The Phoenix Dawning
SNEAK PEEK
Charlie
I’d sworn to become something different in the aftermath of unfathomable loss. This world wasn’t prepared for just what I could transform into.
We’d experienced so much devastating loss that I was certain it would soon strip us to our cores. But for all the heartwrenching calamity we’d faced in the past, nothing could measure up to the wretched ache of losing one’s child.
It was a different kind of ruin than I’d ever felt before. I’d been shredded to withered pieces that could drift away on the wind, yet simultaneously transformed into a stone-cold annihilative force hellbent on finding my son at all costs.
Someone had taken our child, and when I found them, they wouldn’t exist long enough to regret it. This kidnapper’s soul was mine.
Mere moments had passed since Marcus and I had walked into the palace’s neonatal intensive care unit and found Opal knocked out on the floor, Marina passed out in a chair, and Casey… my precious son… gone.
A single glance around the room had sent Marcus running for help. Those who’d heard his pleas had come flooding through the doorway.
Ava had been the first to arrive after her mother, and she. Was. Murderous. Our bond didn’t need to exist for me to burn within her livid fury. She loomed beside me, form quivering not in fear, but absolute rage.
She hasn’t stopped clenching her bow since she arrived, Oberi noted, giving a low growl that I knew displayed teeth.
Without a doubt, Ava was planning on using that bow once we discovered who took our son.
She had to be imagining pelting the perpetrator with all of her arrows, peppering their body with her weapons long after they were dead. It was a scene I took pleasure from.
It was far too crowded in this small room within the NICU. The upended incubator still sat at my feet. Lucas, Kallie, Danny, and Queen Emmaline were all here, along with Sophia and Maddie. They’d all surveyed the room like we had, but there’d been no obvious clues as to where Casey had been taken.
Eddie had come running the second he’d heard Ava’s screams. He skidded to a halt in the doorway, waiting on my orders, but I didn’t know what to tell him to do just yet. Mostly, because I was busy planning on what I would do once I located the sick fuck who’d stolen my child from me.
Sophia was kneeling on the floor, healing Opal. Her gentle magic elevated the room’s temperature as Sophia mended the cut on Opal’s head, stemming the bleeding.
Opal came around with a low groan. “What… what’s going on? Where’s the baby?”
She sounded completely out of it. Sophia spoke calmly, but I sensed an underlying fire in her words that blazed throughout this room— she was pissed off someone had taken her grandson, and was intent on finding out who. “Opal, you passed out. Someone attacked you, and they took Casey.”
“They… took…” Opal went to scream, but Sophia cut her off.
“Opal, you need to keep your head. This is important. Do you remember what happened? What the perpetrator looked like, what kind of magic they used, anything?” The fierce Koigni came out in Sophia as she intensely demanded Opal give her an answer.
Ava’s mom was not a force to be trifled with when her family was in danger.
“I… I don’t recall anything.” Opal’s tone was blank. “I was about to wake Marina from her nap. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground.”
Did that mean the attacker came at her from behind? But then, why was the cut on Opal’s forehead? It didn’t seem clear.
Sophia tried healing Marina next. I came to stand beside the medical recliner the child laid in. I barely felt the soft touch of Sophia’s healing abilities before my mother-in-law pulled back.
“Marina doesn’t need healing. She wasn’t knocked out,” Sophia said, the confusion evident in her voice. “She’s completely fine. She just needs to wake up.”
Sophia’s arm brushed against me as she gently shook Marina. The little child stirred, giving a tiny yawn that became a gasp. She must’ve been scared of all the people gathered in the room. “Mommy?”
“It’s all right,” Opal said gently, though she moved slowly. She knelt beside the chair that held Marina. “We just need to ask you a question.”
“Where’s Casey?” Marina’s question was so innocent it nearly brought me to tears.
“Someone took him.” Opal’s words were more terrifying than anything I’d ever heard on the streets, at the Institute, in Cellblock 9— anywhere. “We’re trying to find out who. Do you know who took him?”
“What do you mean?” Marina was more confused than anyone here.
“A very bad person came in here and stole Casey. Do you remember what they looked like, or how they left?” Opal asked.
“But Mommy, I was sleeping.” Marina didn’t seem to comprehend what we were asking.
“You mean you didn’t see or hear anything?” Danny pressed.
“No.” Marina’s tiny braids slapped against the back of the medical recliner as she shook her head. “Mommy tucked me in, and I woke up when Grandma Sophie shook me. That’s all.”
This little girl had slept through the whole thing. She didn’t have any information to give us.
Opal gave a trembling sigh. Then she stood, whispering, “I’m so sorry. I don’t expect any of you to forgive me.”
A rock dropped into my stomach, and Marcus hushed, “This isn’t on you.”
“I was supposed to be watching him! Someone snuck in here and took him, because I wasn’t strong enough to defend him or myself!” Opal shouted.
The rest of us had only just returned from Fasva after an intense battle against The Mission.
We’d liberated two thousand fae refugees, and slain the demigod Deuce, but the fight had been brutal.
We’d all been exhausted, and I’d nearly died that day.
We’d been recovering, while Opal had volunteered to watch the children.
During our escape from Fasva, enemies had slipped through our borders in the process, and one of them had come for Casey.
“I don’t blame you, Opal.” Though my reply was broken, I didn’t hold her accountable for anything that had happened. This was solely due to the Warden.
“I do. I’m weak, and because I am, Casey is gone.”
Opal’s response was full of tears. They startled Marina, because she said, “Mommy, I’m sorry I didn’t wake up to see who took Casey. Please don’t be sad.”
“It’s not your fault,” Ava said, reaching out to hug Marina. It was the only time I’d heard Ava be gentle since she’d come in here. Her compassion toward the young girl was in startling contrast to the intense huntress she’d harnessed the moment our son was discovered missing.
Opal sniffed. “I just want to help.”
“You’ve helped all you can. This is no place for your child to be,” Sophia replied. “If you really want to do more, Ez needs you. He’s very sick from healing all the wounded refugees. We have things under control here.”
I’d never felt more out of control in my life, but when Sophia said that Ez was sick, Opal pulled herself together. “You’re right. Marina doesn’t need to be scared by everything that’s going on. Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go help Ez.”
Marina seemed eager to make sure Ez was okay, because she darted out of the room. Before Opal left, she laid a hand on my arm and leaned in to speak softly to me. “Charlie, you’ll find him.”
“How do you know?” My voice cracked. There were no guarantees that we’d find Casey before the worst happened, if it hadn’t already.
“Because you’ll do anything for your child, like any parent would, and you’re willing to go to lengths most people aren’t,” Opal replied. “We’re a family. We won’t give up until he’s home.”
Opal’s soft footsteps padded after her daughter as she left.
Ava scoffed. “Damn right we aren’t giving up. The hole I’m going to bury the Warden in is going to be at the center of the earth before I’m satisfied.”
Ava grumbled the words to herself, and didn’t mean for me to overhear, yet I did. They weren’t a threat. They were a promise.
“So Marina didn’t wake up? How is that possible?” Kallie asked. “Opal was attacked, and Casey was stolen. There was clearly a struggle, because this room is trashed.”
“If it was a vampire, the bastard probably darted in and out of here in seconds. It wouldn’t have taken them but a moment or two to knock out Opal and steal Casey, and even if they made noise doing it, Marina must’ve thought it was a dream and continued to sleep,” Danny said.
“Since Opal and Marina can’t give us answers, maybe my magic can,” Marcus said.
He knelt beside the toppled incubator. His abilities as a Seer allowed him to obtain visions of the past through touch. A moment passed as we all waited with bated breath.
“I see Opal crossing the room toward Marina,” Marcus started slowly. “Casey’s lying in the incubator— his vitals are normal. I don’t see anyone else here… holy shit!”
Marcus leapt back, stumbling into a respiratory monitor and crashing onto his ass.
“What did you see?” I demanded.
“Who took him!?” Ava snarled, demanding answers.
Marcus’ tone trembled. “I— I couldn’t tell. All I saw was a bright light flash throughout the whole room, like some sort of explosion. It was so intense I’m seeing spots. A second later, Opal was on the ground, and Casey was gone.”
“For fuck’s sake!” Ava must’ve tossed one of the medical devices, because I heard something else smash and shatter against the floor.
“A bright light could mean anything,” I growled. His vision wasn’t even giving us a place to start looking.
Kallie jumped into detective mode, as if she was hunting down a criminal like she’d done in her assassin days.
She managed to keep a level head while Ava and I were freaking out.
“Marcus, was the flash of light part of the vision, as in it actually happened, or is it due to some sort of magic altering your vision?”