The Phoenix Prophecy: Nova

“By the moon and the stars, stay strong, stay together, stay whole.” I chant along with the rest of the group. Around me, a circle of mages and vamps with varying degrees of F.H.B. problems have joined hands. United.

Pete is next to me. He breaks the circle first and heads for the free coffee. He’s dragged me to a meeting every day since my relapse. He doesn’t know the details. He thinks I gave in to temptation and bought from one of the European vamps Mack and Luther have been trying to see out of town for the past year. He doesn’t know that Nova caused this. Without a drop of her blood passing my lips, she sent me back three years. To a place I didn’t think I’d come back from.

“What happened to that new girl?” he asks, offering me a cookie and a plastic cup of coffee.

“New girl?”

“The hot barmaid. She was there one day, gone the next.”

My jaw twitches. In hindsight, allowing Nova to serve behind the bar was a stupid thing to do. We should have kept her hidden until we knew who she was, where she was from. But how could we have anticipated her face being all over the news less than a week later?

“She saw me high.” I put the cookie down but drink the coffee. “Freaked. Not sure if she’s still in town.”

Pete nods. “Shame. She was nicer to look at than your ugly mug.”

I pat him hard on the shoulder. A little too hard, perhaps. “See you later, Pete.”

“Stay whole, brother.” Pete tips his cup at me in a salute. I nod at him in return.

Outside, it’s still daylight. A few hours from dusk. As I walk back to The Cross, it seems as if everyone I pass is staring at their phone. Scrolling through social media feeds full of comments, articles, and speculation about the video.

When Luther texted it to me, rage pummeled my veins so hard I thought I might crush the phone in my hand. And that rage was closely followed by hunger. Hunger for her.

It’s not going away. Whatever this is, it’s different. The meetings helped bring me down, but it’s still there. Simmering beneath the surface of my skin. It’s been four days since I saw her. It feels like four hundred.

I know she’s in The Cross before I even walk inside. I feel her in the air. I smell her.

I stop at the door. Hesitate. Then push it open.

She’s perched on a stool beside Tanner, wearing a baseball cap and a thin white sweater. The TV is off. Merna, the temp I got from the agency, looks harassed even though there are only a few customers in.

I walk straight past Tanner and gesture for him to follow me. He brings Nova. In my office, he closes the door. She steps to one side. She’s waiting for me to look at her, but I can’t. “You shouldn’t be here.” I turn around and brace my hands on the desk, trying to slow my breathing.

“Kole. We need you.” Tanner’s voice is steady and deep. Something is going on.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“Whatever it is. I can’t.” I stand up straight and fold my arms.

There’s movement behind me. I think Tanner’s going to appear at my side, but it’s not him. I allow myself to look.

“Kole?” Nova dips her head to meet my eyes. She reaches for my arm. I flinch. Her touch is like fire. Finally, I look at her. Tanner is standing a few paces away, poised as if he’s expecting me to launch at her. “We need your help.” She meets my eyes. “I need your help.”

I exhale slowly, but hard. Then I step away and fold my arms. “What do you need?”

“You’ve seen the video,” Tanner says, his eyes grazing my face, taking in my clenched jaw. “If Nova’s the Phoenix, we need to know. And we need to know soon.”

I don’t reply, just wait for him to continue.

Before he can, Nova interrupts. “Rev says my memories have been sealed. She and Tanner tried to unlock them, to find out whether I started the fire that killed my parents and my brother. But they couldn’t.”

Sealed? I look at Tanner. He nods slowly. I know what he’s thinking; if someone sealed Nova’s memories, then there’s something we’re not supposed to see. And we’re not the only ones who know she’s special.

“Your family died in a fire?” Tanner obviously knew this information, but I haven’t been part of the inner workings of The Hollow for the past few days. I clearly missed this important conversation.

Nova nods. I expect to see sadness, melancholy, or guilt in her eyes. Instead, I see determination. “I need to know if I started it. I need to know why I lived, and they didn’t.”

I pace away from her toward the back of the room. I can’t look at her. Not now. I need to think. But her presence fills the entire room.

“Kole, if you can’t do this, Mack could reach out to the Bureau.”

“No.” I spin back around. My voice dark and certain. “The Bureau has changed. We don’t know who we can trust.” I nod at him, fix my eyes on his. “I can do it.”

“Safely?” Tanner asks purposefully, moving toward Nova like a lion protecting a cub.

I nod. “We’ll do it at The Hollow. Luther and Mack can restrain me. You’ll all be there. It will be safe.” Inhaling slowly, I make myself look at her. Through her sweater, I can see the shadow of the ink on her chest. A flash of memory scratches at the back of my eyes. Her legs, her skin, her lips, her smell, her taste.

“Kole.” Tanner clenches his fist at his side.

“It will be safe. We’ll do it tonight.”

Tanner is still staring at me when Nova rests her hand on his shoulder. “Tanner,” she says his name like honey on her tongue. “I trust that you’ll keep me safe.” She glances at me and holds my gaze. “And I trust Kole.”