Phoenix13: Redemption (Phoenix13 Book 2)

Part #8: Una Anima: Chapter Two

Chapter Two

"Sullivan." Rosetta's tone was a string pulled too taut, ready to snap at any moment. "Where's McKinley?"

"The diversion worked just like you said it would." Kalligan's spine prickled at the familiar voice, the bored lack of inflection. An image came to mind of deep brown eyes and young, weathered skin, of a dark leather coat and tall, muddy boots. The bounty hunter. Alexx Sullivan.

"Of course it did," Rosetta returned, playing at niceties. Even through the wall between his cell and the next, Kalligan could feel the tension in her body, the pent-up anger and desire for vengeance. "It was my plan. I do not fail."

Kalligan shifted uncomfortably, eyes closed against the darkness. That way he could pretend that it wasn't real, that rustling trees and faded Nathandrian skies would be there when he looked again. I'm gonna go insane, he realized, shivering violently in the cold. Blood trickled down his arms, smooth and thick. It displaced older tracks on his skin, long since crusted and dry. His shoulders were cramping, knees weak from staying upright for what felt like an eternity. Gritting his teeth against a wave of crippling self-pity, he returned his attention to Rosetta and Alexx's conversation. Maybe he'd overhear something useful. Where's McKinley? Rosetta had asked. Jason's here, Kalligan thought.

"We don't have much time," Rosetta was saying, voice lowered, "until McKinley returns. Is that what you're saying?"

"Yeah, guess so." Alexx sounded suddenly nervous. "What, you saying I should've knocked him out? The trap worked perfectly. It'll take him long enough to get back here."

"And the freezer?" Rosetta snapped. "Tell me he was on the right side of the collapse. Or did you ruin our only chance of providing a long term distraction?"

Alexx chuckled, tension bleeding out of his tone when he spoke next. "Keep your bonnet on, Rose. He'll find it. Nothing's ruined."

"It better not be." There was an electric pause. "Enough pleasantries. You know what I want you for, Sullivan, and it's not finding the war criminal Zephyr. I have taken care of him for now. Besides, he still has a part to play in this game of mine. A role that can't be played by any other."

"Go on." Alexx's bored drawl was back. Kalligan imagined the bounty hunter lounging against a grimy stone wall, fingers stroking the weapons beneath his coat. "Let's hear the details. Who am I after, if not Caelum?"

He knows who I am, Kalligan thought, momentarily panicked. He might tell Jason, and then what? What'll happen to us if he finds out?

"You can't tell the Phoenix," Rosetta said, voice dangerously smooth. An inch of glittering ice over a deadly, rushing torrent. "If you do, he will die. His fate was designed so that if he learns the truth of his potential—of what he is and what he was born to do—he will be cursed with unending danger and misery until at last he is forced to fall to ashes and rise anew. If you reveal the identities of me, Zephyr, or any of the Phoenixes, I will end you myself. Are we clear?"

"Clear as polished glass, Milady." A hint of sarcasm finely veiled. "But what if Caelum tells him? What if he escapes?"

"He won't escape." There was finality to each word, a dark sureness in Rosetta's soft tone. "I will set him free when I am ready. Until then he will sit in that cell while I tear him apart over and over again. Mind, body, spirit."

I'm not sitting! Kalligan wanted to yell at her, insanity momentarily seizing his mind. But he kept his mouth shut. Announcing what he'd heard already would ruin his chances of learning more.