by Tricia Barr
Sebastian emerged from the stall and gave her a questioning look.
“That was him,” she answered. “That was the guy who took Lily. And I was too busy thinking about getting revenge to realize I could have forced him to help us. I feel like an idiot.” She growled inwardly.
Sebastian came over and put his hand on her back. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. We all want revenge. It’s okay, we will just stick to the plan. Deviating from it might have messed things up for us anyway.”
“But what if the plan doesn’t work?” Phoenyx asked. “What if Skylar and Ayanna get caught? We still haven’t heard from them, I’m worried that…”
Her sentence was interrupted by a voice cutting into her mind. “We’re in.”
Skylar! They had succeeded.
“Before you head to the bottom level, change your disguise. These are some of the guards employed here.” Images flashed into her mind, a pair of faces pulled from a database on a computer screen. “You will have better chances of getting around down there.”
Sebastian nodded and, as Phoenyx watched her reflection, her appearance morphed from that of the plain brunette to a man with a buzz cut wearing a dark blue security uniform. She looked at Sebastian’s reflection and he was now a tall Romanian security guard with a goatee.
“Hmm, strange,” Sebastian said. “I’ve never been so attracted to a man before.”
Phoenyx choked on a surprised laugh and noticed that her voice was still her own.
“Just try not to talk,” Sebastian advised. “Since I can’t anticipate what you say, I won’t be able to change your voice.”
Phoenyx nodded and Sebastian said, “Let’s go.”
Phoenyx and Sebastian exited the bathroom and zipped through the hallways to the entrance to the bottom level. Phoenyx tried not to think about the way she was walking, although she suspected she might be overdoing her strides in her attempts to imitate a man’s walk. She just hoped that none of the people they passed noticed anything off about her.
They approached the door that led to the stairs. Sebastian pulled on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
“It’s locked,” Sebastian whispered.
“What do we do?” Phoenyx whispered back.
Sebastian looked behind them to make sure they were alone in the hall.
“I think I can pick the lock,” he said. “Where’s Skylar’s telekinesis when you need it?”
“In the security room watching over you like your guardian angel”, Skylar’s telepathic voice rang in their minds. “There’s a guard coming on the other side of the door. Take a few steps back and when he comes out, push past him like you belong there.”
They backed away from the door. As soon as it opened, they started toward it so that it wouldn’t seem that they had just been waiting there for it to open. The guard who emerged gave them a curt nod and held the door open for them as they went by.
When the door closed behind them, Sebastian whispered, “Saved by the blond.”
“I heard that,” Skylar’s telepathic voice said with faux irritation.
As they descended the stairs, their surroundings became less and less modern. The architecture resembled that of the dungeons in the lodge in Salt Lake City, with large stone block construction. The only modern touch were the long florescent lights snaking along the ceiling through the tunnels.
Phoenyx looked at her wrist for her scribbled directions, but her arm was now thicker, hairy and devoid of notes. She remembered that Sebastian had changed her appearance, and that her notes were no longer visible. She frowned, knowing that she was completely lost. But luckily Sebastian seemed to know exactly where they were going, so she followed his lead. At least one of them had a good memory.
They turned a corner and went down another short staircase that opened up to a tall atrium of sorts whose centerpiece was clearly the massive arched doors directly opposite. The stone arch was intricately carved, resembling old Celtic design, and there were foreign words carved over the doors. It was a beautiful yet intimidating sight to behold.
Phoenyx strode forward and inspected the doors, knowing they must have some kind of security. Sure enough, she found a fingerprint reader affixed into the masonry of the arch. Partly ancient stone, partly contemporary technology-controlled. She looked at her harry-knuckled hands. Even if Sebastian’s illusion was exact enough to give accurate fingerprints, there was no way to be certain that the guard she was imitating had access to this room.
“Skylar, we have a problem,” she said out loud to the air.
“I know, we’re working on it,” came his response in her head. “Ayanna is trying to override the system.”
It seemed they waited for a half hour before Skylar’s voice saying, “Got it,” preceded a ding and a click from the lock and the doors swung slowly open. Phoenyx exhaled audibly, glad that no other guards had walked by to see them loitering outside this clearly important area.
The room beyond was a striking technological contrast to the ancient atrium in which they were standing. Bright white light spilled out the doors, bouncing up off the white tiled floor.
Phoenyx and Sebastian stepped into what appeared to be a miniature museum, its walls lined with glass display cases on pedestals. In the corners of the cases stood tubes of bluish light facing the objects they displayed. And the room buzzed with an electric hum, ensuring them that each of these objects had a ridiculous amount of the security protecting them.
Phoenyx slowly trailed along one side of the room, surveying each encased item with reverence, wondering what their importance was. The first was a very large gold necklace, perfectly fitted squares of gold forming a crescent shape, a gaudy gem on each square. The next was strange little carved figure, resembling an ushabti of ancient Egypt but with facial features suggesting another region’s origins.
“What do you think all these things are?” Phoenyx asked Sebastian, who was studying the cases behind her.
“I don’t know,” he said, “but I doubt they are just sentimental artifacts. The Four Corners wouldn’t go through such measures to protect them unless they had some kind of secret significance.”
After passing about fifteen displays, Phoenyx stopped in front of a case in which a knife about the length of her forearm stood on a wire mount. The metal was so dark it was almost black, but shining like steal. Half of it was blade and half was hilt. The handle was beautifully twisted and braided in true Celtic style, and just before the blade the metal braid strands opened up in a spherical cavity.
Phoenyx took the stone fragments out of her pocket and, puzzling them together into one, held it up next to the dagger. The stone was the perfect size to fit into the cavity.
“I found it!” she said.
Sebastian rushed over to her and put his hands on the case as if he wanted to just reach through the glass and grab it.
“Now, how do we get it out without setting off an alarm?” he asked.
He closely examined the glass case and the pedestal on which it stood, perhaps looking for some kind of trigger.
“Any ideas, Skylar?” Sebastian asked.
“Ayanna’s been working on it since we got here and found it on one of the screens,” Skylar replied. “Every one of these cases is heavily guarded. If the case is lifted, or the glass breaks, or the pedestal registers any force against it, an alarm will sound throughout the entire building.”
“Great,” Sebastian said sarcastically.
“There is a pin pad in the pedestal right below the case.”
Phoenyx bent down to look closely under the case and was able to make out the seams of a square in the pedestal’s façade. She pushed it curiously and the top of it went inward just slightly before clicking and lowering to reveal a pin pad with ten numbered buttons like the dial pad of a house phone.
“Each pedestal has its own unique pin. Ayanna’s been trying to crack its code for the last hour, but she believes she’s getting close.”
Phoenyx frowned anxio
usly, feeling the clock ticking as if its second hand was tapping on her heart. They couldn’t just stand around and wait for Ayanna to figure this out.
Then she had an idea.
“Skylar, you said that the alarm will go off if the glass breaks,” she began. “What if the glass is melted?”
A moment of silence.
“That could work,” came his silent voice at last. “The system is only wired to detect force strong enough to break the glass, but if you could use your power to melt the glass without applying too much pressure, I believe the disturbance will go unnoticed.”
She looked at Sebastian.
“It’s worth a shot,” he said with shrug.
She very gently lay her right palm flat against the glass and willed it to heat up. The glass quickly began to glow bright orange around her hand and pulled outward in a circle, an awkward mouth opening in the face of the case that allowed just enough room for an arm to slip through.
Phoenyx reached inside and touched the dagger with the tip of her finger, testing the alarm system. Then she wrapped her fingers gingerly around it and withdrew it. She held her breath, waiting for a siren to ring through the tunnels, but nothing happened.
She sighed with relief and looked at the ancient dagger that she held softly in her hands as if she feared even breathing on it would make it crumble to dust. After all these long millennia, they had tracked down all three fragments of the stone, and they now had the dagger. They would be invincible, free at last!
She tenderly put the stone into its proper place inside the dagger’s handle. It fit perfectly, the metal hugging the stone possessively. Sebastian closed in and put his hands on hers as she held the dagger, and put his forehead against hers, both of them soaking in this moment of triumph.
“Which one of us should use the dagger?” he asked. “I don’t know if I have the strength to stab you in the heart. I’m too afraid it won’t work.”
“You mean to tell me that we spent the last several thousand years hunting for an object that you don’t even believe will work?” she asked teasingly, trying to alleviate the seriousness of the situation.
He laughed shortly, then held her gaze lovingly. “I wasn’t afraid before. I had no doubt until right now, when there is the possibility that I might lose you again.”
“It will work, Sebastian,” she reassured him. She pressed her lips on his for a long, savoring kiss. “After this, you will never lose me again.”
“What are you two doing in here?” barked a manly voice from the entrance of the treasury.
Phoenyx and Sebastian turned to see a security guard in the doorway. But not just any security guard. It was the same guard that Sebastian was impersonating. The guard realized this the same time that they did.
“What the…” the guard mouthed, squinting in confusion.
The interruption made Sebastian loose his concentration and the illusion faded, revealing himself and Phoenyx for who they truly were.
“What are you people?” the guard gasped. Then he pulled a gun out of the holster on his hip and aimed it at Sebastian.
“No!” Phoenyx yelled.
Sebastian put his hands up in a gesture of surrender just as the blast echoed through the chamber.
Phoenyx’s eyes were wide with horror as she looked from the smoking tip of the pistol to Sebastian’s chest. There was a small hole in his shirt, and the material quickly became saturated with a dark liquid. He fell to his knees, then all the way to the marble floor.
Phoenyx let out a scream of rage and flung her arms in the guard’s direction, a ball of fire erupting from her hands and exploding against his torso, knocking him to the ground, unconscious.
Then, heart pounding, she did the only thing she could think to do. Without a second’s hesitation, she gripped the dagger in both hands and plunged it into her heart with all her strength.
The dagger pierced her heart and lungs, taking her breath away. She collapsed on the floor, her head smacking against the marble tile. Gasping and choking on her own blood, she struggled to pull the dagger out of her chest. It mercifully slid out and then fell from her shaking, blood-covered fingers.
Phoenyx could hear Skylar’s terrified voice in her head, but she couldn’t make out the words. Everything was a blur. The only thing that mattered to her was getting to Sebastian.
She rolled onto her belly and, with every ounce of will she could muster, she pulled herself to him, her body limply dragging behind her and covering the white marble with red. She reached Sebastian, who too was barely conscious.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the only words that escaped were “…love you…”
He struggled to respond, but all that came out was “…too…”
She felt her head land on his cool, comforting chest. His coolness reached her deep inside, removing all pain and fear. And then the world went black.
****
Phoenyx shot upward with a loud, desperate gasp, like breathing after being underwater for a long time.
Her hands shot to her chest, feeling around frantically for the bleeding wound. Her already blood-drenched hands found only more blood, but no open gash. In fact, the pain had completely gone and the skin beneath her sliced shirt was once again smooth. Relief flooded through her. The dagger worked! On me at least. But did it work on the others?
She looked at Sebastian, who appeared dead beside her. His body was still, no visible lift and fall of his chest to suggest he was breathing. She placed her hand on his chest to feel for his heartbeat, but nothing pulsed beneath her touch. Panic squeezed her own heart.
She cupped his face in her hands, not caring that she was smearing blood on his cheeks. “Sebastian, my love!” Maybe the dagger had only made her immortal. Maybe the spell that bound their life spans had been severed by the dagger’s blade. I can’t endure eternity without you.
She ran her fingers gently along the area og his chest where the gunshot was. The flesh was still open and bleeding slowly. He didn’t heal like I did.
“The bullet is still lodged in his chest,” Skylar’s voice cut through the silence.
“Skylar!” Phoenyx gasped. “Did it work? Did you feel…anything?”
“I felt my heart stop for a few seconds after you stabbed yourself, but I’m fine now. You have to get the bullet out of his chest. He won’t fully heal until it’s removed.”
Phoenyx nodded and pulled Sebastian’s shirt up so she could clearly see his injured chest, swallowing a lump in her throat that developed at the sight of the fatal wound that almost took her love away from her. She looked around her for anything she could use to help her, something long and thin she could dig into his flesh with. She came up short. She had nothing in her pockets or on her person, except for her phone but that wouldn’t help. All she had at her disposal was the dagger, and that would not help get the bullet out of Sebastian’s chest.
She looked behind her at the guard who was sprawled on the floor outside the treasury. Springing to her feet, she sprinted to him and patted him down from head to toe, looking for anything useful. He was still breathing, and though he had almost killed her beloved, she was glad he wasn’t dead; the fireball had merely knocked him unconscious. She had made a vow not to kill anyone else, and she intended to keep it. His belt buckle glinted at her, and she tossed around images in her head of ways it might be useful, discarding them as she came up with none. She saw he had a badge pinned to his singed shirt. With sudden inspiration, she took his badge off and turned it over to look at the back. The flat, shiny piece of metal was affixed to a safety pin. If I can dislocate it from the badge, I can use it as tweezers.
Precisely aiming her heat at the site where the pieces came together, she softened the metal until it gave and she pulled the pin away from the badge. She tossed the badge and ran back to Sebastian, kneeling beside him.
With the pin between her index finger and thumb, Phoenyx pinched it together a few times, testing it. Sorry, Sebastian, she thought before proceedin
g. Then she furrowed her brows, held her breath, and dug it into the small hole in Sebastian’s chest. His chest lifted in a sharp breath, and a series of quick breaths followed. She sighed in relief that the pain she was causing him had roused him. She stuck the pin in deeper until she hit something hard. Picturing the bullet in her mind, she opened the pin, pushed it in a bit more, then pinched it again. When it would not close, she knew she had the bullet. She pulled it upward gently to prevent it from slipping out of the makeshift tweezers’ grasp.
Finally, she had the bullet successfully out of his body and above his torso. She could almost hear Skylar’s sigh of relief in her head. She blew out her own breath as her shaking fingers dropped the bullet with a clink on the floor.
“How long do we have to wait until he heals?” she asked nervously.
“Hard to say,” Skylar replied. “You were out for nearly five minutes.”
Phoenyx growled in irritation. She may have succeeded in making the four of them immortal, but the mission wasn’t over yet. They still had to find Lily and get out of here safely.
“Did you guys locate Lily yet?” she asked. “Is she in the dungeon down here?”
“We did find her, but she’s not in the dungeon. She’s in the medical wing on the third floor.”
Panic struck Phoenyx. “What!?”
“It’s alright. They are keeping her unconscious with an IV. My guess is that they didn’t want her powers to rebel like they had at the ritual, so they are keeping her calmly sedated.”
Phoenyx frowned. Perhaps it was a good thing that Lily wasn’t conscious for any of this. She would have been scared out of her mind if she had been. This way, there was a chance she was spending her time in a cozy dream, far away from this nightmare. Phoenyx took comfort in that.
A loud gasp from Sebastian snapped Phoenyx back to attention. He lifted himself up to sit and coughed up what blood was left in his throat. She threw her arms around him and squeezed, electrifying joy seizing her entire body and she closed her throat to contain the thrilled squeal.