Page 64 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

"Not as far as I know."

"Then he won't be able to do some of the things the Manslayer could, anyway. All you have to do to defeat him is put his soul back in his body, making him mortal again, and slit his throat." She demonstrates, the expression on her face one of relished violence. "Let me show you the rune again, just in case you forgot it. The thing means anchor or whatever. You have to burn it in fire."

The rune Dani has been teaching me was given to her by a dead spirit who, absurdly enough, was her half-brother through her nearly-immortal Grim father. She doesn't mention him much these days, but he's rotting in the Phoenix Academy prison island, aptly named Darkness Island. If for some reason putting the Heretic's soul back in his body goes sideways, he could wind up there as well.

Two shitty dads. Both dying in prison. Dani and I have more in common than you might think from the outside. Maybe that's part of what being a phoenix is, though—getting through an epic level of bullshit and trauma and surviving another day.

Dani at least has a sense of humor about everything she's been through. Her trip through Hell sounds like it was far worse than mine—there was no sex meadow in her part, it seems. But she's shaken it off as if it never happened, and dyed her hair a deep magenta color that makes it look like she just got back from Burning Man, not Hell itself.

We're standing outside in one of the open training fields, where practicing our flames won't endanger anyone—as long as we keep it to a minimum. Yohan wouldn't let Dani burn anything inside his training room like she wanted, since apparently last time she scorched the ceiling with the tips of her wings.

"So first you've got this big symbol in the middle that kind of looks like a crab with half its legs cut off. Then a few swirly bits—well, they're other symbols really. And it's enclosed in a diamond shape." I only half-watch her draw the symbol in the grass with her flames, my mind in other places, and Dani frowns at me. "You know, if you don't need this refresher, I don't have to bother."

"Sorry. My mind is just... on other things."

"Like killing your father?"

What a blunt way with words she has. "Basically, yes. Not that I think of him as my father. It's just... well, what happened to the Manslayer after you put his soul back in him?"

"Do you mean did he turn into a good person and cry about all the things he'd done? No." She snorts. "But he was soulless from a young age, apparently. I guess it would depend on how far gone your father is, and who he was before he was brought back from the dead."

"I don't even know for sure who brought him back," I confess to Dani. "Mom used to think it was witches from another coven, but if it was a Grim... I suppose maybe they believed he might be a rare phoenix type. That's where my sister and I must get that blood—my mom never mentioned any kind of a phoenix bloodline on her side."

"It's possible. Grims have done crazier things. My asshole of a half-sister was brought back to life by my father, and he used phoenix hearts to keep her going. I had to tear one from her chest to keep her from committing mass murder when she invaded the campus."

I raise my brows at her frank discussion of something so bloody and brutal. "Do you go to therapy for that?"

"Only if group sex counts as therapy." Dani flashes her teeth at me in a sardonic grin. "Yohan has tried to get me to do the feelings thing more than once, but it's not really my style. Whatever happened in the past, I let it go—I did what I had to do to survive, and I can't really dwell on it otherwise. Besides, what therapist would understand all I've been through? They've never stood in our shoes. Even the ones who know about magic would be shocked at how bloody and gross it all is."

"I just don't know if I can do it," I tell her. "Killing the monster is one thing. Killing my actual father... if putting his soul back in him makes him human again, it'll be murder, not self-defense. But somehow the thought of letting him live horrifies me too. After everything he did to me, all the torture and bloodshed, being hunted all my life, I don't think I can forgive him."

"I feel you." She reaches out and squeezes my upper arm, the rune demonstration smoldering and forgotten in the grass. "Sometimes I wish I'd killed my dad instead of bringing him in safely. Then I remember that his life sucks, and he's going to die anyway without access to phoenix hearts, but honestly that makes me sad too sometimes. Not for him—for me. I deserved someone better than him, and I'll never get that dad."

Her words, clumsy and blunt as they are, somehow soothe me. "I guess no matter which way it goes, at least there's one person around I can talk to who's been through something similar."

"You bet'cha." Dani grins at me. "Now, let's practice that rune. I'm going to make you draw it so many times that it's burned into your retinas. That's what Yohan or Fisk would do to me, after all, and I'm still standing, so there must be a method to their madness."

So begins an afternoon of endless drills at the hands of a girl who's so different than me, yet has so much in common, she almost feels like another sister.

This won't be easy.

But at least I won't be alone.

---