Page 139 of Phoenix Rise

But she’d left so much unsaid. How much time did we have until the horn turned to dust? We had to find him before that happened, or there would be no saving him.

The odds were not with us.

Fate has brought us here,Matt stated.And I believe she never does anything without a reason.

I just hoped her reason wasn’t to tear my heart to pieces.

* * *

With Trix’s bright bandana tied tight around my eyes, I stumbled into Matt.

Matt, what on earth are you up to?

We aren’t on earth.

Well, my question stands, Toothless.

I wish you’d go with another nickname.

Would you rather be called Smaug? Or how about Elliot? And there’s always Puff—

Okay, Toothless will do.

He’d stolen the bandana when we’d left my dog with Mari before he led me out into the night. All fairly typical, perhaps, except for the bandana stealing. But then, once in the forest, he’d wound it around my eyes and towed my now extra-stumbly self through the trees.

I tripped again and snarled rather crankily at him.Why can’t I look where we are going?

It adds to the romance.

It adds something all right.I stubbed my toe firmly into a root.My toes are never going to forgive you.

Yeah, they will.

He sounded pretty damned sure of himself, which only added to my curiosity. We seemed to walk forever, and the path just got rougher, until he finally scooped me up and carried me. Leaves brushed over my skin.

“Just hold on,” he said aloud. “I’ll tell you when to take off the blindfold.”

With his strong arms wrapped around me, I was content to wait. But then he set me back down on my feet. I swayed for a moment, disoriented. And then, he said, “Now.”

Oddly, his voice had come from a spot much lower than normal, and when I ripped off the blindfold, I saw him down on one knee before me.

We were in the old gazebo.

“Matt—”

“This is for you.” He had something in his hand.

It was a box.

Every fiber of me froze. “What is this?” I whispered.

“You won’t know unless you open it,” he pointed out, but he was whispering too.

The box was much larger than a ring box and oddly shaped, rectangular rather than square. And as I opened it, I realized why.

Laid out on satin within it was a bracelet. It was intricately woven from different weights of silver wire, and animal forms had been spun out of the shining metal. It held a glimmering crystal in the very center.

Attached to the center point of the bracelet was a silver chain that linked it to a wide ring in the shape of a Dire’s head with green gems for the eyes. Another chain ran to a ring that featured wings surrounding a pure silver crystal.

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