Page 304 of Knot What I Expected

Rowan Cross is not fragile. And he cannot be gone. I refuse to accept it.

I lower my head. Grief fills me.

Love.

Rage.

Hope.

All of it becomes one thing.

A tear forms. Crystalline. Burning with golden light. It falls from my glowing amber eye. Onto Rowan’s chest.

Another follows.

Then another.

The moment they strike the poisoned wound—hiss.

Steam rises. The black veins stop spreading.

My heart stutters.

Again.

I cry harder. Golden tears splash against his skin.

The poison burns away.

The gray flesh turns pink.

Then red.

Then healthy.

The hole begins closing.

Muscle knitting.

Flesh repairing.

Bone reforming beneath it.

“What is she?” Wreck asks.

His voice sounds stunned. For once in his life, I think the Bear is speechless.

Justin answers. One word. But the Dragon says it with such awe that even through everything happening, I hear him.

“Phoenix.”

Phoenix.

The word enters me.

And my other nature—no.

Not other.