Page 45 of Phoenix Chosen 3

“I was either going insane or abducted to an alien planet. I wasn’t about to find out whether the locals wanted to eat my big-bellied ass for dinner, so I did exactly what I was trained to do behind enemy lines—lay low and stay alive. But I got caught, fair and square. So, haul me in.”

“Good,” Gral grunts. “Hand me the rope.”

“I’m afraid not,” Airos says in a firm, unyielding voice.

“I don’t understand.Whyare you defending this thief?”

I know there’s no possible answer we can give that will satisfy Gral. It’s too dangerous to tell him the truth, and he wouldn’t believe it anyway. So what the hell are we supposed to do?

“We—”

A pulse of phoenix energy surges like a bass kick, and in the corner of my eye, Kalistratos disappears. Gral’s eyes flick wide open as a hollow gasp escapes his fanged mouth, and he teeters forward like a goddamn felled oak tree and collapses flat onto the ground. Kalistratos is standing behind him, a haze of dirt still shimmering through the air as it settles around his feet. His sword is drawn.

“Jesus!” I yell. “You didn’t have to kill him!”

“He’s just taking a little nap,” Kalistratos says, sheathing the weapon. “I hit him with the flat of the blade.”

Jackson’s jaw is on the floor. “Goddamn! You just fucking teleported, bro!”

“Actually, he stopped time,” I tell him.

“This place just keeps getting crazier. Next, you’re gonna tell me you guys can fly.”

Airos sighs. “This complicates things. You. May I ask, what was your plan by volunteering yourself to be taken prisoner?”

Jackson shrugs. “Well, I was pretty sure you guys weren’t gonna let that happen. I just didn’t think you would take Tigger here out so soon.”

Airos says nothing, but I can tell what he’s thinking: Is this guyreallyone of the other Chosen omegas?

“It’s time for us to leave,” Kalistratos says.

“We can’t just leave Gral here like this,” I say.

“Nor can we proceed as planned into Aelonos,” Airos says. “We’ve now become fugitive accomplices. I don’t doubt that Gral will come searching for us, once he comes to.”

Kalistratos is already binding the tiger’s wrists. “Then we’ll need to give ourselves some time. We send him back to the village. Unfortunately, that means we only take what we can carry. So much for our reward.”

Kalistratos fireman carries Gral over his shoulders back to the wagon while the rest of us lug the stolen goods from Jackson’s campsite. After taking what supplies we can carry in our pouches, we reload the wagon and tie Gral to the driver’s bench.

“Such a shame,” Airos laments as he fills his wine gourd to the brim from one of the amphorae we can no longer take. “So close to having unlimited free wine.”

“Hey,” Kalistratos says, clapping Airos on the shoulder. “Who knows? Perhaps at the end of all this, you’ll have your very own winery in Phoenikos country. You’ll be a hero and you’ll never have to spend a day sober again in your life.”

Then he smacks the donkey’s rear and sends it clip-clopping and hee-hawing down the road with the wagon, back to Metsova.

“Hero? End of all of what?” Jackson asks, shouldering his camo backpack over his cloak. “What are you talking about?”

Airos takes a swig of wine and corks the gourd. “Save the questions. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”

“All I have are questions,” Jackson mutters.

19

TYLER

We slowly trudge in single file through the forest toward Kalistratos and Alyx’s old hideout on the outskirts of Aelonos.

Honestly, I’m glad we can’t go back into that town. It reminds me of when I first arrived here and nearly got myself trafficked by the Erpetosi frogs. Aelonos is a trading hub, and I can still picture the slave wagon clattering past us on its main street.

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