Page 11 of Phoenix Falling
“I remember.” Shame seeped into her expression. “When you were attacked.”
“When I was attacked.” I repeated the words, making sure she heard each syllable. “And now I have another one: you. Are you telling me my sister is only good for attracting vampires? Is that all you see me as, vampire bait?”
A wet sheen gathered in her eyes. “No.”
“That’s right. No.” Damn right. “So don’t let me hear you say that again.”
Raine nodded. In the quiet, the group of women began chatting once again. Wanting to take the sadness from my friend’s eyes, I said, “So…I had a date last night.”
Not truly a date, but Raine didn’t need to know that.
“A date?”
“Don’t say it like I said I kissed a crocodile. Jeez.” Was it that hard to believe I could actually interest a guy? Sure, she hadn’t known me back when I’d been with Arik, but still…
Her mouth actually quirked up on one side. “Did you?”
The reminder of just how non-reptilian Sun was made my voice a bit unstable. “Definitely not.”
Raine’s full attention was on me now, her eyes wide. “Wow, look at that. Must’ve been some date.”
“Look at what?”
“That look in your eyes. You’re practically salivating.”
“You would be too if you’d seen him.”
“Really.” Raine shifted, bringing her knee up onto the couch between us. Getting comfortable. The gray of her eyes lightened. “Tell me more.”
So I did. I told her about Sun—well, at least the part where he’d approached the real me. Raine knew me as Risk, and she knew I did some shady shit, but she didn’t ask and she didn’t judge. We did what we had to, to get by; that was her motto. But for now I could give her a little fantasy to do more than just “get by.” We could both pretend a normal world existed, where friends chatted and laughed over coffee, good guys picked women up in bars without sinister motives, and monsters were fiction your parents used to keep you walking the straight and narrow.
They didn’t come out of their stories and eat Red Riding Hood alive.
ChapterSix
SUN
The drizzle that had begun at dawn the day before and lasted throughout the night had turned into a low mist in the King’s Garden, shrouding every tree and flower in mystery. I walked along the grassy path toward my king, my destiny. The people had spoken. Now the time had come for Solomon to answer.
In the center of the garden stood a golden phoenix statue that sprayed graceful arcs of water into the air. The flowing lines and majesty of the animal took my breath each time I saw it; now I prayed for the strength it represented, the strength I knew lay within me, inside my own animal. He rose to just below my skin, staring out into the world from behind my eyes, taking in the beauty of the garden, the sight of the male seated on a favored bench to one side. Another phoenix, full of power. Or had been. Now…I no longer knew.
“Father.”
Solomon could easily pass for his late fifties despite being close to two thousand years old. As long as my life had been, I couldn’t fathom those kinds of years. Of carrying the burden of our people on his shoulders for fifteen centuries. Silver eyes flashed in my direction before returning to the fountain. I had not seen my father’s rainbow eyes since the night of the clan meeting. His phoenix was ever-present now, perhaps lending him strength just as mine was doing. But his phoenix couldn’t change the will of the people.
“The clan has voted,” I said. “We prepare for war.”
He did not move, did not respond.
“We need you, Father. You’ve been here before. You are our greatest asset in the upcoming fight.”
“You no longer need me.” His voice was rough, angry.
Despite my agreement, what I said was, “Yes, we do.” Better to be unified than to come to war fragmented.
Silver light blinked out as Solomon closed his eyes, then opened them again. His hair fell forward, hiding his expression from me. He sighed. “You brought this on our people. Remember that.” Standing, he refused to look in my direction. “Go now, and leave me to my peace.”
That desperate grasp on a so-called peace was what had brought us to this place, but I didn’t argue. Solomon would come around or he wouldn’t. That was up to him. I had more important things to focus on.
