Savita exploded into the air upon Dira’s verbal command. She launched through the sky, weaving between flagpoles and swerving below black netting.
Bekn observed from a distance, fingers flitting about on his tele-comm at an inhuman speed. While Coup watched on from a few meters away, Dira asked, “How long do you think it’ll take Sav to let Coup on her back?”
Before Kel could reply, her small tablet blared from her pocket. She whipped it out and opened the app linked to Savita’s collar, monitoring her vitals. The alarm silenced as she clicked on a notification and was greeted with great, red letters across her screen:
TEMPERATURE ABOVE NORM. HEART RATE ABOVE NORM. IRREGULAR BREATHING PATTERNS DETECTED. CALM YOUR PHOENIX IMMEDIATELY, OR REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THEIR VICINITY.
Kel’s heart drummed in her ears. Though the roaring wind muffled her voice, she screamed for Sav to land.
Seconds passed before Savita glanced down at Kel. Her wings slowed until she hovered in place. She released a low grumble, and reluctantly raced toward the ground like a falling star.
Kel’s eyes widened as her phoenix neared. It had been impossible to spot from such a distance, but now Kel could see that Savita’s feathers weren’t stirring mere colors into the air—she had becomeflame.
Soft, fiery tendrils often decorated Savita while racing, but they rarely climbed so high. Now, they shrouded Savita in a lethal dance of red and orange.
Kel hurried over to Savita. The phoenix felt surprisingly cool.
“You okay?” Kel breathed, searching her phoenix’s body for any hints of distress. Savita seemed entirely at ease. Though she was still covered in flames, there was no raised temperature or rapid breathing. Kel frowned, glancing back at the tablet. The alarming notifications had already cleared and Savita’s vitals were back to normal.
“What happened?” Dira panted, rushing to Kel’s side.
Kel wrung her gloved hands. “I’m not sure. Her vitals were spiking.” She ran her hands over Savita’s side. “But she seems fine now…?”
The fire wreathing Savita’s body was calming into soft waves, lapping against her feathers.
“Let’s keep practicing,” Coup said, a few steps back. “She’s probably just a little tense from yesterday’s race, and she’s still getting used to Bekn and me.”
Dira nodded. Kel bit the inside of her cheek, staying silent, though she made a note to check Savita’s vitals more often. Uncontrolled flames often heralded a rebirth, but Savita was barely half a century old. Immortal creatures, phoenixes usually rebirthed every century, returning to hatchlings and retaining their memories. Still—there were plenty of phoenixes that defied the norm.
Rebirths were chronically destructive. They increased a phoenix’s temperature to roughly a thousand degrees, melting all but the sturdiest of metals within a hundred meters. Everything around Sav would turn to ash—and not the regenerating kind.
“Let’s pause this trial run there,” Bekn panted, appearing at Kel’s back. He glanced warily at Sav, who narrowed her eyes, and he shuffled back a step. “Coup, Kelyn—you might want to see this.”
He handed over her and Coup’s tele-comms. Kel’s brows shot up. “When did you grab those?”
Bekn shrugged. “While you two were trying to out-snark each other, I decided to be a productive member of this team.”
Kel huffed and grabbed her tele-comm. When the screen lit up, her jaw fell open.
Dozens of messages littered the screen. Missed calls from unknown numbers, texts from other CAPR crews’ mitigators, emails from local news stations.
She glanced over at Coup’s screen—bombarded with similar messages.
“What the hell?” he muttered.
Distractedly, Kel lured Savita back to the aviary with dried treats and then hurried with the others back through the paddock’s trampled grass. The four of them neared the side entrance to Kel’s cottage before freezing mid-stride.
Kel’s entire front lawn was packed with vans and cameras set up on monstrous tripods. People with voice-comms huddled at her front door.
“Alchemists help me,” she whispered.
SEVEN
“And what made you think you were qualified to take on an untamed phoenix?”
Kel’s nails bit into her palms. “That phoenix was just confused. If it was untamed, the town would have burned to a crisp.”
She heard Bekn cough behind her. A warning.
