„Phoenix," I whispered.
But it wasn"t enough.
„Hiro!" Josephine yelled.
I watched as, just as the others had done, he and two other Grigori started coordinating their powers to move large boulders from the backs of their boats, sending them flying towards our wave, now headed on a collision course for both the melting island and the oncoming tsunami.
The volcano, as if sensing the threat, roared with another explosion, lava now flowing into the boiling water, turning the ocean floor red.
The tsunami crashed over the volcano effortlessly, like it was no obstacle. I gripped hold of Lincoln.
This was it.
When our wave - so tiny in comparison - was metres away from impact, Josephine called out again. „Now!"
The boulders flew one by one into the wave as the tsunami crashed over it. And, like a perfectly conducted climax, Josephine exploded the rocks into billions of atoms, forcing the entire tsunami up and into the sky.
Our feeble wave - David to a mighty Goliath.
At that moment, the wind came again, this time from Santorini. It blew hard and fast, Zoe and the other nature-users adding to its strength until it picked up the rain colours that would have surely drenched the entire island, blowing the tsunami its remaining red glow to smouldering black on its way.
The sun broke through the darkness as we stood in the downpour. Griffin looked up, watery soot coursing down his neck. „I think all eyes are wide open now."
„No wonder they"re crying," I said quickly, because I could already feel it. Something else, something that didn"t belong, was with us.
But also, I couldn"t deny it: Phoenix had helped us save Santorini.
„
Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our
wishes and by fulfilling them."
Henri F. Amiel
In the aftermath, our boats returned to assess the damage. Groups of Grigori used their various powers to help put out the hot spots and contain the gases coming from the site while others started preparing notes that would be handed anonymously to the Greek authorities later.
I felt relieved that the fight between exiles and Grigori had been successfully hidden from the outside world. It had been a massive group effort and now that everyone was starting to converge, I could see more than a hundred Grigori on the volcanic island and in the boats, and the same again back on Santorini.
Some, however, had not survived. Though they had fought for a cause, I couldn"t help but feel the weight of responsibility as I watched Grigori carry the lifeless bodies of their partners aboard the waiting boats.
Lincoln explained to us the Griffin had bought large numbers of extra Grigori from mainland Greece, along with the Academy arrivals, to build our Army. The Rogue had taken up position guarding Santorini from incoming exiles and placed their nature-users strategically, some sent as far as the surrounding islands to guard against any flow-on effects from the tsunami.
Lincoln had left no stone unturned.
I hobbled off the boat, despite his objections. He wanted me to stay aboard so he could heal me, but I insisted so he followed, only to be bombarded by Grigori, congratulating him on a stellar attack. Lincoln shrugged off the compliments, redirecting credit to the Conductors and Josephine instead.
I left him to do his thing as I saw another boat sailing in - Steph, Dapper and Onyx all aboard. They must have been behind the firing line. I was relieved to see them safe and returned a wave to Steph.
„Vi! Are you okay?" she yelled out.
I nodded, not really feeling up to hollering and pointed in Salvatore"s direction when I saw her eyes scouring the island. She smiled in relief. I noticed she was wearing Irin"s necklace that I"d left under her pillow. Nothing had been shielded from her today. I hoped it was a good thing.
As I waited for their boat to anchor, a sound made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
The roar was unmistakable: my lion. And suddenly I understood even more. This was one and the same and somehow I knew - when he was in animal form, he was there to help me.
I followed the sound until I found him. Larger than any normal lion - almost as tall as me.
His man was fiery bronze, like his eyes in my dreams. He stalked me and I knew I should be afraid. He moved closer, hesitating as he took those final few steps, a wild beast trying to control his ferocious nature.
When I could almost reach out and touch him, he stopped and lowered his head, he stopped and lowered his head. I looked back over my shoulder. Lincoln was still encircled by Grigori, Steph and the others still stuck on their boat. I returned to my lion, noticing that the ground where he stood was red hot and yet he remained still, patient.
I took a cautious step closer, grateful Phoenix had at least left me in trainers, and slowly reached a hand towards his man. Just as I was about to make contact, his head snapped up, the look in his eyes a clear warning. I dropped my hand.
Got it. No patting.
He shook out his mane, his tail swishing from side to side, and stood tall as he roared, his breath blasting over me. The relief that caressed my injured body was instant.
He shook his head again and began padding back around the foot of the volcano not bothering to avoid the hot spots. He stopped and looked up towards the peak before disappearing out of sight.
-
I didn"t need to lift Lincoln"s T-shirt to know all my wounds were healed. My angel maker had just interfered. Again.
I looked up to the peak of the volcano, wondering why my angel maker had taken the time to make a such a pointed stop.
What is up there?
Something caught my eye behind the still-billowing smoke - something glinting in the sun. silver. No, surely, not … No one would go up there. I squinted again until the smoke cleared enough for me to be sure: I was staring at a figure, blackened by soot and ash, and as I watched it fell to the ground at the edge of the crater.
I was moving before I realised, heading up towards a place I never wanted to go again.
My feet kept slipping into patches of lava, but I kept going. Someone was up there.
„Violet!" I heard Lincoln yell, but I didn"t stop. I had to get to the top, I had to see. A strange energy propelled me forward - not just my own, but also my angel maker"s. he wanted me to go there, demanded it.
I picked up my pace, stumbling every few steps.
„Violet! Wait! It"s not safe!" Lincoln shouted.
He was so fast he soon caught up to me, but stayed behind a few steps, cautious.
Maybe he thought I was going to finish what I started earlier.
„I"m okay," I said, not stopping. „I saw something up there."
„Violet, no one has gone up there, it"s too unstable. We have to go back down. You"re hurt - we need to heal you."
I stopped and lifted the back of his T-shirt, exposing my flesh. He gasped.
„How?" he asked, taking in the fact that all of my injuries had gone.
„My angel maker."
„That"s … that"s not possible."
I held my hands out. „And yet … do you trust me?"
„Yes," he said, without hesitation.
„The understand that I need to be up there."
He wanted to argue, to get me to safety, but instead he sighed and nodded.
When we reached the top, I walked quickly around the crater to the place I thought the person had been. At first I couldn"t see anything and started to doubt myself, but then, just visible against the smouldering ground, I saw the silver glinting in the sunlight that had caught my eye from below. I ran over, dropping to my knees.
It was a woman, clothed only in a thick layer of ash and with dark hair so long it covered her. On her right wrist, something silver. I picked up her limp arm. She barely moaned but it was enough to know she was alive.
Just.
I rubbed my fingers over her bracelet.
Lincoln dropped to his knees beside me, pushing the hair back from the woman"s face.
„She"s not an exile. She feels like … can you sense her?" he asked, starting to wipe some of the ash from her face.
„She"s Grigori," I said, feeling distant, fighting the woozy sensation that was building inside me.
One wristband.
„Where could she had come from?" Lincoln asked, baffled.
„She came from the volcano," I said, knowing I was right.
Lincoln paused, partly at my answer and partly because he"d wiped away enough ash from her face to see her. „She looks … Violet, she looks like you."
Griffin chose that moment to stumble over to us. „Heard you"d decided to venture up here again." He was puffed - obviously he"d run the whole way, worried we were in trouble.
„What? Were you feeling nostalgic?" He joked uneasily. Then he saw the woman. „Oh, who"s this?" He crouched down beside us. Then he saw the wristband, took another look at the figure before him, then turned to me, questioningly.
I sat back on my heels in total disbelief.
„She"s my mother."
„
Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity,
death and doom."
Deuteronomy 30:15
Lincoln carried the woman down the volcano, Griffin and I following, dazed.
My mother.
„Did anything else happen, when you were with Phoenix?" Griffin asked.
I thought back. „No, no … I don"t know. He kept me asleep through most of it. I remember being on the boat, we fought, the he made me sacrifice the exiles and knocked me out. I woke up on the volcano."
But then I realised I didn"t
just
wake up. „Wait! There"s one thing. I had a dream and my angel maker was there. I … I asked him to help us and …" I shook my head. „He took my dagger and wiped my blood on it." I looked up at Griffin, who was also figuring it out. „The he told me he had helped us."
„The same dagger Phoenix threw into the volcano?"
I nodded.
„Phoenix wasn"t the only one who made an offering. Your blood was on that blade, too."
I looked at the woman in Lincoln"s arms.
Have I done this? Brought her here?
„But I … the prophecy said it could only deliver one."
„Only one to the person with terrible desire, but maybe this was something else?"
I shivered - a sudden chill running through me - and noticed that I wasn"t the only one feeling it. Everyone seemed to have sensed something and we all looked towards the headlands of Santorini.
From such a distance the only things visible were two figures. One had long hair, almost to the ground, that was blowing wildly in the breeze. Orange. No - gold. Hair of gold, just like Phoenix had hair of opal.
The woman, my mother, stirred in Lincoln"s arms. I froze, watching as her eyes opened.
They were not like mine. I had Dad"s eyes. Hers were electric blue and striking. She looked in the same direction we all had, but now my eyes were fixed on her.
„Lilith," she whispered, before passing out again.
„God help us," Griffin said, from my other side.
I started walking down the slope towards Steph.
„Don"t you want to go with your mother?" Griffin called behind me.
I stopped and looked back at them. „Why would I want to do that?"
I carried on until I reached Steph, who pulled me onto her boat, where I buried my head in her shoulder and cried all the way back to Santorini.
I waited for the numbness to set in, but as everyone returned to the hotel, all I felt was anger.
Steph helped me to our room with Salvatore, refusing to let me out of her sight. She had already packed our things but we needed to shower and change. The Academy had ordered us all off the island. Apparently Irin had started to cause problems, threatening to attack us if we were not gone by midnight, which gave us only two hours. Sure, we could use our forces to overwhelm him, but there would be inevitable repercussions that no one wanted to consider right now.
I started to wash away the dried blood and ash. Thanks to my angel maker, underneath I appeared unharmed, a thought that made me laugh and cry at the same time. Some things could not be changed, though, I was desperately weak. The blood loss would affect me for days and I looked gaunt.
I got out of the shower and studied myself in the mirror, wondering if it would ever end -
the fighting, the pain, the sacrifice.
How could my angel maker punish me by sending her back? The person she cared so
little about that she had abandoned me the moment I was born.
And what of all the rest? What about the Academy? I had no idea what they planned to do with me. Josephine had proved what she"d said at the beginning was true - I no longer had any doubt she wanted to defeat exiles. She hadn"t been corrupted like Magda, but that didn"t mean she wasn"t dangerous, that she wouldn"t take me down in a heartbeat.
And as for my soul … since waking up in Phoenix"s arms, it had quietened. I had been near Lincoln since, but I hadn"t felt the same physical pain at being close to him. Maybe my weakened physical state had also lessened my soul"s ability to fight me. Whatever it was, I was grateful for the reprieve.
There was a polite knock on the door.
„Sweetie, Lincoln"s here," Steph said. I knew she"d tell him to go away if I asked.
„Okay" I said, throwing on a pair of jeans and a white V-neck T-shirt. Steph went straight into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, turning on the shower to give us privacy.
I sat on the edge of my bed, trying to not look like I needed to.
Lincoln sat down opposite.
„Salvatore went to get his things," he said.
I nodded.
„Umm … everyone is loading up the cars downstairs. Griffin has spoke with Josephine and for now the Academy has agreed to you staying under Griffin"s guidance."
I nodded again. I heard the „for now" but at least that meant I could go home.
„She threatened to split us up," I said, trying to hold down my anger at the world.
Lincoln was silent for a moment, then answered, „I"ll never let that happen."