Page 59 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

"It's who you are. And your powers protected us—and your sister. Now your father has that many fewer followers to do his bidding. I'd think it'd be a good thing."

It is, and it isn't.

All those years we were running from the Heretic, before he caught and killed us, I know my mother did unsavory things. More than once, I helped her dig a shallow grave, and watched from a distance as she pushed some wrapped-up bundle into it. I knew they were his followers—scouts who hunted us down, and couldn't be allowed to return to him with knowledge of our location. And I knew she killed them. I just never had to really see their faces and confront myself with their humanity.

It's different now that they're my kills. Especially this time around, when the act was deliberate, not done in panicked self-defense. I know intellectually that I had no alternative. But my heart still feels like a little piece of it has been sacrificed to this dark deed, and that piece will burn into ashes the moment the bodies are charred.

There isn't anything that'll bring them back from the dead, though. So the only thing I can do is pray, and try to forgive myself.

"Done."

Reggie drops his empty gas canister near the front of the church. He and David walk far from the perimeter of the building, wiping their hands off with rags we brought with us along with the rest of our supplies.

"Stay far back," I warn them. "My fire has a tendency to spread."

Then I step towards the building and stare deep into its dark depths. In a quiet voice, pitched too low to be heard, I close my eyes and say the words of the goddess. I imagine that wherever their souls are, at least they're free of my father's corruption. I hope they get to move to the Great Beyond and start anew with their loved ones.

When I'm done, I open my eyes and summon my fire.

Bright blue leaps from my fingertips and turns wrathful at the touch of gasoline. The wood siding catches like tinder, and my blue flames soon spread to the interior of the church. There's a brief, horrible moment where the smell of burning flesh wafts out. Then the heat kicks up so high that all I can smell is ash and flame.

"Come on," I tell the others. "Let's go bring my sister back into the real world.

* * *

For two days we track her through the woods. Following signs in the underbrush, using runes and spells, letting Xavier shift into a panther and shuffle on the ground for her scent. She eludes us time and time again—while I grow increasingly paranoid that we're going to come face-to-face with the Heretic before I'm ready.

"We can fight him," David tells me, as the sun rises on our third day of searching. "You have the rune from Dani that killed the other Husk. And your magic is so much more powerful since we got back from Hell. He doesn't stand a chance."

"Unless he has my sister with him," I point out. "If he does, all he has to do is use her as a shield or a bargaining chip. That's why we have to get her out first. Otherwise... otherwise I have no idea what we'll do. I can't lose her."

Reggie says confidently, "We'll find her. She's close, I can sense it. Today is the day."

Our conversation comes to a lull as we dress for the day. I find myself more than a little put-out by my own body odor after days in the heat, despite multiple bathings in fresh water ponds and streams nearby. Today better be the day—if I have to rough it like this for much longer I'm going to go on strike. At least when my mom, sister and I spent days in the woods, it was usually cool enough that we didn't work up an excessive sweat. Now, with the West Virginia heat beating down on my back, I wake up drenched and go to sleep hot and grumpy.

Xavier leads us through the woods, searching for a sign of the trail he lost last night as the sun set. His keen eyes pick out signs of human passage through the brush—broken twigs, misplaced leaves, little things I wouldn't be able to spot. Along with his incredible shifter nose, he makes a great tracker.

"Why can't you track like your brother?" I ask Reggie. "I've been wondering this whole time. You'd think the two of you would have the same shifter skillset."

"Our panthers are different," he points out. "Mine is all about strength and brutality. Xavier is more of a planner."

David snorts. "You can say that again. When this one is in panther form, all you have to do it pull his tail and run away, and he sees red. No thought in that empty fuzzy black head of his."

"Rude."

"True."

Just as the guys are about to go full-on rivalry on me, Xavier calls out from ahead of us. "I found it! Her scent. And a little piece of thread."

"My father?" I ask, heart beating fast.

"No sign of him here. Though I have the feeling he can't be far off—there's a reason why he called to her." He tilts his head to one side, as if listening to things none of us can hear. "There's a small gathering not far from here. I think it's possible your sister is headed that way. If she is, I'd put money that she's about to meet up with your father."

"So we have to get to her fast." Chewing my lower lip, I muse on her fast exit. "I wonder why she didn't just flit to wherever he was when she disappeared. That grey flame of hers... it was something else."

"Maybe she couldn't move that far in one go. Or, if her powers are new, maybe she can't control them yet. All I know is—we better hurry up and get a move on, before she's in his clutches for good and he never lets her out of his sight again."

Fair point. Hoping against hope that we'll get there fast enough, and that my father is nowhere nearby, I hitch my pack up on my shoulders and set my sore feet into overdrive. This isn't my first cross-country hike in dangerous conditions, but I've never pushed my body as far or as fast as I have the past few days with the guys. They set a punishing pace, eating and drinking on the move when necessary, only resting when it gets dark—and even then, their shifter eyes see well in the fading sunlight far after my phoenix eyes give in.

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