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“The standard cycle of a light howler is one year before they pass and begin again a month later,” Tala says. She grabs two green apples off a small tree, and the phoenix grabs one with her beak and chomps away. “From growing up in Cebu and spending some time in Cairo, I have protected Roxana from ever being killed by alchemists and hunters.” She scratches the phoenix’s neck but Roxana only cares about that apple. “I have vowed to put my life before all of hers.”
“Did your parents do the same for their phoenixes?”
“All Halo Knights do. This is our oath,” Tala says. “In return for our services we’ll be reincarnated as phoenixes.” She looks to the stars. “I’ll be reunited with my parents one day. If not in this life, then the next.”
I’d forgotten that this was built into their beliefs. Even as someone who is part specter and may have that ability, I still don’t believe this to be true. “If a pair of phoenixes landed beside us right now, how would you know if they were your parents or not?”
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“I’ll feel it in my heart,” Tala states simply. “The same way my ex-girlfriend Zahra knew the butterfly that landed on her shoulder during graduation was her grandmother reincarnated.”
I cross my arms. “Faith isn’t proof. I would love to believe any time that the wind blows is because my dead boyfriend is casting it in my direction, but I’m not going to pretend I’m not grieving.”
Tala stands and Roxana perks up too. The slightest hint of danger pricks me. “Death is part of the cycle and the only death to fear is one that breaks the cycle.”
“Then why are you hunting down your parents’ killers, if this is natural?”
“Murder isn’t natural.”
Tala turns her back on me and hops onto the ledge of the roof. For a second I think she’s going to jump. Roxana would have to be as fast as my research claims light howlers are to catch Tala because she would hit that ground in under a minute. I would know, having jumped off countless buildings. Tala teeters on her heels and toes, really trusting in herself to not fall over. I stand beside her.
“My parents were everything to me. My first loving hands, my compass. I am who I am because of them and I expected them to live longer to nurture the best parts of me and wring out the worst,” Tala says.
Even though she’s one harsh wind away from falling off the edge, Tala’s composure is the most relaxed I’ve seen her. Not saying much, since our meeting involved physical combat and a flying arrow and dagger, but I find my own fists unclenching around her. I won’t dismiss her as nothing but a weapon the same way the world does to me.
“My name means ‘bright star,’” Tala says as she stares into the night sky. “My parents tried and tried to have children but my mother continued miscarrying. They prayed to their phoenix companions, a crowned elder and a sun swallower, one last time to help usher a child into this life, and nine months later I was born. I was their bright star in a life they personally considered dark without me. Now their love is gone.”
“The love isn’t gone,” I say.
She jumps down from the ledge. “That’s why this all hurts so much! I’m carrying their teachings, I exist because their prayers were answered by their companions, but their remembrance ceremony brought me no comfort. I yelled at our new commander during the hour of silence so we would have a strategy in place to avenge them. That night every other Halo Knight stood tall in a field as all our fallen were set ablaze by their phoenixes until they were nothing but ashes. Meanwhile I was on the ground and crying in the shadows.”
This moment she had reminds me how furious I still am that the Blackout didn’t allow me the chance to have a public ceremony for my parents.
“I cremated Atlas with my phoenix fire,” I say. “I keep his ashes in a bottle he gave me.” I reach for her shoulder to comfort her, but pull back. “I understand how lost you feel without your parents. Don’t even get me started on losing a loved one. Pray to your holiest of phoenixes you never have to feel that burning fire of grief because it’s real and it’s unstoppable.” Somewhere out in this city are the people responsible. “I’ve been feeling touched by death after all of my losses this year. It’s time I start making others feel the same. If you came here to avenge your parents, let that be your compass.”
“I kept you alive so you could point me in the right direction. Introduce me to Emil Rey and then you’re free to go.”
“What if we partnered together? I don’t have the Spell Walkers, and you don’t have the Halo Knights, but we both want the Blood Casters dead.”
Tala considers me and holds out her hand as if she’s about to challenge me to an arm-wrestling match. “Do you vow to take lives for those that are lost?”
I take her hand in mine. “Absolutely.”
Tala squeezes three times and I do the same unsure if that’s important or not.
“May their deaths be forevermore,” Tala says as she releases me. “So where is Emil?”
“He might still be in a hospital with his brother, but it’s possible they’ve moved on by now.”
“You told me you knew. I should’ve gotten Wyatt to come with me, his companion Nox is a brilliant tracker and—”
“I have other ways to find out,” I say. “I just need my phone.”
We return downstairs and Tala retrieves my power-proof vest, car keys, and phone from a box in the closet. Maybe she thought this would’ve slowed me down from escaping if I woke up when she wasn’t around. She’s very wrong. I unlock my phone, and when I search Brighton’s profile on Instagram to send him a message, I see a new post. He’s alive and well—too well.
Brighton’s eyes are burning like an eclipse and he’s carrying sapphire fire sourced from the phoenix that Tala’s parents died defending.
Twenty-Eight
