Page 54 of Phoenix Chosen 3

Airos points to the cluster of big rocks sitting above the tunnel entrance. “Don’t worry. He’s left all his things in the cave. I doubt he’s going anywhere.”

“I’ll get him,” I say. “Here, take Eggy.”

He takes Eggy from me and holds it out in front of him. “Eggy,” he says, then nods and ties the sling around his shoulder. “It’s cute.”

I clamber up the rocks and haul myself onto a flat boulder. I’m above the cave where a crown of boulders forms a waist-high wall, interspersed with a few gnarled and twisted pine trees with roots running into any crack and crevice in the rock they can find. Past them is a clear view of Aelonos, and beyond it, I can just make out the dark shape of dense swampland where I started this wild adventure.

“Yo, Jackson?” I call. “Where are you?”

He pokes his head out from behind a rock and holds his hand up. “Hey.”

I slide down the boulder and shimmy around the rock to the nook where Jackson is. “Hey, man,” I say. “We’ve made some changes to the plan. It sounds like the way we’re going is too dangerous for all of us to go on foot, so we’re going to try to find ourselves a flying ship. Thought you’d want to know.”

“A flying ship?” he says, then laughs and shakes his head. “Fuckin’ wild.”

“We’re all in this together, so I think we should all have a say on the plan.”

“I’m just along for the ride, dude.” Jackson sighs and holds out his hand. Clumps of gravel and dirt ripple across the ground at his feet and slowly rise to form one of those little dirt snowmen I’d seen at his campsite. “Until I can find a way to get back to Earth.”

“What if you can’t find a way back?”

“Aw, come on, Tyler. Don’t say that. There’s a way for us to get back.”

I’m hesitant to tell him exactly what happened on Earth with Kalistratos. It was Umbrios that sent us to Earth, but the one who brought us back here…

That was me.

Right?

I don’t even know.

Here I am, watching Jackson using his powers as easily as I can whistle, and I still have no idea how to harness mine. Or evenwhatmine are.

I’m not going to tell him the way to get back to Earth might be sitting right here in front of him.

“Sorry, Jackson,” I say. “There might not be. Even if there is, my place is here now.”

“Guess I can’t blame you. Dating pool sucks back home.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, no shit.”

Jackson makes another dirtman. “I’ve always thought I was meant to do something important, but this sure isn’t what I expected. Like, fuck, I’ll take the magic powers, but this pregnancy thing is bullshit.”

“We are doing something important. You get that, right? We’re here to save an entire world of people. This is built into our destiny.” I point at his pregnant belly. “That is an honor, alright?”

He gives me this look like I just asked him to join me in a crazy cult. “Yeah, so you’ve told me. I didn’t ask to be fucking pregnant. I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“And neither did I,” I say. “Neither did any of us. Hey. Listen to me, goddammit!”

I kick the dirtman, and it crumbles into bits. Jackson gets in my face.

“Yeah, I’m listening,” he says. “All I’m hearing is a bunch of BS. I’ve been through this kind of song and dance before. This isn’t my cause. I need a reason to fight, and I ain’t got one.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to meet Umbrios. You haven’t seen the things he can do.”

“That’s just it. All I’ve got to go off of is the crazy stories you’ve told me. It’s all Greek to me, man.”

The dark vision the Great Phoenix showed me is clear in my mind. I see Kalistratos and I being torn apart—and from the depths of my heart, I sense the course of the future if we aren’t able to succeed. A world cleared of every last good thing.

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