28. Chapter 28
“What the hell,” I muttered. “My butt looks way bigger when I’m looking at it from behind. Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Because it suits you so much and personally, I wouldn’t change a thing,” Ben whispered back, grinning. “It’s comfy when you sit on me.”
“Un. Believable. Well, you’ve got one arm longer than the other.”
“You could have told me that, anyway. You’re always looking at me from your perspective.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Ben snorted. “You just wanted to say something mean.”
“You’re mean.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
But the humour quickly died as our voices raised inside the mansion, and the memories of that night flooded back. It felt different hearing it from outside the situation; less betrayal and more resignation to the inevitable end. Ben held my hand as the argument escalated inside.
When I finally heard my voice, louder than before, I braced myself against the house. We were about to get rocked.
“Izzy, I’m begging you. Please don’t do this. I will fix this, I promise. But you can’t-.“
“I don’t have a choice, Maeve.”
The phoenix’s shriek pierced the air with its full fury, but even having experienced it before didn’t prepare me for the ear-splitting sound. Ben grabbed me as the ground rocked, but I tumbled out of his grasp onto my back. I threw my hands up over my face as tiles rained down from above, smashing onto the ground around us. Rolling onto my stomach, I scrambled over to Ben and threw myself on top of him.
“Maeve!” Ben’s shout barely raised above the phoenix’s cry, even though he was right in my ear.
He tried to roll me over, but I stayed firmly on top of him. This day had brought back too many memories, including the one where he lay unconscious and bleeding in the ruins of his exploded home. I would never stop protecting him from that same fate.
It felt like an eternity, but the screeching and rumbling finally ceased, leaving a high-pitched ringing in my ears.
“What?” I asked, breathless. “Did you want to be on top this time?”
Ben rocked, rolling me onto my back, and slapped his hands on either side of my shoulders. I swiped his cheek with my finger as he stared down at me with the cutest accusatory look.
“If you do that again, you’re asking for a spanking,” he said.
“That’s not the deterrent you think it is.”
“Gods, I can’t take you anywhere.” Ben got to his feet and grabbed my hands to pull me up.
We sneaked back to the window, avoiding the shards of slate littering the ground. No sooner had I peered in did an almighty crash make us both flinch. When I leaned in closer to look, I saw Isadora and Freddie standing over a hole in the floor.
“Do you think I might screw with time if I pushed him in?” I muttered through gritted teeth.
Ben snorted. “Yeah. Tempting, though.”
I looked at the darkened sky reflected in the window. Whatever Ben’s theory was, I hoped it was right, or we were staring our permanent future in the face.
Freddie dragged a table that had fallen off its legs during the quake and pulled it over the hole.
“What did you see?” Freddie asked Isadora as he dusted off his hands.
“... nothing.” Isadora’s eyes glazed over as she stared at the tabletop.
Ugh. Sure, she was young and impressionable even for her age, but did that mean she could so easily condemn me to death?
“I should have kept that dryad,” Freddie said as he made his way toward the door. “If the tree’s damaged, I’ll have to woo another gullible girl. Come.”
Obediently, Isadora followed him through the door, and they disappeared into the hallway.
“So,” I said, resting my chin on Ben’s shoulder. “What was your theory?”
Ben beckoned me over to the door and, with a flourish of his hand, he opened the back door.
“Ugh.” I folded my arms. “Of course it works for you.”
“The ‘poignant’ moment is over,” Ben said.
“But how does that help us?” I lowered my voice as we stepped into the room, in case Freddie and Isadora heard us. “It’s over. The curses are in full effect. We’re as helpless now as we were before.”
“Esther said there was a way,” Ben said, looking around. “So this is just a puzzle and we have to work it out... right?”
“Why are you asking me? It’s your theory.”
“You’re the smart one. I’ve done enough brain work for one day.”
If I was that smart, I wouldn’t have let this happen in the first place. But when I really thought about it, Esther hadn’t confirmed or denied anything. In fact, the only thing she had said with certainty was that Dusk’s fate looked bleak.
I sidled over to the potion and leaned on the edge of the cauldron, the gently heated metal warming my elbows. The egg lay in the semi-translucent potion, perfectly still and its shine tarnished. The poor thing never even had a chance at life; a pawn in someone else’s game of chess. It was tragic. If I was the phoenix, I would have lost my crap, too.
The phoenix and its baby could have had a life here and enjoyed the company of the people who respected and revered them, the way magic folk traditionally had. Yet, as ever, selfishness had overridden their chances. We couldn’t turn back time, that much was clear.
My elbows slipped, and I toppled headfirst toward the potion. I threw my hands out and grabbed the opposite edge of the cauldron, suspending myself over the top of the cauldron. As I gazed down at the ruined egg, still catching my breath from the fall, a thought bubbled to the surface, innocuous and unintrusive. But once I latched onto it, my mouth fell open.
“Gods,” I whispered. “I’ve got it.”