clear that he would avoid any moment that looked even slightly intimate because he doesn’t want to be scarred for life. Prudencia must’ve nudged him while my back was turned or something because he seemed to come to his senses and remember that I can’t witness anything from Ma and Dad.
“No one knows for sure whether you can go back through your present life,” Wyatt says. “But I agree it seems unlikely, since the purpose of that ability seems to be to hop back to a previous life.”
“Brighton swears that something being unlikely doesn’t make it impossible.”
“That’s the smartest thing to come out of his mouth. Well, his mouth through your mouth. That all sounds terribly awkward.”
“Yeah, go back in time and undo the hell out of that one, please,” I say with a laugh. “Actually, if you could go back in time, is there a particular moment you have in mind?”
“Ah. Love this question.”
Wyatt mutters different ideas, but he clearly won’t commit to any of them. I personally want to know more about his favorite book, which he wants to go back and witness himself finishing for the first time. “It feels like cheating, but I’m most keen on moments with Nox. I’m not even saying that because he’s right here,” he adds with a smile. Nox eats an apple off the tree, paying us no mind. “One possibility: I was struck for days after we first flew together. It was honestly better than sex, and let there be no doubts that I’ve had loads of great sex.”
It’s definitely not a plot twist that Wyatt has been busy. I wonder if he’s hinting at something with a committed partner or casual encounters. Maybe a combo of the two. He’s what, also eighteen? Nineteen? Twenty? He’s definitely living up his life more than I am. I can only imagine what my situation would look like if I had even a tenth of his confidence.
“That sounds like a great choice,” I say, skating past his sex comment.
“But if I had to choose one moment, I’d go back to when Nox finally chose me.”
“What do you mean?”
“What, do you think Halo Knights call dibs on a phoenix and fly off merrily? We have to prove ourselves worthy. We reckon Nox was in his nineties when his former companion died. That bastard was apparently abusive, and if he were alive today, I would hold his face to the fire for all the aggression he took out on Nox.”
In moments I go from wondering about Wyatt’s sex life to remembering that he’s a Halo Knight who may have killed before.
“Nox had trust issues and wasn’t bonding with anyone else. He seemed especially irritated with me at age eight. I was very annoying, believe it or not. I’d begun training to become a Halo Knight around that time, employing all my nurturing lessons to show Nox that I was safe. But Nox was hard to woo. Over the years Nox seemed to regard me more favorably, but still wouldn’t commit to me by the time I was thirteen. I was the only one among my trainees who didn’t have a companion. They treated me like I wasn’t worth the dirt between a phoenix’s talons.”
Five years is a long time to wait. “There wasn’t another phoenix that caught your eye?”
“Absolutely. There was a queen slayer who’d recently resurrected, and I thought it would be lovely to care for one like my dad, but whether or not Nox was on the grounds with us or away on some adventure, I knew Nox was the right one for me. Our friendship was flickering; I simply had to tend to the fire. Then Nox returned after being gone for months. He was skeletal. Dying.” Wyatt gets up, as if magnetized back to his companion, and he kisses Nox between his eyes. “It’s an odd thing to grieve a phoenix you know will resurrect, but obsidians need roughly three years before respawning. Nox let me hold him as he died, and I protected his ashes in an iron crate. When Nox came back to life I was a blubbering mess, I’d missed him so much. He flew onto my shoulder and nibbled my ear, and we were each other’s.”
“What do you think made Nox ultimately choose you?” I ask.
“I think he understood that not only would I never hurt him, that I would show him the love he deserves. Frankly, I would’ve waited the rest of my life for him.”