Phoenix

by Jessica Wayne

  They hadn’t moved next door to Dakota’s family until well after her first birthday; Dakota’s mother had told her that much.

  Her thoughts circled back to Terrenia when she first arrived. Annabelle told her that Mitch had been no father to her, that a father was someone who brings love to your heart, not fear. Even the genetic markers were there. Anastasia and Gregory both had the same blue eyes, eyes that matched her own, while Monica and Mitch’s were both brown. She’d just been so focused on surviving that she hadn’t paid it much notice.

  She looked up at Gregory, who regarded her with a wary stare as if he were afraid she might scream and run away.

  “I'm your daughter.”

  Gregory smiled widely. It was the first real smile she had seen on his face since Annabelle’s death.

  “Yes, you are.”

  “Annabelle was my mother.”

  “Yes.”

  Rather than filling with joy, Anastasia’s chest tightened with anger. Why the hell had they waited so long to tell her? “You let me go three months without knowing? Time that I could have been getting to know my mother!”

  Gregory’s smile faltered, and his eyes filled.

  “Anastasia, she insisted we give you time to get used to being here.”

  “I didn’t need that long.” She’d gotten her mother killed. Her mother. Anastasia covered her face with her hands. She could have been getting to know her mother, getting to know who she had come from, rather than focusing on trying to not become anything like who she’d thought her biological parents were.

  “I know I can’t go back,” Gregory said softly. “But if I could, I would go back and tell you the truth the night I rescued you.”

  Anastasia ground her teeth together. They’d wanted to give her time. Time to get used to the idea that there were multiple worlds out there and she’d been taken to one. How would she have reacted if he’d told her that night?

  She would have believed him. It may have taken a few minutes to come around to it, but she was desperate for anything to separate her from the monster she’d grown up with. Anastasia took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Whatever their reasoning had been, and however pissed off she was now; it paled to one simple fact: “I was wanted.”

  “More than you will ever know, Anastasia. I'm so sorry I didn’t get to you sooner. I took my magic slowly. I knew its depths and that I could have so easily turned dark in my search for you. Annabelle convinced me that if I turned, you were lost anyway.” Tears began streaming down his face.

  The revelation hit her like a ton of bricks, although on some level she wasn’t surprised. She had been loved by parents who wanted her, who believed she could do anything in the world if she wanted to. She hadn’t been born to a cruel man, nor did his blood run through her veins. Her mother wasn’t a weak doormat, but a strong, beautiful woman.

  Her heart began to ache for Annabelle, a mother whom she hadn’t known long enough, and she felt the anger follow closely behind the pain, for a man who had stolen her childhood away.

  21

  Anastasia

  “Focus, Anastasia,” Gregory said calmly.

  Anastasia sat cross-legged on the floor of the training room, her eyes closed tightly.

  After the revelation that she was Gregory’s daughter set in, they begun trying to tap into her magic.

  “You have to be easy about it. Don’t think too hard; just let it come.”

  “You aren’t worried I will turn dark?”

  Gregory laughed lightly. “That is the last thing I am worried about. It’s not the sensing of one’s magic that will turn them dark, it’s when you begin practicing the more advanced magic that there’s a risk. Besides, I don’t think there’s a dark bone in your body.”

  “Isn’t that what everyone believes? That they are the ones who won’t turn?”

  “We will cross that bridge when we come to it. I just want you to find a way to access your power without having to be angry.”

  “Okay.” She tuned out everything around her, and did her best to focus on the task at hand. Her mind drifted back to her childhood, and how different it would have been had she not been taken as a baby. She would have had a happy life, she knew. Gregory and Annabelle would have been wonderful parents to grow up with.

  Mitch and Monica had always been so cruel to her. Monica had been more passive than Mitch, but Anastasia had always felt more as a means to an end than a family member to them. At least now she knew why.

  She focused on Mitch. On how he would tear her down and make her feel like she were useless. Within moments, it was there. She could feel something; a slow humming in her blood that steadily built until it nearly consumed her.

  “I feel something.”

  “Fantastic. Hold your hand out, palm up.”

  She did as he said and kept the focus on the part of her she had never known existed.

  “Think about light, Anastasia.”

  She thought about the day she arrived in Terrenia, and about how she had seen Gregory holding the ball of light in his hands, much to Brady’s delight.

  “Astounding,” Gregory whispered.

  She opened her eyes, and smiled widely. A ball of light the size of a softball danced in the palm of her hand.

  “I did it!”

  “You did wonderfully, Anastasia! Even I didn’t get it the first try. It took me weeks to master that, and I had known my entire life what was inside of me.”

  She studied the light, then did as she had seen Gregory do and closed her palm. The light expanded and then burst into tiny pieces. She laughed as they fell around her, disappearing into the ground.

  “Fantastic.” His eyes were wide in awe, and he studied her closely. “You are amazing, Anastasia. Your mother would have been very proud of you.”

  “Thank you.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she smiled at him.

  “Let’s try something else.”

  Later that evening, they sat on the stairs together staring out into the night.

  “So, all those times weird things happened around me, I was using magic?”

  Gregory nodded. “It appears as though anger triggers your magic. That can be a good start to help you begin to access your power, but you’ll need to find that control so you can control it even when you are not angry. Anger is a trigger for me as well; it’s how I learned I’d inherited my mother’s power.”

  She looked at him, wanting him to continue.

  “My brother came into his magic about a year before I did. Unlike me, he didn’t fear the power. Our mother had always avoided using her own and passed down the stories of those who had lost their souls to the darkness. The thought of it scared me, but Vincent was never bothered by the threat.” He ran his hand through his hair. “He started bullying me. Beat me up enough times, and eventually, I snapped. I almost killed him, and he laughed about it. That’s when I swore I would never use magic again—that is, until you were taken.” He conjured a ball of light and sent it floating into the air.

  “That night, Vincent came to tell us what he had done. ‘I didn’t kill her’, he assured us, as if that would make what he did right. He told me that he wouldn’t return you and that if I wanted you back, I would have to use my magic to find you. He found humor in the irony that the very reason I refused my magic was the reason I would need it. I flew into a rage and very nearly took the house down with me.” Gregory looked up at the sky and smiled.

  “Annabelle brought me back. She was the only thing I could think of, and I remembered how happy she was the day we found out we were pregnant with you. That’s when I focused, and I knew that if I lost myself, I would lose her and all hope of ever finding you.”

  He turned to face her. “The seer told us that you would be more powerful than we could ever imagine. If you, even for a moment, begin to believe that the power is too much, you have to find a way to come back.”

  “I think my friend Dakota brought me back last night when I fought with Maximus. It was so st
range, he just popped into my head, and it helped me to refocus. Otherwise, I might have killed Maximus before I even realized it.”

  “You love him.”

  “Dakota?”

  “Yes, it’s the only reason he would have come into your mind at that moment. He is your light, as Annabelle was mine.”

  She nodded absently. Dakota had been her light growing up, the only reason she hadn’t lost her mind in that house. He’d been the one who rescued her after they’d graduated, insisting she move in with him right away. It would make sense that he would be the one to keep her grounded now. And it wasn’t like she would deny her feelings for him. She did love him, and would love him until the day she died.

  “He was always there for me growing up. Bringing me food when Mitch had told me I couldn’t eat, celebrating my birthday when no one else seemed to care.”

  “It’s hard for you, isn’t it, him not being here?”

  She nodded absently, her thoughts still on memories of her friend.

  “I’m sorry you had to leave him behind. If there’d been another way—”

  “Gregory, Anastasia,” Tony interrupted as he ran toward them from the direction of the village, three Fighters following closely behind him. Anastasia jumped up. The last time Tony and the Fighters had come to see Gregory was the night they’d lost Annabelle.

  “Tony, what is it?” Gregory’s voice was laced with fear.

  “Sebastian and Alastair.”

  “What about them?”

  “They were killed.” Tony looked at Anastasia and then back at Gregory as if asking for permission to continue.

  Gregory stood and walked down the stairs. “She’s fine, go ahead. Killed how?”

  “It looks like a Brute did it, only they were found in Maximus’s bedroom. His mother found them. It’s bad, Gregory, and there’s something else.” Tony paused, quickly looking back and forth between Anastasia and Gregory. “Maximus and Brady are both missing.”

  “Oh, God.” Anastasia raced down the stairs to stand beside Gregory. “We have to go find them!”

  “Anastasia, I need you to stay—”

  “Gregory,” Tony said hesitantly, “we could use her. She is quick with a sword, and another pair of eyes will help. We will send her with Patrick and Leo.” He motioned to the two Fighters who stood behind him. “With nightfall approaching, we could definitely use the extra help.”

  Gregory stood silently for a moment, contemplating. “Very well,” he finally agreed. “You three check the fence for any way they could have gotten in. Stay out of the trees,” he warned. “Tony and I will go to the village and grab more Fighters. We will check the forest. Anastasia, stay safe.”

  “I will.” She turned and ran back toward the village with the two Fighters on her heels.

  22

  Anastasia

  “I don’t see any way they could have gotten in,” Patrick grumbled as they walked the perimeter of the fence.

  “It’s strange,” she agreed. They had nearly walked the entire perimeter, and there were no signs of Brutes. No footprints, broken twigs, or any damage to the fence.

  A scream tore through the night, and Anastasia’s hand shot to her sword.

  Patrick and Leo unsheathed theirs as well, and all three turned toward the tree line. The scream sounded again, and she bolted for the trees.

  “It’s Brady!” Fear gripped her heart, and she plunged into the darkness.

  “We were told to stay out of the trees!” Patrick yelled after her.

  “We can’t let them kill him!” Leo yelled back at him.

  They ran through the trees, the branches pulling at Anastasia’s hair as she raced in the direction of the screaming. She burst into the clearing and stopped dead in her tracks, an angry growl forming in her throat.

  Brady was tied to a tree, his eyes wide and his cheeks tear-stained.

  “Anastasia!” he cried out.

  She narrowed her eyes on the blood dripping from a cut in his arm. “It’s okay, Brady, I’m here.” She started to step toward him, and Maximus appeared between a gap in the trees.

  “Maximus! What happened? Where—?” The glint of a blade caught her eye, and she looked back up to his face.

  He was smiling, widely, completely unafraid.

  “Took you long enough,” he mocked.

  “You did this?”

  “You catch on quick.”

  “But why?”

  “Because I’m tired of living in your shadow. Ever since the day you arrived it’s been Anastasia this and Anastasia that. Hell, even before you arrived you were all anyone ever talked about. Blah, blah, blah!” He sneered. “Do you honestly think you’re the only one who’s ever had it bad? My dad died when I was a kid, and my bitch mother kept me under her thumb ever since!”

  “To protect you.”

  “Psht. That’s a load of bull. She wanted to control me, Gregory wanted to control me, but I’m done with that.”

  “So that makes murdering your friends and torturing an innocent child right?”

  “Innocent? Hardly. He’s under your influence.” Maximus rolled his eyes.

  “So you’re doing this because you think I get too much attention?” I just have to keep him focused on me and buy enough time for Patrick and Leo to catch up. Surely they weren’t that far behind!

  “I’m doing this to prove what I am capable of. To prove that you are not what they think you are.”

  “And what exactly do they think I am?”

  Maximus eyed her. “Don’t play games with me, Anastasia. I know you’ve heard all about the prophecy by now. Shit, it’s all my mom talks about.”

  “You haven’t liked me since day one, and I didn’t even know about the prophecy then.” While it wasn’t entirely true since Gregory had told her of it shortly after her arrival, she still hadn’t believed it until recently.

  “I nothing-d you when you arrived. You were of no interest to me. A plain, weak girl who wasn’t good for anything. Now you’ve become a nuisance.”

  “I thought you would have learned your lesson about taunting me after our last encounter.” She circled around him, trying to get closer to Brady.

  “I have much better backup this time.” He motioned behind her, and she turned for the first time to see that four Brutes formed a small half-circle around her. Neither Patrick nor Leo stood behind her, and she prayed they were just lost in the trees.

  “Is that why you killed them?” she asked, hoping to buy some time for either Patrick or Leo to catch up, or for Gregory and the other Fighters to find them. “Because Sebastian and Alastair let you get your ass kicked by a girl?”

  “It wasn’t a fair fight!” he yelled, lunging toward her but then pulling back. “They couldn’t keep their noses out of my business.”

  “So, they didn’t want to join your Brute-loving psychopathic club?”

  He grinned, and she wondered how she had never seen the madness in his eyes. The ice had always been there, but she would have never predicted he would have been a traitor or that he would have been capable of something as monstrous as hurting an innocent child.

  Leaves crunched behind her, and she launched into an attack as two of the four Brutes jumped toward her. She felt the satisfaction as one fell onto her sword, but before she could pull the blade out of its chest, the other three were on her. She kicked and punched, but she was no match for the three of them.

  She tried to dig down and access her magic, anything that could help her, but all she felt was fear—fear for Brady and fear for herself.

  The Brutes held her arms, and Maximus came to stand in front of her. He raised a fist and slammed it into her jaw. Her head jerked back from the contact, and she grunted as his other one struck her stomach.

  “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to knock you down a few pegs!” His breaths were heavy, and she cried out when she felt a rib crack beneath his fist. Her vision swam, and her legs went weak from the pain.

  A deep growl sounded b
ehind her, and the assault stopped.

  “Get it, you morons!” Maximus yelled.

  She did the best she could to pull herself toward Brady, but with each movement, it felt like her body was on fire. Anastasia narrowed her eyes trying to see what was happening, but she could only make out shapes. A large form was taking the Brutes down one by one, and Anastasia could have sworn it looked like a giant cat. She shook her head, blinking furiously to try to clear her vision.

  “This isn’t over!” Maximus cried out.

  Moments later, Anastasia felt soft fur beneath her arm. The beast’s muscles bunched beneath her broken body as it tried to lift her to her feet.

  “I need to get to Brady,” she told it. “Please, I need to help him.”

  “Anastasia!” Gregory called, and she smiled slightly as relief warmed her chest. They found us! Brady will be okay now.

  “Get Brady!” Tony ordered the other Fighters.

  “What happened, Anastasia?" Gregory knelt beside her. “Thank you,” he said to her rescuer.

  “It was Maximus,” she choked out. “He killed Alastair and Sebastian.” Her breaths were ragged, and she fought for consciousness.

  “We need to get them back to the village.”

  “Let’s go,” Tony said.

  “Patrick and Leo?” she asked hopefully.

  “We didn’t find them. Let’s get you back to the village. You’re in bad shape.”

  23

  Anastasia

  Anastasia opened her eyes slowly and squinted when the light hit them. The chest of drawers and chair in the corner let her know that she was in her room, but the events that put her there were still a little foggy. She pulled herself into a sitting position and winced when her entire body screamed in protest.

  Maximus. She closed her eyes as memories of the attack surfaced and pissed her off all over again. The coward had jumped her!

  Anastasia took a deep breath and stood. The pain wasn’t unbearable, so she walked to the mirror. Her face was still black and blue in some places, but although they were bloodshot, her eyes were no longer swollen shut. She limped to the door and very nearly tripped when she opened it.