Ivory Inferno

by LeAnn Mason

  That sounded like Nick, for sure. “Please go to him.”

  “Where are you going to go? Are the dwarfs all at the restaurant?” Allya piped up, worry coloring her very valid questions.

  “No, Stein and Tabbart are mining and smithing today. They’ll be in and out all day.” I bit my full bottom lip in lament, making my lips feel more swollen than usual. At this moment though, the flesh was too new, too raw, to take the abuse without protest, and I let it fall free of my teeth.

  “You can come to the mansion. No one will ask questions. That is if they even see you. If Allya will agree to accompany Mae and me, we can likely keep you from notice entirely,” Rory offered kindly.

  “You’re crazy if you think I’m leaving my girl’s side anytime soon, Prince. She’s stuck with me, which means so are you.” The grin Allya shot him was all Scarlet Huntress, glowing amber eyes to boot. It didn’t matter one bit that the cape that earned her the moniker was currently balled up around her hands; the name still fit.

  “Right, now that it’s settled…” I shifted pleading eyes to Jason who exploded in a shower of golden dust, leaving shredded clothes and a large gray wolf in his place. Hunter’s golden eyes stared at our group a moment longer before he dipped his head and turned on his haunches to take off.

  The wolf shot back through the trees, following a scent to, hopefully, find the bear Shifter I was currently worried over. Because he was moving quickly, his padded feet weren’t as silent as usual. Crunching leaves and twigs underfoot, the oversized wolf sprinted to intercept his best friend before he ruined his life.

  “All right then, shall we go get you cleaned up and presentable? After that, we need to have a serious talk about weapons.” Allya didn’t wait for anyone to twitch before setting off in a similar direction as Hunter moments before. “Come on. Ebony is itching for a good run, so we need to get ourselves golden before I let her loose. She’s not too happy with Nick at the moment, so it’s best you didn’t want me to find him. That bear of his would have had a time with us today.” Allya, too, stomped through the debris much more carelessly than normal, her emotions and her borrowed wolf soul both riding her hard.

  “That girl is so lucky she has friends in high places,” Rory rumbled with a shake of his head before heading off after her, towing Mae by the hand in his wake.

  Funny how quickly I’d gone from the center of commotion to trudging behind the group like the neglected puppy. Didn’t bother me though. In fact, I preferred less scrutiny than more, especially then. Too much attention made me all itchy and twitchy. Take the bonfire exhibition, for example. That had been extremely uncomfortable. Maybe that was the price of having friends.

  In that case, I guessed I could endure it. Maybe one day, I’d even relish it.

  “Come on there, Sparky. Your reincarnated ass is dragging. Don’t make me come get you!”

  Yeah. I think I can handle it if it means I can keep them.

  Being naked and barefoot, my progress through the prickly forest, over downed logs, and across rocks, was slow and painful on my still baby-sensitive skin. Until the Scarlet Huntress decided to relieve me of my burdensome self. Instead, I became hers. With the Shifter strength she’d recently gained, the girl She-Hulked my lame-rear out onto the smoother, man-made surfaces of Grimm Hollow’s streets where I finally wiggled free. Being in a more public space, I needed to project a picture of normalcy. Questions were to be avoided right now.

  It seemed like I was out in the open forever where anyone could goggle at me, coated in grey and draped in the Shifter Prince’s sweater. The fact that said Shifter prince was out in public, with a group, and shirtless, would definitely draw gossip as well.

  To top it off, I was barefoot, and the natural heat I exuded leeched out through the soles of my feet into the concrete that still stung with residual cold despite the sun’s rays. Combine that with the late autumn winds that blew through the streets, reaching its icy tendrils even between buildings, and I nearly shivered, though that might have less to do with the temperature and more to do with… everything else.

  It wasn’t until we crossed through the arched gate and into Rory’s magically infused garden that I began to feel a little more like myself even if I still resembled a recently risen zombie.

  Walking through the tropical-like gardenscape along the manicured stone pathway, I couldn’t help but feel just a little lighter. Maybe that was a by-product of the magic permeating every inch of the space. Like happy juice or something. My attention finally focused away from the foliage as we approached the terrace flanked by large stone lions, their proud stances and open maws reminding me of a sad truth I hadn’t thought about lately.

  “Rory, how is your father doing?” The King had been severely injured in the battle with the Lupo Coven of dark and exiled Witches. So had Allya and Jason.

  So had Nick.

  “Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much change, but I find myself hopeful.” He couldn’t help the soft look thrown at Mae as he made his admission. She was the source of the Prince’s newfound optimism, their bond building stronger individuals.

  Swoon.

  “All right, let’s get her in and clean her up. Rory, I assume you have Mae’s clothes stashed in here somewhere?” Allya waggled her dark eyebrows suggestively at the pair who were ahead of where we walked down the stone-lined corridor. The suggestion made Mae’s neck and ears pinken with heat.

  “The clothes that were soaked through and covered with moss and pine needles? Yes, they’ve been laundered and returned to my rooms.” His tone implied he did not appreciate Allya’s suggestion that anything improper was occurring between him and Mae. Even as his large hand rubbed soothingly along the length of her spine. The pretty little human only ducked her head, the column of her neck flushing behind her long, brunette fishtail braid.

  The troublemaking hybrid just shrugged, the hint of a smirk lifting the corner of her mouth, completely unapologetic.

  “There are plenty of female clothing options within these walls. We are Shifters after all,” Rory continued, his strides eating up the grand, open foyer we had been dumped into from the small, poorly lit corridor we’d been in. I couldn’t help but gape at the high ceilings and tons of natural light pouring in from windows situated throughout. This totally could be a castle from a fairy tale. The floors I had to peel my bare feet from looked the way I pictured the floor of a ballroom with large marble tiles that alternated between dark and light.

  “Touché,” Allya flipped back at the wound-up lion, pulling me back to the current situation and my aching body. My energy had markedly decreased as our trek had wound on, and now I felt nearly tapped out. I needed sleep, a lot of it. Lucky for me, I never worked on Sundays, so my guardians wouldn’t expect my help at the diner, allowing me to go unwoken for a day.

  In theory.

  “You can change in here,” Rory rumbled, his bulky –topless– frame plastered to the side of a doorway, arm extended to hold the heavy wood open. Pushing forward through the building knot of bodies at the door, careful to avoid touching the bare-chested Shifter Prince, I stepped over the threshold and into a wood-rich office.

  The floor-to-ceiling windows along the wall I faced had their thick drapes pulled open to allow the full wash of afternoon sunlight to pierce the room’s confines, illuminating the grains and undulations of the planked flooring. There was an imposing desk in one corner, and the remaining wall was decked half in shelves that held many a book as well as a set of crystal glasses and a decanter half-full of amber liquid, while the lower half boasted a row of tall cabinets. The room screamed “masculine,” and it hurt my heart to realize this was probably Rory’s father’s –the Shifter King’s– office.

  “Here. Snagged these from the linen closet. They may not fit perfectly, but they won’t fall off. There’s a shower through the door in front of the desk there.” I hadn’t even noticed the additional room until Rory mentioned it. With a small nod, I strode to the ajar pocket door hiding
the en suite. At least with the sliding door nearly closed, there had been a reason I didn’t notice the large, marble-clad room.

  This one was still masculine but in a less obvious way. The fixtures and hardware were all oil-rubbed bronze, the floors and walls covered in a veined white and gray stone that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out was real, heavy marble, not the fake stuff. Lights were bright and recessed into the ceiling over the massive claw-footed bathtub as well as in the enormous shower cavern, which didn’t have a door…

  Looking apprehensively over my shoulder as if someone would barge in at any moment, I gingerly pulled Rory’s oversized tee from my sensitive skin. Reaching into the shower’s confines, I turned a knob that looked to be associated with the showerhead –there was another on the far wall, but I ignored it in favor of the nearer, which began to rain jetted water from the pattern of holes in its face. I focused way too hard on that metal implement, forgetting the world and all the troubles it provided in favor of zoning out while my body was washed clean of the last physical reminders of my previous state.

  Dead.

  I’d died… and been reborn through fire.

  What the hell was going on?

  Washing the congealing soot from my body, my hand snagged at my neck. A tinkle of metal forced my attention downward, my gaze settling on the pendant resting just below my collarbones. The gold of the bird glinted as the water rolled from its surface, ruby eye glinting under the fogged lights as I twisted it to get a better look. How had it survived? Maybe the fire hadn’t been hot enough. But if it had burned everything within a several-foot radius to ash… including myself… how?

  ‘How are you doing, Firebird?’

  ‘Hi no tori.’

  Firebird.

  “Holy crap.”

  CHAPTER 13

  “G uys, I think I know what’s up. I have zero clues about how it could be possible, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. Not that it makes sense, like, at all–” I chittered, bursting back into the office from the bathroom once I’d made myself presentable.

  “B! You’re rambling,” Allya interrupted. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for your meandering diatribes, but I think maybe this time, we should be let in on the secret you’re trying to spit out, yeah?” She quirked an eyebrow and shrugged, her body language asking the rest of the room’s occupants if she was wrong. Reluctantly, they agreed, turning their attention back to me in an odd unison that would translate well to a horror film. Suddenly quiet, the formerly conversing trio stared, waiting for me to expound upon my mid-shower epiphany.

  Creepy.

  Now that I was the center of attention, my mouth decided it was better filled with cotton than words and refused to emit the appropriate sounds for my revelation. Swallowing hard, I turned my attention toward my feet, which now sported stark-white cotton socks peeking from beneath too-large black sweats, which barely clung to my waist. Pulling the drawstring tight, I created a little slipknot in the nylon rope to help the fabric stay put. At least, Rory was clothed again. Don’t get me wrong. The boy was all kinds of pretty with that expanse of toned and tanned skin, but he was Mae’s. And broody. Way too broody.

  A gentle throat-clearing reminded me that I was supposed to be relaying my revelation, my mind having successfully diverted me from the piercing stares still aimed at me; waiting. Time to suck it up. They wouldn’t laugh at me… right? “I think I might be a phoenix?”

  A stunned, pregnant silence answered my proclamation, stalling my heart and my breath while I waited for them to assimilate the information. Noting the varying degrees of thoughtfulness plastered to each of their faces, I shifted from foot to foot, not sure what to do or where to go.

  “The bird? But you’re not a Shifter.” Allya had a point.

  “I hadn’t thought about that as a possibility. Phoenixes have never been recorded. They are things of legend and shrouded in conflicting and vague references,” Rory mulled.

  “Are you asking us?” Mae questioned kindly, rounding out their responses. With her head cocked in curiosity, and narrowed eyes as if she tried to solve a problem, she finally threw a query at me. “What are you messing with?”

  I hadn’t even realized my fingers had been idly tracing the stylized bird beneath the collar of my borrowed shirt. Pulling the metal from its spot nestled against my skin, I allowed the bird into the light. Its warmed-metal hide was comforting, just as it had always been. “My mother used to call me Hi no tori. And the dwarfs, especially Rune, call me Firebird.”

  Crickets followed my proclamation. Maybe I hadn’t explained it well…

  “Hi no tori means firebird in Japanese. Why would my mother and the dwarfs have the same nickname for me?”

  “You think the nicknames were a reference to your… species?” Mae asked, wheels working overtime in her super-smart brain, spurring the Shifters to get on the same page.

  “But don’t phoenixes, you know, turn into fiery birds upon rebirth? Like, that’s a thing, right?” Allya asked, her features pinched as she thought about it.

  “Do phoenixes even exist?” Mae aimed her question at the authority in the room; Rory.

  “Not in the Shifter world. As far as I know, that species is truly a myth.”

  Nodding, the girls seemed to agree. “Phoenixes are depicted as birds of fire. Generally. That kind of indicates Shifter… right? I mean, have you ever known a Mage to change forms?” Mae’s logical reasoning, the fact that none of them seemed convinced, deflated my lightbulb, the shards falling to the floor where they sparkled, ready to bloody my feet the moment I attempted a step.

  But really, who knew? I mean, they weren’t supposed to exist...

  “But can we truly rule it out?” I’d never heard Allya use such a tentative, unsure tone before. I didn’t like it. That girl was meant to take the world by the horns and toss it around. “I mean, I’m not supposed to exist either. I’m not sure we can say it’s not a possibility or even a probability. It makes sense… In a Grimm Hollow kind of way.”

  “She does have a point,” Rory reluctantly agreed. He seemed to hate when she made sense. Maybe it was because she’d gained her wolf from a dark ritual rather than birthright, but, if nothing else, their personalities definitely clashed. One wasn’t used to being challenged, and the other was just finding her voice and using it often. I wished I could be like Allya. The Scarlet Huntress was a total badass who owned her flaws and overcame obstacles.

  “I can ask Marie if she’s ever heard of the existence of an actual phoenix,” Mae said brightly, the prospect of researching something piquing her interest.

  “What are you going to tell her if she asks why? B said she wants to keep it under wraps.”

  “I can say it is strictly curiosity. She knows how much I love to learn. Assuming there is any information, and it’s not in the restricted section, I should be able to tell us more. In theory,” Mae’s enthusiasm waned as she took in my apprehensive state. I didn’t think I was sweating, but my hands twisted and wrung, and my bottom lip was sore from being gnawed between teeth. Again.

  A swift knock had my head swinging to the closed wooden door to the office, my lip popping free from its abuse with the motion. Rory called for the newcomer to enter, and I held my breath, wondering who he’d allow to hear this conversation. I thought he’d agreed to my wishes that no one else would know.

  My breath began panting from my lungs in quick, huffed bursts as my heart rate kicked up. Eyes glued to the doorway, I watched the knob turn, the wood pushing inward to reveal a hand. As the door revealed more of the person, the tension in my body continued to ratchet higher.

  But with a single spoken word, my body unfurled, breath releasing with a heavy exhale.

  “Took a bit of convincing, but I got the lug to see reason. Come on, man. No one’s gonna bite.” Jason quipped; his body angled back out the door as he cajoled the still unseen recipient of the jibe.

  “I was summoned.” My eyes waited hungrily, ready to devour the
owner of that cantankerous reply. The last time I’d heard it, Nick had sounded almost broken. Then he’d fled before I’d been lucid enough to set new eyes on my Teddy. With stiff, reluctant steps, he slowly appeared. First, only a dark boot and jeans-clad leg, then the dark blue long-sleeved tee with large, tanned hands tucked into the front jeans pockets. Traveling still further upward, my eyes caught on those broad shoulders hunched toward his ears, head ducked.

  “Hey.” My hand reached out to brush the dark locks of glossy hair from obscuring his sweet brown eyes from my sight. When had I moved to stand in front of him? “I don’t like this. My Teddy should never make himself small.”

  With brow pinched and expression pained, Nick took a step back, far enough that my hand fell away. That one small motion coupled with the fact that his eyes had yet to meet mine sent a fissure through my heart.

  The sensitive organ had been on the mend, with every person in this room helping to heal the cracks it had sustained so far in my short life. I flinched as the crack deepened. Mirroring his own step, I gave him the space he so obviously wanted, reason flooding back into my mind. He’d been wild, uncontrollable the last time I’d seen him. I was glad he was all right, but the memory of the pain flashed through my head, and I stuttered back another step.

  “Thank you for coming.”

  “Not like I had a choice,” Nick grumbled in response to Rory’s formal words. This wasn’t the Nick I knew and loved. Well, not loved…

  “Dude. I get you. I do. I was where you are now, not long ago. But we survived. They survived. We’re all stronger than we were. But, if we need to figure something out, let’s do it, Brother.” Jason’s words went over my head, referencing something I wasn’t a part of.

  “You do not get it. You were not the cause of Allya’s pain.” Nick’s thick fingers plunged into his dark hair, gripping and pulling the strands like he hoped he could rip them completely from his head. “You didn’t kill your girl. I killed mine.” Another step backward, toward the door.