by Tricia Barr
Admitting this, to herself as well as to Sebastian, sent a tremor down her spine. She had almost killed Ralph. Yes, he had been willing to let them die in the cave, and he shot at Phoenyx, but she knew that killing him wasn’t the right thing to do. Am I a killer? Is that what I’m turning into? In all her many lives, she had been violent and vengeful, yes, but never flippant with people’s lives. Was the desperation of fleeing from her hunters finally pushing her into darkness? She didn’t want to be this.
“You have always been afraid of your element,” Sebastian said, cupping her face in his hands. “But your element isn’t all you are. And you focus too much on Fire’s negative side. Just because it is in Fire’s nature to destroy doesn’t mean that Fire has to be bad. Fire can also bring light.”
His words sparked a small ball of hope within her. He was right. She had to hold onto that light, strive to keep it lit and keep the darkness at bay. At that moment, she made a silent promise to herself: no matter what happens at the Four Corners Headquarters, I will not take another life.
The glow from the overhead light reflected beautifully in the multicolored stone in Phoenyx’s lap. She had all three fragments in her hands, trying to fit them together as she and her three companions took the long cross-Atlantic flight to Prague.
They were seated together in the same row, a four-seat section on the left side of the very large plane. Most of the passengers were asleep, so they had the freedom to discuss their plans in whispers without fear of being overheard.
“This is the Four Corners Headquarters in Prague,” Ayanna said to the right of her, referring to the building shown on the screen of her laptop.
They all huddled their heads closer in for a better view. The building looked like a college or a library, with gorgeously capitaled columns and gargoyles that perched atop decorative ledges. Ayanna clicked and a multi-leveled overhead map of rooms and hallways appeared on screen.
“How did you manage to get the blue prints for it?” Sebastian asked, sitting to Phoenyx’s left.
“As I mentioned before, I’ve been surveying them for a very long time,” Ayanna said. “I’ve collected a wealth of information on them over the past few decades.”
Skylar, who was sitting to the right of Ayanna, leaned in even closer, his eyes narrowing in inspection. “Do you have a theory as to where they might be keeping the dagger?”
“Yes.” She zoomed in on one of the larger rooms on the bottom level, which Phoenyx assumed was underground. “This is the oldest part of the building, and, according to records, a high-tech security agency was hired to make renovations to it. I wasn’t able to find out exactly what was done, but that has to suggest something valuable is down there.”
“And what about Lily?” Phoenyx asked the question that was burning in her mind.
“That’s harder to say with certainty,” Ayanna said with a pensive frown. “The most likely place would be the containment cells on the bottom level. Only accessible from one narrow passageway with no other outlets, so there’s less chance of escape, and it’s underground so if she tried to use her powers she would risk killing herself with a cave in. If she’s not in the containment cells, then there’s no telling where they could be holding her.
“But if we get the dagger first without being detected, we won’t have to worry about rescuing Lily,” Ayanna added. “Once we have the dagger, we can complete it with the stone and use it on one of you. Then you will all be immortal and we can work on getting to Lily without worrying about them killing her.”
“And if we are detected?” Phoenyx asked.
“Then we’d better hope that we get to the dagger before they get to Lily.”
Phoenyx pictured Lily in the dungeon, frightened and weeping, and probably starving once again because the Four Corners was planning on killing them all anyway. The image was sickening.
“If detection is our biggest concern, then that should be our first priority,” Skylar said. “We need to find their security center. If we can intercept their signals somehow, at least control what they see and what they don’t see, we may have a real shot at surviving this.”
Ayanna and Skylar studied the blueprints for a few minutes. “There,” Ayanna said, pointing to a room on the ground floor. “That’s gotta be it. It has the most electrical outlets, and it’s just the right size.”
“Okay, so the plan is to get to the security room first,” Phoenyx said. “How do we do that? It’s right in the middle of the building.”
“We’ll have to rely heavily on Sebastian’s illusions,” Skylar said. “Can you just make us invisible?”
Sebastian shook his head. “There’s too much that can go wrong with that. Changing what someone can see is easy, but making someone seeing nothing where there is something is difficult. And people can sense the movement of other people. They’d feel us even if they couldn’t see us. It’s just too risky. We need a real illusion that will be good enough to get all four of us in.”
The four of them sat in quiet thought for a long moment. Phoenyx’s mind was too blurred by her fears for Lily, she was useless for trying to come up with any kind of solution.
“Maybe we don’t need an illusion for the four of us,” Ayanna said thoughtfully. “The Four Corners doesn’t know anything about me, they won’t recognize my face. We just need one of us in that security room watching out for the rest of us.”
“How will we communicate?” Sebastian asked. “How will you be able to warn us if something should happen? We don’t have time to get any special communication devices, and phones will call too much attention.”
“I’ll go with her,” Skylar said. “I’ll be able to send you telepathic signals.”
“But that brings us back to the original problem of being recognized,” Phoenyx said. “They know our faces. You’ll still need a disguise.”
“But he may not need me there to keep up a disguise,” Sebastian said. “He’s got the most ordinary face out of the three of us, he should be able to blend in with the right clothes. And we can change his hair.”
“You’re not touching my hair,” Skylar warned, looking sideways at Sebastian. He touched his hair protectively.
Sebastian snickered accidentally, then became serious again. “A hat then. A baseball cap.”
Phoenyx could almost see the lightbulb over Ayanna’s head when she said, “We could be delivering something!”
“The Four Corners is a secret group, isn’t it? Would they even let delivery people inside?” Phoenyx asked.
“They’re more of a fraternity at their base level,” Ayanna explained. “They’re about as secretive and obscure as the Freemasons or the Shriners. Their facilities are public, but their rituals and practices are not.”
Phoenyx nodded. “Okay. But it doesn’t take two people to deliver a pizza.”
“But it could take two people to deliver a gift basket and flowers,” Ayanna said. “It would raise too much suspicion if a pizza delivery came when no one ordered pizza, but gifts could be sent from anyone outside the building.”
“Good point,” Sebastian said. “So we just need to find uniforms for you two, and a gift basket and flowers, or course. That shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Okay, so Ayanna and I will go to the security room under the premise of looking for the recipient of our gifts while the two of you make your way to the bottom floor under some kind of illusion,” Skylar said.
“We just have to change our faces,” Phoenyx said. “The rest we can come up with on the fly. As long as you two get to the security room before we run into problems, we’ll be able to handle ourselves just fine.”
“How will you two handle the guards in the security room once you get there?” Sebastian asked.
“I’ll find a way to get close to them and make them forget what they’re doing there,” Ayanna said. “Then I’ll send them away. We’ll have the room to ourselves.”
“Once we’re there, along with watching out for the two of you, we will also be
able to search the camera feeds to find Lily,” Skylar said.
Phoenyx’s heart leapt at the knowledge that finding Lily wouldn’t be an impossible task. “Skylar, I could kiss you right now,” she said.
He chuckled shortly.
Sebastian sighed heavily. “Alright, it looks like we have a plan. We had all better memorize these blueprints so we know where we’re going. We can’t afford to get lost.”
They nodded and each took a turn looking over the map. Phoenyx knew she would never be able to remember the directions, so she scribbled down simple one-word directions on the inside her arm with a black pen, to which Sebastian smiled affectionately.
“It’s almost over,” Sebastian whispered to her. He took her hand and braided his fingers through hers. “After everything we’ve been through, we’re almost there. We have all three of the stone fragments, and this time tomorrow we will have the dagger. We will finally be free.”
“I love how positive you always are,” she said, resting her head against his, loving the coolness of his skin on her eternally hot skin. Everything about him was cool and refreshing.
“Don’t be afraid of what could go wrong tomorrow,” he said. “But look forward to the end result. We will finally have the life we’ve been fighting for. An endless one, where we never have to say goodbye or struggle to find each other ever again. We can start making plans and stop living in fear.”
She smiled. “And now, it won’t be just us, now that we’ve found Skylar and Lily. We will always have the five of us. None of us will have to be alone in this world again.”
“Exactly,” he said. “So tell me, my love. What do you want to do when this is all over?”
They daydreamed out loud to each other, talking about revisiting some beloved places from their past, returning to Egypt to claim the rest of the artifacts in the tomb, settling down somewhere and starting a family. So many of their past lives together had ended too early, there were few times they had been able to be together long enough to start a family, and when they had been blessed with time they had forsaken the possibility of having children because they knew they would just have to say goodbye and mourn them forever after. But this time around, they would never have to say goodbye. They could start a family that they could be a part of for generations. The idea brought Phoenyx more joy than she thought she could feel at a time like this, and she wanted that now more than anything.
Phoenyx managed to get some much needed sleep on the fifteen-hour flight, and felt strangely refreshed when they landed in Prague, despite the anticipation of the mission they were about to embark on. It was about three p.m. on the day before the Four Corners expected them to surrender.
After leaving the airport, they went to a market area to purchase a generic gift basket and a bouquet of roses. Phoenyx was surprised to hear Ayanna thank the clerk in Czech and pay him with the country’s currency—her wallet was loaded with the bills of various nations.
Prague was simply beautiful and exotic to Phoenyx. She had never been here in any of her lives, and it saddened her that she was only in this glorious city on a mission to save their lives. The architecture was a mixture of preserved classicism and modern ingenuity. Charming cafes littered every street corner. The Czech language surrounded them like a chorus. Everywhere, people walked around with scarves and fluffy coats, and the oranges and yellows of the autumn leaves complimented the city to a tee.
They came across a clothing vendor and bought matching outfits for Skylar and Ayanna, which comprised of khaki pants, blue button down long sleeved shirts, and blue baseball caps. Ayanna and Skylar dressed in the dressing rooms and emerged looking exactly like a pair of delivery people.
The cap did well to hide Skylar’s face, his blond hair tucked neatly into it. Although, there was nothing that could be done about his glasses as they had all left home in such a hurry that he hadn’t thought to grab his seldom-used contact lenses.
They hopped in a taxi that dropped them off a block before the Four Corners Headquarters, so that any camera or person that might see them would only see what they wanted them to see.
“Alright, it’s show time,” Phoenyx said as they got out of the car.
“We will go ahead of you,” Ayanna said. “Come in about five minutes after we do, so that it doesn’t look like we are together. Then make your way to the bathroom closest to the door that leads downstairs. Skylar will signal you when we have successfully acquired the security room.”
“You two should go on and put up your disguise now,” Skylar said.
Sebastian nodded. “We will take a quick stroll through those trees over there and I’ll put it up before we come out.”
Skylar and Sebastian stood looking at each other hesitantly, as if they were saying goodbye. They had always done everything together. Sebastian had told Phoenyx many stories of his escapades in Vegas, and in every one the two of them had pulled off operations together. For them to have to separate, and for so daunting a task, must be difficult. The two shared a brotherly embrace.
“Good luck,” Sebastian said.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Skylar said, which of course made the two of them laugh.
Then Skylar turned around and walked alongside Ayanna toward the gorgeously constructed building, taking the basket from her and holding it in front of his face as further cover.
Sebastian extended his bent arm toward Phoenyx, inviting her to slip her arm through, and they casually walked toward the grove of peach trees at the entrance of the park that neighbored the Four Corners lodge.
It was such a beautiful day, the scent of the peaches wafting through the warm autumn breeze and filling her nostrils. She could almost forget that they were in mortal danger and believe, like anyone who glanced upon them, that they were a couple in love enjoying an afternoon in the park.
If only.
She didn’t even notice it happening, but Sebastian led her back out of the grove and onto the sidewalk toward the lodge, and when she looked at Sebastian, he was now a stranger to her. His handsome angular face had become round and plain, his eyes a dull shade of gray and his hair a muddy brown. He was completely average looking. She assumed that she, too, was wearing a new face that appeared equally unremarkable.
They walked up the sidewalk to the large, intimidating building, her heart pounding with each step. Lily was somewhere in there, and so was the key to their freedom. This would be the end, no matter what the outcome.
Despite her simmering uncertainty of what lay beyond those heavy oak doors they were approaching, Phoenyx and Sebastian made their way up the four wide steps at the entrance and went inside.
The interior looked similar to the dormitories on campus back in L.A. They entered into a common room of sorts, where people sat on loungers, reading or in discussion. At the back of the room was a long, door-lined hallway that opened up to another large room with a staircase against the wall. Phoenyx remembered from the blueprints that the security room was to the left and behind the staircase, and she hoped that Skylar and Ayanna had successfully taken control of it.
No one paid then any mind as they crossed the common room and went down the hall. She took a quick peek under her sleeve at the directions scribbled on her arm, but Sebastian guided her easily through the hallways, right then left then right again, to the bathroom in which they were to wait for Skylar’s signal.
She found the concept of unisex bathrooms a bit odd, progressive but odd. It made her blush to see a man using a urinal against the wall opposite where a woman was washing her hands.
She went to the farthest mirror and pretended to be touching up her makeup, and Sebastian went into one of the stalls.
The man and woman left, leaving them alone in the bathroom.
Phoenyx exhaled a sigh of relief that they had made it this far without any trouble, and she was just about to address Sebastian when the door opened and a distinguished looking older gentleman with well-groomed salt-and-pepper hair came in through the door.
He smiled at her as he made his way to the sink next to her and began washing his hands. “Good afternoon,” he said in English, and she was surprised to hear her own language being spoken.
She opened her mouth to reciprocate, but then her breath hitched and she felt her face pale. She knew that voice. That was the voice that had spoken to her on the phone, the voice of the man who had taken Lily. This was him!
She swallowed her shock and continued messing with her face in the mirror, and said in as dull a tone as she could manage, “Good afternoon.”
This was the man who was behind this whole thing. He held their fate in his hands and he was right here! She wanted to hurt him. Despite her desire to be good and hold onto the light, she wanted to unleash her fire upon him as she had to his fellow lunatics. But she knew she couldn’t do that, not now when they were all so vulnerable and Lily was still being held captive in an unknown location. But if he had harmed Lily in any way, nothing could save him from Phoenyx’s wrath.
Then it suddenly dawned on her—she could touch him right now and make him help them, then this whole nightmare would be all over.
She had to reach for him in a way that wouldn’t alarm him. She purposely dropped her mascara so that it would land by his feet.
As she was about to bend down to get it and grab his ankle, the door opened and a young man stood in the doorway looking at him.
“Sir, the meeting is about to begin,” the young man said. “They are ready for you.”
“Of course,” he said. He took a quick glance in the mirror to adjust his tie, then followed the young man out of the bathroom.
Phoenyx pursed her lips and clenched her fists in anger, both at the fact that he had been drawn away before she could act, and that she had been too foolish to act sooner.
