CHAPTER 32

Revenants, which must have been slinking around in the hall waiting for her signal—two words stolen from a late-night movie—crowded into the room. They snatched both Jimmy and Sawyer, then dragged the two men out.

I tensed, waiting for more to march in and grab me. But they didn’t. “What’s going on?”

“Choices must be made,” the Phoenix said.

“I chose you.”

“Now you get to prove it.” The Phoenix walked out, leaving me behind.

Holy hell. This was going to be bad.

I hurried after, catching up as she reached the ground floor. The house was empty. Tracks in the dust left from last night traced a path to the wide-open front door.

The sun was full up, the sky clear and bright. There was no mistaking Jimmy and Sawyer being trussed like twin Joan of Arcs to a pair of electrical poles at the right edge of the yard. I expected to find a pile of wood at their feet, but there was nothing.

The Phoenix strode through the door, and I was forced to catch up again. She stopped several feet from the men, looked back and forth between them. Jimmy struggled even though they’d bound him with gold hand, foot, waist and throat. Sawyer had been bound too, but he didn’t bother to fight. Which made me really nervous. He’d only give up if there were no way out.

“Choose.” The Phoenix flapped her hand in their direction.

I got a chill, even though the sun was already hot and there wasn’t a prayer of a breeze.

“Choose what?” I asked, knowing the answer was not going to be one I wanted to hear.

“Which one dies first,” she answered, as if I was incredibly dim.

And I was.

“What? No. They’re on our side. Especially him.” I jerked my thumb at Sawyer. “He does whatever the hell you ask. I’d keep him.”

“Fine.” She put out her hand, and one of the revenants slapped a golden knife into the center. She began to walk toward Jimmy.

“Whoa! Hey! I didn’t choose.”

Stall, I thought. It was all I could think.

“No?” She paused and turned back. “Then do.”

“But why? They have incredible powers. You’ll command them in your army.”

Over my dead body, but I had to keep stalling.

“I won’t have an army; I’ll command nothing but revenants while someone else becomes the Prince, if I don’t make the sacrifice.”

“You think one of them is the innocent and the damned?”

“Yes.”

“And if they’re not?”

She shrugged. “I’ll keep on killing until I find one.”

Well, when you’re crazy, you’re crazy. What could I say?

“Choose,” she ordered again. “If you truly came to join me, you’ll do whatever I ask.”

“My test,” I murmured.

“Take it or die.”

I considered the threat. Maybe that would be the best bet. Killing me wasn’t as easy as it appeared.

“Okay,” I said. “I choose me.”

“No!” Jimmy shouted, at the same time Sawyer said softly but somehow just as forcefully, “No.”

“Ignore them.” I fingered my collar. “I’m definitely damned.”

“But probably not too innocent.” The Phoenix smirked.

“And they are?”

She crossed the dry grass and kissed Sawyer. It took a while. I didn’t want to watch, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. When she lifted her mouth from his she said, “He once was the most innocent of innocents. Until his mother made him into this.”

I winced. So did Sawyer.

The Phoenix cruised on to Jimmy, kissed him too. He tried to avoid it, but the chain around his neck wouldn’t let him move very far. When she lifted her mouth, there was blood on both their lips. “I heard what you did to him.”

I glanced at Sawyer, who refused to meet my eyes. Had he told her every damn thing?

“He was innocent until you seduced him into making you a monster.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I’m impressed. Hutzpa like that I can use.”

“I’m so glad you approve.” My voice was dry, but I managed to make myself smile, even as I wondered just how she planned to kill Sawyer. Had he told her that secret too? If so, I wasn’t safe either. If not . . . we might just have a way out.

I filed that thought. If I had to, I could choose Sawyer, buy some time. He wouldn’t die and maybe . . .

What? The cavalry would show up? Highly doubtful, since the cavalry was me.

“Which will it be?” The Phoenix came toward me twirling the golden knife. “If you choose wisely, the other one lives.”

Because if I chose the one who fulfilled the requirements in the key, she’d be the Antichrist and there’d be no need to kill anyone else—at least right now. Talk about pressure.

“Let me think.” I moved past her, headed for Sawyer.

“Search her,” she ordered. A revenant came forward and pawed me like a seventeen-year-old with his first prom date.

He stepped back. “Clean.”

“No one kills around here but me,” the Phoenix said. Guess she was worried I’d steal Samyaza. No thanks.

“Five minutes,” the Phoenix continued. “I’ve waited long enough.”

I didn’t even glance at her as she walked away. I had no idea what to do. I could only hope that the boys did.

I approached Sawyer first. He was closest.

He’d said I couldn’t trust him, and he was probably right, but I had to hope that having her treat him like any other sacrifice in town might have shifted his loyalties a bit.

His gaze met mine. “Shhh,” he breathed.

That was promising.

I laid my body against his, put my lips to his neck, then slid them up to his ear. “Does she know how to kill you?”

“Yes.”

I cursed.

“Hold on,” he murmured. “Remember when I said there are certain things that only happen if I let them?”

I leaned back, stared into his eyes, but as usual I saw nothing I could hold on to in their smoky depths. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“If you’re thinking that I must choose to die in order to die, then yes, that’s what I’m saying.”

“Seriously?”

His mouth twisted—half smile, half grimace. “It’s what the old ones sang when I was a boy.”

“Back when Noah was a pup,” I muttered.

The Navajo passed down their legends in songs and stories. Year after year, century after century, the elders sang around the fires and the next generation learned the traditions.

“Nothing that’s ever been tried has actually killed me,” he continued, “so I’m inclined to believe the legends are true.”

“You’ve never wanted to die?”

Those eyes that had only a second ago been unreadable became anything but. “I didn’t say that.”

How could I ask such a question after meeting his mother? Or after seeing his pain at the loss of his wolf mate, or his agony upon killing Maria?

“Yet you’re still here,” I murmured.

“I’ve always had things to do, people who needed me.”

I laid my head on his chest. “So I can choose you,” I said. “She’ll try to kill you, but you won’t die.”

“Even if I did, my blood wouldn’t bring her what she wants. I’m too damned to be innocent, Elizabeth.”

I lifted my head, gazed into his eyes. “Aren’t we all?”

His lips curved. “You need to think this through. When I don’t die, she’ll turn right around and kill Sanducci. You can’t let that happen.”

“Damn skippy,” I muttered.

“You have to kill him first.”

“What?” I straightened with a jerk, then tried to back up so fast I stumbled. “No.”

“Listen to me,” Sawyer began.

A mumble started among the revenants—unease combined with excitement. Sawyer looked into the sky and cursed.

I figured the Phoenix had lost patience and was flying toward us, ready to take the decision out of my hands. Though what would be the fun in that? Didn’t she look forward to the agony and pain that would inevitably follow whatever choice I made like any evil thing should?

Maybe that was what she was after. Could she be staging this stupid “choose who dies” tableau so that once I did, and I lost my will to live, she could kill me too? Wouldn’t put it past her.

My hands clenched into fists as I turned. Until that moment I hadn’t known I planned to fight. I was supposed to be changing sides, doing whatever it took to steal the damned key, even if it meant sacrificing one or both of these men. If I didn’t, more people would die than just them.

However, the Phoenix wasn’t the one sailing out of the sky to land softly on the ground.

“Summer?” My fingers uncurled from my palms. “What in hell are you doing here?”