Phoenix Academy - Lucy Auburn Page 0,64

my feet and try to move towards her, but she snarls at me like a wild animal. I motion for the guys to stay away and stare into her eyes, trying to see some sense of my little sister. "They won't hurt you. I promise."

She cocks her head to the side, as if she's listening to a voice. Not my voice. Not my words.

Tonelessly, she murmurs, "Yes, father."

Then she shuts her eyes and begins to burn.

Fire, white-hot and grey in color, leaps from her fingers and blossoms across her chest. It consumed her white braid and races across her delicate skin. I scream, heart in my throat, and lunge for her.

By the time I reach the spot where she was standing, there's nothing there but a tiny pile of ash.

She's gone.

Not dead, I sense.

But... somewhere. With him.

"We have to go get her," I tell the guys hollowly. "This time, we free her from him completely."

The thing about my father's magic is, no one seems to quite understand how it works. Even Dani, who dealt with another Husk named the Manslayer, says she's not sure what makes the two men different.

"He was brutal and strong, but the magic he had came from that bracelet I gave you," she says on the phone. "I gave you the rune I used to defeat him, and as far as I know it should work on your father. But I don't know what's going on with your sister. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

The guys and I have gathered in the empty building near the followers, where we dragged their bodies after Lizzy disappeared. Piled in the corner, they make an ominous display—a reminder of what I'm capable of, when I put my mind to it.

I tell myself I'm okay with adding their deaths to my ledger. But part of me wonders what will happens if I let the red of the blood I've shed take over anything else. There was no way to let these men live—they outnumbered us, and serve a horrible master. I just wish I hadn't been the one to kill them.

Auerbach's voice on speakerphone interrupts my thoughts. "What type of link does Lizzy have to your father, Ari? Did you see any marks on her, or feel magic in the air when he called her back?"

"No. If there were any marks on her, they were under clothing. But as far as I know the Heretic doesn't need to mark his people. There seemed to be some kind of psychic connection between them." I pause, considering what other kind of information I can give him. "She had this grey flame. Like a phoenix, almost, but I didn't see wings, and her hair is white now. When he spoke to her and she was under his spell, her irises turned this colorless grey."

Headmaster Towers speaks up, "Were they white, Ari, or grey? This is important."

"Grey, like I said."

"And the flames were grey too?"

I start to feel impatient about repeating myself over and over. "Yeah, like I said, the flames she cast were grey. I assume because her connection to him gave her some kind of magic. What is this about, Headmaster?"

"I don't think her connection is what gave her magic. I think her death at his hands is what did it—just like for you."

The air leaves my lungs all at once, and I look up at the guys, needing reassurance from their steady presence here, their loyal gazes on my face. "You're saying she's a phoenix?"

"It's possible. A rare one, but—we've been getting more of those recently. And it wouldn't be unheard of for two siblings from the same family to both have the gift of rebirth. The power of the phoenix is a genetic trait, just like with shifters."

"She wasn't a blue phoenix, though. I thought that's what all witches turn into. And Lizzy was a witch, just like me and my mother."

"Are you sure she wasn't a seer?"

I feel the ground tilt beneath me as my whole life, my whole world view, shifts. "I guess she could've been. Her knack for naturalistic powers was always... lacking, compared to me and mom. And she had terrible dreams. I thought... I thought they were just because our father was hunting us, but looking back, maybe her dreams were something else. Maybe they were..."

"Foresight."

The headmaster sounds satisfied, eager even, but all I feel is afraid. A seer with phoenix powers.

If Lizzy is truly that special, he'll never give her up. He'll hunt her to