Phoenix by Eden Maguire Read Free Book Online

ground.
    And now, for the first time since the crisis began, I saw Phoenix – a blurred figure through the wild storm of skulls and beating wings – watching silently. I tried to run to him, longed to feel his strong arms around me, sheltering me from the storm.
    ‘Phoenix, help me!’ I whispered, though I absolutely knew he was in thrall to his overlord.
    Phoenix, his expression fixed in an agony of helplessness, stayed where he was, close to the house with Iceman. I was still on my knees just outside the barn. Dean straddled the two semi-conscious lawmen slumped in the dust.
    Hunter, the puppet-master, let the skull barrier fade then gave the silent order for Iceman to help Dean carry Kors and Jardine back to their car.
    As the two men were raised from the ground and dragged away, I struggled to my feet and managed tolook Hunter in the eye. Yes, I’d been stupid, I’d acted without thinking and caused a problem, but I wasn’t going to cave in. I would try to stand up to him.
    ‘When will you ever learn, Darina?’ Hunter sighed. He stood looking at the far horizon of jagged mountains then up at the clear blue sky, not expecting an answer.
    ‘I said I was sorry. Anyway, Kors saw my phone – he already knew someone was here.’ Even though the wings and skulls had faded, my knees trembled, my voice was hardly more than a whisper.
    ‘Not necessarily.’
    ‘He was about to climb the steps into the loft!’
    ‘And you wouldn’t have been there. I’d already told Iceman to get you out of there fast.’
    I gasped. ‘You ordered him to dematerialize me? How was I supposed to know? I’m not like you – I don’t have telepathy.’
    Hunter finally turned his head and levelled his gaze on me. ‘You’re supposed to take orders from me, end of story. You’re not meant to think for yourself and make bad decisions.’
    Phoenix , I thought. Step in here, stand up for me!
    ‘I can’t do it – you know I can’t,’ he whispered. Instead of backing me up, he retreated into the porch and watched from the shadows.
    I had to plead for myself in front of the coldest of judges. ‘If Dean does his job, Kors and Jardine won’t remember what happened out here. They’ll go back to town and make a report – all quiet, just miles of pine forest and empty scrub, maybe the odd mule deer.’
    Hunter’s eyelids flickered. ‘Likewise, Darina. Remember I could send you back in the same condition as those two, with a sore head and a big blank in your memory.’
    ‘I know it. And I know I can’t stop you doing that. But last night you saw how messed up my head’s been lately and you offered me the chance to walk away. Being here today is the hardest thing I ever had to do – seeing Phoenix again, loving him the way I do, knowing that this time I have to say goodbye.’
    Hunter’s head dipped slightly – a nod of acknowledgement.
    For once I’d got through the outer armour and decided to take a big risk.
    ‘Think about what you told me last night. Imagine if you got the chance to be with Marie again – for one day, one hour, even a minute.’
    I saw pain then anger flash in Hunter’s eyes. Phoenix saw it too and took a step down from the porch as if to protect me, before his overlord stopped him dead.
    ‘Picture it,’ I went on. ‘Would you be thinking straight?No. One look at Marie and you’d fall apart. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t!’
    ‘I would,’ he murmured.
    I looked right at Hunter, opened my own heart and put myself at his mercy.
    ‘And still I’m here today. I came to save Phoenix.’
     
    A plane travelled like a slow, silver bullet across the vast blue sky. A wisp of white cloud tangled itself around Amos Peak. The mountains were bruise-blue in the late-afternoon sun. Phoenix stood with me by my red car under the aspens.
    ‘Hunter gave us thirty minutes,’ he said.
    ‘Then what?’
    ‘Then I have to go with Iceman to check out some kids over at Angel Rock.’
    ‘Kids,’ I echoed softly. Probably