Page 89 of Fastlander Phoenix

“Wreck!” she screamed at the sky. “Wreck! Stop!”

The phoenix was clear as day against the dark backdrop of the night sky—a bird of fire with flame-engulfed wings beating against the sky, heading for the trailer park.

She didn’t know how far away it was. She didn’t know how far she had to climb, because the fire and smoke were everywhere. Her feet were burning and her skin was blistering, but she couldn’t stop!

“Wreck, no!” she shrieked in desperation, pushing her legs harder, faster.

Her muscles ached as she pushed them harder and harder. Her feet barely touched the ground as she ran up the thin trail that led through bushes on fire, and burning trees.

Through the plumes of smoke, she could see the phoenix spewing fire and lava. She felt utterly helpless.

“Wreck!” she screamed.

The burning trees ahead were clouded with a swarm of something she didn’t understand. Bats? Their screeching deafened her as they engulfed her, and a surge of sickening power blasted through her, wrenching a scream from her throat with the pain.

She was thrown to the ground. She landed on her hands and knees with a grunt, trying desperately to drag air into her lungs. The scent of smoke and magic choked her. Tears streaming from her burning eyes, she looked up to see something that would haunt her forever.

Horror consumed her as she slowly stood to her full height. The blue dragon’s head was three times her height, and the vacant, staring eyes of Damon Daye broke her heart in two.

“Stop him,” someone said from the edge of the flames surrounding them. Ace of the Fastlanders stood there, streaked with soot, eyes full of heartache. “Stop Wreck.”

A sob escaped her as she fell to her knees in front of the body of the blue dragon. His scales were scarred and damaged, and some of his spikes had been broken off. His body took up most of the clearing, and his wings were draped over the trees in the woods. A sob racked her body as she slowly scanned the clearing, taking in the devastation. There was no movement, no screaming. No sounds of war. No trailer homes left standing. There was just…fire.

Awhooshingsounded, and she covered her head as an enormous red dragon swooped down and scooped ash, then drove its wings against the air currents and aimed for the sky again, chewing on the ashes.

She’d been flattened by the wind the dragon had created.

“That dragon doesn’t know what to do with a creature like my boy. He has no mind right now. The dragons never knew what to do with us. We can drive them into a mindless frenzy.”

With a gasp, she turned, and she saw a man through the fire. He was older, with gray hair cut short, and a grizzled silver beard adorning his jaw. He was lean, and tall, and his eyes were gold with flames in them. He had eyes like Wreck.

He smiled. “Did you know a phoenix could do that? He can ruin everything and everyone around him.” He canted his head to the side. “That’s our power. The humans think the dragons are the be-all and end-all, but look at my boy in the sky. He’s the end of the world, not the dragons.” The man sounded almost…proud. “I’ve been watching you, girl. I was worried for a second that you would steal his destiny from him, but look what he’s done.” The man spread his arms and looked around the burning trailer park. “Even with you around, he’s done exactly what he was always supposed to do.”

“And what’s that?” she asked.

“Destroy. It’s in his blood.”

And it hit her. Wreck had told her he’d seen his dad. The one he’d killed. He’d been haunted by him.

“You’re not real,” she said, her voice hitching. “I can’t smell you.”

“I smell like smoke. I’m all you smell right now.”

“You’re wrong about him,” she whispered.

“He’s killed them all.” He lifted his chin higher into the air. “He’s killed Damon’s Mountains. The others who started this war and banded together to destroy Damon’s Mountains won’t go down in history for this destruction. My boy will. Look around, girl. There’s no one here but you and me, and I’ve been dead a long time. Even the bat-boy flew away like ashes in the wind. He knows you can’t stop the fire. Damon thought he could save my kid all this time, but Wreck never needed saving.” The ghost of his father lifted his chin higher into the air, and an evil smile curved his lips. “Damon did.”

Heart hurting, she closed her eyes against the pain in her chest. “He cares,” she gritted out.

“Part of the man cares. The animal does not.”

And as she looked up into the sky to see the phoenix heading back toward them, she had a moment where she questioned if his father was right.

She had a moment of weakness.

She let his father’s words touch her heart, and it felt dark and empty and hopeless.

His father had pointed out that there was no life here, and there wasn’t. Had anyone escaped? Besides Lucia, Hallie, Ruger, Ace, Riyah, and Sloane? And the red dragon up in the sky who was flying with no purpose, looking around at the devastation below him, at the mass of flames and lava that consumed every inch of this place. Had anyone else escaped? Tears streaming down her face, she looked at the vacant eyes of the blue dragon. She didn’t think so.

---