Phoenix’s Refrain by Ella Summers

9

Reunion

All of my sisters were so excited to see Zane again that they all tried to hug him at the same time.

“Come on in,” Calli said from the kitchen doorway. She was wearing her favorite cooking apron, one with a bright flower-and-bee motif. “I’ve made all of your favorite dishes. Dinner will be served shortly.”

“So I didn’t miss dinner?” I said as Nero and I sat down in the living room next to Harker. “Awesome. I’m famished.”

Zane’s eyes twinkled. “Didn’t you just eat?”

“No, that was ages ago,” I told him.

He snorted. “Yeah, about ten minutes ago.”

The dinner bell rang. I glanced across the room to find Tessa standing there, the bell in her hand.

“Dinner is served,” she said.

“That was quick.” I stood up eagerly. “You could even say the timing of our arrival here was divine.”

Tessa rolled her eyes at my lame joke, then we all followed her into the dining room.

“I’ve been thinking about the past a lot lately,” I said after we’d all sat down to dinner. “Those memories that led me back to the Lost City mean something. It all means something. We need to decipher the past in order to understand the present—and maybe have a chance to predict the future.” I glanced at Nero, who was seated beside me.

He was very quiet.

“What is it?” Calli asked. “You know what’s going to happen?”

“Something of it,” I said. “Maybe.”

“I have had visions of Leda,” Nero told my family. “And of our daughter.”

“You can tell the future?” Tessa’s eyes went wide. She looked impressed—and a little scared.

“No.” Nero shook his head. “I cannot.”

“Grace sent him the visions,” I said. “The night before Nero and I met.”

“Be careful, Leda.”

I knew Calli wasn’t just warning me about the hot basket of rolls she’d just passed to me.

“I know,” I said. “Grace is a demon and demons cannot be trusted. Nor can the gods, for that matter.”

“Grace sent me those visions so that I would take notice of Leda when she stepped into my territory two years ago,” Nero said.

“She wanted to bring us together,” I added.

“Yes,” Nero agreed. “But that doesn’t mean the visions are false.”

I sighed. We’d been over this again and again, so many times before. We’d gone in circles, trying to figure out the truth, but we just couldn’t. Since facing Faith, since gaining new magic, I had tried to see into the future myself, but to no avail. I didn’t seem to have the power to look into the future like my mother did. Maybe my daughter possessed that power, between Grace’s rituals on me and her ensuring my unborn daughter absorbed Faith’s powers. Though we wouldn’t know that for sure until she was born.

“I’m definitely being cautious where Grace is concerned,” I told Calli.

“What do the visions of your daughter show?” Calli asked.

Nero’s eyes were as hard as granite. “The universe at war over her.”

“I don’t need any powers of future sight to know that’s going to happen,” I said. “Our daughter has the powers of the gods, demons, and the original Immortals. And she might have the power to tap into the collective memories of the whole universe, the knowledge and secrets of all the great and powerful civilizations like the Immortals. That is, if Grace’s plan worked.”

“There are many things the gods and demons—or the Guardians, for that matter—do not know of the Immortals’ magic and research,” Nero said. “Things like how to make immortal artifacts and how to create all combinations of supernaturals.”

“With that knowledge, someone could also give themselves new powers, even passive magic,” I said. “So whether or not Grace is trying to manipulate us, it’s no secret that our daughter is in danger from those who would seek to exploit her.”

Calli nodded. “You have a point.”

“See, that’s why I need to figure out what happened.” I cut open the roll on my plate, releasing a tiny cloud of steam. “What happened in the past holds the key to the future, to my daughter’s future. And to all our futures, for that matter. I need to know everything so I can protect her.”

“We will, of course, help you in any way that we can, Leda,” Calli promised.

I spread a generous layer of Calli’s delicious garlic butter over each half of my roll. “Tell me more about your friend, the one who led you to all of us. The man named Gaius Knight.”

“Gaius definitely led me to each of you. I just don’t know why.” Calli frowned.

“He sent you to the orphanage where you found me,” Bella said.

“He once warned you against taking a job, which is why you were home when my mother brought me here,” Zane added.

“He got you the treasure-hunting job that brought you to the Sea of Sin.” Tessa looked at Gin.

“Where you met us,” Gin said.

“And one of his jobs led you to me on the streets of Purgatory,” I finished.

“Yes, Gaius led me to all of you.” Calli’s eyes panned across us, the five once-children that she’d taken in. “And once you were with us, Leda, I didn’t see him ever again.”

“He used you,” I said. “He put you into position, so you could raise us.”

Calli frowned. “So it would seem. But why?”

“You must be important. For some reason, it had to be you that raised us, Calli. And we had to grow up together. ” I took another roll from the basket, turning it over in my hand. “River told me that Zane was important to me. She said the bond we shared was important. And Ava told Bella that she made sure Bella ended up with me, so she could be my protector.”

“Perhaps Gaius Knight was one of Ava’s soldiers, working undercover on Earth,” Bella suggested. “Ava is the Demon of Hell’s Army, and she is quite close with her sister Grace. They could have planned this together.”

“I’m not sure, Bella.” I frowned at the roll in my head. “Grace said I was stolen from her. She blames Faris for it.”

“Grace might be lying,” Calli pointed out.

“True. It sure wouldn’t be the first time. It’s just…well, Grace wanted to perform even more magic rituals on me as a baby, but then I was taken away from her before she could. I don’t trust Grace, but I do think she’d have wanted to keep her weapon—me—close to her all those years. If nothing else, then to better manipulate me. Something else is going on here. This is bigger than just Grace’s plans for me.”

“I’m sure it is, but right now it’s dinnertime, and no demon, god, or other kind of troublemaker has a place at my table.” Calli winked at me.

“Even this troublemaker?” I pointed at myself.

“You don’t make trouble, Leda. Trouble just follows you around like a lost puppy.”

I frowned at her. “Thanks for the pep talk.”

Calli patted me on the back. “You’re adept at catching trouble by the tail. Just as I know you will this time. I have faith in you, Leda. You will find a way to keep your daughter safe. But the best way you can take care of your daughter right now is by taking care of yourself. You’re eating for two now.” She shoveled some carrots onto my plate.

“She’s certainly been eating enough cake for ten,” Zane commented, grinning at me.

“What’s that?” Calli asked him.

“Never mind him.” I poked the carrots with my fork. “His mind is still addled from a whole day of nonstop flirting with Nerissa and Ivy.”

Zane stuck his tongue out at me.

“Leda, have you been eating dessert before dinner?” Calli asked with a stern look.

“No. Not technically.”

“Because she hasn’t been eating the dinner, only the dessert,” Zane said helpfully.

I resisted the urge to flick my carrots at him. “I should have asked Ivy and Nerissa to put you through another few days of tests.”

Zane smiled at me.

“Come on, Calli, are you really surprised?” Gin said.

“Leda has the biggest sweet tooth of any of us,” Tessa added.

“Perhaps a bigger sweet tooth than all of us combined,” Bella said.

Harker nodded. “She did once stick a fork through my hand because she thought I might steal her slice of cake,” he said solemnly.

“You did try to steal my slice of cake,” I told him. “I was only defending my property.”

“But would you have defended a lima bean so violently?” he asked with a slight, sideways tilt of his head.

“Of course not. Lima beans are disgusting.” I smirked at him. “And since when did you become such a wimp, Harker? A fork through the hand is nothing compared to what an angel must endure on a daily basis.”

“There’s a fine line between a badass and a masochist,” Harker said pleasantly.

I rolled my eyes. “For the millionth time, the fork incident occured when I was under the influence of the Fever. I’m sorry.”

“Why is she apologizing to me?” Harker said to Nero. “I don’t think Fireswift is doing a very good job of teaching her to be a proper angel.”

“I think making him Leda’s instructor is more of a punishment for him than it is for her,” Nero replied.

“Congratulations. You’re both hilarious,” I told them.

They nodded solemnly. Apparently, they hadn’t picked up on the sarcasm in my voice.

“Fireswift has never been able to handle Leda,” Nero said seriously. “I should speak to Nyx and insist that I instruct her instead.”

“Nero, you know Nyx will never allow that,” Harker said. “You are even less able to handle Leda than Fireswift can, at least when it comes to having her under you.”

The pun was clearly intentional. Zane chuckled, Tessa and Gin started whispering amongst themselves, and Bella blushed.

Harker managed to keep his face blank, of course. Not as blank as Nero, though. He just stared at his best friend like he’d lost his mind.

Love has made you bold, my friend,Nero projected telepathically, to only Harker and me.

Maybe Nyx should send him to angel charm school too,I suggested.

I was only half kidding. We were all angels and were expected to maintain a certain level of dignity at all times. We angels weren’t supposed to let things ever get personal, not even with our spouse or children. And definitely not with our family from before we joined the Legion. We were angels now. We had to be detached and above all earthly matters.

Ok, so that was one rule I was definitely not going to follow. I loved my family too much to pretend I didn’t care about them.

You’re right, Nero, of course,Harker said in our minds. I forgot myself.

I do that all the time,I told him.

But Harker is not you, Leda. The Angel of Chaos does have a little more leeway, given your title. Though not as much leeway as you take,Nero added.

I know,I replied. I’m trying to behave like an angel. Just not around my family, ok? And that family includes you too, Harker. You’re like a brother to me.

Harker looked at me, his eyes wide. Leda, I don’t know what to say.

Just say you’ll be my brother.

As long as I don’t have to be Bella’s brother too.

I allowed my laughter to echo in their heads. Deal.

I was drawn out of the telepathic conversation by the clinking of silverware and dishes.

“Does anyone feel like we just missed a whole conversation?” Tessa asked openly. “I wonder what they said.”

“This pasta is quite delicious, Ms. Pierce,” Nero said to Calli.

Tessa frowned, obviously annoyed that no one else wanted to speculate with her about what Nero, Harker, and I had discussed.

“Thank you, General Windstriker,” Calli replied to Nero.

The two of them had their professional relationship all figured out, even though I knew they secretly adored each other.

Calli handed me a bowl of tortellini. “Leda, have some more pasta.”

And so I did. Calli’s cooking really was delicious, so good that my mind wasn’t even fantasizing about dessert the whole time I was eating dinner.

I took another bite of pasta, then said to my sister, “Bella, did you change your hair again?”

Her hair had changed when she’d taken possession of Thea’s wand, turning platinum. But it seemed to be darkening again.

Bella took a strand of her hair between her fingers. “It’s slowly changing back on its own, growing darker and more golden each day.”

Indeed. It seemed to be almost back to her natural strawberry-blonde now.

“I think when I first grasped the wand, its magic did something to me, something more than just changing my hair,” Bella said.

“Like what?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. I have been unable to perform any magic with the wand since that first time. That might be why my hair has gone back to the way that it was.”

“So you believe the color of your hair is linked to accessing the wand’s magic?”

“I think so, in some way, yes,” Bella replied.

“Maybe it’s like how my hair changes with the magic I use,” I suggested.

“I tried using my own magic, but none of that changed my hair. I think it’s all linked to the wand’s magic, not to my magic.”

I nodded. “Well, the wand was your mother’s.”

“Ava told me it was.” Bella’s forehead crinkled, like it always did when she was deep in thought. “And Ava told me the wand would lead me to Thea.”

“Do you think Thea left a message for you to find?” I asked her.

“I don’t think so. Thea doesn’t even know I exist.”

“How does that work exactly? Because I am very aware of my child inside of me.”

“You can feel her?” Bella said, her expression suddenly hopeful and bright.

“Not like that. She’s not moving. She’s too small. But I can sense her. It’s hard to explain. I can just feel her there. Her presence.” I drummed my fingers against the tabletop. “Thea was a demigod, a born angel, so I bet she could have felt you too.”

“I really don’t understand it. Ava told me I need to stop thinking like a mortal. She said I need to open my mind, to redefine what’s possible and impossible.”

“That’s pretty cryptic.”

“It is,” Bella agreed. “How can I possibly know what I don’t know?”

I dipped one of the carrots in the pasta sauce, which improved its taste considerably. So I grabbed the pot and poured sauce over all my carrots.

“I suppose this is where your search for Thea’s grimoire comes in?” I asked Bella.

“Yes. Well, I hope so, anyway.” She watched me drown the carrots with a strange sense of fascination.

“How did you learn that Thea even had a grimoire?”

“Actually, it came to me in a dream.”

I perked up. “A dream?” I wondered if Bella’s dream was connected to my dreams. “What kind of dream?”

“It was fractured, like a few fragments of memories. Flashes of the grimoire, of Thea with it. None of it was very focused or concrete. Mostly it’s a feeling, actually. A feeling that the grimoire is important.”

“Ava could be manipulating you.”

“Oh, I’m sure she is. She could have asked Grace to send me the memory of my mother just as Grace sent Nero a vision of you and your daughter. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to find the grimoire. Like you said, the past is the key to our future.”

“Yeah. And all of this is related.”

“I think so too,” said Bella.

“Is there anything specific you can tell me about Thea’s grimoire?”

“Only that it has something to do with me. I saw that it came to town, here to Purgatory, right when I came here.”

“So that you could later find it?” I wondered.

“Likely.”

“Maybe it’s Thea’s game plan. Or Ava’s.” It was certainly food for thought. “Nero said you didn’t find the grimoire today. Where in town did you look?”

Bella talked me through the places they’d searched in Purgatory.

“You certainly were thorough,” I finally said when she was done talking me through her day, several minutes later. “I’m surprised you thought of Shadow Alley. I was sure I was the only one of us who knew that place existed.”

During my days living on the streets, I’d hidden there often.

“I’ve gone to Shadow Alley a few times to heal the sick,” Bella said.

“And the Sunset Tower?” I shook my head. “I’ve actually never heard of that place.”

“It’s not actually a tower,” she told me. “The name is a trick. I healed a guy there once too.”

And here I’d thought I knew Purgatory better than anyone. Apparently not.

“I actually found something at the Sunset Tower,” Bella said.

“A clue to Thea’s grimoire?”

“I’m not sure.”

Bella reached behind her and took a folder off the side table. She opened it to reveal an old piece of parchment.

I picked it up, turning it over in my hands. “It’s blank.”

“That’s why I’m not sure if it’s a clue to Thea’s grimoire. I know this kind of parchment. It’s magic paper. There’s some kind of shifting spell on it. And it’s incomplete.” She pointed at the parchment. “You need to layer multiple pages on top of one another to reveal the message. Until then, we cannot know if this is a clue to Thea’s grimoire, or just a recipe for chocolate-chip cookies.”

“That would be an awful lot of effort to go through to hide a cookie recipe,” I pointed out.

I tried not to think too much about the cookies. It would only make me hungry.

“And yet it’s still possible that this has nothing at all to do with Thea,” Bella said.

“Yes.” I slid my fingertips across the parchment. “It is.” I’d met a few bakers who’d gone to great lengths to keep their recipes secret. “But I’m going to be an optimist and say it’s a clue to Thea’s grimoire.”

Bella smiled at me. “I think so too.” She glanced at Harker and Nero. “The angels do not agree.”

“Why not?” I asked them.

“We never said it wasn’t a clue,” Nero said.

“We simply pointed out that it would be quite a convenient coincidence if it were,” Harker added.

“Someone sent Bella memories of the grimoire,” I told them. “Someone wants her to find Thea, or at least get answers about her past. That doesn’t make it a coincidence; it makes it a well-laid plan.”

“She has a point,” Harker told Nero.

Nero watched me. “She often does.”

I flashed him a little fang—and blew him a kiss. Then I looked some more at the parchment with Bella.

“If someone wants you to find the grimoire, Bella, the other pages might be in town too,” Gin said.

“Yeah, but where?” I wondered.

“We will have to search the town again tomorrow.” Bella’s eyes shone with determination.

“Try the Junk Yard,” Gin suggested.

“And the Bazaar,” Tessa added.

“There are some dilapidated old buildings by the old pond that would make an excellent hiding spot,” Zane said.

Then he grabbed the cherry pie and planted it in front of himself. And he’d accused me of having a sweet tooth.

“People say those old buildings are haunted,” Gin said in a hushed whisper.

Zane laughed. “People say a lot of things. I’ve been there. There’s nothing haunted about them.”

“How do you know?” Gin asked, her eyes still wide.

“Because he liked to bring his dates there to give them a good thrill,” Tessa told her. “Made them want to snuggle up to you, didn’t it, Zane?”

Zane shrugged, looking totally unashamed. “Naturally.”

“Do you have any more snuggling spots in town, Zane?” I asked him.

I figured they’d be pretty out of the way. Pretty secluded.

Zane listed a few of his secret spots, then dug into the pie.

“Ok, well, thanks to Zane’s dalliances, you have a few places to check tomorrow,” I said to Bella.

Calli pulled out another pie, which distracted me so much that I nearly missed her next words.

“I think you’re coming at this the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?” Bella asked her.

Calli cut a piece of pie and slid it onto Bella’s plate. “You found your first clue, the parchment, at the Sunset Tower.”

“Yes.”

“Where exactly?”

“In a box buried to the right of the old sculpture of Valora, the former Queen Goddess. Harker sensed magic there, and we dug up the box.”

“The Sunset Tower used to house the town’s orphanage. It’s where I found you, Bella,” Calli said. “And you were standing to the right of that sculpture when I met you. Right there where you found the page.” She glanced at the parchment on the table. “How many pages do you figure you need to put together to make that whole?”

“Four. This one plus three more,” Bella said instantly. She’d always been good at math.

“Four clues. And four of you.” Calli’s gaze panned across Gin, Tessa, and finally came to Zane.

“Four? How about five? What am I, the family dog?” I grumbled.

“What you are is at the center of this all, Leda,” Bella said.

“Oh. Ok. Good. I always said I wanted to be the center of the universe when I grew up,” I said brightly.

“Ava told me I was to be your protector,” Bella said. “What if Zane, Tessa, and Gin were meant to be your other three protectors?”

“You’re assuming Thea’s grimoire has to do with me,” I told her.

“Well, this is all related, right?” Bella slid her plate of pie to me.

I gladly took it off her hands. “Right.”

“My mother brought me here. To this house,” Zane said quietly. “This is where we met, Calli.”

“Wait, so one of the clues is here, at this house?” I asked.

“Zane was standing outside when I first met him.” Calli was already on her feet.

We all got up from the table and followed her outside.

Calli looked around for a few moments, then pointed to the small flowerbed next to the garbage can. “There. Zane was right there, in the flower bed.”

“In the flower bed?” I said curiously.

“He was very young,” Calli replied. “He thought it was an excellent idea to dig up my tulips.”

Harker closed his eyes. “I can feel magic here; it’s similar to the other page. It’s very faint. I have to really concentrate to notice it.”

Nero waved his hand, using his magic to scoop up the earth. A wooden box rose from the new hole in the ground and floated into the air. Nero directed our treasure into the house. We all followed the floating box inside. Bella pulled a piece of parchment out of the box. It looked exactly like the first.

“Incredible,” Zane gasped. “I wonder how long the page has been hidden in there.”

Bella began pulling potion vials out of the drawers. “I did a test on the first page. I’m not sure I believe the results.” She squeezed a drop of potion onto Zane’s page. “And yet here it is again.”

Harker looked at the blue-green color of the dating-spell potion before it faded from the page. “The clues were hidden long ago, before any of you were even born. Someone knew Zane would be at that exact spot when you met him.”

Calli frowned. “That’s certainly unsettling.”

I agreed. I didn’t like to think that everything was preordained, that we had no free will or choice in anything that happened to us. But worrying about it wouldn’t change anything.

“There are still two pages of parchment missing before we’ll be able to reveal this document’s secrets,” Bella said.

“The final two clues.” I looked at my little sisters. “Calli, those two pages must be where you were standing when you met Gin and Tessa.”

Her eyes lit up. “The Sea of Sin.”

“So, then, what are we waiting for?” Gin asked, her voice positively chipper. “Who’s up for a little field trip?”