Phoenix Academy - Lucy Auburn Page 0,67

he lost last night as the sun set. His keen eyes pick out signs of human passage through the brush—broken twigs, misplaced leaves, little things I wouldn't be able to spot. Along with his incredible shifter nose, he makes a great tracker.

"Why can't you track like your brother?" I ask Reggie. "I've been wondering this whole time. You'd think the two of you would have the same shifter skillset."

"Our panthers are different," he points out. "Mine is all about strength and brutality. Xavier is more of a planner."

David snorts. "You can say that again. When this one is in panther form, all you have to do it pull his tail and run away, and he sees red. No thought in that empty fuzzy black head of his."

"Rude."

"True."

Just as the guys are about to go full-on rivalry on me, Xavier calls out from ahead of us. "I found it! Her scent. And a little piece of thread."

"My father?" I ask, heart beating fast.

"No sign of him here. Though I have the feeling he can't be far off—there's a reason why he called to her." He tilts his head to one side, as if listening to things none of us can hear. "There's a small gathering not far from here. I think it's possible your sister is headed that way. If she is, I'd put money that she's about to meet up with your father."

"So we have to get to her fast." Chewing my lower lip, I muse on her fast exit. "I wonder why she didn't just flit to wherever he was when she disappeared. That grey flame of hers... it was something else."

"Maybe she couldn't move that far in one go. Or, if her powers are new, maybe she can't control them yet. All I know is—we better hurry up and get a move on, before she's in his clutches for good and he never lets her out of his sight again."

Fair point. Hoping against hope that we'll get there fast enough, and that my father is nowhere nearby, I hitch my pack up on my shoulders and set my sore feet into overdrive. This isn't my first cross-country hike in dangerous conditions, but I've never pushed my body as far or as fast as I have the past few days with the guys. They set a punishing pace, eating and drinking on the move when necessary, only resting when it gets dark—and even then, their shifter eyes see well in the fading sunlight far after my phoenix eyes give in.

Apparently Dani Carpenter can see well in the dark. Score one for the Black Phoenix team. I haven't stopped wondering about my own sister's unusual phoenix powers since the moment grey flames erupted from her fingertips. If she's anything like I was before I came to the academy, she'll be desperate to find out more about herself—and to grab the steering wheel of her own destiny and start piloting it in the right direction.

I just hope that, once the tether our father created is gone, she chooses me.

It's impossible to imagine living in a world where my little sister Lizzy is alive but chooses to be with him instead of me.

Turning my thoughts away from dark paths, I focus on the journey in front of me. One foot in front of the other. Picking the right place to step as the ground grows wild, bushes and vines tangling with my tennis shoes. I keep one eye on Xavier's back at all times, making sure I never drop too far away from him, aware that of all of us I'm the one who could slow down the search.

David seems to notice my struggle. "You don't have to push yourself, you know. We'll get there in time."

"You don't know that."

"I guess not. But I choose to have faith."

His words surprise me. "The David I first met would've never said anything like that to me."

"True enough." He shrugs his shoulders, a contemplative look on his face. "Things have changed, though. In part because of you." Warmth suffuses my heart, even as I swat mosquitos away from my arms, fed up from a dozen bites already despite the copious bug spray I've slathered myself in. He continues, "I think getting out of Hell taught me something: the impossible is possible, as long as we're together. We just have to take the next step forward, again and again, trusting that there's a way out at the end of the path."

"That's sweet."

Reggie calls out, "And more