Page 55 of Phoenix Chosen 3

“Take me seriously when I tell you that people’s lives are at stake,” I tell Jackson. “And take what you have here seriously. You’re lucky you can do what you can do. Everyone tells me I should be able to use powers, but I just can’t. You can use yours so easily.”

“Yeah? If I could give this to you, I gladly would.” Jackson stands up and brushes the dirt off his hands. “If you need my vote, then you have it. I’m just along for the ride until I’m off the hook and can get out of here.”

I watch as he climbs over the boulder and disappears to the hideaway. I’m pissed, but at the same time… I get it. I can’t blame Jackson for the way he feels. I was in denial, too.

He hasn’t gotten to experience what I’ve been through, what I’ve felt, and what I now know because of what Lord Aethereos showed me. He hasn’t nearly gotten killed by a goddamn shadow monster. And he hasn’t experienced giving birth.

I’d wanted a way out of this, too.

Funny how that works. Back in my old life, it’d been exactly the same. Be careful what you wish for, because you might get more than you fucking bargained for.

I drop into a crouch and examine the piles of dirt left by Jackson.

Mostly I’m just mad that I can’t figure my powers out. I’m jealous of his natural ability, plain and simple. It bugs me that he can’t appreciate it.

Open a cage.Let out my phoenix.

With a quiet sigh, I spread the piles out with my foot and head back to the hideout.

22

KALISTRATOS

“Airos,” I say. “Get over here.”

It’s morning, and I’ve been watching the activity on the road outside Aelonos from a lookout perch hidden amongst brown and gray boulders above the cave.

He climbs up the rocks and settles onto a knee beside me.

“Look.” I point down to the road, just beyond the bustling entrance gate. “Beside the statue of Hermios. The feline with the red short bow and quiver of arrows on their back.”

“Ah. Didn’t I rescue you from them in Athenos?” He’s never going to let me forget that.

“They’re here for us,” I say.

“The question is, are they alone? Did they not have a partner? A swordsman?”

I shake my head. “They did. But what I’m more worried about is whether Praxis is here.”

Tyler pokes his head out of the cave’s entrance below us. “Hey, what’re you guys doing up there?”

He and Jackson both climb up to join us.

“We have company,” I say.

“Where?”

“There. Where the road intersects with the passage into Aelonos. Do you see the Aylourosi archer with the red short bow?”

“…No,” Tyler says.

Jackson pushes in to take a look. “Let me see. Where? And remind me again, what in God’s name is an aloe-ropsy?”

“Aylourosi,” Tyler says. “They’re the feline, tiger, lion people.”

Jackson squints his eyes. “What? You’re talking about all the way out there? That’s gotta be over half a click away.”

“We have keen eyes,” Airos says.

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