Phoenix Chosen #3 (The Phoenix Guardians #3)

28. Kalistratos

28

KALISTRATOS

T yler is safe. This is all that matters.

What I see now is a dark tunnel closing around the light that is his face. I’m fighting with everything I have not to let the darkness consume me, but my phoenix has lost its flame.

My destiny was to meet him. I only wish my fate was to continue by his side and see this through. It hurts to think that he will be alone, picking up the pieces of a mission that shouldn’t rest on his shoulders.

He won’t be alone .

No… of course not. He’ll have that damn phony priest with him. They’ll find Alyx and the last omega. They’ll rescue Jackson.

And he’ll have our child.

I wish I could be there when they finally hatch. I wish I could see them grow.

“Kalistratos,” I hear Tyler cry.

Not yet . Just a little more time.

“I love you,” comes his voice, echoing throughout all time and being.

I want to see him. I try to open my eyes, but I don’t have the strength.

Fight .

I can’t give up. I was not made for surrender. I have to hold on just a little longer. I won’t give the shadow the satisfaction of taking me willingly. It’ll have to drag me into the underworld.

Tyler!

In the darkness of my mind, I can see him, so far away. I can feel the cold hands of oblivion on my back, grasping to pull me down.

Not yet.

He’s growing smaller.

Tyler!

My voice rings out into the ether.

And then…

Blackness.

Then, a light.

It’s like a guiding star twinkling in a tar-black sky. Warmth flickers from it like a fire burning in a mountain blizzard, and weak as it may be, it feels like an outstretched hand from the sun god himself.

The wound in my shoulder wants to take me, but its consuming cold is being pushed back. I struggle to reach the surface, to get to the light and the warmth it brings. It’s growing brighter. I feel it washing over me like waves on the shore, waves of heat and light penetrating the cursed wound and thawing the ice in my blood.

Someone is crying. I hear their voice getting louder with the blossoming light.

“Kalistratos…”

Tyler! It’s Tyler!

I try and fail to reply. I’m fighting to gain control over my body—it’s as though I’m trapped in that realm between sleep and wakefulness, frozen in place like a man struck by a Gorgon’s glare.

But then, out of the light I see him. He is the light. His face shines above me, cheeks shimmering with a rain of tears pouring from tightly shut eyes. I can feel him again. His arms clutch me tightly and the tremors of his sobs shake through my aching body.

“T—”

My voice crumbles in my throat like sand, but I slowly feel some strength returning to my fingers. I use all of it to reach up and touch his face.

Tyler’s eyes flash open. “Kalistratos!” he cries.

“Cheesus,” I croak. It feels like I’ve nearly drowned and my chest is filled with water.

But I’m back. I’m weak and barely clinging to life, but the icy pain in my shoulder is fading.

“How?” he says, stunned.

Tyler hasn’t seemed to take notice of the bright light shimmering around him, and for a moment, I wonder whether this resplendent aura is only visible to me. But then I hear Airos say, “Your powers, Tyler. Take hold of them, now .”

Tyler blinks, scattering teardrops from his eyes that sparkle in the clear white light. He looks down at himself and finally sees what I’ve always known.