It turned out I was wrong. Not about it being a trap, but about them recognizing my species.
Patricia met us outside the warehouse with her too-agreeable smile and welcomed us inside. We followed her into a large empty warehouse room with maybe half a dozen witches, but it wasn’t until we were fully inside, away from the door or any easily accessible exits, that another half dozen witches appeared and blocked the way to the door.
Patricia folded her arms across her chest, smiling coldly at us. “I really would have thought you wouldn’t be so naïve, but then, it just makes it easier for us.”
I looked back at her, fire against ice. “And I wouldn’t have thought you’d be so foolish as to attempt to attack me. Do you intend to join your friend Denise, then?”
That seemed to have struck a nerve. Her jaw tightened suddenly and she glared at me. “Denise was in love – it was a simple thing, really, to let her have what she wanted. We saw no harm in it. But then she killed herself, and you,” she pointed angrily at Cassie, “just walked away. So we’ve come to right that wrong. You should have died that day with Denise, so we’ll resolve that problem now.”
I took a step closer to her, trying to motion Cassie to leave as we’d planned. “That is not your decision.”
I wasn’t able to continue when Cassie burst out in anger.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She demanded. “You saw ‘no harm’ in her decision to murder me and then force me to be with her? What kind of sick, twisted minds do you people have? She wasn’t in love, she was obsessed with an idea that wasn’t real – she was a stalker! That’s not love. And then she stole my life and wanted to force me to do whatever she wanted, like a freaking slave or a puppet, and you’re all just fine with that?” She glared at all of them, earning a wince from a couple of the younger ones.
“Silence,” Patricia demanded coldly. “Ghosts are just tools to be used, know your place.”
“My place?” Cassie was seething. “My place was in my life, which your freaking coven member stole and all of you just went along with it!”
“Enough!” Patricia’s tone was loud, commanding. She glanced back at her coven, then nodded once. “It’s time to end this – for Denise’s sake.”
I moved so that I was between Patricia and Cassie. “It’s unfortunate that your coven member died,” I told her evenly, “but she chose to take her own life. What you’re about to do will only result in more coven members losing their lives as well.”
She scoffed openly. “Oh, do tell me what amazing magic the ghost has that can defeat an entire coven? Or you, for that matter?” She gave me a searing look, as if somehow that would cow me. “You have a spell on you, I can see it – preventing offensive magic. You’re easy enough to deal with, and she’s nothing. Come, witches,” she called. “Let’s end this now!”
“Cassie,” I didn’t look back at her, “run. Now.”
I could almost feel her pause, hesitating despite her promise, and I looked back at her just once, my eyes glowing brighter than normal.
“Run,” I repeated, this time more urgently.
She did. She ran straight through the wall, outside into the spring air – outside where she was less likely to face the fallout of what was about to occur.
“She’ll be easy enough to track down,” Patricia stopped the coven members from running out after her, “let’s deal with this one, first.”
I crossed my arms. “You really don’t want to do that.”
Patricia smiled coldly. “Oh, I think we really do.” And then they hit me with their first wave of magic.
I have defensive spells, true, but this was an entire coven pouring intense spells at me, spells strong enough to actually harm a ghost. I was thankful I’d sent Cassie away for that reason alone, but also for another which was becoming more and more likely.
My fire shield was starting to burn through and magic sliced at me, but hadn’t quite gotten through completely. I was breathing heavily when Patricia paused the fighting.
“Where did all this bravado go?” She asked, sneering at me. “You talked big, but you’re nothing.”
I looked up at her from where I was crouching, my skin literally smoking, my eyes on fire. “It’s not over yet. If you break my shield, you are the ones who will suffer. For the sake of all your families, I suggest you leave now. Walk away.”
Patricia laughed, loudly, triggering similar responses in most of the coven, but I saw one girl’s eyes widen at the back. She tried to grab one of the others, whispering “phoenix,” but was ignored. Pausing, the girl looked at me, then at Patricia – and then slipped out the door.
Well, at least one of them might survive. Were the others really that foolish? They were willing to kill me – certain suicide – just to, what, prove a point?
I looked at Patricia one last time. “If I die,” I warned her, “so will all of you. Such is the law of the phoenix.”
Patricia sneered at me scornfully. “You want me to believe you’re a phoenix? Phoenix have wings, and you have none, so I’m calling that bluff. I’m not sure what kind of hybrid you are, but you’re definitely not a phoenix. Besides,” she shrugged, “there’s no law against killing phoenix, unlike what you said, so if you really are a phoenix?” She smiled darkly. “I think I’d like to have the reputation of having killed a phoenix.”
She gave the signal to her coven to attack again, while I was still reeling in shock from her stupidity.
A massive outflow of magic, enough to break the last vestiges of my shield, piercing my body with enough dark magic to kill me 10 times over.
Then silence, as I collapsed on my knees, one hand holding support pillar to keep me from falling completely.
Several things happened almost at once, almost in slow motion.
First, Patricia started to laugh and announce loudly I was basically already dead.
Second, several of the coven members gasped and pointed as sparks started to flicker from my back and suddenly, with a rush of fire and smoke, wings of blazing feathers literally dripping with fire appeared.
Third, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassie had come back, worried for me, no doubt – and had no idea the danger she’d put herself in as a result.
Fourth, I died, my body falling lifeless to the floor, my wings starting to turn dark as the fire went out.
Fifth, Cassie screamed my name.
Sixth, my body started to glow red hot, the heat almost immediately reaching levels hotter than any human could survive in.
Seventh, and finally, my body burst into flames, flames almost as hot as the sun that exploded from me, consuming the entire warehouse in an instant. Patricia and her coven didn’t even have time to scream before their lives were snuffed out, burnt without leaving even a trace behind.
Then there was a long, long pause filled with silence. The witch who’d left peeked back in the door, covering her mouth in shock as she saw the charred remains of the warehouse – and nothing else.
Nothing, at least, until the ashes where I’d been started to spark, fire darting through the air in a pattern that resembled a circulatory system, a nervous system, a skeletal system – until, wings unfurled, I stood there again, wearing the same clothes I’d been wearing before I’d died.
But I was less concerned about that – or about the stunned witch – than about Cassie.
Cassie, who’d come back when I’d told her not to.
I didn’t know if phoenix death fire could kill a ghost, but it could kill a lot of things. I was terrified that, by putting herself in the vicinity of the explosion, I would have killed her by accident.
But to my immense relief, she was standing right where she had been, staring at me with her hands covering her mouth.
“Whoa, babe,” she finally said, “that was amazing! I mean, I don’t really know how I feel about everyone dying, but you did try to warn them and they wouldn’t listen but whoa, look at those wings! And all that fire! I knew you said you’d be reborn but I didn’t know it looked like that!” She darted over and ran her hand over my fiery wings, apparently unbothered by the heat. “They’re gorgeous!”
Immensely relieved that I hadn’t killed her by accident, I turned my attention to the witch in the doorway and beckoned her with one finger.
She swallowed, but came forward anyway. “Are they…are they all gone?” She whispered.
“Anyone who kills a phoenix dies in the aftermath,” I responded grimly. “If I’d realized your coven master didn’t understand anything about phoenix – how to recognize them, or what happens when you kill them, in particular – I’d have corrected her before she attempted to kill me, but unfortunately I realized too late.” I’d assumed they’d understood the risk and taken it willingly, albeit stupidly, but Patricia had been foolish and led her coven to their deaths as a result.
“But to answer your question, yes. They are gone.” I flexed my fingers, feeling the sparks tingling through my body from the rebirth. It was almost a pleasant sensation. “So, you seem to be the only coven member left – here, at least. Perhaps you will bother answering the question we came to ask?”
“Oh, that.” She swallowed, still looking around at the blackened structure like she expected Patricia and the others to somehow appear. “Um, Denise had this plan,” her eyes flitted back to me, then to Cassie somewhat uncomfortably. “She thought she could bind you to herself,” she explained, “so you’d exist as long as she did, instead of having a contract to complete in a specific amount of time, you know? But that kind of contract is tricky, and she hadn’t actually had direct contact with you, so she had to set it up to link you after your death, instead. Her plan was to have you contract to the first person you met eyes with, and that was supposed to be her. She was there at the accident – um, I mean, when she murdered you – but something happened and your body was there, but your soul wasn’t? She panicked and ran around looking for you, but Patricia thought it’d be okay still because humans wouldn’t see you and most supernaturals wouldn’t really look at a ghost, they kind of try to ignore them because it’s awkward and all. So I’m not sure what happened, but clearly you didn’t end up contracting with her, actually, or, yeah, you would have disappeared with her.”
Stunned, Cassie looked at me. I felt almost equally as shocked by this discovery.
“I didn’t look anyone in the eyes in town,” Cassie whispered. “They were all human, and then…then I decided to go to the overlook.”
Where she’d ran into me.
I blinked, opened my mouth, then shut it. Cassie was bound to me, then…and that contract had apparently survived my death and rebirth, meaning it went with my soul, not my individual body.
“Cas,” I said slowly, “I think you’re kind of immortal now.”
Technically, she could still be killed, which would end the contract, but it’s hard to kill a ghost, and one that’s bound to a phoenix’s soul?
I felt my breath catch in my throat. For the first time in my long, long life, I was with someone who could be expected to live exactly as long as I did.
That felt almost too good to be true.
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