There were a lot of crying people at his funeral. Even I wanted to kill Radames and Lola when they showed up at the funeral. They weren’t together because they never were but I guess they thought it would be suspicious for both sides of the school to turn out and them be the only two students not there. All the teachers were here, too, even the ones that didn’t teach Adrian. Old Jingo was even here.
Adrian was already buried since they didn’t embalm reincarnations or originals here. We were all standing around his plot when it happened. Adrian startedcrawlingout of his grave. Everyone was screaming. He pulled himself out naked and covered in dirt.
“Ah! Zombie!” Liam cried.
Before anyone could stop him, Liam’s switchblade flew out of his hand and buried itself between Adrian’s eyes. Adrian collapsed dead again, and I didn’t scream this time, which was weird.
“Oh, shite, what if he really was the reincarnation of Jesus?” Liam moaned. “I just reacted.”
“He’s not,” Headmaster Mykene said. “Most mythological creatures have some truth to them. Just because somethinghasn’tbeen reincarnated before, doesn’t mean they won’t be. IthinkI know what Adrian is. Everyone, back up.”
“What does it mean?” Ivar asked.
“It means I’m almost certain Adrian is the reincarnation of a very rare original who didn’t spawn an entire race and you need to step back.”
“Sorry, not to be disrespectful,” Liam said, yanking his knife out of Adrian’s face and backing up with the rest of us.
We all watched and waited. Headmaster Mykene never told us her theories until she knew they were fact. She wasn’t even going to give us a hint this time when everyone here cared about Adrian and Liam kind of flipped and killed him again.
Adrian’s corpse started smoking and then burst into flames. The fire was hot, but it was also the same color of his aura. Adrian was reduced to a gigantic pile of ash in seconds, but all of a sudden, he sat up naked and very much alive. Several people screamed with joy and a few fainted. I was mostly just confused.
“Behold, a phoenix. There were always stories of a phoenix, but there are no legends of someone creating them and they aren’t gods. No one knows where they came from, but they die and then are reborn from the ashes. Your friend might die a few more times, but they won’t stay dead.”
I chanced a look at Radames. He looked furious before he slunk off. Lola disappeared shortly after. Lola and Radames might not stay dead for good, but now we had Adrian who didn’t, either.
This was going to change everything. I could feel it.
Adrian just died twice, but he was still Adrian. He asked Old Jingo if there could be anAdrian Isn’t Deadparty at the tavern and looked like he fully intended to go there and party ass naked and covered in soot.
“Ye aren’t putting yer bare, dirty arse on my furniture. Get cleaned up and get some trousers and you can have yer party.”
“Okay, but more people would show up if I’m naked. Stop staring at my cock, Mark. I’m a taken man now.”
Mark seemed to take that harder than Adrian dying twice, but Ivar and it seemed like Iman, too, really didn’t like Adrian standing there with his cock out in front of all these people he’d had sex with. Ari didn’t like it, either. Ari was bigger than evenIvar. He yanked his shirt off and threw it over Adrian’s head. Adrian wasn’t a small man, either, so Ari’s shirt barely covered his cock.
Iman placed herself in front of Adrian and actually hissed at someone. Ivar took up the rear, and they started herding him towards their dorm room. Everyone started dispersing, but everyone was talking.
I was sure we had every intention of going to the tavern to celebrate Adrian not being dead for good and figuring out what he was, but we stayed behind because there was one person we needed to talk to. Adrian might not have a million questions right at this moment, but I did.
“So, that was exciting,” Headmaster Mykene said.
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“The phoenix was a mythological creature from thousands of years ago. Like I said, there’s no stories of anyone creating one or turning themselves into one and there was never a race of phoenixes created. There are several different cultures that have stories of phoenix-like birds, which would suggest there were either more than one at one point or the original phoenix got around as they can shift into birds and fly.
“We all have a life cycle, but unlike the rest of us, the phoenix was supposed to have built a nest to die and be reborn in. There’s not much known about that. It’s said a basilisk was the one thing that could kill a phoenix for good, but we haven’t seen one of those in my lifetime, either. Either the original phoenix was killed by a basilisk and is only just now being reincarnated or the phoenix has always been here living in secret and that was why Adrian was found in a burning warehouse as a baby. It would have been hard for him to not have been snagged by one of our schools if this was the case and hedoeshave the birthmark.”
“Everything means something,” Liam said. “I picked the hostel Sage ended up at for a reason. What do you think Adrian being a phoenix means?”
“I couldn’t begin to speculate. Since I only have legends from thousands of years ago, I don’t really know what he’s capable of. There are stories that phoenix tears cure anything and that phoenixes possess the eternal flame.”
“Like, a flame that could burn two void beings and kill them permanently?” I asked.
“Not that kind of fire. The eternal flame is primal, almost like Liam’s connection to nature. It’s been said it can impart knowledge, but it’s also supposed to create balance. Even if Adriandoeshave the eternal flame and the balance he can bring with it is making sure Apep and his mate can’t destroy the world, no one here knows how to teach him to do that since this is the first phoenix to ever end up here in the history of Ouroboros Academy and as far as I can tell, Adrian didn’t wake up when he was reborn as his immediate thought was to flirt and throw a party.”
“I don’t think that’s the only reason. Iman is their mate. They had no idea because she was doing cat stuff and decided to not even tell them in private,” Khalid said.
“It’s her story to tell, but Iman had an incredibly tough life before she ended up here. She is very much an introvert and two of her mates are definitely extroverts.”
