Wilber smiled.
“That’s more like it, kid.” Jesse reached over and ruffled his hair.
Wilber shrugged him away in good humour. “So, where is this place that has a fairground all summer long?”
Jesse’ eyes lit up. “It’s half a day’s travelling from here, but we get a sleeper cabin on the train and you’re there in no time. It’s right by the sea and always smells like salt water and toffee.” He closed his eyes in bliss. “It’s called Port Dalton.”
“Port Dalton,” Wilber mused. “Sounds nice.”
“ ‘Nice’ isn’t the word. When you see it, you’re never gonna want to leave.”
“And you promise I can go?” Wilber asked hopefully.
Jesse laughed. “Yeah. I swear.”
“I wish I had a brother like you,” said Wilber.
“Ah,” Jesse said as he patted him on the shoulder. “You’ve got a sister, though. Me, I’ve only got my mother.”
“What about your dad?”
Jesse picked up his stick again and began tracing more patterns into the ground. “He went off to war when I was a baby. He never came back. I think he was probably a really good guy.”
With that, a piercing scream sliced through the carnival, followed by a ripple of cries, each one more harrowing than the last.
Wilber and Jesse leapt to their feet.
“What’s h-happening?” Wilber stammered.
“I don’t know,” Jesse murmured. He stared into the carnival.
It was as though a tornado had just struck, instantly devastating everything in its wake. Stalls were overturned and the distant Ferris Wheel groaned and teetered unsteadily. The florescent lamps no longer lit the trodden-down grass with colourful rays, but instead began crashing to the ground one by one, shattering on the hard-packed dirt in explosions of glass.
In the pit of his stomach, Wilber knew what was coming. And he knew it was coming for him.
“I think it’s a gang!” Jesse yelled. “Quick, Wil—over the fence! We’ll cut through the fields!”
But Wilber didn’t budge. “They’re coming for me,” he said grimly.
Jesse grasped his arm. “No, Wilber, they’re not coming for you. They’re rioting.”
Wilber stared vacantly at the destruction, his body quaking in fear.
“I can’t outrun them,” he whimpered.
Jesse hauled him towards the fence. “Listen to me!” he shouted. “We have to get out of here. Now!”
Wilber dropped to the ground, burying his head in his knees and wrapping his arms around his legs. “No! No!” he wailed. “They’re coming for me! I’m the weakest! They’re on my scent!”
Jesse heaved him back upright. “You’re talking crazy! No one’s on your scent, buddy. I’ll look after you, okay?”
And then, in the distance, Wilber saw them—the monsters he’d feared his whole life. The monsters that his mother had sworn were long extinct.
Divellions.
Three had come for him. Their skin was like leather, red and black as though it had been singed, surrounding bulging bloodshot eyes and twisted faces with long, jagged teeth. Their ogre-like bodies were shrouded in rags, and they started towards the boys in swift, feverish movements.
Wilber clung to Jesse’ arm.
“It’s okay,” Jesse reassured him, his voice wavering slightly. “I’m going to get you out of here, you got that?”
Wilber nodded, tears spilling freely over his cheeks.
“You think you can get over the fence?”
“No,” Wilber whimpered. “It’s too high.”
“Okay…” Jesse thought about it for a moment. “There’s a gap down there, at the bottom. Can you fit through it?”
“No,” Wilber choked, “I can’t!”
“Well, you’re going to have to try,” Jesse told him. “You’re going through the fence, and I’m going to hold off these…things. Then I’ll be right behind you. But don’t stop running until you get home. You hear me?”
“They’re too strong,” Wilber protested. “I can’t leave you here alone with them!”
“The hell you can’t!” Jesse argued. He hauled Wilber to the fence, and with a forceful shove, he pushed him through the gap.
Wilber scrambled onto the grass on the other side of Garlands Fields.
“Jesse,” he pleaded, “you can’t fight them. They’re too strong.”
Jesse peered at him through the gap. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll hold them off until it gets too dicey, then I’m gone.”
“But—”
“I know what I’m doing,” Jesse insisted. “I’ll be fine. Like I said, I’ll be out before they get a look in. Hell, if my old mother sees a scratch on me, she’ll know I’ve been scrapping again, and she’ll be so mad she’ll cancel Port Dalton ’til I’m twenty-five,” he joked blithely. But there was no humour in his eyes.
A low, hissing sound came from somewhere beyond the candyfloss stall.
“Jesse!” Wilber cried from the other side of the fence. “Come with me!”
Jesse didn’t move. “Go!” he shouted at Wilber. “I’ll be right behind you. Run!”
And so Wilber ran.
But for Jesse, trapped inside the carnival boundaries, there was no place to run.
The first Divellion came into view, emerging from the shadows like a creature from a nightmare. Jesse ducked out of its path, drawing it away from the fence.
It lunged at him, blocking him and striking his face with a clawed hand.
Jesse fell backwards, his flat cap skidding across the ground. Blood began to spread through his sandy blonde hair. He rolled onto his stomach, shielding his head.
A second Divellion leapt out of the darkness, pouncing onto Jesse’ back and pinning him to the ground. It clawed at his shirt, ravenous and thirsting for his powerful essence.
But as the monster’s teeth penetrated Jesse’ throat, it let out a feral roar, suddenly aware that Jesse was not, in fact, the witch they’d sought. Indeed, he was not a witch at all.
However, for Jesse, the realisation came too late.
Chapter Twelve
Heroes’ Welcome
I awoke in a cold sweat, trembling helplessly.
“Jesse,” I whispered.
I staggered to my feet, momentarily confused as to where I was.
My bedchamber, I realised. The Academy.
In a daze, I left the bedroom, racing along the hall and tripping over myself to get downstairs.
Outside, the sun had just begun its descent, and as I burst through the main doors, I felt the first drops of rain splash onto my bare arms.
It didn’t matter. There was somewhere I needed to be.
As I fled past the school boundaries, I caught a glimpse of the boys, still training in the clearing. But I barely gave them a second glance.
Leaving them in the distance, I raced along the winding footpath, always pushing myself to move faster, even though each footfall skidded on the slippery mud.
I ran all the way to the meadow graveyard where the path reached its end.
This was where I’d seen Jaxon. This was the image that had settled in my mind when I’d done the Secrets Be Known spell. He’d been mourning at a graveside, laying down wildflowers.
Now I saw those very flowers, wilted and shrivelled against the headstone and drowning in the waterlogged grass as raindrops hammered down on them.
Shuddering from head to toe, I approached the grave and dropped to my knees.
I let out a quiet sob.
It was as I’d expected.
The name on the gravestone read, Jesse Jaxon, and beneath it, Died a Hero.
I felt a sharp twist in my heart. The tears began to spill from my eyes and I cried until I couldn’t see. Cried until I collapsed against Jaxon’s gravestone, clinging to the cold, wet granite.
Jaxon was Jesse. He’d died that day at the carnival. And I’d watched it happen.
Through my sobs, I heard the crunch of footsteps beh
ind me. I knew instantly who it was.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I murmured.
I didn’t look up. I didn’t need to.
Jaxon’s hand grazed my back, and for a long while we were both silent. The sound of the pattering raindrops fell alongside my tears.
“I think that’s wrong,” Jaxon said at last, sitting on the boggy grass beside me and hiking his thumb towards the gravestone. “I wasn’t a hero.”
“Are you…?” I looked up at him now, suddenly seeing the same boy I’d watched in my dreams, only he was older now and marked with deep-set scars. “Are you dead?” I choked.
“I was,” he said. Rain dripped from his hair, darkening the hue before rolling over the bridge of his nose.
“But…” I swallowed. “How are you back?”
Jaxon pushed the wet hair from his brow. “Do you know what a phoenix is?” he asked warily.
“A bird,” I whispered, scared of what may follow.
“It can be.”
My heart started to pound faster. “What else can it be?”
He smiled ruefully at me, answering my question with his cool grey eyes.
“You?” I said hoarsely.
He held up his palms.
I drew in a quick breath. “How?”
“The elders,” he said. “Ness, Hardy, Garret, they needed an army…”
“Ness did this?” I stammered.
“She brought me back,” Jaxon replied. He idly picked at the wet grass. “There’s a spell,” he said, “a very rare spell. One that almost borderlines on dark magic.” He paused again. “Have you heard of the flower in the holt—the one that’s said to have blossomed from phoenix ashes?”
“Phoenix tail,” I answered in a haze.
“They say it’s the only plant strong enough to reawaken the…” he hesitated. “To reawaken those who have been lost,” he worded tactfully. “The catch is, they return… different. As a phoenix. Stronger. Faster. Less... human. The elders raised us. All of us. Everyone who died as a hero was given, as they called it, a second chance. To come back as a monster,” he added with a grimace.
“You’re not a monster,” I murmured. “You’re…”
My mind returned to the image of the phoenix etched into Ness’s fireplace, and to the flawlessly carved tree. And now to Jaxon. They all shared one thing in common: they had me spellbound.
“You’re a phoenix,” I stuttered. “That’s how you’re so strong. That’s how you are able to shoot the arrows…”
Jaxon stared at his hands. “When I came back, my aptitudes were heightened. I mean, I was always a pretty good shot, but now…”
“And your eyes,” I said. “Today when you got angry, your eyes changed. You changed.”
Jaxon cringed in shame. “I hate it,” he said quietly. “I can’t control myself sometimes. I’m an animal.”
I flinched.
His jaw clenched and he stared down at his hands.
“I thought about telling you,” he reflected in a distant voice. “Earlier, I mean. But I couldn’t find the words. How could I have told you that I’ve been alive for nearly a century, most of which I was actually dead? How would you have reacted if I’d told you I wasn’t human? That I could have hit those targets blindfolded? That I can bend steel with my hands—”
“You can do what?” I spluttered.
“Oh, right. You didn’t know about that part yet.” Jaxon gave me a careful smile. “I lived and died many years ago. I was at peace for a long time. And then I was back, picking up where I’d left off—only the world as I knew it had changed. I had changed.”
I gazed over at him until my eyes landed on the spot above his rain-soaked shirt collar—the fatal bite mark that now scarred his skin.
My breath came out in a rush.
“The thought that you would see me for what I truly was...” he trailed off. “I wanted more time. You’re the first person who’s made me feel… I don’t know.” He leaned against the headstone and looked up at the murky sky. “I kept thinking, just one more day. One more hour. One more minute…”
“How did you know I was here?” I asked softly.
He returned his focus to me. “Because it was bound to happen sooner or later, wasn’t it? When I saw you run from the Academy, I just knew my time was up. You’d found out my secret.”
It was only then that I realised that the Secrets Be Known spell had worked after all. I’d thought my visions were of Wilber, but actually I’d been watching Jesse all along. I’d wanted to find out Jaxon’s secret, and here it was.
“It doesn’t change anything,” I breathed. “You’re still you.”
“I—” Jaxon began, then paused. He stared intently into the fringing woodland. A sheet of rain swept through the trees.
Jaxon rose to his feet.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Divellions,” he said stiffly. “A Divellion is near.”
I scrambled up, shivering in my drenched clothes.
Jaxon met my eyes. “Go back to the Academy,” he told me in a low voice.
“No!” I cried. “I won’t let this happen again. This is how you…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.
Jaxon exhaled in a taut breath, causing raindrops to spray from his lips. “This isn’t the same as last time. I’m different,” he reminded me. “Now, please, go back to the school.”
“Come with me,” I begged.
He clenched his teeth. “Please,” he said, jerking his head away from me. “You need to leave!”
My stomach flipped. “No. I can’t leave you.”
He scowled. “Go,” he repeated. “Get away from me!”
All of a sudden, the Jaxon I knew was gone. His pupils had swollen, and the smoky eyes I knew so well had turned black. When he looked at me, I saw only fury. I felt only fury.
“Go!” he shouted.
And, this time, I did.
#
I burst into the Academy and dashed along the corridor towards Ness’s office.
When I reached her door, I flung it open without knocking.
“Ness!” I cried.
She sprung up from behind her mahogany desk. “Good grief!” she gasped. “You’re soaked through.”
“Divellion,” I panted, gesturing vaguely to the cherry red walls. “Jaxon’s still out there! He’s at the graveyard.”
Ness rushed over to me, her glasses hanging from a chain around her neck. “Divellions? How many?”
“One, I think.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No,” I rasped. “I didn’t see it, but Jaxon told me it was near. He’s still out there. We have to help him!”
Ness frowned. “Jaxon told you?”
I nodded my head frantically.
“What did he say, exactly?” Ness asked.
My heart was racing at what felt like one million beats per second. “He said a Divellion was near, and then told me to leave.”
To my astonishment, Ness smiled curiously. “My, oh my.”
I furrowed my brow, baffled as to why she wasn’t jumping into action.
“Jaxon said that, did he?” Ness mused, looking pleased rather than troubled. “And tell me, Sophie, does he speak to you often?”
“What? Uh… yes. Quite often.”
“Really? Well, isn’t that something.” She returned to the desk chair, chuckling quietly to herself.
“Ness,” I pleaded, “Jaxon is in danger!”
“Take a seat, dear,” she advised, gesturing to the visitor chair opposite her.
I stumbled forward and collapsed into the seat. All the running was taking its toll on me.
Tomorrow, I decided, no running.
Ness pressed a button on the intercom.
Mabel’s voice came through fuzzily above the static. “That you, Ness?”
“Yes, Mabel, me again. Do we have any clean towels handy? Sophie’s had a bit of a soaking.” She lowered her voice and mouthed to me, “Cup of tea?”
I shook my head no. A cup of tea was the last thing on my mind.
“Come on,” Ness urged in her hushed voice. “A nice cup of tea.”
I grimaced. “No.”
Ness returned to Mabel. “And perhaps a cup of tea for Sophie. With sugar. She’s had a shock.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Ah,” Mabel agreed. “Nothing better for shock than a cup of tea with sugar.”
I huffed loudly.
“Thank you, Mabel,” Ness chirped. “Oh, and I have wonderful news: Jaxon spoke to Sophie.”
Mabel let out a long hoot. “I told you!” she cheered. “Didn’t I say he’s got a voice in there, somewhere?”
“Yes. I must admit, I’m relieved.”
I stared blankly at Ness.
She glanced at me, evidently catching on that it was time to say goodbye to Mabel.
“Right,” Ness said, after the intercom line went dead. “Jaxon spoke to you, did he?” She folded her hands on the dark wooden desk.
I threw up my arms in sheer frustration. “Yes. But aren’t there more important things we should be—”
“Excellent! Truly excellent. You do realise that he’s never spoken to any of us?”
Huh.
“Actually, no,” I said petulantly. “I did not realise that.”
“Oh, yes. We were worried that he couldn’t speak.”
I fidgeted in my seat. “I was, too, at first.”
Ness leaned across the desk eagerly. “How did you find out?”
“Um… I asked him.”
“Genius!” Ness declared. “I can’t wait to tell Mr. Hardy! Does Mr. Garret know?”
I thought about it for a moment. It hadn’t occurred to me until then, that I’d never heard Jaxon speak to anyone other than me. Nor had he ever spoken to me when other people were within earshot.
“I don’t know,” I answered at last. “I don’t think so. Anyway, what are we going to do about the Divellion?”
Ness smiled warmly at me. “Jaxon knows what he’s doing. I’m not worried.”
I rapped my knuckles on the desktop, desperate to get through to her. “Divellions killed him!”
For the first time that evening, Ness looked genuinely shocked. “You know?”
Secrets in Phoenix Page 14
