I grinned at her use of the word.
“Bells,” I said, remembering hearing them not long ago.
She glanced toward the beams above. “The pictures could be tied to the sounds because I heard them too. Every phase could match a tone. The bird and sounds aren’t random. Nothing is inside this place.”
“The chimes could be driving it through its cycle of resurrection and rest.”
The air hummed, carrying the faintest echo, a chime rung inside a dream.
Above, the phoenix materialized again, soaring across the upper aspect of the room like it had done before. The key still hung around its neck.
Another ding, though subtle, and it started glowing.
A third chime, and it dove down, flames leaping off its feathers as it soared lower, though it was still too far overhead for me to grab the key.
Another tone, barely audible, and it flared so brightly, I had to shield my eyes. When the light winked out, ashes drifted down around us, and the fourth bell sounded.
I stepped out into the middle of the chamber and dragged my boot through the thick ashes. “Unfortunately, it takes the key with it.”
Rejoining Reyla near the wall, we waited, barely breathing, until the first chime rang out, and the phoenix appeared again, gliding across its invisible path, following the same trajectory and the same pattern we’d seen before.
I felt the next chime in my bones, and the phoenix slipped intoview again, soaring through its course of burning to ash to disappearing.
Reyla pointed as it swept across the air. “That pass takes it near the center. See the perch? It flies almost right underneath it.”
The third tone rang out.
Flames exploded around the creature mid-flight, but for three long counts, it remained solid. The key swayed on its chest, attached to a silver chain around its neck.
It burst into flames and turned to ash again as the fourth bell dinged.
“Alright,” she said, her head tipped back, her gaze on the ceiling. “We need to grab the key before it blazes.”
I nodded. “Three counts after the second bell. That's our window.”
She paced once in a slow line, glanced back at the medallions, then toward the ceiling again. “We need to be waiting on that perch.”
I frowned. “Looks rickety.”
“Sprout wings.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Not my skill, though it’s probably someone’s.”
“I think you’d be cute with wings. I could call you my pretty little bat boy.”
Grumbling, I shook my head. “We've established I'm no boy, Wildfire.”
“Quite well, actually, though I’m sure a repeat performance would solidify this opinion in my mind.”
“Might?”
She grinned.
“Keep talking like that and I'll make you pay, love.”
“Oh, yes, please.” Her smile faded as she peered upward. “Flitting might work as long if it’s timed right. Sadly, I don’t believe Ishould be the one to handle it.” Before the next bell could strike, she turned to me. “Let me try something.”
When the phoenix appeared again, Reyla lifted her hand, her fingertip lit. A bolt of lightning streaked away from her, across the room, smacking into the phoenix's chest. The bolt didn't stop the flight or interrupt the pattern. It just sparked against the bird and died.
