Page 65 of Phoenix Chosen 3

This can’t be happening. It’snotsupposed to go down like this. I’m not going to lose him.

I press my lips to his, but he barely has the strength to return the kiss. Tears roll down my cheeks and drip onto his face, mixing with the flecks of ash stuck to his skin to form little streaks of white. I can feel it—he’s at the edge now, fighting to keep the darkness from pulling the very last drop of life force from his body.

Kalistratos closes his eyes.

This can’t be the end.

28

KALISTRATOS

Tyler is safe. This is all that matters.

What I see now is a dark tunnel closing around the light that is his face. I’m fighting with everything I have not to let the darkness consume me, but my phoenix has lost its flame.

My destiny was to meet him. I only wish my fate was to continue by his side and see this through. It hurts to think that he will be alone, picking up the pieces of a mission that shouldn’t rest on his shoulders.

He won’t be alone.

No… of course not. He’ll have that damn phony priest with him. They’ll find Alyx and the last omega. They’ll rescue Jackson.

And he’ll have our child.

I wish I could be there when they finally hatch. I wish I could see them grow.

“Kalistratos,” I hear Tyler cry.

Not yet.Just a little more time.

“I love you,” comes his voice, echoing throughout all time and being.

I want to see him. I try to open my eyes, but I don’t have the strength.

Fight.

I can’t give up. I was not made for surrender. I have to hold on just a little longer. I won’t give the shadow the satisfaction of taking me willingly. It’ll have to drag me into the underworld.

Tyler!

In the darkness of my mind, I can see him, so far away. I can feel the cold hands of oblivion on my back, grasping to pull me down.

Not yet.

He’s growing smaller.

Tyler!

My voice rings out into the ether.

And then…

Blackness.

Then, a light.

It’s like a guiding star twinkling in a tar-black sky. Warmth flickers from it like a fire burning in a mountain blizzard, and weak as it may be, it feels like an outstretched hand from the sun god himself.

The wound in my shoulder wants to take me, but its consuming cold is being pushed back. I struggle to reach the surface, to get to the light and the warmth it brings. It’s growing brighter. I feel it washing over me like waves on the shore, waves of heat and light penetrating the cursed wound and thawing the ice in my blood.

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