Phoenix Born

by Sean Stone

  ‘Can you even kill a Phoenix-Born during regeneration?’ I asked nobody in particular. Then I remembered something Marie had told me when she’d healed me. All creatures were at their most vulnerable when they were children. I’d thought the advice was useless at the time because Kagen was already an adult. But this was Kagen’s child form. He became a child every time he returned from the dead. That meant he was more vulnerable right now. Obviously his body had greater defences as it was growing, like an egg protects a developing bird. But even the toughest eggs can be broken and what was a fire creature’s greatest weakness?

  Ice. But only ice from the river would work. I’d already seen how powerful the river was against this creature.

  I ran up the hill towards little Kagen, throwing out my hand and summoning the river to me. It wasn’t as impressive as when Leah had brought up pretty much a wall of water but I wasn’t the lady of the river and I didn’t need that much water for what I had planned. A thin funnel of water flew out at me and as it contacted my hand I said, ‘Himas.’ The stream of water froze and turned into a frozen spear. I wrapped my fist around it and continued to charge at little Kagen. As I neared him he formed a pair of little orange eyes that were alive with fear and I almost stopped. Almost.

  But I’m a legendary assassin. I’m the Wraith. I couldn’t be stopped by frightened faces. Not even those of evil little phoenix children.

  I plunged the spear directly into his heart. Or where I thought his heart would be. The spear sliced straight through whatever the creature was currently made of. Skin. Ash. Mush. I really didn’t know. HIs eyes widened and tracks of fiery tears drizzled down his face. The shriek was so high and ear splitting that I actually staggered backwards letting go of the spear and clamping both hands over my ears. The wound that my spear was sticking out of iced over. The red veins of the little monster pulsed and then began to turn blue, the colour change spreading across its whole body. He let out a small mew sound like a wounded kitten before his entire body turned to ice and he moved no more. He was a beautifully hideous ice sculpture standing atop a hill on a warm summer’s evening. A frozen child.

  ‘Nicely done,’ said Drew.

  But I knew I wasn’t done yet. I took hold of the spear once again and with a hefty tug I pulled it free. As soon as the blade came away Kagen’s iced-over form cracked and shattered. Fragments of ice tumbled down to the ground cascading across the grass. The ice thawed and melted into the earth within seconds leaving nothing behind. Not a single ash to prove that Kagen had once been there.

  ‘I think he might be dead now,’ I said and then finally allowed myself to sit down. It was finally time for a well earned rest.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Of course, as I lowered myself to the grass I saw that my work was not yet completed. Ethan had seen what had become of his partner in crime and was now running for the trees. I let him get far enough away to convince him that he was going to get clear of me before I threw out a spell and brought him crashing down to the ground.

  ‘Really, Ethan?’ I called to him as I approached. ‘I know where you live, did you seriously think you were going to get away with this?’

  He scurried to his feet and stood glaring at me, his hands balled into fists at his sides. Those fists wouldn’t be any bother for me now though. I had enough magic left in me to deal with Ethan Spriggs.

  ‘You don’t deserve to get away with what you did! You fucked my fiancée!’ He screamed at me. There was no grace in him now. No dignity. He was just a man who’d lost it. And I wasn’t all that angry anymore. I pitied him.

  ‘For the last time, I didn’t know you existed. I thought she was single. As soon as I found out I broke off contact with her,’ I told him. Again I wondered if she might not have died had I replied to her messages.

  ‘Yeah right. As if you didn’t want her for yourself. Is that why you killed her? Because she chose me?’ His eyes pooled with tears. He really didn’t kill her. I believed that now. ‘I loved her.’

  ‘I didn’t kill her,’ I said softly. ‘And now I can see that you didn’t either. But you are responsible for many other deaths. Everything that Kagen has done in this city was because of you and your stupid little schemes against me. All the deaths, all the destruction because I slept with your fiancee. Did you seriously think this was a proportionate response?’ Leah and Drew came to stand at my sides. Just in case Ethan thought he still had a chance they confirmed that he did not.

  His brow furrowed and he looked around shiftily as he realised for the first time how badly he’d overreacted. I’d slept with his fiancee and he’d tried to engineer my death. Overreaction of the year. Hell, it was the overreaction of the decade.

  ‘Tell me who helped you. Who told you who I really am? Who helped you get Kagen’s ashes?’ I asked. I needed that information. Somebody far more dangerous than Ethan was behind all this and I needed to know who and why.

  He shook his head. ‘He never gave me his name.’

  ‘Tell me or die,’ I warned him, raising my hand threateningly.

  To my surprise he actually snorted at me. ‘You can’t kill me. It’s against your rules. I’m not supernatural and I haven’t directly done anything wrong.’

  I stood glaring at him. He was right. I’d been willing to break my no killing Nocults rule when I’d thought he’d killed Ruby. But now I knew he was innocent of that he was off limits again.

  ‘That may well be so,’ said a growling voice from the trees. Ethan spun around to see who the newcomer was.

  Monroe strode out of the woods with authority. He had half a dozen Gray Orchids with him as back up. He’d obviously been expecting more of a fight. Sadly, he’d arrived a little too late. I wondered if his lateness was by design. Dorian probably told him to let me deal with my own mess. ‘But you’ve made an enemy of more than just Jacob Graves.’

  ‘Who the hell are you?’ Ethan asked, taking a shaky step back. Even though he didn’t know who Monroe was he had the wit to know he needed to be afraid.

  ‘I work for Dorian Gray. Do you know who that is?’ Ethan nodded once. Everybody in Sangford knew who Dorian Gray was. ‘Do you know his most important rule?’

  Ethan took a moment to answer. ‘No.’

  ‘Nobody does anything in Sangford without his authorisation. You conspired to murder Jacob Graves. Tell me, did you ask Dorian if that was allowed?’

  ‘I… well… I didn’t…’

  ‘Jacob’s rules may prohibit from killing you, but Dorian’s rules dictate that you be killed. Or…’ he added before Ethan could start begging for his life, which judging from the trembling in his knees was exactly what he was about to do. ‘Perhaps Dorian is feeling merciful this evening. You’ll find out soon enough. Get your excuses ready, Spriggs. You’ve got an appointment with the boss.’

  Two of the Orchids stepped forwards and grabbed Ethan by the arms. Ethan was smart enough not to try and fight them. There was no way he was going to overpower two guys and there were still plenty more to spare.

  Monroe stalked over to me, his face expressionless. ‘Is the Phoenix-Born dead?’ he asked.

  ‘Deader than a vampire,’ I said, a feeble attempt at humour that fell flat on Monroe.

  ‘Good. I’ll let Dorian know,’ he said and then turned away.

  ‘What’s going to happen to him? He doesn’t deserve to die,’ I said before Monroe could leave.

  ‘He knows your secret,’ Drew growled in my ear.

  ‘Your uncle makes an excellent point,’ Monroe agreed. Good point or not, he was a victim as much as Ruby. His entire life had been turned upside down. He’d lashed out in all the wrong ways but it could be forgiven under the circumstances. Well, maybe not forgiven, but forgotten at least. Maybe if I’d just let him beat me up the first night then he wouldn’t have resorted to trying to have me killed.

  ‘I think he’s learned his lesson,’ I said. He’d been through enough pain. He’d lost everything. He’d be living with this pain for the res
t of his life. Of that I was sure.

  ‘I’ll pass your concerns on to Dorian,’ Monroe said and once again tried to leave. Once again I stopped him.

  ‘There’s something else you should tell him,’ I said, squirming awkwardly about what I was going to tell him.

  His expression hardened. ‘What?’ he demanded.

  ‘I may have made a bit of a deal with a fae,’ I said like it was a trivial matter. Monroe did not think it was trivial at all as was demonstrated by the hardening of his jaw. His eyes penetrated my own as he tried to figure out if I was being serious. He decided I was judging by what he said next.

  ‘You can tell him yourself. You’re coming too.’

  We all followed Monroe back to the collection of cars that he and his minions had arrived in. All but Leah.

  ‘I think this is where my part in all this ends,’ she said at the edge of the trees. ‘There’s nothing I can contribute at Dorian’s and I’m not his biggest fan.’

  ‘Oh... Okay then,’ I said trying to hide my disappointment. I would’ve felt more confident knowing Leah had my back. Then again it probably wasn’t such a good idea to parade somebody as beautiful as she was in front of Dorian. He had a one track mind when it came to women. He was worse than I was.

  ‘I’ve got to fix the damage Kagen’s fire made to the land too. Those scorch marks need erasing.’ She gave me a warm smile before bidding me farewell. I again buried my desire to hug her before saying goodbye and then we parted ways.

  A couple of minutes later I was sitting next to Monroe in his vintage Bentley. Drew was in the back alone.

  ‘He had someone helping him the whole time, but he doesn’t know who it was,’ I told Monroe of Ethan. He didn’t seem surprised. ‘He told him all about me and he’s the one who stole Kagen’s ashes from me and the Hall.’

  ‘Nobody stole the ashes from the Hall. I interrogated Artemis Saxon vigorously before I killed him,’ Monroe confessed. I realised that meant Monroe had been the one to savagely stab Artemis fifty-two times. My stomach turned over as I realised I could be sitting next to the person who murdered the mayor’s innocent wife and daughter.

  ‘Did you kill the mayor’s family too?’ I asked him. If he said yes then I would seriously contemplate jumping out of the moving car. It was that or risk something stupid like attacking him. I couldn’t condone the murder of an innocent little girl.

  ‘No. But that’s not important. What is important is that Artemis told me he handed the ashes over.’

  ‘How did you know about the ashes at all?’ I hadn’t told Monroe or Dorian about it and I couldn’t see why Drew would have told them.

  ‘I didn’t. I asked Artemis to tell me everything that had transpired between himself and his mysterious backer. The backer asked him for the ashes. He acquiesced. Therefore, the person who was helping Ethan was…’

  ‘Magraval,’ I said for him. It didn’t take a genius to put the final pieces of the puzzle together. And this was one clusterfuck of a puzzle.

  ‘Which means Dorian and you have a common problem. One more thing to discuss at the mansion.’

  The rest of the journey was silent. Ethan and Kagen had been bad enough but now Magraval was after me too. I didn’t even know the guy. Why the hell was he gunning for me? And why was he doing it in the shadows? And how did he know that I was the Wraith? I needed answers badly and I really hoped that Dorian would be able to give them to me. If he didn’t kill me for making a deal with the Fae.

  Chapter Thirty

  Dorian’s driveway was not clear tonight. Several cars littered the place. We obviously weren’t the only people he was seeing tonight. Monroe had his own designated parking space but the others had to squeeze in among the other visitors to Gray Manor.

  ‘Dorian has all his top people in to discuss the Magraval situation,’ Monroe explained as we got out of the car. ‘Now that the mayor and the Hall have allied with Magraval, Dorian is taking him more seriously.

  I noticed that the fountain had been repaired. The missing chunk of concrete had been replaced. The job had been done so well that it didn’t look like the water feature had ever been damaged in the first place.

  Monroe took us inside and led us to Dorian’s library after he’d supplied me with some clothing to wear. I could hardly go before Dorian Gray in a burned pair of boxer shorts. The library was a largish circular room with books stuffed from floor to ceiling. Everything was pristine and untouched. I doubted Dorian ever took the time to read the books he owned. They were purely decorative. Not that I was much of a reader myself. There was an antique table with a reading light and a bottle of whiskey in the centre of the room. Dorian was leaning against the table waiting for us. His face was set in a displeased expression. He didn’t look surprised to see me so I assumed Monroe had texted him to let him know I was coming along too.

  Ethan was dragged in not long after us and the two Orchids holding him remained either side of him just in case he was stupid enough to try anything. There was none of the cockiness, none of the arrogance, not even a slither of anger remained. Now Ethan was simply scared. He was defeated. Being brought before Dorian Gray was frightening enough for a magical person, it was downright terrifying for a Nocult.

  ‘You’ve taken care of the phoenix business?’ Dorian asked me, his voice like silk. A small, polite smile touched his lips. He already knew everything, I had no doubt.

  ‘Kagen is dead,’ I confirmed. ‘He won’t cause any more problems.’

  ‘Once again my city is safe.’ He nodded his head in gratitude.

  ‘Well…’

  His eyebrows flicked up. ‘No?’

  ‘It is. But… I may have accidentally wandered into Fae territory,’ I said awkwardly. Dorian’s face was impossible to read, he kept all his emotions hidden beneath that polite little smile. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

  ‘May have?’ he questioned.

  ‘Definitely,’ I corrected. ‘And, they would only let me leave if I agreed to let one of them visit our territory some time.’

  Dorian folded his arms across his chest as he continued to stare at me in silence as if he hoped I was going to offer up some better information. I should have told him about Kagen after the Fae thing. Always save the good news until last.

  Dorian’s eyes wandered over my body in scrutiny, his lips pursed. ‘Strange. I don’t see a Gray Orchid on you. Monroe, does Jacob wear a Gray Orchid anywhere?’

  ‘Not to my knowledge,’ Monroe said tiredly as if he’d already seen this show a hundred times. He was standing at the edge of the room leaning against a bookcase with his arms crossed over his chest.

  ‘And yet, he has made a deal in my name. How presumptuous.’

  ‘I would’ve died if I hadn’t agreed. I didn’t have a choice,’ I said.

  ‘Well, you did have a choice. You could have died,’ said Dorian with completely sincerity. I had no response to that. Apparently he didn’t want one as he turned to Monroe. ‘I want people watching that woodland every hour of every day. If anything comes out I want it followed. We can’t intercept it but we can keep an eye on it.’ Monroe nodded and then left the room to carry out his master’s wishes.

  ‘Well, Jacob, it looks like you owe me a debt. Unless you’d like to lay down your life right now?’ Dorian said. I felt Drew tense at my side but he was wise enough not to intervene.

  ‘I guess I do owe you a debt,’ I reluctantly agreed. ‘But then you do owe me for the tip I gave you about Artemis and Harper.

  Dorian surveyed me silently once again and then the smallest smile tugged at his lips. It was a smile of respect. ‘So I do. Consider us even.’ I nodded my agreement and he turned away from me. I was forgotten for the moment. It was Ethan’s turn now.

  Ethan tried to shrink away but it was hard when there were two blokes next to him stopping him from moving. ‘You’ve been a naughty little boy, haven’t you?’ the immortal said playfully.

  Ethan’s nose wrinkled in disgust and annoyance. ‘I�
�m no little boy, mate.’

  ‘And I’m not your mate,’ Dorian replied, a touch of coldness creeping into his voice. ‘You have wreaked havoc on my city and you did so without my consent.’

  ‘He was fucking my fiancee,’ Ethan said. It was his only defence and he was flogging it relentlessly.

  ‘That hardly warrants such a reaction,’ Dorian said dismissively. I couldn’t disagree with him.

  ‘I thought he killed her too.’

  ‘And he thought the same of you. Rather than concocting a diabolical scheme he took the more reasonable path and tried to find evidence.’

  ‘I just want to know who killed her,’ Ethan said in exasperation. He was as tired of this shitty situation as I was. The difference was I hadn’t concocted the most diabolical scheme of the year to exact revenge on the wrong person.

  Dorian turned away and walked over to the table where he had a bottle of whiskey. He began pouring himself a drink. ‘Sometimes we don’t get the answers to life’s mysteries. I suspect this is one of those times.’

  And then the shadow in my mind cleared and I saw the entire thing for what it was. The missing clues revealed themselves. They were never hidden, I just hadn’t realised what they meant. The riddle was solved. ‘No, it isn’t one of those time,’ I said.

  Ethan shot a curious look my way. Dorian glanced over his shoulder. ‘No?’ he said.

  Your fountain had a chunk of concrete missing last time I came here. The police told me they found concrete fragments in her hair. They told me she was killed by drowning. You banged her head on your fountain right before you drowned her. And then you took her all the way across town and put her body back in her own bed for her fiancé to find.’ That was cruelty on a whole new level. He could have dumped the body anywhere but he chose to leave it in the place that would probably hurt Ethan the most. Their own bed.