Page 48 of Phoenix Chosen 2

“Didn’t know you were so good,” he says in a muffled voice.

“For a short time, Alyx and I ran a ridiculous scheme. I would stand on the corner near the zone where the wealthy merchants and council leaders took their drink, oiled up and wearing nothing but a loincloth, and offer a massage for a few drachmae. While I had them face down, Alyx would sneak by and snag their coin purse.”

Tyler snorts. “Seems about right for you two. Why’d you stop?”

“When all your customers come back complaining about missing purses, they typically don’t believe it when you say a cat did it. Also, I was tired of being mistaken for a prostitute.”

“I mean, you were shirtless and oiled up.”

“It was Alyx’s idea.”

Tyler chortles. “Slave boy. Oh, slave boy! Rub a little lower, would you?”

“I prefer being the passenger prince,” I mutter as I draw my hands down his back.

I carefully slip from under the covers, pausing to make sure that Tyler is still asleep, and then silently make my way to the elevator. I stare through the darkness at the doors, my heart pounding steadily in my chest. They open, bathing the room with warm light. I look back—Tyler is still sleeping soundly with the covers pulled up tightly to his chin. I enter, the doors close, and the tiny room shudders. I close my eyes.

I need to speak with him.For Tyler’s sake.

The room jolts around me again. I look up as the doors open to the dim glow of the artifact room. There is no one to greet me, and for a moment I feel as though I should not be here. Hesitantly, I leave the elevator and cross the room to the huge temple doors. As I approach, they crack on their own, slowly swinging open with a groan. The quiet calm of the Great Phoenix’s chamber washes over me. The white curtains draped around the space are now all pulled aside and tied into place with indigo cords. I don’t get the sense that anyone else is here—not Feather or the others like him. I make my way forward, towards the stairs going up to the nest platform.

Gods,I think.I hope I’m not disturbing his sleep. Does a god even need to sleep?

“You’re not disturbing anything, Kalistratos.” His voice drifts down from the nest, and he appears at the lip of the stairs and quietly descends to me.

“I-I apologize,” I say, losing my words. “Lord Aethereos.”

He shakes his head slightly. “I was waiting for you.”

I gather myself as he approaches. I feel small and awestruck in his presence, like a child meeting a great hero.

“Lord Aethereos,” I say. “I need to help Tyler. There must be something I can do for him. That cave. I feel like I should know why it’s there, but I can’t summon anything to mind.”

“It’s there because he needed it to be there. I’m afraid that there is no answer I can give that will suddenly provide what he’s trying to find. In fact, it would only hurt him.”

“But why? If he knew what he was looking for and how to look for it…”

“Some things will lose all their power if they’re handed directly to you. They need to be discovered.”

“And if he can’t figure it out? Then…it’s really the end?”

“The end for a phoenix is just the beginning,” he says. “But don’t mistake me for being indifferent. There is simply a limit to what I can do. I’m powerful, but not omnipotent.”

“Right,” I mutter. “Otherwise, what need would you have for us?”

“Do you resent your part in this?” he asks.

I take a long breath and calm my frustration. “No. Of course not. I just don’t understand how I’m supposed to find these other omegas.”

“Your journey to find my temple brought you to Tyler, didn’t it? Trust yourself. There’s a reason you’re a Guardian. Remember, nothing is marked in stone.”

I’ve never been certain about fate and the idea that we aren’t responsible for the course of our destinies. I’ve spent my life battling against what has been laid out for me. I’ve always tried to find my own path forward.

Maybe I’m beginning to see the pieces now… There’s a balance to be found between what I write for myself and what the gods write for me. If I can read that balance and see the invisible current beneath everything, then I can know how and when it can be redirected.

Suddenly, I feel as though a great shroud has been lifted from a part of my mind. Things I thought I knew are now visible from a completely different vantage point. This mission to find the Great Phoenix’s temple had started from a vision—an intense feeling of warmth and love emanating out to me from some distant realm. I’d believed it was my parents, that they could be waiting for me somewhere, and finding out was what pushed me forward. That vision had placed me on the path to find Tyler.

But my parents are gone.

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