Page 65 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

Chapter 17

It's assimple as tracking him down, carving a rune into his back, and ending him for good. Simple. Easy. Straightforward. Except for every way in which it isn't.

Standing in front of the Great House, I watch Lizzy close her eyes and focus herself inward. I bounce on the balls of my feet the whole time, exploding with nervous energy. It's hard to reconcile how much things have changed in both our lives.

I wish Mom were here.

Maybe I can visit with her spirit through the veil of the Spirit Realm. It should be easier now that I've destroyed the Hellgate—what I've chosen to think of the door between realms as. All that focused magic and power will have spread out, so that there's just a tiny essence of a passageway between our realm and the next.

One that isn't big enough to let anything through. But it should let me communicate with the other side. That's assuming, of course, that she stayed in the Spirit Realm instead of immediately moving to the Great Beyond. For all I know she's been lost to me forever.

"I can see him," Lizzy says, her eyes moving rapidly behind her eyelids. "Only a little though... just a vague outline of where he is. There's a sign. Maybe if I look closer, I can see what it says..."

Grey flames dance along the tips of her hair, and alarm makes me warn her, "Don't go too deep."

"I won't, Ari." A little smile curves her lips. "You don't have to be so protective."

"As far as I'm concerned, you've come back from the dead. The last thing I want is for you to return to it."

"Newark! He's in New Jersey. Or at least within fifty miles." Her eyes spring open, swirling of color in the irises coming to a stop as she refocuses on the world around her. "I saw a sign for the airport near where he was. There was a roadside church too... he's probably recruiting more people."

"Thank you." I squeeze her hands, heart in my throat—from nerves or from sadness, I can't tell. "I'll be back soon. And I'll come to visit you in San Francisco. We're going to get the lives we want, Lizzy—we'll finally be able to stop running."

She drops my hands and throws herself at me in a hug so tight it makes tears spring to my eyes. In my ear, she whispers, "Just don't lose yourself in the process of freeing us from him."

In his death, she means.

Because killing him could change me.

I don't want it to.

I want to be the same Ari who loves my guys and my sister.

I hope I can pull that off.

* * *

It's hard to get a location rune to zero in on my father. Something about his soullessness makes him difficult to track. In a way, it makes a crude kind of sense: our spirits are our connection to the Spirit Realm and the magic that leaks out into the mortal world. Without them, he's like a black hole, empty of anything for spells to track.

So I have to rely on my sister Lizzy's foresight, and hope that when we get to New Jersey he'll be there, or almost there—she wasn't sure exactly when she was seeing him. Standing by the academy gates, I nervously check and double-check my pack, while the guys do the same—but with less nerves.

"It's going to be okay, you know," Reggie says, lowering his voice for my ears alone. He reaches out and places the flat of his palm on my back, rubbing in soothing circles. "We can pull this off."

"But what if we can't?"

"Then we keep trying. It took more than one try to get Lizzy. I'm sure you can do this too. I believe in you, even if you don't believe in yourself."

My eyes flutter closed, and dark memories play across the backs of my eyelids. "I shot him over and over again. He just... kept coming."

"Which is why we have the rune. And a plan to make him hold still as you burn it into his back. You're stronger this time, Ari. And you're not alone."

Takin gin a trembling breath, I nod sharply. "You're right. It's just nerves. Right before battle and all that." I smile at him grimly. "Here I didn't realize Headmaster Towers was preparing us for war this whole time."

David quips, "The combat lessons didn't tip you off?"

I laugh. "I guess I should've realized sooner."

"This'll be our last mission like this," Xavier says confidently, as he pulls his triple-checked back over his shoulders. "Once this is done, we'll have finally vanquished all of the most dangerous foes who hunt phoenix. There'll be peace."

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