Page 60 of Phoenix Burn

The faces were more familiar to me this time. As I stared at them, I felt the faintest echo of what they’d been to me. Not much, but more than I’d had in the past.

Was my memory coming back?

Did I want it to?

Most importantly, was the Gryphon and its Watcher rider something added by my overactive imagination, or had it been real?

The sensation of being chased was real—I was certain of it. I’d felt it many times during that nightmare. But why would a Watcher be chasing my family?

I squinted at the photos in the dim light. And then looked harder. Shifted to the next picture, and looked again.

They were typical family photos, their silly faces grinning into the camera. But as I contemplated them, I realized two things.

First, they were all Polaroid images, instantly produced by the camera. Not digital printouts.

Second, and most notably, it wasn’t the people that were important. Or rather, not important in my quest for my life history. Because they were dead. And their faces couldn’t give me the answers I sought.

But—the background of each photo was another matter.

I peered at them, and my heart didn’t slow one bit. Instead, it accelerated.

Two shots were taken the same day. The backdrop was a forest, with a picnic table in the foreground, and in both was a small animal that we’d obviously been feeding.

In the past, I’d assumed it was a rabbit. It was about that size, with longish ears and mottled brown fur. Slightly out of focus, with the people crystal clear.

But now that I looked closer, it had a tail. Not fluffy like a rabbit’s. Long, and scaled like a lizard’s. And when I turned to the second picture, it was in motion. Again, blurred. But I counted six legs.

I examined the trees and realized I couldn’t identify them. Their leaves were an odd shade of red, as though they’d turned for fall.

Two slightly blurred images. But I kept paging through all twenty-three. In the past, I’d never paid any attention to the backgrounds. I found one image of just my mother and brother, looking out at a sunset over water. Just over the horizon loomed the moons.

Moons.Plural. What I’d always assumed was a reflection was a second orbiting body.

I thought my heart would leap clear out of my chest.

My family had been realm travelers.

* * *

I told Matt and Mari about the photos over breakfast.

They both listened with their eyes wide, before Mari offered, “Well, it makes sense, considering your powers.”

Nothing about my powers made sense, but I supposed she had a point. I wasn’t fully human. That my parents hadn’t been either shouldn’t have come as such a shock. I guessed I’d envisioned an elven lord arriving in the human realm and sweeping my mother off her feet.

“If both of your parents were hybrid humans, it might explain why your powers have the Watchers stumped,” Mari continued.

I exchanged a look with Matt before replying. “Cara indicated that she’d seen my type of power before, but she’s being pretty cagey with any details.”

The ogress’s square jaw stopped chewing. “She has? What does she have in a cage?”

Matt choked on his mouthful and I laughed. “It means that she hasn’t told me much.”

Mari frowned at Matt, and then me. “Oh,” she said, and speared a dumpling.

Matt’s eyes danced, and then slid to the front of the room. “Speak of the bloody devil,” he said.

Cara entered with Sebastian and Bess. All three stared straight at me, and then away again.

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