Page 3 of Phoenix Chosen 2

“It’s alright,” I say. “I don’t need it.”

Marc places the storage box on the empty counter. “Everything should be here. You just let me know if you need anything, alright? Take it easy. We’ll have dinner coming to you in a little while.”

“Thanks.”

He leaves, and I carefully lean over and grab the box. I frown when I see that my clothes are neatly folded inside—the same set of clothes I’d been wearing when I was dropped into the swamp on Circeana. They’re completely clean, untouched by the elements. They hadn’t been when I’d traded them for the blue chiton robe that Kalistratos had bought for me. How is this possible? I hadn’t even been wearing them when I was pulled through the portal. It was like I’d never left. Like everything I imagined never really existed at all.

But wait... The figurine. The little wooden carving of the phoenix, or chicken, or whatever it was. It’d been with me. I’d seen it on the ground.

Where was it?

I pull the clothes out of the box. Beneath them is my small backpack, and I turn it inside out, searching through the empty compartments. My wallet and keys fall onto the floor. The box is empty.

That figurine was there, Iknowit. I remember seeing it. It had to be.

Or maybe I’m just crazy.

I go through the bag again. I touch the smooth plastic bottom of the box and run my fingers along the creases, as though someinvisible magical compartment might open up. I’m frantic. I can’t stop myself from throwing the empty box across the room, and I take my clothes and twist them in my hands.

“No, no, no!” I shout. “God dammit,no!”

Tok.

Something falls out from between the folds of my jeans, bounces off the sheets and hits the tile floor. The monitor beeps deafeningly. I sit myself up and lean painfully over the edge of the bed.

Lying there on its side is a little hunk of wood about three inches long. I grip the bed rails and slide from under the sheets. I glimpse my body beneath the hospital gown, bruised and bandaged. It all hurts like hell, but I push through and lower myself to the ground.

I kneel over it and slowly reach for the piece of wood, afraid that the moment my fingers touch it, it’ll vanish like a mirage. But it doesn’t. Its surface is slightly rough, just like how I remember it. I turn it over. Its face is carved into the shape of a bird. To me, it looks like a phoenix. Kalistratos insisted it’s a chicken.

Fresh tears fill my eyes and one splatters onto the figurine, darkening the wood. I squeeze the thing tightly in my hand as the biggest grin stretches across my face.

My garbled brain snaps back into focus.

Circeana is real.

I need to get back to him.

2

TYLER

Isit in my hospital bed with the little wooden figurine clutched tightly in my hands. I rub my thumb across its contours for the millionth time, like I’m trying to rub a genie out of a magic lamp. Nothing happens. But it’s here with me, and I’m convinced this means there must be a way I can return.

I’m left on my own for a while, and I sit the entire time just staring at the figurine, trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to do now. I try calling out with my thoughts again to the Great Phoenix. Nothing. Then I hold the little bird to my lips and whisper words to Kalistratos.

“I’m here,” I say. “If you can somehow hear me, Kalistratos, I’m here.”

Has time frozen in that world, or is it rolling along with me gone? The thought of him alone and trying to find me breaks my heart all over again. No, he’s not alone—he has Alyx and Airos with him. Airos is smart… Maybe he’ll figure out how to get to me.

My fingers turn white as I squeeze the figurine. I’m trying my best not to feel completely fucking hopeless.

Marc comes back a little while later with dinner. It reminds me of a high school cafeteria meal—a piece of dry meatloaf, a scoop of rice mixed with mushy broccoli and carrots, a small iceberg lettuce salad, a fruit cup, and a chocolate Jello pudding.

“What’s that there?” he asks, glancing at the figurine. “Is that a phoenix?”

I look up at him in surprise. “Actually…it’s a chicken.”

He laughs. “Oh, my mistake. My mother, shelovesphoenixes. She’s got a whole cabinet filled with stuff like that. Things she collected. Even these cheap little plastic toys she ordered on eBay. It’s supposed to be good luck to capture a phoenix. According to her, a phoenix started the world, if you want to believe that.”