Page 21 of Phoenix Chosen 2
“What are you talking about?”
“I know what it feels like to leave important things unresolved. It becomes a door in the back of your mind that invites ghosts that sit on your shoulders and torment you forever. Trust me, Tyler. Close this door while you have the chance.”
Tyler stares down at the cup in his hands, his expression hard and tense as he considers what I’ve said. “This is so dumb,” he groans. “I put my feelings for him behind me. I’m so fucking over it. It just makes me wonder what I was even thinking, devoting so much of my energy to him. Why does having to deal with him make me feel so damn uncomfortable?”
“Because your feelings for him may have changed, but youarefriends. And the things you shared as friends aren’t easily forgotten. It’s simple to cast someone aside when you believe they’ve only ever done you wrong. But you know that’s not the case. You don’t need to make him into an enemy.”
Meeting Jeff, I could see he was not a wicked person, though it was easy for me to believe so based on the stories Tyler had told me about him. He was just a man with his own host of faults. I didn’t necessarily have to like him, but he’d tried to protect Tyler, and that was enough to convince me he was an ally.
I smile. “I must say… Jeff is certainly not what I expected.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I would’ve thought the man who you’d been so enamored with would be more of, well, an alpha. And more handsome. You must’ve been very desperate. Or”—I inhale sharply—“his dick must bemassive.”
Tyler’s laughter fills the room. “Oh my God, Kalistratos. Seriously?”
My smile broadens. “Which one is it?”
He shrugs and sips from his cup. “We have a saying here… A little of column A, a little of column B.”
I nod. “Of course.”
I sniff the cup of dark soup. It has a rich, earthy aroma, unlike anything I’ve ever smelled before. Warm. Inviting. Something this fragrant must be delicious?—
I take a drink and immediately spray it across the table.
“Cheesus, what is this foul brew?!”
Tyler laughs even harder.
“I don’t understand why I require more clothes,” I say, watching as Tyler digs through the drawers of his garment chest.
It’s the morning, and Tyler says we must venture out to find one of those magic glowing stones he calls afoan.
“Are these not acceptable?” I ask, gesturing to the tee shirt and jinnshors.
He pauses and stares at my body. “I mean, I have zero complaints about you looking like you’re walking around in your underwear. Others might not be so into it, though.”
I shrug. “I think it looks rather nice.”
“Like I said… zero complaints from me.” He swats my bulge with a grin. “But we definitely don’t want someone calling the cops on you. Here, try these sweatpants on.”
“Sweat… pants?”
“Don’t worry, they’re clean.”
“You have a strange world filled with strange things, Tyler,” I say.
The sweaty pants are tight and restrictive on my legs, and it feels like they want to burst off of my body.
Tyler is holding back a laugh. “Jesus, I guess I skipped one too many leg days.”
“Is this correct?” I ask, looking at myself in the mirror. “Are these acceptable? I can hardly move.”
“They’ll have to work for now. They’re the stretchiest pants I have. Here, put this hat on. And wear these.”
He hands me a piece of headwear in a similar style to what I’d seen Jeff wearing the day before, along with a black mask-like thing. I place them over my eyes and find I can see through them, although it is very dark.