“I need to go. Get ready. For today’s service,” I blurt, turning and walking away from him as fast as I can without actually running away, but when I try to open the door to go inside, it sticks.
“Let me in,” I mutter, pulling hard on the screen door.
The house doesn’t answer, but it also doesn’t let me inside.
“Please,” I beg, desperate to escape whatever the hell is happening in the garden.
The house creaks, and then the door opens. Slowly. And it whines the whole way. I have a horrible, sinking feeling that the house is rooting for Ember.
What exactly is it rooting for? I refuse to think about it.
I’m a huge fan of denial.
Ignorance is bliss and all that jazz.
Chapter Eight
Ember
Itried to convince Sunshine to give me a ride to my home, but he insisted that he was too busy to leave and ordered me a rideshare instead. The drive to my house takes fourteen minutes if the lights cooperate. Seventeen if the old woman in the blue Buick decides to sightsee.
I know this because I timed it. Multiple times. For no reason.
No reason at all.
Fourteen minutes from the funeral home.
Fourteen minutes from the back porch where sunshine drinks his coffee.
Fourteen minutes from the garden.
Fourteen minutes from my fated mate.
I exhale slowly and lean my head back against the seat.
My beautiful, stubborn mate. I feel it in my soul, certain and unavoidable.
The window is cracked just enough to let the wind slip in, tugging at my hair, cooling the heat that always lingers under my skin. This body finally fits me. No more growing pains. No more waking up a different size. No more pretending it’s normal when it always feels so very wrong.
Sunshine won’t be staring at me like I might spout another limb mid-conversation. That was both entertaining and humiliating.
Mostly entertaining.
I glance down at my hands, large and strong.
I’ve worn so many bodies. Child. Soldier. Hermit. Tradesman. A thief, twice. Highly recommend that one. I was even a king once, briefly. It was exhausting.
Each life was shaped by what I needed to survive. Adaptation. Evolution. Repetition.
But this life feels right.
It feels like this is something I was always meant to do. Not physically or mentally, but deeper than that. My soul feels like it’s found its other half. My fire burns differently, not lashing out, but waiting, burning low and steady instead of consuming.
It’s hard to explain if you aren’t a phoenix, but I feel like Sunshine has tamed my inner fire.
I used to crave chaos, but now I burn for something else.
Someoneelse.
