Page 60 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

Apparently Dani Carpenter can see well in the dark. Score one for the Black Phoenix team. I haven't stopped wondering about my own sister's unusual phoenix powers since the moment grey flames erupted from her fingertips. If she's anything like I was before I came to the academy, she'll be desperate to find out more about herself—and to grab the steering wheel of her own destiny and start piloting it in the right direction.

I just hope that, once the tether our father created is gone, she chooses me.

It's impossible to imagine living in a world where my little sister Lizzy is alive but chooses to be with him instead of me.

Turning my thoughts away from dark paths, I focus on the journey in front of me. One foot in front of the other. Picking the right place to step as the ground grows wild, bushes and vines tangling with my tennis shoes. I keep one eye on Xavier's back at all times, making sure I never drop too far away from him, aware that of all of us I'm the one who could slow down the search.

David seems to notice my struggle. "You don't have to push yourself, you know. We'll get there in time."

"You don't know that."

"I guess not. But I choose to have faith."

His words surprise me. "The David I first met would've never said anything like that to me."

"True enough." He shrugs his shoulders, a contemplative look on his face. "Things have changed, though. In part because of you." Warmth suffuses my heart, even as I swat mosquitos away from my arms, fed up from a dozen bites already despite the copious bug spray I've slathered myself in. He continues, "I think getting out of Hell taught me something: the impossible is possible, as long as we're together. We just have to take the next step forward, again and again, trusting that there's a way out at the end of the path."

"That's sweet."

Reggie calls out, "And more than a little delusional."

I laugh, despite myself. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I guess we'll all find out when we get—"

"We're close." Xavier's voice, raised to cut through ours, is serious and deep. "They'll be able to hear us soon. Or she will, at least. Time to be quiet rather than quick."

My pulse is like a galloping horse inside my body. I barely feel prepared for this, even though I've rehearsed it most of my waking moments and in my dreams.

I'm going to draw the runes in phoenix flames, because it'll be faster that way, and Lizzy's phoenix powers will protect her from being burned.

The guys, who are also protected from my flames by our bond, will drag her into the center of the runes.

When the tether is visible, I'll summon a sword of fire—and cut through it.

Then... then she'll be free. And my faith in our connection, in her love for me and the ever-constant heart beating in her chest, will be tested in that moment. Because either she'll turn to me—or against me.

I send up a little silent prayer to my mother, whether she's in the Spirit Realm or beyond by now, hoping that she can hear me now the veil is so thin and ever-present once more. Hoping she's watching over her girls and will help us come together, in whatever way is possible.

Xavier has come to a stop at a break in the trees. He motions for us to avoid something to our left, and I glance over in surprise at a set of abandoned railroad tracks. The thick steel rails have survived years of rust and degradation, though the wooden ties are mostly gone. I don't understand what they're doing in the midst of the wild woods until I come even with Xavier's position and see the abandoned train station up ahead.

It's hard to imagine commerce ever flowing in this direction, but maybe the train was a local endeavor, one that inevitably went to ruin at some point. The station appears to be burnt out and has mostly fallen to ruin, though much of the original supports and the concrete platform are intact. It's on this platform that Lizzy is pacing back and forth, her voice raised in some kind of speech I can't make out well from here, while over a dozen people stand on the tracks themselves and watch her.

I can't feel my father's heavy presence nearby, but I reach out and grab Xavier's hand for support anyway. Glancing into my worried face, he shakes his head sharply, and leans down to murmur in my ear.

"The Heretic isn't here." Relief fills me, until he adds, "Though he isn't far out. Maybe half an hour on foot. When the wind shifted, his scent disappeared, but I could just barely make him out before it did."

"We don't have much time then. We have to get her, sever the connection, and make a portal back before he shows up."

"We do."

"And these people." I observe them, keeping my voice pitched low like he is. "I don't think any of them are my father's followers. They don't have the look of it."

From behind me, David murmurs, "They're potential recruits. She's trying to bring them over." At my curious look, he explains, "I have better hearing than the others."

Reggie mutters resentfully, "Barely."

"She's telling them about their futures." We all watch as one of the potential recruits, a man in his late forties who looks like he's seen hard days and sad living, walks forward and closes his eyes reverentially as my sister lays a hand on his forehead. "I think she's using her powers to somehow convince them that... that your father is some kind of holy man with a close connection to God. That's why they're all here—that's what they're doing with her. She's his proof of the divine."

Revulsion rolls through my stomach, even though a part of me always thought this might be part of it. He wanted her to die so she would be reborn, and he got what he wanted: a powerful tool ripe for molding.

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