Phoenix in the womb of the Chosen omega, seeded by his mate and guardian.”

“Seeded?” I say. “Wait, but I was pregnant way before Kalistratos and I ever… erm…”

“You were pregnant with the fated egg, but you weren’t truly with child until you joined with Kalistratos.”

Kalistratos looks stunned. “Your books told you this, too?”

Airos nods. “We need to get the egg to the Great Phoenix’s temple. Alyx has gone west with the map to investigate possible locations… and to search for you.”

“But…?” Kalistratos says, sensing the hesitation in Airos’s voice.

“We’d agreed to reconvene one week ago. Alyx never showed up.”

“Dammit, that idiot… Westward, alone?”

“What’s west?” Tyler asks.

“Inhospitable land, for many reasons. Slaver territory in the midland rift between here and the coast. We need to go after him.”

“There’s no reason to stay here,” Airos agrees. “Our purpose, our mission , is to reach the temple and restore Lord Aethereos. With Tyler and the egg safe, we have everything we need. Alyx and I agreed that if one of us found you, we would immediately seek the temple, whether or not the other can rejoin.”

“No,” I say. “There’s more to it.”

Kalistratos nods and motions for me to tell Airos what we know. He looks so tired and stressed. I rub his back with my palm, trying to comfort him. I know how worried he must be about Alyx, his best friend.

“The Great Phoenix told us I’m not the only chosen omega. There are two more. And that means two more eggs.”

Airos’s wide eyes flick back and forth as he digests this new information. He brushes a strand of gold hair from his face and sits back. “This was not in any of my readings,” he says finally. “Of course. Three guardians, three omegas. And Lord Aethereos… Did he tell you how we are to find these other two?”

“Lord Aethereos wasn’t particularly good at answering questions,” Kalistratos grumbles.

“I guess since you guys were able to find me, you should be able to find the others,” I say.

“We don’t know whether they are still pregnant, or if they’ve given birth like Tyler has,” says Kalistratos. “All we know is they aren’t from this world.”

“Well, that makes things a little easier, right?” I say.

I know that it doesn’t. Not at all. I don’t need to be good at math to know the odds of finding two people hidden somewhere in this world is pretty much zero. The look on Airos’s face tells me he’s thinking the same thing.

“They would still be pregnant,” he says. “But does that make it easier to find them? I don’t think so.”

I have to remind myself there’s magic at work here. Fate . There’s a story, a cycle, that’s moving like a flowing river and we may just be along for the ride.

“We just need to trust in the process,” I say. “If these other two guys are out there, we’ll find them. That’s what the Great Phoenix said.”

“Then, we go west,” Airos says decisively. “We find our lost cat, and somehow, two phoenix omegas.”

I lie beside Kalistratos in the shack with the egg tucked cozily between our bodies. Airos is somewhere outside, keeping watch.

I’m exhausted. So is Kalistratos. I haven’t had proper rest since giving birth and my body just feels dead. We’ve been going nonstop since being woken up by Feather in the Great Phoenix’s sanctuary. I have no clue when yesterday ended and today began. I’ve never been jet lagged before, but I’m guessing this is what it feels like.

“I can’t stop thinking about what might’ve happened had Airos not shown up,” Kalistratos says, breaking the drowsy silence of our wandering thoughts. “It’s been twice now that I’ve had my powers interrupted. It’s humiliating that it could happen at the hands of Praxis, someone who isn’t a phoenix.”

“Those weren’t his powers, though, right?” I say. “He could do those things because he’s working with Umbrios.”

“Yes…” He sighs. “I can’t let this happen again.”

“Kalistratos, I’m not blaming you for anything, alright? I’m positive that we would’ve found a way to beat that guy, even if Airos hadn’t shown up. You don’t have to keep so much pressure on your shoulders. I’m a grown-ass man.”

I know perfectly well that there’s not much I could’ve done. I’m just not used to feeling so helpless.

“Your powers…” he says, trailing off.

“I don’t think they’re my powers. Not fully, at least.” I stroke the egg gently. “I think I felt them from the egg. That’s how we were able to get back to Circeana. But I guess I still don’t know how to access them.”

The truth is, I don’t believe they belong to me at all. How can I control something that isn’t mine? What influence do I really have?

Kalistratos is silent in thought. He stares up at the decaying roof, where a spider advances on a moth shaking around desperately in its web.

“Aw, man,” I mutter. I stand up and, using a twig, poke the moth out of the sticky fiber. It lands on the ground, twitches around, and then finally flutters away.

Kalistratos looks at me curiously. “Have you always had a habit of rescuing insects?”

“Never,” I say. “But I couldn’t just let it die.”

“You changed its destiny,” he says with a smile as I lay back down with him.

“Maybe my brain chemistry changed after giving birth to this egg,” I reply, partially joking. “Seeing it in danger got me all emotional. And I hate moths.”

His laugh is quiet and sleepy, and he kisses the side of my head. I feel the warmth of the egg against my body and Kalistratos’s hand on mine, and sleep finally drifts over me like a weighted blanket.