“Yes.”
“And if they’re not?”
She shrugged. “I’ll keep on killing until I find one.”
Well, when you’re crazy, you’re crazy. What could I say?
“Choose,” she ordered again. “If you truly came to join me, you’ll do whatever I ask.”
“My test,” I murmured.
“Take it or die.”
I considered the threat. Maybe that would be the best bet. Killing me wasn’t as easy as it appeared.
“Okay,” I said. “I choose me.”
“No!” Jimmy shouted, at the same time Sawyer said softly but somehow just as forcefully, “No.”
“Ignore them.” I fingered my collar. “I’m definitely damned.”
“But probably not too innocent.” The Phoenix smirked.
“And they are?”
She crossed the dry grass and kissed Sawyer. It took a while. I didn’t want to watch, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. When she lifted her mouth from his she said, “He once was the most innocent of innocents. Until his mother made him into this.”
I winced. So did Sawyer.
The Phoenix cruised on to Jimmy, kissed him too. He tried to avoid it, but the chain around his neck wouldn’t let him move very far. When she lifted her mouth, there was blood on both their lips. “I heard what you did to him.”
I glanced at Sawyer, who refused to meet my eyes. Had he told her every damn thing?
“He was innocent until you seduced him into making you a monster.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I’m impressed. Hutzpa like that I can use.”
“I’m so glad you approve.” My voice was dry, but I managed to make myself smile, even as I wondered just how she planned to kill Sawyer. Had he told her that secret too? If so, I wasn’t safe either. If not . . . we might just have a way out.
I filed that thought. If I had to, I could choose Sawyer, buy some time. He wouldn’t die and maybe . . .
What? The cavalry would show up? Highly doubtful, since the cavalry was me.
“Which will it be?” The Phoenix came toward me twirling the golden knife. “If you choose wisely, the other one lives.”
Because if I chose the one who fulfilled the requirements in the key, she’d be the Antichrist and there’d be no need to kill anyone else—at least right now. Talk about pressure.
“Let me think.” I moved past her, headed for Sawyer.
“Search her,” she ordered. A revenant came forward and pawed me like a seventeen-year-old with his first prom date.
He stepped back. “Clean.”
“No one kills around here but me,” the Phoenix said. Guess she was worried I’d steal Samyaza. No thanks.
“Five minutes,” the Phoenix continued. “I’ve waited long enough.”
I didn’t even glance at her as she walked away. I had no idea what to do. I could only hope that the boys did.
I approached Sawyer first. He was closest.
He’d said I couldn’t trust him, and he was probably right, but I had to hope that having her treat him like any other sacrifice in town might have shifted his loyalties a bit.
His gaze met mine. “Shhh,” he breathed.
That was promising.
I laid my body against his, put my lips to his neck, then slid them up to his ear. “Does she know how to kill you?”
“Yes.”
I cursed.
“Hold on,” he murmured. “Remember when I said there are certain things that only happen if I let them?”
I leaned back, stared into his eyes, but as usual I saw nothing I could hold on to in their smoky depths. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“If you’re thinking that I must choose to die in order to die, then yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
“Seriously?”
His mouth twisted—half smile, half grimace. “It’s what the old ones sang when I was a boy.”
“Back when Noah was a pup,” I muttered.
The Navajo passed down their legends in songs and stories. Year after year, century after century, the elders sang around the fires and the next generation learned the traditions.
“Nothing that’s ever been tried has actually killed me,” he continued, “so I’m inclined to believe the legends are true.”
“You’ve never wanted to die?”
Those eyes that had only a second ago been unreadable became anything but. “I didn’t say that.”
How could I ask such a question after meeting his mother? Or after seeing his pain at the loss of his wolf mate, or his agony upon killing Maria?
“Yet you’re still here,” I murmured.
“I’ve always had things to do, people who needed me.”
I laid my head on his chest. “So I can choose you,” I said. “She’ll try to kill you, but you won’t die.”
“Even if I did, my blood wouldn’t bring her what she wants. I’m too damned to be innocent, Elizabeth.”
I lifted my head, gazed into his eyes. “Aren’t we all?”
His lips curved. “You need to think this through. When I don’t die, she’ll turn right around and kill Sanducci. You can’t let that happen.”
“Damn skippy,” I muttered.
“You have to kill him first.”
“What?” I straightened with a jerk, then tried to back up so fast I stumbled. “No.”
“Listen to me,” Sawyer began.
A mumble started among the revenants—unease combined with excitement. Sawyer looked into the sky and cursed.
I figured the Phoenix had lost patience and was flying toward us, ready to take the decision out of my hands. Though what would be the fun in that? Didn’t she look forward to the agony and pain that would inevitably follow whatever choice I made like any evil thing should?
Maybe that was what she was after. Could she be staging this stupid “choose who dies” tableau so that once I did, and I lost my will to live, she could kill me too? Wouldn’t put it past her.
My hands clenched into fists as I turned. Until that moment I hadn’t known I planned to fight. I was supposed to be changing sides, doing whatever it took to steal the damned key, even if it meant sacrificing one or both of these men. If I didn’t, more people would die than just them.
However, the Phoenix wasn’t the one sailing out of the sky to land softly on the ground.
“Summer?” My fingers uncurled from my palms. “What in hell are you doing here?”
CHAPTER 33
I’d forgotten about the fairy. I’d had a few things on my mind. Seeing her turn up right in the middle of the chaos . . . I wasn’t sure what to think.
“Where’ve you been?” Jimmy asked.
“I—uh—” Summer put her hands behind her back, thrusting out her perky breasts as her tiny white teeth bit her perfect pink lip. “Well, you see—”
“She’s been hanging around here.” The Phoenix spoke from the porch steps, where she sat paging through a book.
Hello.
The tome appeared very old, very familiar. I could see the star and the lions on the cover. I had to resist the urge to run across the yard, snatch it and—
What? Stand there while she murdered me, or at least tried?
I was going to have to kill her to get it. I’d known that all along.
I glanced at Jimmy, but he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of Summer.
She looked the same as she always did. Impossibly pretty in her fringed white halter top, cowboy hat and boots. Did she ever wear anything else? Why bother when that looked so good?
“Why have you been hanging around here?” I asked, unease bubbling in my belly.
“Go ahead,” the Phoenix said, continuing to absently page through the key. “Tell them that you work for me.”
Summer narrowed her cornflower-blue eyes. “Not yet.”
“What is she saying?” Jimmy’s voice shook.
I cast him a quick glance. He was pale beneath the olive tone of his skin, his dark eyes hollow.
“And you said I broke him,” I muttered.
“You did.” The fairy transferred her glare to me. “So I had to fix him.”
“He’s fine.”
“He doesn’t look fine.”
Summer and I moved closer as we argued until we were almost nose-to-nose. Or nose-to-throat, considering she was the size and weight of a ten-year-old.
“My patience is waning,” the Phoenix interrupted. “I need a decision.”
Summer spun on her booted heel. “Jimmy isn’t available for your sick games.”
The Phoenix glanced up from the book with a smirk. “And why is that?”
Summer hesitated. “You know why.”
“Because you sold your soul to protect him?”
“Yeah.” The fairy sighed. “That’s why.”
My eyes widened. I glanced at Sawyer, whose expression gave nothing away—had he known or hadn’t he?—then Jimmy, whose expression revealed all. He hadn’t known, and he was as horrified by the revelation as I was.
I shoved Summer in the back. “You’ve been on their side all along?”
She stumbled forward several steps before whirling, hands clenched into fists as mine had been. “No!”
“Are you aware what selling your soul means?”
“More than you are.”
“I’d have to agree. Because I’d never do it.”
“I know you wouldn’t,” she shouted. “You don’t love him like I do.”
“Summer,” Jimmy whispered. “Why?”
All the fight went out of her. Her shoulders slumped; her hands went limp. She closed her eyes and took several breaths before facing him. “I can see the future. I knew what would happen if I didn’t. You’d die.”
“That’s going to happen anyway.”
“No. I made a deal.”
“You didn’t make a deal with me,” the Phoenix said.
“I made it with your boss.”
“He isn’t my boss yet. He won’t be my boss until I find the right sacrifice. Once I do, then I’ll be bound by his agreements. Until then, kiss my ass.”
Wow, she really was my mother.
Summer didn’t waste time arguing with a crazy person; she shot her hands out, spewing fairy dust like water from a fire hose.
All right, I thought. We are in business now. We might just get out of here alive.
Then the sparkly stream seemed to hit a wall a few inches in front of the Phoenix, and it ricocheted, streaking back in our direction, coating both Summer and me in enchanted silver dew.
The dust had no effect on me; it rarely did. Fairy magic doesn’t work on those on an errand of mercy, which was pretty much the story of my life. However, Summer got knocked on her ass.
She tumbled into me, cursing. Between the swear words, I caught “charm” and “rowan.” The Phoenix had come prepared to repel fairy magic.
I reached out to steady Summer. As soon as my palms grasped her arms I saw everything.
Summer arrives at the lake in her light blue ’57 Chevy Impala. She gets out, appearing exactly the same then as she does now. Tight jeans, boots, cowboy hat. The only difference is a fringed western shirt instead of her usual halter top.
The lake is deserted. Sawyer is gone; the body of Maria lies where he left it. Summer loads the Phoenix into the trunk and heads east.
The Impala’s headlights wash over the Welcome to Cairo sign. Summer drives straight to the cemetery and in the shadow of the moon digs a grave, then tosses in the Phoenix and fills it back up. She shoots fairy dust across the damp, dark earth and new grass sprouts; then Summer turns and goes back to the car.
Before she’s taken five steps, fire erupts on the grave, flaring high and bright, painting the silver-tinged night red and orange and gold. She keeps walking, ignoring the flames. She has her hand on the Impala when the thin wail splits the night.
Her head hangs between her shoulders; her fingers clench on the handle, but she doesn’t jump in and drive away. Instead she returns to the grave.
The new grass is french-fried. The place smells like a bonfire. In the center of the blackened earth a naked baby squalls and kicks. A girl, with a cap of dark hair and burnished skin. When Summer’s shadow falls over her, she opens her bright blue eyes and screams even louder.
“I am born,” I whispered.
And Summer slugged me in the gut.
I let go of her arm. “You—” Cough. Cough. Breathe. “Moved the body.”
“The only way to be resurrected was to be truly dead,” the Phoenix said from her perch on the porch.
“You were dead.” If she hadn’t been, Sawyer wouldn’t be the sorcerer we all knew and feared and I wouldn’t be here.
“Yes and no.”
Why couldn’t anything ever just be yes or no? Good or evil. Black or white. Lately everything was one big glob of gray.
The Phoenix set the key aside as if it were no more important that the latest New York Times bestselling beach read. My fingers fairly itched to snatch it, but I had to bide my time. First I’d kill her; then I’d grab it.
“You know how a fire seems to die,” she explained, “but deep down the embers still glow, and the only way to be sure is to kick dirt over it?” I nodded. “Same principle. I’m a phoenix. The only way for that last spark of life to go out was for me to be buried in the earth of my homeland.”
“This isn’t really Egypt.”
She picked up the book again—was she taunting me with that thing?—and shrugged. “Names have power. A little grave, a little magic, and it was obviously good enough.”
“Obviously,” I agreed, gaze on Summer, who’d crept closer to Jimmy, though she didn’t get too close. He was still looking at her as if she was Satan’s handmaiden, which apparently she was.
“You dropped me on a doorstep,” I accused.
“Would you have preferred I left you to die on the ground?”
Considering certain memories of my youth . . . maybe.
“Why didn’t you take me directly to Ruthie?”
“You were the daughter of a traitor,” Summer said. “Your mother tried to kill the light.”
I jerked a thumb at Sawyer. “So did his.”
“By then he was a big boy. He didn’t need anyone to protect him.”
“You were protecting me?” My voice was aghast. “You really do need a dictionary.” I thought of the note that had been left along with me. “Why ‘Elizabeth Phoenix’?”
“ ‘Phoenix’ so we could find you later.”
“And ‘Elizabeth’?”
“I liked it.”
“You say you sold your soul for Sanducci, but he wasn’t even born when this happened.”
Her dewy blue eyes met mine. “The future was bright with him. I dreamed of him when I slept. When I woke, my chest ached for missing him. I saw how it would be when I lost him. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“So you dialed Satan’s hotline and volunteered your immortal soul?” Call me crazy, but that wasn’t love; it was obsession.
“Samyaza found me,” she said.
Ruthie had told me that Satan had been pulling strings on earth since he’d been thrown into the pit. All he needed was a willing conduit, and there were plenty. We had one right here.
“I just had to bury the Phoenix, and Jimmy’s life would be spared. It seemed so easy.”
“It’s all fun and games until the Apocalypse shows up,” I muttered.
“He’d be dead by now if it wasn’t for me,” she snapped.
“Well, we’ll never really know that for sure, will we?”
Summer lifted her chin. “I do.”
“How did the key end up in there with her?”
“Wasn’t me,” Summer said.
“Time’s up.” The Phoenix crossed the yard; the key lay discarded on the top porch step. “Choose now, or I’ll choose for you.”
“You can’t choose Jimmy,” Summer blurted.
I narrowed my gaze on the pastel perfection of her
face. “How about we kill you?”
“No!” Jimmy shouted, and I turned to him in surprise.
“I’m sorry. Did you actually say no to killing the soul-selling fairy?”
“Lizzy.” His face was tormented. “You can’t.”
I could, but that wasn’t the point. That he was so bent out of shape about it seemed to be. Since when did Sanducci care? Sure, he’d slept with her. A lot. But he hadn’t loved her. He’d loved me.
Except he didn’t anymore.
Why Jimmy loving Summer mattered I couldn’t quite say. I had bigger issues at hand.
“Choose!” the Phoenix screamed, and her hands began to glow.
“Shit,” Summer muttered. “I think we’re gonna need a bigger phoenix.”
I actually laughed. Nerves? Panic? End of the world fever? Probably all three.
“Elizabeth.” Sawyer’s gray eyes seemed to glow as silver as the lightning that had flashed from the sky on the night he’d killed my mother. “Listen to the fairy. Think. And remember.”
My laughter died as I stared at Sawyer, and all the little pieces clicked into place.
Lightning.
I looked at Jimmy.
Love.
I returned my gaze to Summer.
A bigger phoenix.
And I knew what I had to do.
“I choose Jimmy,” I said.
“No!” Summer shrieked, and lunged for me.
The Phoenix backhanded her; the fairy flew several yards and lay still. My mother walked across the grass and stared at the still form. Then she lifted her foot over Summer’s head. Before she brought it down, I turned and hurried toward Jimmy.
I could tell by the way he stared at me that he’d added all the parts and come up with the same solution.
I kissed him, quick and hard. No time for anything more. “I do love you.”
“I guess we’re gonna find out.”
I reached for my collar, casting a quick glance at Sawyer, who nodded, grim-faced, so I opened the catch. The necklace tumbled to the ground and someone gasped.
I stilled as the change flowed over me, relishing the flare of strength and power, the knowledge that anyone with a brain should be afraid. They should be very afraid.
In this form life was magnified—color and sound and scent. Every whisper, every movement, from the revenants crashed in my ears like waves breaking on a rocky beach.
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