Phoenix Falling by Laura Bickle

Author:Laura Bickle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

She didn’t know what the phoenix wanted, or much of anything else for certain. But she did know that the pack needed her. And that she could help them.

Nine disappeared into the forest on the far side of the road. She hoped that Mike and Maria wouldn’t try to find her. If they did, though, then so be it. All that she knew was that she had to save the pack. There was no other choice.

She pulled her bandanna up around her nose, jerked Mike’s goggles over her eyes, and ran as fast as she could.

The pines seemed to know the fire was approaching. Sap oozed from the curling needles and pinecones dropped from the heat. It sounded like hail. She knew that fire was part of the pines’ life cycle, that fire cleared out the undergrowth to allow light to nourish seeds in the now-rich soil. But not fire like this. This was unnatural. It wasn’t allowed to burn itself out. It was created by the phoenix, new flashpoints generated wherever it lit. It wouldn’t end until the phoenix was stopped.

But stopping the phoenix was beyond her power. Still, she could help the pack; that much, she knew. The air grew thick and hazy, but she kept moving south. Forward, forward. She was moving through vast striations of choking smoke. This way was unburned, close to the front of the fire line, so very close. It was like being submerged in a hot river. In her mind, she was eight years old again, helplessly struggling against the inexorable fire and the light in the sky.

The ground plateaued. To her right, she could see flames about a quarter mile away, moving steadily south. She was close to the gorge she’d seen in the Eye of the World. She followed the ridge until it dropped into a canyon. This was where she’d last seen the pack. They would have thought they were safe in that shade and the darkness of the gorge, but they would be trapped here, trapped without someone to lead them to safety.

She threw back her head and howled. Her smoke-abraded throat, unconstrained by human inhibitions, still released a sound that was very much like a wolf howl. She howled once again, then twice.

A distant howl answered her. She scrambled down the edge of the gorge, down a steep slide of gravel. The rock chewed into her blistered arm through the bandage, rending the skin bloody and weeping. She barely felt it—she was so close. She clambered gracelessly to the bottom of the gorge and howled again.

A wolf peered at her from behind a tree. Ghost. He was wary. He’d been expecting a wolf, and here was a woman. He pulled his lips back from his teeth and growled, the hair lifting along his spine.

Nine gave a small howl and a whimper, then a whine.

He cocked his head, looking at her.

Nine yipped at him. This was what she would say to him if she were still wearing fur. It’s me, Nine.

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