“The only way to be resurrected was to be truly dead,” the Phoenix said from her perch on the porch.
“You were dead.” If she hadn’t been, Sawyer wouldn’t be the sorcerer we all knew and feared and I wouldn’t be here.
“Yes and no.”
Why couldn’t anything ever just be yes or no? Good or evil. Black or white. Lately everything was one big glob of gray.
The Phoenix set the key aside as if it were no more important that the latest New York Times bestselling beach read. My fingers fairly itched to snatch it, but I had to bide my time. First I’d kill her; then I’d grab it.
“You know how a fire seems to die,” she explained, “but deep down the embers still glow, and the only way to be sure is to kick dirt over it?” I nodded. “Same principle. I’m a phoenix. The only way for that last spark of life to go out was for me to be buried in the earth of my homeland.”
“This isn’t really Egypt.”
She picked up the book again—was she taunting me with that thing?—and shrugged. “Names have power. A little grave, a little magic, and it was obviously good enough.”
“Obviously,” I agreed, gaze on Summer, who’d crept closer to Jimmy, though she didn’t get too close. He was still looking at her as if she was Satan’s handmaiden, which apparently she was.
“You dropped me on a doorstep,” I accused.
“Would you have preferred I left you to die on the ground?”
Considering certain memories of my youth . . . maybe.
“Why didn’t you take me directly to Ruthie?”
“You were the daughter of a traitor,” Summer said. “Your mother tried to kill the light.”
I jerked a thumb at Sawyer. “So did his.”
“By then he was a big boy. He didn’t need anyone to protect him.”
“You were protecting me?” My voice was aghast. “You really do need a dictionary.” I thought of the note that had been left along with me. “Why ‘Elizabeth Phoenix’?”
“ ‘Phoenix’ so we could find you later.”
“And ‘Elizabeth’?”
“I liked it.”
“You say you sold your soul for Sanducci, but he wasn’t even born when this happened.”
Her dewy blue eyes met mine. “The future was bright with him. I dreamed of him when I slept. When I woke, my chest ached for missing him. I saw how it would be when I lost him. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“So you dialed Satan’s hotline and volunteered your immortal soul?” Call me crazy, but that wasn’t love; it was obsession.
“Samyaza found me,” she said.
Ruthie had told me that Satan had been pulling strings on earth since he’d been thrown into the pit. All he needed was a willing conduit, and there were plenty. We had one right here.
“I just had to bury the Phoenix, and Jimmy’s life would be spared. It seemed so easy.”
“It’s all fun and games until the Apocalypse shows up,” I muttered.
“He’d be dead by now if it wasn’t for me,” she snapped.
“Well, we’ll never really know that for sure, will we?”
Summer lifted her chin. “I do.”
“How did the key end up in there with her?”
“Wasn’t me,” Summer said.
“Time’s up.” The Phoenix crossed the yard; the key lay discarded on the top porch step. “Choose now, or I’ll choose for you.”
“You can’t choose Jimmy,” Summer blurted.
I narrowed my gaze on the pastel perfection of her face. “How about we kill you?”
“No!” Jimmy shouted, and I turned to him in surprise.
“I’m sorry. Did you actually say no to killing the soul-selling fairy?”
“Lizzy.” His face was tormented. “You can’t.”
I could, but that wasn’t the point. That he was so bent out of shape about it seemed to be. Since when did Sanducci care? Sure, he’d slept with her. A lot. But he hadn’t loved her. He’d loved me.
Except he didn’t anymore.
Why Jimmy loving Summer mattered I couldn’t quite say. I had bigger issues at hand.
“Choose!” the Phoenix screamed, and her hands began to glow.
“Shit,” Summer muttered. “I think we’re gonna need a bigger phoenix.”
I actually laughed. Nerves? Panic? End of the world fever? Probably all three.
“Elizabeth.” Sawyer’s gray eyes seemed to glow as silver as the lightning that had flashed from the sky on the night he’d killed my mother. “Listen to the fairy. Think. And remember.”
My laughter died as I stared at Sawyer, and all the little pieces clicked into place.
Lightning.
I looked at Jimmy.
Love.
I returned my gaze to Summer.
A bigger phoenix.
And I knew what I had to do.
“I choose Jimmy,” I said.
“No!” Summer shrieked, and lunged for me.
The Phoenix backhanded her; the fairy flew several yards and lay still. My mother walked across the grass and stared at the still form. Then she lifted her foot over Summer’s head. Before she brought it down, I turned and hurried toward Jimmy.
I could tell by the way he stared at me that he’d added all the parts and come up with the same solution.
I kissed him, quick and hard. No time for anything more. “I do love you.”