His shoulders lifted slightly. “Maybe. But that doesn’t make it any less real.” Gaze focused on my face, he went on, “Sidney, I came to Silver Hollow because I wanted to study cryptids, to understand the intersection between magic and science. But finding you? Learning about your abilities? Falling for you? That wasn’t in any of Rosenthal’s plans.”
No, probably not. All she wanted was data. I had a hard time believing that she’d ever been in love, had ever felt this sort of connection to another person. She wouldn’t have been counting on any of that.
And I so wanted to trust that what Ben and I had built together was genuine despite the manipulation that had brought us together. But every time I thought about DAPI watching us, recording us, using our connection as an experimental variable, I felt violated all over again.
“I need to see the surveillance equipment,” I said then. “I need to understand what they did.”
Ben hesitated for a moment before giving a reluctant nod. “Rebecca left us her tablet. I can try to pull up the schematics.”
He retrieved the device and brought up a map of Silver Hollow overlaid with dozens of small red dots. Each one represented a surveillance unit — cameras, EMF sensors, and the insidious interference generators that had been slowly killing the phoenix.
“They’re everywhere,” I said, heart sinking as I scrolled through the data. “The forest, the town, even in the Carmichaels’ backyard right behind my house.”
“I know,” Ben said simply, although I detected a trace of bitterness underneath his calm tone. “Rosenthal wanted comprehensive coverage. She’s been tracking every electromagnetic anomaly, every time you used your abilities. We have to assume that she has months of detailed recordings.”
I zoomed in on one of the units near the portal site and pulled up its specifications. I didn’t understand everything I was seeing, but I understood enough to make my anger burn that much brighter.
“These seem like they’re something more than recording devices,” I said. “Look at the power output. They’re generating pulses at specific frequencies, aren’t they?”
Ben leaned closer, eyes narrowing slightly as he absorbed the data displayed on the screen. “Those look like frequencies that match the phoenix’s natural bioelectric signature. So they’re not just disrupting the rebirth cycle. As far as I can tell, they’re actively corrupting it.”
“Weaponized magic,” I said. Only a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have even understood what that meant. Unfortunately, DAPI’s interference had opened my eyes to a whole lot of things I would have preferred never to have known. “That’s what Rosenthal wants, isn’t it? She’s figured out how to turn dimensional energy into something that can be controlled and deployed.”
I didn’t want to think about what that meant. If DAPI could weaponize phoenix fire, if they could learn to corrupt and control dimensional magic, then creatures like the phoenix would become military assets, nothing more than targets for capture and experimentation.
My grandmother had spent her entire life protecting the portal and the creatures that crossed through it. My mother had followed in her footsteps, sacrificing everything to keep Silver Hollow’s secrets safe. And now the U.S. government wanted to turn all of it into weapons.
“We have to stop her,” I said, my tone fierce.
“We will,” Ben said. “But first, we have to save the phoenix. Without it, the portal destabilizes. Your mother and grandmother could be cut off forever.”
He was right. I couldn’t let my anger at Rosenthal distract me from what mattered most. The phoenix was dying, and I was the only one who could help it.
“How do we do this?” I asked. “The cleansing process, I mean. What does Rebecca Morse think will work?”
“She thinks you need to guide the phoenix through its natural rebirth cycle and let the fire consume the corrupted parts and rebuild from clean energy.” He pulled up another graph on the tablet. “But you’ll need to maintain the connection the entire time. For hours, maybe. And if the corruption spreads to you during the process….”
“I could end up corrupted, too,” I finished for him, since he didn’t seem eager to complete the sentence. “Or dead.”
He didn’t blink. “Yes.”
Once again, I glanced over at the phoenix’s oddly bundled form. Even through the shielding that surrounded it, I could feel its desperation. This ancient creature had been suffering for weeks because of human interference, and now it was asking me — a mortal woman who’d only discovered her abilities a few weeks ago — to save it.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said, and my voice trembled on the last syllable.
“You can.” Ben sounded very certain. “I’ve watched you face down shadow stalkers and negotiate with griffins and channel enough electromagnetic energy to overload government surveillance equipment. You’re stronger than you think.”
When he put it that way, he made me sound like Wonder Woman. Inside, though, I felt like a quivering mound of Jell-O. “That was different,” I protested. “I was only reacting to what was happening. I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing. And what I need to do for the phoenix requires the kind of control I simply don’t have.”
“Then we’ll figure it out together.” He laid down the tablet so he could press his other hand against mine, surrounding my cold fingers with warmth. “That’s what we do, Sidney. We face impossible things and find a way through them.”
I stared up at him — at the exhaustion in his face and the determination in his eyes and the way he held my hand like he could anchor me to this reality through sheer force of will. DAPI might have engineered our meeting, but they couldn’t have predicted this. They couldn’t have known that Ben would become the person I trusted more than anyone in the world.
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll do this together.”
The smallest lift at the corner of his mouth as he replied, “Always.”
The word hung in the air between us, so much more than those two simple syllables. Something shifted within me, some barrier I’d been maintaining crumbling under the weight of everything we’d been through together.
