Page 52 of Phoenix Chosen 2

“Tyler, Kalistratos.” Aethereos’s voice surrounds us. “Come to the garden.”

We find him sitting on the floor in the center of the pathway going through the indoor garden, his eyes closed like he’s meditating. He looks up at us and smiles weakly, then slowly rises to his feet, refusing our attempt to assist him.

“You made it,” he says. “I knew you would.”

“But, Aethereos, I don’t have powers,” I reply with desperation in my voice. “I wasn’t able to figure it out. We’re trapped here. I can’t get us back.”

“No, Tyler,” Kalistratos says. “There’s always a way. We still have time. We’re not dead yet.”

“Your Guardian is right, Tyler,” Aethereos says.

A deep boom sounds from back where we came—the shadows beating at the door.

“I can’t do this,” I say. “Dammit, I don’t knowwhatto do.”

“Youcan.” Kalistratos grabs my hands and squeezes them tight. The pain is somehow comforting. It means we’re together. I squeeze him back.

The boom shudders through the room again, rattling the windows. Aethereos points upward.

“There’s a ladder which extends to a platform to the roof,” he says. “Take it.”

“And then what?” I ask.

He gives me a silent look.And then it all falls on me.

Another boom, louder this time. The doors are weakening.

“Remember,” he tells us both, “nothing is written in stone.”

It’s hard to tell whether he’s warning us or reassuring us.

I hear the doors splinter apart. A deep rumble shakes the ground and quickly builds into a violent tremor, and I see the black wave break around the Great Phoenix’s elevated nest and come crashing through the chamber, swallowing everything in its dark void. Aethereos advances toward the oncoming monster, and a sphere of light snaps out as fast and brilliantly as a camera flash. The monster collides with the barrier and is pushed back as the light expands like a glowing forcefield. For a split second, I’m ready to celebrate. It feels like we’re saved, like Aethereos can turn back the shadows and win.

He turns and looks at me and Kalistratos. His face is calm, with only the smallest hint of a smile. He’s telling us to go.

Kalistratos grabs my hand, and we turn and run through the garden. I see the ladder ahead, close to the steel framework of the greenhouse dome. Kalistratos urges me up first. Through the rain-pelted glass is a gray horizon and the faded lights of the city far below. All I can do is climb, even though we’re going to a dead end. There will be nowhere else we can run to.

Through the ladder rungs, I see the light fading. Aethereos glares defiantly into the darkness as if looking directly at his brother and telling him this is not the end. And then the forcefield breaks. The shadow crashes down around him, swallowing him up in an instant. The building shakes, and the clean steel and gleaming windows around me rust and deteriorate. The plants in the garden wither and brown before the monster tramples across them, and Kalistratos and I snap out of our dismay and scurry up the rest of the ladder to a high catwalk at the top of the structure.

We rush along the wobbly steel grating to a latched window, and I push it open. A gust of wind blows stinging raindropsagainst my face. Below us, the monster begins to slide upward along the glass like a slug climbing a wall. We climb outside to a service walkway with a dizzying view of the street fifty stories down. I grip the railing and hurry to another ladder that climbs up to a helicopter landing platform on the very top of the building. We run across the platform to the ledge.

“Nowhere else to go,” I shout over the rain. “Now would be a great time to get your phoenix back.”

Kalistratos takes me by the shoulders. “I can’t get us out of this. Tyler, you have to try again.”

I close my eyes and clasp the pendant in my hand, searching for some feeling or sign. I’m looking for a phoenix inside of me, caged and waiting for me to free it, but there’s nothing. I’m not a phoenix.

“I don’t know,” I say, giving him a pleading look. “I’m sorry, Kalistratos. I just don’t know what I’m looking for.”

He wraps his arms around me and hugs me against his chest. The figurine pushes painfully into my chest, but it doesn’t stop me from holding him even tighter.

“I’m sorry,” I cry.

Kalistratos kisses the side of my temple and strokes my hair with his palm. His hand is trembling, but he holds me with such reassuring strength.

“Listen to me,” he says. “No matter what happens, I will always find you.”

I can feel the shadow monster coming. There’s a change in the air, like every last bit of warmth is being sucked away. I wantto look over my shoulder to see it, but Kalistratos stops me and holds my eyes with his.

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