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“I’m not driving across that old-looking bridge,” Prudencia says as she parks the car off to the side.
We walk across with the river flowing beneath us. Roxana eyes us for a moment before swallowing another fish whole. All Halo Knights are vegans, but they don’t push that on the phoenixes in their care. While phoenixes are generous spirits to their companions, it’s the Halo Knight creed that they serve phoenixes, not the other way around.
“You made it,” Wyatt says. He checks his watch. “Good time too.”
“How’d you get here so fast?” Brighton asks Maribelle. He looks around. “Did you drive Atlas’s car?”
“I parked the car back at the loft last night after messaging you. I hitched a ride with Tala.”
“But she hit you!” Brighton says.
“Not as hard as she hit you,” Maribelle says.
Brighton’s black eye has darkened significantly in the past hour. Though nothing is more beat than his ego since he couldn’t overpower someone without any powers of her own. He looks as if he wants to challenge Tala to another round. She looks like she would welcome that.
Wyatt grabs the brass door knocker that’s shaped like an egg. “Before inviting you inside we must remind you that we are all guests on these sacred grounds.”
“Considerable exceptions are made for you specters.” Tala stares us down, lingering longer on Brighton. “Any harm that befalls the phoenixes will be paid for with your final breath.”
Wyatt scratches his head. “Uh, just be careful with the phoenixes, please.”
He pushes open the door and I don’t feel worthy of being within thes
e walls or under this majestic sky. A rainbow of phoenixes are flying across the courtyard. The closest I’ve come to a sight like this is back at the museum where we had the model phoenixes hanging from the Sunroom’s ceiling. A sky swimmer dives into a lake, splashing a woman who is chasing after a little sun swallower.
“Quite the sight, yeah?” Wyatt asks.
“Yeah. Legit music to my ears too.” I wish I could understand all these squawks and chirps and get in on all of the conversations. “I’d listen to this any day instead of people cursing each other out on street corners.”
“We may not be able to understand them, but I’m positive the phoenixes are swearing up storms at each other too.”
The unity between phoenixes and people seems utopian, especially given everything going down in the city. I’m not likely to find a sun swallower’s ankles chained or beak sealed shut here like back at the Apollo Arena where that poor phoenix was forced to battle that golden-strand hydra. Watching that sun swallower fly away is a good reminder that I haven’t completely done harm in my time as a Spell Walker. But the lives I’ve saved don’t outnumber the ones I’ve lost.
“So what’s the deal with this place?” I ask Wyatt to distract myself. “Does the New Ember Sanctuary have a specialty?”
“It’s in the name, no? The Haloes tend to phoenixes upon their resurrections. Each breed has their own need, especially according to their True Age of how many lifetimes they’ve lived.”
Another evergreen blazer, this one the size of a hen, flies directly onto the raptor glove of a man who is looking my way. No, he’s staring me down. I’m uncomfortable so I turn away only to find pretty much every other human outside my party watching us closely with rage in their eyes.
“These people hate us,” I say.
Wyatt lets out a low whistle. “They’re certainly not fans of specters with phoenix blood, but our commander Crest made a call and ordered for their cooperation as we explore our work. Granted access to the castle is one thing. Acceptance is another.”
“We should bounce then,” I say.
“Bounce?” Wyatt asks.
“Leave,” I clarify.
“Oh, no. These trainers are harmless. They’ve all seen the videos of your powers and will know better than to try and scrap with you, Infinity Son.”
If only the Halo Knights knew how much respect I have for phoenixes, if they knew my true story about how I became a specter, I doubt they would see me as a threatening weapon. “Feel free to tell them I’m harmless. Luna Marnette stabbed me with an infinity-ender blade and my powers haven’t been working right since then.”
“Good gods, she stabbed you?”
I’m surprised that surprises him. He might have scars on his neck, but I have them across my body during my short time in this war. “I was trying to protect Gravesend.”
Wyatt’s blue eyes follow Brighton as he tries petting the sky swimmer in the lake and gets splashed in return. “And Tala tells me Gravesend’s essence is now coursing through Brighton among that of a hydra and ghosts. Between that mouthful and Maribelle’s soap opera family drama it seems I’ve arrived at an exciting time to help.”
