Chapter 28 The Alpha's Resolve
The scent of rain-soaked earth clung to Yeseus’s clothes, a stark contrast to the sterile air of the police station. His skin crawled. He hated enclosed spaces, especially ones reeking of stale coffee and forced calm.
“So, you’re saying your… friend,” the officer droned, tapping a pen against a stack of forms, “Just walked off? No argument? No distress?”
Yeseus’s jaw tightened. "She left a note. She wanted to be alone."And she was last seen with your friend? Don’t you think you should have interrogated your friend first?”
Yeseus fought the urge to snarl. Angus is a friend. He has wings. He flew her to the city. She wanted art supplies.
“You leave me no choice, officer,” Yeseus suddenly said. The officer looked puzzled. Yeseus brought out his wolf eyes and as he looked directly in the man’s irises, the police officer froze.
“I’ll ask you once again. Where did she go?”
The police officer’s mouth formed an O shape as he extracted his mind for answers. There, he saw her image. His heart elated. They had escorted her.
“Atcha.”
The name hit Yeseus like a physical blow. His mind raced, calculating. The Twin Golden Moon. Tomorrow night. The Phoenix’s Nest.
“She specifically instructed the police officers to not mention anything about her if a man would come asking for her.”
It was Klishei. No doubt. Her grandparents lived in Atcha. The Atcha Tribe. Wolf worshippers.
He stormed out, the officer’s bewildered protests fading behind him as he snapped out of his trance. The cool night air did little to calm the fire in his veins. Klishei was going to the Phoenix’s Nest. The very place he’d searched for centuries.
He returned to the sanctuary, the silence of the house amplifying his frantic thoughts. Suneia and Naelyr watched him from the living room, their faces etched with worry. Angus hovered near the window, his tiny wings beating a nervous rhythm.
"She's gone to Atcha," Yeseus announced, his voice raw.
"Atcha?" Suneia's brows furrowed. "Her grandparents' village? Why would she go there?"
"The Phoenix's Nest," Yeseus growled. "It's there."
Suneia gasped. "But the ritual… that's what you were trying to achieve also. To prevent her from becoming the Phoenix, to keep her human!"
"She's doing it herself," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "She's trying to sever the connection." He remembered her fierce words, the defiance in her eyes when she spoke of being free.
His gaze fell on the floor near the window, where Klishei's note had been found. A small, crumpled piece of paper lay half-hidden beneath the leg of a table. He bent down, his fingers trembling as he picked it up.
It was a page, torn from his ancient book. The smudgy sketch. The five mountains, stacked against each other, the lake, the two rivers. The Phoenix’s Nest.
Klishei had found it. She must have seen it in his book. She must have recognized it from her childhood days when she was there.
"She knew," he breathed, the realization forming a bitter taste in his mouth. "She knew where it was all along."
Angus zipped closer, his face a picture of remorse. "I… I shouldn't have taken her. She said she just needed paper."
"It's not your fault, Angus," Yeseus said, his voice softer than he intended. His anger wasn't for the fairy, but for himself, for his miscalculation, for his failure to truly understand her. He thought he was protecting her by keeping her ignorant. He was wrong.
"The Twin Golden Moon is tomorrow night," Naelyr whispered, her eyes wide with dread.
Yeseus nodded, the weight of the cosmos pressing down on him. The Phoenix's Nest. The ritual. He knew the legends. A vessel could choose to embrace the goddess’s power, or perform the ascension ritual to release the Phoenix back into the cosmos, freeing herself from the burden. Klishei, in her fierce independence, had chosen the latter.
He had to get there. Not to stop her from freeing herself, but to be there when she did. To ensure she was safe, that the ritual didn't consume her, that the released Phoenix didn't wreak havoc. And to prevent any lingering werewolves from capitalizing on the raw energy released.
His mind flashed to Daevar, his hunger, his desperation. Even without Daevar, other factions might sense the surge of cosmic power.
"I leave at dawn, alone," Yeseus commanded, his voice regaining its Alpha edge. "You stay here and protect the sanctuary.”
The Entities gawked at him
"I'm asking for your help. If Klishei is successful, Daevar and the others will feel it. By the time that Daevar seeks to destroy our place, I would have already returned. I just want to see her one last time, if all goes well.”
His gaze fell back on the torn page, on the smudged sketch. He traced the outline of the mountains. Klishei, his fierce, stubborn Klishei, was walking into a destiny she had chosen for herself, a destiny he had tried to shield her from, only to find she was braver than he ever gave her credit for.
He would follow. He would protect her, even if it meant watching her walk away from him, from everything they could have been. His immortality, the blight, the constant drain – it was all worth it if she found her peace.
He just prayed she found the place alive.