Page 10 of Phoenix Chosen 2

The weight of time is bearing down on me like a mountain. A drip of sweat sweeps down the side of my face. “You had better figure it out, or we’ll both find ourselves in a lot of trouble. I can’t keep this hold forever.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice. Fuck it.” He goes over to it and starts jabbing the gemstones with his finger.

The door unlocks, but the room fills with a ghastly wail that pierces my ears. Nelly yanks the door open and we hurry through.

“What is that sound?” I shout.

“I think I might’ve just unlockedallthe damn doors!” he shouts back. “This way, follow me!”

We weave around two guards walking in the hallway, and Nelly takes a moment to slap a cup out of one of their hands. The dark, steaming liquid fans out slowly through the air like tail plumage.

“That’ll really ruin his day,” he chuckles.

Nelly leads me left and right down different passageways and through another set of doors. Thank the gods he knows where to go—it’s immediately clear that I would’ve found myself stranded had I attempted this escape alone.

“You must be well acquainted with this place to navigate this maze so easily!” I say.

“I ain’t some kind of career criminal if that’s what you’re trying to say, fella.” He points up at a white tablet engraved in a glowing language I cannot read. “I’m just following the exit signs.”

He kicks open another door, and we emerge into a large room exposed to sunlight. We’ve made it. The street lies just ahead, and I see Tyler is right there, sitting on a bench. I sprint forward at full speed and suddenly collide with an invisible force that explodes with the sound of breaking pottery. As I stumble forward and fall onto the grass, I realize there was a barrier there made of some astonishingly transparent material. A web of fine fractures has spread across its surface, making it visible, and the pieces from where I’d charged through spin and sparkle in the sunlight. Nelly opens a door made of the same magic barrier and hurries over to help me. I struggle to get to my feet. My energy is running thin.

“Up, up, Kalistratos,” he says.

“My mate…is right there…” I say. My eyes are fixed on Tyler as my vision begins to waver and grow dim. My grasp is slipping.

“No, no, no, fella. You let the clock run now and while we’re standing right here in front of the station and we’re fucking done for. Just hold on a little longer and all three of us will be out of here.”

“Then we fly,” I tell him.

I focus my powers into my phoenix form and call it forward. Feathers erupt across my skin and envelope the orange fabric of the prison tunic as my body transforms. But something is wrong. I see Nelly growing taller, and his mouth drops open in stunned shock.

I’m shrinking.

I flap my stunted wings and fall sideways onto the ground in a flurry of feathers. What kind of horrific creature have I transformed into? What has this world done to my powers?!

“Oh, great,” Nelly says. “I didn’t see this part in my dreams. What am I supposed to do, eat you for dinner? New plan. We’re stealing akah.”

He reaches down to pick me up, and I don’t have the strength to protest. We’re moving away from where Tyler is sitting, and soon we reach a field filled with gleaming chariots. Nelly runs around, testing each one for something I do not know. Finally, he finds one which opens up to reveal its strange interior. He tosses me inside. It’s surprisingly soft, like I’ve fallen onto the rump of a fattened cow. Nelly sits on the other side of this strangekahand breaks a shard of something away from beneath the wheel that juts out from its front, revealing a coiled mess of tendons hanging from metal bones.

“Hang in there, my feathered friend,” he mutters as he rips one of the veins free. “Just a few more seconds and we’re out of here.”

Sparks fly from the veins and the beastlykahshudders to life with a tremendous roar. I’m thrown against the rump-like chair as we hurtle forward, and the last thread of time slips out of my grasp.

6

TYLER

Ileap off the bench as shattered glass bursts across the lawn from the window. The alarm bell is so loud I have to cover my ears. Cops inside the lobby look around in confusion. Someone picks up a phone and shouts into it. The nearby entrance door hangs open as if it was blown out by a gust of wind.

Kalistratos’s powers. It’s the first thing that pops into my head. But where is he?

A car honks its horn twice behind me. I spin around to an old Dodge pulled up to the curb. There’s a disheveled man with a ZZ Top beard wearing a jail uniform behind the wheel. He leans up to the open window.

“Your Uber has arrived,” he says. “I’ve got your friend here.”

I pull open the door and see a red chicken sitting on the passenger seat. It looks up at me with bright copper eyes.

“What the hell?” I say.

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