Page 63 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

"Your sister," Towers says to me, "has seven lives, a healthy number. But what's more interesting to me is that she is in fact, as we suspected, a very rare Grey Phoenix. Specifically, she has the ability to see into both the future and the past—an ability linked to touch and physical presence, which means no doubt that she saw much about me when she shook hands, and even more about the academy the instant she stepped onto campus."

My sister smiles slightly, while I reel at the news that she's even more powerful than I first understood.

"Guilty as charged," she murmurs. "This place really does have quite a history. And more than a little bloodshed inside it's gates. Though my powers aren't as clear as you might expect—most of what I see about the future or the past is muddled. It's instinctual feelings and certain strong emotional residues that I pick up more than anything. Violent deaths make the biggest impression."

Suddenly I'm wondering if my sister knows when I'm going to die. As if reading my mind, she adds slyly, "Though I don't know any one person's entire future. That is harder. Most are able to change their fate if they try hard enough, especially those with power, like you Headmaster.

"All I really get a sense of is whether they're on a downward or upward track—though I can usually tell them how a certain fateful decision on their mind will go, and advise them whether or not to propose to that sweetie they're obsessing over, or buy that lottery ticket. Much more than that is harder. Especially when it comes to predicting the end of someone's life. If it isn't happening tomorrow, and if fate isn't almost certainly certain of it, I rarely see such things."

"Fascinating."

Towers seems far more interested in hearing more than I am; just the thought of such powers makes me shiver. I can't imagine living life while knowing what will happen all around me, without any sense of mystery or choice. I hope that my sister doesn't feel the burden of that kind of power, and if she does, that it doesn't weigh her down unduly. She's far too young to have so much put on her.

I listen idly as the headmaster gives Lizzy a brief rundown on this place, a story I already know. It's strange to imagine a world where the academy didn't exist—a world where phoenix like me and my sister were hunted down and slaughtered by Grims looking to use our hearts as fuel for their magic. I hope that in this new world without a gate funneling the powers of Hell, with magic rising all over, there will be more phoenix as well as more witches. More shifters woken by their blood. And maybe a kind of peace will be possible.

Towards the end of her speech about the history of Phoenix Academy, Towers adds, "Given the fact that you're still underage, you won't study here until you've finished up high school. For our phoenix who are reborn young, we have a number of satellite locations. There's a space perfect for you at our private school in San Francisco—where you'll be able to study with other students your age and learn how to control your emotions so you're better prepared to come here when you graduate."

"And combat training?" My sister, as always, wants to know how to better beat people up.

"Combat training begins when you're eighteen. Until then, we try to focus on teaching the basics—history, philosophy, math, and science." Headmaster Towers smiles gamely at Lizzy. "I understand that you haven't previously attended school full-time. It'll probably be a big adjustment for you, but you won't believe the friends you'll make once you're among your own kind."

Leaning towards her, I tell Lizzy, "You won't have to keep any secrets anymore. Or hide from the Heretic—who I'll be hunting down to take care of once and for all. Once you're enrolled in private school, you'll be surrounded by people who know what magic is and believe in it. And they'll protect you from any outside threats."

She sighs a little. "And I get combat training when I'm eighteen. I guess it's the best I can hope for."

I have to laugh at the look on her face. "You have the ability to see the future and make fire with your hands. I think you'll survive waiting a few years to learn hand-to-hand combat. Trust me when I tell you it's brutal stuff."

"And the Heretic... you're really going to face him?" She looks scared, and not for herself. "Ari, he'll kill you."

"Not with the help I've got on my side he won't. I know how to take him out, Lizzy. It's going to be easy, trust me. There and back like it's nothing at all."

Of course, we both know I'm bluffing more than a little for her sake.

Nothing is ever easy when it comes to our father.

"If you're sure..."

Headmaster Towers chimes in with a, "One of our other promising students has defeated a similar soulless man recently. And he was far older and more powerful than your father. We believe with her help, and the help of the rune magic she's learned, Ari will be similarly positioned in this battle—and we intend to give her the full resources and backing of the school on her mission."

"You don't have to worry about him anymore," I promise Lizzy. "I've faced far worse than him already. And like Towers says, I have help now. He won't escape paying for what he's done. I'm going to put his soul back in his body so he can be killed."

"What if you don't kill him?" She bites her lower lip. "What if... what if giving him a soul again makes him human? Turns him back into the man Mom said he used to be?"

My heart hurts. "If that happens—and I don't think it will—I promise to bring him in alive, so we can figure out what to do next."

I hope that it doesn't happen, though.

I don't know if I can bear to look into the eyes of my mother's killer knowing I saved him but couldn't save her.

* * *

Dani has a lot to say about the Manslayer. "He was epically powerful. A necromancer as well as a soulless dude, with a Hannibal-Lecter-like desire to kill people. He'd even turned his detached spirit into some kind of poltergeist that obeyed his every command—hopefully you won't have that issue."

"I'm pretty good with ghosts," I reassure her. "They don't really bother me."

Other than the one that turned out to be a trickster demon leading me into the Spirit Realm to open a door to Hell and let chaos loose on the mortal world.

"Well, that's good. And your dad isn't a Grim, right?"

---