Phoenix Feather (29 page)

Trent looked at her incredulously. “You…the other part of you…can save him?”

“Yes.” She hadn’t thought of it before because until that morning, she had been fully mortal—at least consciously. But now she could feel the ancient power of the phoenix alive and awake inside of her. “I can give him the rest of my life.”

“What does that mean?” Trent’s face became a mixture of doubt and fear.

“I have eighty years left in this body,” she tried to explain, and glanced around to make sure the hall outside was clear. “I can give them to Chris instead.” She took a deep breath. “He can live and I can die.”

Trent’s jaw worked as he stared at her. “It’s not a real death though, is it? You’ll come back?”

Aidan bit her lip. “I can’t become human again right away. It takes time—about a year.” She shifted in discomfort. “A person can’t just disappear for a year and come back, not in today’s world. I’d have to start over again. Bryan can report that you never found me after I was abducted.”

“No!” Trent shouted, and clenched his fist as people outside turned their heads. “I thought I lost you today, and now you want me to pretend that I did?”

“I can’t let him die knowing that I could have saved him. I can’t look Phoebe in the eye with that knowledge.” Aidan reached out and cupped both his hands in hers. “Can you?”

Trent moaned, glanced at Chris, and then at the door. He grabbed her by both arms. “Then come back to me. I’ll take care of things while you’re gone, say you’re on a trip, notify the school, your apartment, work, everything. Bryan can help. But you
come back
.”

Aidan raised a hand to his face, her heart swelling with inexplicable sadness and joy.

Trent searched her eyes. “I will wait for you.”

She turned her head away. She had never come back from a death to an old life. Yet, more than anything, she didn’t want to leave him. She leaned her head forward against his chest and listened to the beat of his heart singing in tune with the fire in her blood. She surrendered.

“I’ll come back.”

Trent nodded. “Then what do we need to do?”

“Go to the mountains. It can’t happen here.”

“That’s not going to be easy.”

“You know how to work the equipment,” Aidan said, devising a plan. “You can keep him hooked up to what he needs and get him to the car?”

Trent nodded. “What are you going to tell Phoebe?”

She took a deep breath. “To get some food from the cafeteria. She’ll forgive me when Chris comes back to her safe and well.”

Trent raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re sure?” he pressed.

She nodded, but paused. “You’re not going to go to jail for this, are you?”

He laughed. “If I do, maybe we’ll get out at the same time.”

Aidan went to find Phoebe and take her down to the cafeteria. Trent would get Chris downstairs and to the car, and Aidan would slip away and meet them.

Aidan watched her best friend poke at her food. “Phoebe.”

“Hmm?”

“I love you. Everything will work out for the best.” Then Aidan said she needed to visit the restroom, but she walked right past it and out the doors into the chilly afternoon air. Trent pulled up along the curb and she jumped in. She looked back at Chris bundled in blankets in the backseat, the IV bag lying next to him. He was too weak to know what was happening.

“I’m guessing a secluded place?” Trent asked as they got onto the freeway.

“Near the cabin,” Aidan said. “You can go there when it’s finished.” That place had given her some of the fondest memories she would ever cherish. That’s where she wanted to die.

***

They were lucky; they had gotten on the road before commuter traffic. Trent didn’t want to think about them being delayed or arriving too late. There was no going back from what they had just done, and it needed to work out only one way in order to be all right. Trent’s head swirled with different thoughts and emotions; he was surprised he could still concentrate on the road. Aidan was…mythical seemed the safest word he could use at the moment.

He had been so terrified when he quietly cracked the door to the study to see what the man was shouting about, and had found him forcing her arm into a blazing fire. He had seen burns before, on victims, on colleagues. Then there was nothing, no brown crinkled flesh, not even a dark red like a sunburn. He had wanted to be so relieved that she was unhurt, but—he felt ashamed to admit—was a little afraid of what that meant. Then there was the feather in the glass box, glowing on its own with no visible wires or battery. It was strange and beautiful. Aidan was strange and beautiful, and as she tried to explain what had happened with the same voice she always used, and with the same deep, knowing look in her eyes, Trent knew that nothing she said could change the way he felt about her.

Bryan, ironically, seemed to be the most calm and levelheaded one throughout the conversation. They would have to talk later; Trent knew it was unavoidable. He had expected the three of them to talk, but that wouldn’t happen now. What would he tell Bryan? The truth? Or the same made-up story he was going to tell everyone else?

“What do I tell Chris and Phoebe?” he asked, breaking the silence they had been driving in for an hour. “They’re not going to accept something superficial like you went back to Colorado for a family emergency.”

Aidan remained quiet for a few moments. “Tell them what happened today in Edmonds. The
official
story,” she added when he raised an eyebrow. “Tell them I love them, but that I needed to deal with what happened, and that it involves going back to my roots.” She shrugged as though that would be enough of a cryptic explanation. “They won’t like it. They’ll probably be hurt, but I know you can get them through it. The important thing is
Chris
will get through it.”

Trent tightened his hold on the wheel. He hated this. He had half a mind to turn around and go back, to keep her with him, but knew he couldn’t. This was her decision, and it was the right one. He just didn’t want to live without her.

“Aidan, will you marry me?”

“What?” She sounded surprised. “I don’t think there’s time.”

That made him smile; it wasn’t a no. “When you get back. I’ll propose more formally then too, but…I just wanted you to know my intentions before you left.” He glanced at her.

She tilted her head to look at him, her eyes watering like pools of molten fire. “Yes.”

Trent pulled off onto a side road that would take them up an isolated trail to a campground parallel to the cabin. The closer they got to the spot, the tighter his heart constricted within his chest. He pulled into a clearing and stopped the car. The sun was beginning to sink, casting bright, horizontal rays against the bark of trees and patches of white snow. Trent got a wheelchair from the trunk and took it around to the back. Carefully, he lifted Chris into it while Aidan held the IV bag. They moved several feet away from the car, and Aidan turned around to face them. The lines around her eyes crinkled with pain, just as Trent felt. She suddenly moved into his arms and kissed him. Her hands ran through his hair and clutched at his shirt, desperate as though she knew she wouldn’t be able to convey all she felt in words alone.

She finally pulled away, her chest heaving. “I love you.” Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.

“I love you,” he whispered back. “It’s not forever, not this time.”

Aidan nodded. “I know.” She took a deep breath and knelt in front of Chris. She shook his shoulder gently. “Chris,” she called. He stirred and moaned, but couldn’t open his eyes.

“Happy New Year.” She leaned in and kissed him, and as she did, she began to glow like the feather in the box had. The light grew brighter, and Trent had to take a step back from its intensity. He watched, frozen in awestruck wonder as Aidan appeared to age. She grew thin and pale, and her stunning red hair waned to a pale yellow. She was still beautiful, Trent thought. Chris, on the other hand, looked as though life was pouring back into him, which is exactly what was happening. The hollows around his face filled in, the lines and shadows faded. His color came back, bright and flush.

The light began to fade and Aidan broke away, stumbling back a few feet. Trent took a step toward her, but she held up her hand to keep him at bay. She lifted her head and smiled at him. She looked serene and regal, her hair still shining like a pale star, all pain gone from her eyes.

Then she burst into fire. Trent shot his hands up to cover his face and staggered back. He stared in horror, but Aidan continued to smile. The flames flickered and grew, curling around her limbs like vines. She lifted her arms, and Trent thought he saw the outline of wings in the firelight. Then the fire exploded in a series of sparks and she was gone. The fire died just as quickly, until only a pile of ashes remained.

Trent took cautious steps toward it. It was just a pile of black dust, unremarkable except for dazzling red specks like ruby sand. He let out the breath he’d been holding. The sun was getting lower, and the light caught on something in the ash. Trent squatted down to peer at it more closely and poked his finger through the dust. He pulled out a smooth, white round orb. A pearl. He furrowed his brow in confusion until he remembered part of the mythology, how the phoenix could cry tears of pearls. He also realized that he had never seen Aidan cry before. Throughout everything with Chris and today, she had grieved with him, but never shed a tear. He smiled as he closed his hand around the gift.

He got up and went back to Chris, who was sleeping, just sleeping lazily as if they had been out camping. Trent shook him gently.

Chris’s eyelids fluttered open. “Trent. What…?” He looked around at the forest and then at the wheelchair he sat in and the IV line in his hand. “Am I dying?” he asked in confusion.

Trent smiled. “I don’t think so.” He helped Chris stand and get back to the car, and drove them to the cabin.

Chris became ecstatic as he realized how good he felt. He hopped and stretched and spun across the cabin’s threshold, proclaiming the extraordinary surge of energy he had and how the pain had gone. He kept asking Trent what had happened, but Trent couldn’t think of a good answer.

“A miracle,” was all he said. He pulled out his cell phone, which listed nine missed calls from Bryan. Now began the juggling of stories and cleanup. When Trent looked at Chris though, lively and excited, he knew it was worth it. Trent dialed Bryan’s number.

“What have you done?” Bryan said upon answering.

“Everything’s okay—”

“I’m at the hospital with Phoebe,” Bryan interrupted. “You kidnapped her brother when he was dying?”

“Bryan,” Trent said firmly, trying to get his brother’s attention. “Chris is fine. Better than fine. Bring Phoebe up to the cabin and I’ll explain. Tell her he’s fine.” He heard Bryan muttering to himself on the other end.

“Be there soon,” he said gruffly, and hung up.

Trent and Chris sat and talked in the kitchen. It was hard to explain things without there being some major skepticism. He told Chris that, yes, he had been admitted to the hospital, and that Aidan—after he had also told him that story—had wanted to give him a goodbye gift before she left. That the gift had been a miracle, Trent didn’t deny, though he didn’t explain how it had happened. Chris stuttered on his responses, unable to form coherent sentences while still overwhelmed with everything. He tried to get more information about Aidan, even demanded she come right back and see him, but Trent couldn’t help with that.

Bryan and Phoebe stormed through the door almost an hour later. His brother must have had the sirens blaring and broken ordinary traffic laws to get there so fast. Phoebe stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw Chris, up and walking and looking as healthy as he had three months ago. After a moment of shock, all the terror and panic on her face vanished. She ran into his arms, laughing and crying hysterically. Trent left them in the kitchen. Chris could explain things to her. He nodded to Bryan, and the two stepped outside.

“Where’s Aidan?” Bryan asked.

“She’s gone.”

“Gone?”

“She gave up her life so Chris could have his.” Trent didn’t look at his brother, but could feel Bryan’s gaze boring into his side.

“Are you okay?”

Trent gripped the porch rail, the powdered snow biting into his flesh. “She’ll be back. In a year or so, she promised to come back. I proposed and she said yes.” It was as if he needed to convince himself.

Bryan reached up to rub his neck. “That’s some woman you have there, or whatever she called herself.”

Trent finally looked at him.

“‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.’ That’s somewhere in the Bible.” He put a hand on Trent’s shoulder. “Are you going to make it a year?”

“I hope so.” Trent glanced back at the house where Chris and Phoebe were. Instead of losing Chris, they had lost Aidan, and Trent couldn’t even tell them why. They needed him now, and he needed them.

“I’ve got your back this time,” Bryan said. “You have my word.”

Trent nodded. “Good, because I’m going to need your help with a few things.”

They turned to go back into the house. Trent cast one last look out at the now dark woods. He would miss her—he already did. But a year from today, he would be back, waiting, waiting for her to emerge from the forest, the fiery red-haired woman, to come running into his arms.