“Now what?” Aiden asks as he rolls the gorgon onto his stomach and turns Kyros’ face so that he’s away from us. “What are we going to do with him?”
I eye the phoenix. He’s standing with his back to his seat, his arms crossed. He doesn’t look happy. Why? Because Kyros failed? Because we removed him from the picture at least temporarily? Or is it because he thinks all of the experiments have failed since Kyros clearly went off script?
Or did he?
“Illumine, please, illuminate me,” I start.
The phoenix scowls, his eyes flashing with fire more than ever. “You’re so original,” he snaps.
“Yes, well, start talking. You said he was to go after Clarissa, but she’s not a troll or orc or any of those out there.” I fling my arm in the direction of the small village teeming with battles. “You better start talking.”
“I don’t think so He’s going to wake soon, and when he does—”
“You and your threats!” I fume. “You need to tell me what’s going on!”
“I don’t need to tell you anything.”
I stare at my palms and then at Illumine. “I can force you to sleep, invade your dreams, seek the answers in your mind without your consent. How does that sound? You want to play dirty? Don’t get angry when I fight dirty. You do know the risk that poses, though, right? Your mind might never be the same, but then, considering what role you played with Kyros, Sophie, and Amy, it only seems fitting, don’t you think?”
The phoenix blanches. “You wouldn’t.”
“Woudn’t I? Do you want to test me?”
“Jaidos has a lot of allies,” Illumine mutters. “He’s been working on this swiftly. He became obsessed after Mirella graduated, which wasn’t that long ago, but Jaidos is—was—the kind of man who got things done. When he spoke, people listened, and they flocked to him.”
“Which ones?”
“Banshees. Berserkers. Barbarians, of course, because of Rall. Most of the birdfolk. Basilisks.”
“Bluecaps, brownies, gnomes, goblins, too, right? But not the orcs or the trolls.”
Illumine nods slowly. “A few others.”
“Go on.”
“Jessa, you can’t be serious.”
“Oh, yes, I am.”
Illumine grits his teeth. “We need to continue onward with… with whatever you want.”
“Fine.” I turn to Aiden. “I don’t want to split up. I really don’t, but I think it’s too important that we recover Amy as quickly as possible. I don’t want to endanger her life or her returning to the humans and all of their lives. It’s too risky.”
“You want me to take Kyros to Pervinca.”
“Yes.” I worry my bottom lip. “What do you think?”
“You and Illumine will go and find Amy?”
I nod. “I won’t let him out of my sight,” I promise.
“All right. Fine. I’ll make sure Kyros and I don’t see eye-to-eye.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m sorry, but that was lame.”
“You don’t like gorgon humor?”
“Not really.” I brush his hair from his forehead. “I like your humor, though.”
“Not much to laugh about right now.”
“Not at the moment, no, but one day.” I lean forward and kiss his nose.
He chuckles and wraps his arms around me, holding me tight. I squeeze him back, feeling safe and secure in his arms, but the embrace is over far too quickly.
Quickly, Aiden utilizes chlorokinesis to bring some vines onto the helicopter. He uses the vines to ensure the sunglasses won’t slip.
“Can’t risk anyone accidentally being turned to stone,” he jokes.
I glare at him, and Aiden just shrugs and gives me an impish smile that makes me shake my head.
After ensuring the gorgon is draped over his shoulders, Aiden nods to me, and he’s off, using fairy dust to whisk them away. I almost wish he could just fly away, disappearing behind the cover of fluffy clouds, but that’s a bit ridiculous even if it would be picturesque. I mean, if he flew off, he would have to touch down at some point to recover some strength, but at least the vines would give him safety so that even if the gorgon regains consciousness, Aiden should be protected from his turn-to-stone ability. The gorgon’s brute strength is another matter, though, which makes me grateful for the fairy dust after all.
“And we’re off to find Amy then?” Illumine asks, his tone a bit harsh.
I exhale slowly. “If we’re to work together, you need to know the truth.”
The phoenix scrunches up his nose.
“You still think you’re right and I’m wrong.”
“I… You haven’t lived the lives I have.”
“I don’t need to. You can’t just go around and kill people you deem as evil.”
“How ironic,” he mumbles.
“It’s different,” I snap. “What I did is different. I saw the chaos Jaidos was going to cause, the destruction.”
“And the ones I want dead have all caused destruction too!”
“Not to the point of deserving death!”
“In your opinion,” he says coolly.
I slump my shoulders. “You won’t ever see things differently.”
“No, and why should I believe the words of someone who has killed?”
“I’m a fairy. I can’t lie.”
“Lying isn’t the only sin in the world.”
“I know.”
“Murder is the worst sin of all.”
“Do you have any more salt? I don’t think you’ve poured enough in the wound,” I snap.
The phoenix grins. “You feel guilty.”
“A little. A lot. Not so much that I killed him, but that the war is going to happen anyhow, and that’s partially your fault!”
“And yours as well.”
I grunt and blow out a breath. “What I wanted to tell you is…”
I close my eyes and glamor myself, taking on the appearance of Sequoia again.
The phoenix tilts his head to the side. “When did… Ah. Yes. I see. You took her place… It had to have been after the siren incident, yes?”
I nod.
“And you were there to break out Sophie,” he says.
“Yes, but too late. I had no idea about the experiments. If I had…”
“You had me fooled.”
I shrug. “It seems like a hollow victory now. I mean, Zas returned, killed the warden, and freed all of the inmates. If I hadn’t gone there, Sophie would still be out.”
“Yes, but you—”
“I don’t know if I did anything good while there. I mean, I had Castiel locked up, but he’s so corrupt that it won’t matter. He wasn’t behind bars long at all. I tried to give Samuel advice, but who knows if my advice will help or hurt his relationship with his girlfriend. Then there’s Ciro. I started to talk to him and maybe make some progress with him, but then he wanted only me to be his guard, and it made me uncomfortable, but what if I just made him feel secure? What if I made him feel like he could change? And I failed him, and now he’s free, and he’s probably killed someone when he went to drink from them. He’s going to be back on the blood wagon—Is that what they call it?”
“Who?”
“Vampires.”
“You need to slow down. I’m not following you at all. Who is Ciro?”
“A vampire on my floor. I wanted to try to talk to the inmates, basically treat them more like patients instead of prisoners. I thought that maybe they could be rehabilitated if they were actually given advice and instruction. I don’t know how it’s determined if they can be released back into society. Portia said there are regulations, but I didn’t press for details in case Sequoia would’ve known them. I just… I wanted to make a difference in so many ways, and all I do is fail. I’m a failure. But I don’t want to let anyone else down. No war. There can’t be. No experiments. Sophie and Kyros and Amy, they need to be returned to Pervinca. Maybe she can fix them.”
“And if not?” Illumine murmurs.
“I don’t want to think like that. Positive thoughts. That’s how things are going to go.”
“You do realize that’s naïve, don’t you?”
“There are some who subscribe to the belief that whatever you put out into the universe comes back to you,” I say stubbornly.
“Maybe,” he says, doubt creeping into his tone. Then he eyes me critically. “And what exactly have you been putting out into the universe lately?”
“Ah… Yeah, well, so about Amy, where do you think she is?”
Illumine just shakes his head and sighs. “You’re impossible.”
“At least I’m trying to make the world a better place without killing a ton of people,” I counter.
The phoenix opens his mouth and then waves me away. “Sit down. Let’s go.”
“Where to?”
“My guess? She’s heading to either Magical Hunters Academy or Himinn Islet.”
“Himinn Islet? Isn’t that the island of the valkyries?”
“Yes.”
“How would a human get up there?” I wonder. “It’s a floating island.”
“I realize that.”
I hesitate. “The experiments didn’t give the human wings, did it?”
“Of course not!”
“Well, you and Pervinca aren’t exactly forthcoming as far as details as to what exactly the experiment is and what it does to the test subjects,” I say crossly.
The phoenix, of course, does not bother to enlighten me.
I sigh and throw up my hands. “We can just use fairy dust to whisk us to the academy.”
“She might not be there. If she was able to break free—”
“Sophie wasn’t able to,” I point out.
“Kyros wasn’t precisely doing what he was supposed to be doing.”
I grind my teeth. “Why did we use this stupid set of wings? Instead of the helicopter, would could’ve just flown.”
“And been exhausted. Do you know how many miles we’ve traveled?”
“We could’ve used fairy dust—”
“I never would have found Kyros if I used fairy dust to get me to this point or that point. I never would have thought to look here. And I also wanted to see if there was any trace of Kyros.”
“And there was,” I mumble. “All of those fights.”
“Not all of them had to be from Kyros, but he certainly did start some. A roundabout way of accomplishing his second goal.”
“I’m just glad he won’t be doing any goal,” I say. “But this helicopter…”
“Trust me. We had to use the helicopter.”
“For Kyros, maybe, but we don’t need to for Amy, right? Let’s go.”
“I would prefer to not—”
“You’re afraid someone is going to steal your helicopter. So what if someone does?”
“So what? Excuse me?”
“You’re a phoenix. You’ve lived how many lives? You’re probably the richest man alive. Don’t tell me you can’t buy yourself another one.”
“Just because I have money doesn’t mean that I want to waste it,” he protests.
Abruptly, I realize I still look like Sequoia. I banish the glamor. “You can fly your little helicopter if you want, but I’m hightailing it to Magical Hunters Academy.”
“I thought you didn’t trust me to leave me alone,” he says sarcastically.
“Clearly I trust you to some degree considering I told you who I truly am and about my secret.”
“Sequoia,” he mumbles. “How is she?”
“Very happy.”
“Despite what you did? Or was she in on it?”
I smile to myself. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was in on it the entire time.”
Illumine shakes his head. “You like to overly complicate things, don’t you?”
“That’s not true at all!” I protest. “Fairy dust is the least complicated way to reach Master Vanhylde!”
“I guess.” Illumine presses a few buttons on the dashboard and then stretches before standing. The helicopter is rising. “Get out your fairy dust,” he grumbles.
“But your helicopter—”
“Will land itself once it reaches its destination.”
“Without a pilot?”
“It’s called autopilot.”
“But that can land it?”
“Yes,” he says patiently. “Are we going or not?”
“We’re going!”
And we use fairy dust to arrive at Magical Hunters Academy. The last time I was here, there was a battle brewing.
It’s no different this time around.