Submerge (The Bound Ones Book 2) Read online

  “It feels weird, doesn’t it?” she heard Sebastian almost whisper to her.

  She turned in his direction.

  “I know we’ve been through this a thousand times,” he said, “but it’s still bizarre every time. To be this person I’ve been for the past nineteen years, and then to suddenly be so much more.”

  “I know what you mean,” Phoenyx said. “It’s hard to put into words. It’s like waking up from a dream. Our life before was the dream, an insignificant episode, and now we’re awake and everything is clearer.”

  “I’m happy that we got to remember each other so early in this life,” Sebastian said. “Too bad timing is so horrible.”

  Phoenyx nodded and frowned, suddenly remembering poor, sweet Lily.

  “We’ll get Lily back,” Sebastian said. “We’ll find a way, we always do.” He kissed her. “For now, don’t think about the negatives. Think about how great it will be to put the dagger back together and use it. We’ll be immortal. We’ll never have to die again, never have to lose each other again.”

  He took her hand and braided his fingers through hers.

  She smiled, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the negatives. Right now, Lily was being held captive by the Four Corners for the second time in two months. Who knew how she was being treated, if she was unharmed. Phoenyx could only imagine Lily’s fear, and that fear made Phoenyx tremble with rage.

  Yes, they would find all the pieces of the dagger, and then she would make the Four Corners pay.

  ****

  The cabin was quiet. Sebastian was sleeping with his chair reclined next to Phoenyx, snoring softly. Skylar across from her had been sleeping since Ayanna had brought back his memories; he had struggled for a few minutes as the memories came flooding in and then passed out.

  The world below the jet was black, and Phoenyx assumed that they were flying over the ocean. Amazingly it had been five hours since they left the ground. Four more hours to go until they landed in Egypt.

  “Phoenyx, are you awake?” Ayanna whispered.

  Phoenyx turned to her and nodded. “Can’t sleep.”

  “Neither can I,” Ayanna replied. “It’s so hard to believe that it’s been decades since I’ve seen you, and now that I finally found you again, our time together is being threatened. If you hadn’t come up to me today in class, I might have never seen you again.” A terrible loneliness darkened Ayanna’s usually bright face as she said this.

  “I am so grateful to fate for urging me to introduce myself,” Phoenyx said. “If you hadn’t been here to remind us of the dagger, I don’t know what we would have done. Probably some reckless rescue attempt that would have ended in failure.”

  “Yes, luckily fate tends to favor us,” Ayanna mused.

  “How did you become a professor anyway?” Phoenyx asked. “Now that I actually remember all the history we’ve seen, most of what you teach in class is wrong.”

  Ayanna nodded and shrugged. “I have to teach by the books, and history is always written by the winners.”

  “How can you stand it?”

  “Well, I have no proof to back up anything that I have witnessed, but I enjoy educating people, and there’s always the possibility that I’ll find the evidence necessary to tell the truth about past events.”

  “You have always been good at that—educating people,” Phoenyx said. “You’ve been teaching us repeatedly forever.”

  “And I have always found it very rewarding,” Ayanna said with a smile. “You were actually the first person to get me interested in teaching. In the very beginning of all of this, our first life together. Do you remember when you first discovered your powers, as my sister?”

  Phoenyx raked her archive of memories, trying to find that first chapter in her book of Ayanna. After a few seconds, she found it, a hazy scene with missing parts.

  “Sort of,” Phoenyx answered. “It was so long ago.”

  “You were only six years old,” Ayanna said, looking out the window. “You and a few of the other kids were playing in the woods just north of the village. Suddenly they all came running back crying, everyone but you. I was so scared that something happened to you, so I ran into the woods, which were filled with smoke. I ran until I saw a circle of fire on the ground, and you were standing in the middle, screaming.” As Ayanna spoke, the memory became clearer, and Phoenyx found herself standing in that burning meadow from so many lifetimes ago.

  “You were so terrified. Every direction you turned to run out, flames jumped in front of you. I don’t know how I connected the dots, but I knew that you were Fire. I could see that the flames were reacting to your emotions. You were controlling them without knowing it.

  “So I told you to relax. I told you to close your eyes and imagine yourself in the happiest place you could think of. I told you some jokes and when you finally let a laugh slip out, the flames subsided and you ran into my arms.”

  Phoenyx saw her young self clinging to Ayanna, crying about how one of the girls had pushed her down and she had gotten mad and that’s when the fire started. Ayanna had made her feel so safe; she always did. Even if they were no longer blood, Ayanna would always be her sister.

  “I remember,” Phoenyx said. “You were the first person to even try to teach me how to control my element. In my lives before I met you, I was so clueless and accidents happened all the time, people always just ended up getting hurt. Because of you, I learned a sort of balance.”

  “Helping you really is my purpose in life,” Ayanna said. “I felt so adrift without you. I think that’s why I got into teaching, to fill the huge gap you left.”

  “I guess these are some pretty big shoes to fill,” Phoenyx jested, looking down at her feet. “No one is as big a misfit as me.”

  “You’d be surprised.” Ayanna laughed, then her face became serious again. “I really have missed you. Immortality is unbearable when you don’t have someone to share it with. That’s why I need us to find the dagger. Does that make me selfish, to want to doom you to my fate just to avoid being alone?”

  Phoenyx shook her head. “We are already doomed to live forever, just not continuously. The dagger fixes that. Regardless, I don’t believe you’re being selfish at all.” She smiled at Ayanna. “Even though I didn’t remember you all this time, I’ve missed you too.”

  Ayanna smiled back at her, the light of reassurance removing the shadow of isolation on her pretty face.

  “What have you been doing since the last time we saw each other?” Phoenyx asked.

  Ayanna drew a heavy sigh as she collected her thoughts. “For the first part of the twentieth century, I spent a lot of time investing in aspects of modern technology that I believed would help us whenever I found you next. I was a major silent benefactor of the transportation industry: trains, ships, automobiles, eventually planes. I have also greatly influenced the communication movement. I may not have been the brains behind any of it, but I like to believe that without my funding, we wouldn’t have cell phones or the World Wide Web.”

  Phoenyx raised her eyebrows in surprise, proud of her friend’s contribution to the modern age. Ayanna was always an enterprising person, never satisfied with sitting on the sidelines.

  “Although other countries sometimes showed greater progress in my areas of interest, I couldn’t leave the States,” Ayanna said. “It was the last place I saw you, and I had to stay until I found you again. I moved all around the country in hopes of running into you. Finally, at the beginning of this new millennia when I had all but given up on seeing you again, I decided to go back to school so that I could be relevant again. Every time I change my name and get a new identity, I have to get my degrees all over again. This time, I decided on a degree in archaeology. When the opportunity came up to be a professor, it seemed the perfect option. I needed to feel needed again. I needed to directly influence someone’s life, and being a college professor seemed the best way to do that. And I might be able to find the dagger in the process.”

 
A loud snore from Sebastian interrupted their heart-to-heart. He coughed and shifted in his chair as he slept, and Phoenyx snickered at how cute he was.

  “Things are still kind of fuzzy, I can’t remember anything about the other two stone pieces,” Phoenyx thought out loud. “I don’t know where we need to go after we get the piece in Egypt.”

  “The piece in Egypt was the only piece I helped you guys hide,” Ayanna said. “The other two you only told me about after they had been hidden. All I know is that you hid one on your own, and Sebastian hid the other one on his own.”

  “So we didn’t help each other hide the other two pieces?” Phoenyx asked.

  “The pieces were found in lives that you two didn’t find each other,” Ayanna explained. “In fact, the piece that you found was in a life in which you didn’t even find me.”

  “Wait, I somehow remembered the quest without your help?” Phoenyx asked.

  “I don’t know how, but yes.”

  Phoenyx frowned and tried to remember anything about that. “So I’m on my own with that one.”

  “It takes time to remember everything clearly,” Ayanna said. “I’m sure you’ll remember soon.”

  Sometimes it takes years for a memory to resurface, Phoenyx thought. I may not remember in time.

  “Maybe some sleep will help you remember,” Ayanna suggested. “Today has been a stressful day. You need to rest.”

  Phoenyx nodded and reclined her seat, hoping that sleep would bless her before they landed.

  Phoenyx was jostled awake by what felt like an earthquake. She gripped the arms of her seat, looked around, and then quickly realized she was still in the jet and they must be landing. Sebastian and Skylar were looking around with eyes at half-mast, hair tussled, yawns imminent. Ayanna, on the other hand, was wide awake, moving a brush through her honey curls.

  The jet came to a stop. Phoenyx straightened herself and followed Ayanna’s lead, making her hair presentable and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, even pinching her cheeks to bring some color to what she was certain was a very pale, tired-looking face.

  “Hey Skylar, how ya feeling today?” Sebastian asked. “You passed out before you could tell us anything about your past.”

  Skylar rubbed his face with both hands, then stretched. “I’m fine. Just…processing.”

  Sebastian nodded and repeated, “Processing,” perhaps trying to fish for more details, but Skylar didn’t explain any further.

  The pilot came out of the cockpit and into the cabin. “Good morning, everyone. We have arrived at Luxor International Airport. Local time is 3:15 PM.”

  “Thank you very much, Ralph,” Ayanna said.

  He nodded. “Any idea when you will want to depart?”

  “Let’s plan for late tomorrow morning,” Ayanna said.

  “And the destination?” he asked.

  Phoenyx looked at Ayanna, feeling the urgency to remember that other piece.

  “We aren’t too sure just yet,” Ayanna said. “I’ll call you tonight with the destination. In the meantime, get some well-deserved sleep.”

  “Will do,” he said, saluting her with his right index and middle fingers. “Enjoy your time in Egypt.” He opened the airstair and let it down so they could get out.

  As soon as Phoenyx heard the stairs touch the ground, it was like a gunshot cuing the start of a race. Phoenyx scurried off the jet and onto the black pavement, looking around to decide which direction to go, ready to run all the way through the desert if she had to.

  “Phoenyx, slow down,” Ayanna said, following her off the jet. “We have to go through security.”

  Just then a man in uniform drove up in a golf cart and stopped in front of them. He said something in a foreign language Phoenyx assumed Arabic. Ayanna approached him and replied in the same tongue. As they conversed, Sebastian and Skylar came to stand beside Phoenyx.

  Ayanna turned to the three of them and said, “There’s a bit of a snag. Because of recent terrorist activity, the Egyptian government is implementing a mandatory curfew. He says that by the time we get through security, the curfew will be in place, so we will have to stay in the airport over night.”

  “Like hell we will,” Phoenyx said. She approached the man and grabbed his arm.

  Without missing a beat, Ayanna told Phoenyx, “Repeat after me,” and she said a string of unfamiliar yet beautiful syllables. Phoenyx parroted the foreign words, pushing her will through her hand into the man’s body. The rigidity he had adopted when she first grabbed him melted away, and he stared at her like she was a piece of meat. He said something in Arabic and beckoned them to get in the golf cart.

  They climbed up and found a seat, and the man started driving.

  “What just happened?” Sebastian asked, looking confused.

  “Ayanna had Phoenyx tell the guard to take us to the nearest exit that bypasses security,” Skylar said, paraphrasing what he had read in their minds. “He said there is a gate around the other side of the airport where the employees park, he will open the gate to let us out. That was really good coordination on your part, ladies.”

  Phoenyx smiled, glad that they were going to be on their way soon.

  The golf cart hummed around the airport and Phoenyx saw the gate coming into view. As they approached, a guard emerged from the booth connected to the gate, a stern expression on his face. The golf cart came to a stop before the gate, and the guard began speaking to their driver in angry Arabic. They conversed back and forth, and the stiffening of both Ayanna’s and Skylar’s postures gave Phoenyx a bad feeling.

  Skylar leaned in slowly and whispered, “We are about to have a huge a problem. The guard suspects us of being terrorists. We need a plan B now.”

  Phoenyx scanned their surroundings, trying to come up with something to avoid an altercation with the guard. He was a fair distance away from the golf cart. If she made a move to get close enough to touch him, he might see that as a threatening gesture. Why does he think we are terrorists anyway? We don’t look at all menacing, and we are so clearly American it’s ridiculous.

  “It’s because the driver can’t explain why he’s taking us out the gate,” Skylar whispered. “The guard thinks we are threatening him to get us past security.”

  Phoenyx clenched her jaw in frustration.

  The conversation between the guard and the driver became heated, and Phoenyx’s heart leapt as she saw the guard’s hand reach for the gun on his belt holster.

  Suddenly, the guard’s attention was drawn to somewhere behind them, and a second later he took off running and shouting in that direction. The driver shrugged, opened the gate, and drove them out into the main parking lot.

  Phoenyx exhaled in relief. “What was that all about?” she asked.

  “I made the guard see some suspicious-looking characters running with guns behind us,” Sebastian explained. “We just needed him to get away from the gate. I also altered our faces when I saw him get out of the booth, so we wouldn’t have any problems with being recognized when we come back tomorrow if things had gotten messy.”

  “Good thinking,” Ayanna praised. “I’ll tell him to take us to the taxi drop.” Then she leaned forward to speak Arabic to the driver.

  Just as Phoenyx’s shoulders began to loosen, she heard yelling behind her, and the sound of feet hitting pavement getting closer. She turned around to see the same angry guard running after them—the golf cart didn’t go much faster than average jogging speed. The guard pulled his radio up to his mouth, ready to report them, but it was swiftly yanked out of his hand by an invisible force and shattered into hundreds of plastic and metal pieces in the air as if a small explosive had gone off inside of it—Skylar’s doing, Phoenyx assumed. The guard wasn’t fazed at all by this; he just got angrier and picked up his speed.

  Apparently, this guy wasn’t going to go away easily. If they didn’t do something quick, he was going to create a scene and they’d be stuck here.

  “We have to get him within arm’s reach,”
Ayanna said. “I can make him forget that we snuck out.”

  “Skylar, when we get to the taxi drop, trip him,” Sebastian instructed. “Ayanna can ‘offer’”—he made air quotes with his fingers—“to help him up while making him forget the last five minutes.”

  Skylar nodded.

  The golf cart stopped at the waiting area just as the guard caught up to them. As instructed, Skylar telepathically made the guard trip, landing face-first at their feet.

  Ayanna sweetly said something in Arabic and knelt down to help him up, extending one hand toward his and one to touch the side of his head. Almost instantly, the man’s rage dissipated and a look of confusion spread across his face. As Ayanna helped him to his feet, they exchanged words in Arabic politely, then he frowned and sauntered back over to the booth at the gate.

  Phoenyx had forgotten how quickly Ayanna’s brain-washing skill worked, it had been so many lifetimes since she had witnessed it in action.

  “Wow, that was a close one,” Sebastian said. “Next time, I say we just go through security.”

  “I don’t even understand why that had to happen,” Phoenyx said with irritation. “Why would he think we are terrorists?”

  “The Middle East is a very tenuous place these days, Egypt especially,” Ayanna said. “With the advent of social media, terror groups like ISIS can recruit anyone from any part of the world. An innocent appearance excludes no one.”

  “Scary thought,” Skylar mused.

  Ayanna checked her wrist watch. “Alright, we have an hour and a half to get across the Nile before the curfew takes effect. We need to grab a few things from the market before we take the ferry.”

  Phoenyx and the others nodded.

  It wasn’t long before a taxi pulled up and Ayanna told him where to take them. Phoenyx looked out the window as they drove away. It was the strangest experience, seeing her old stomping grounds the way they were now. This wasn’t the place she had left thousands of years ago. Relics of her old world stood in less than pristine condition amongst neglected and abandoned attempts at dwellings. Her once dignified people were now a mixture of grimy flirts, petty thieves, and solicitors of third world labor; no sooner had they stepped out of the cab at the market than locals began harassing them like a swarm of flies. But it wasn’t an unpleasant experience. This was still her Egypt, and these were still her people, they had just been changed by the modern world.