[BOOK TWO OF THE PHANTOM TRILOGY]
It has been two years and five months since Fycon City's flesh was seared by silver, leaving it a graveyard of charred bones and empty streets. Two years and five months since the League was smothered. Two yea...
Talia sat on the shore of the lake, relishing in the feel of the cool sand scratching against the soles of her feet. She didn't like the sour musk of the water, but when the wind shifted the tang of pine and sap from the evergreen trees made it bearable. Even though the sky was clear and the sun warmed the earth, the water was still gray-green, the sun dull against the ripples. She stared at the water, remembered feeling the weight of it against her chest, the frigid suffocation of it filling her mouth and lungs, tugging her down, down, down. A chill ran down her spine, and her fingers clawed into the sand, little grains wedging underneath her nails.
Her head snapped up as a shriek pierced the air, and feet pounded against the pier as Tobias ran and jumped into the water, Sophia in his arms. There was a splash, a ripple, and then silence, stillness. Talia's heart hammered against her ribcage and she twitched to jump up, then the water parted and Tobias surfaced with a laughing Sophia, her golden curls darkened by the water.
"Again!" she squealed and smacked the water with her hands, her movement hindered by the chunky, hot pink life vest strapped to her body.
"Maybe later," chuckled Tobias, holding the girl securely on his hip as he swam around a little. He looked up and waved at Talia, who gave a strained smile and a small wave in return.
A misshapen shadow crept across the sand and fell on her, and she craned her neck back to see Silas standing over her, a grin on his face.
"Hey, beautiful," he greeted, sinking to sit beside her. He stretched out on the sand, propping himself up on his forearms as he studied her, his white blond hair ruffled by the wind.
"Hey yourself," Talia murmured, a blush creeping across her cheeks when he tucked a stray curl of her hair behind her ear.
"You know, I still remember the day I met you." Silas jerked his head towards the lake. "The day I saw a cute redheaded girl fall into the water and not resurface. I dove in and when I pulled you out my heart nearly stopped when I thought I was too late to save you. Then you gasped, and somehow you still managed to look cute while coughing up half the lake." He chuckled and shook his head. "That was so long ago, but sometimes I still look at you and see that little half-drowned girl laying on the shore."
"Still can't swim," she whispered with a small shrug.
"You don't need to while I'm here." Silas rose to his knees, his hand tilting her chin until she looked at him, so close his breath brushed again her skin. "My little Tally," he purred, "I'll always protect you. Don't you worry."
He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss. Talia wrapped her arms around his neck, but she couldn't shake the weight of drowning that had settled in her chest long ago.
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A gasp tore from Quinn's throat, her back arching as her eyes snapped open to bright, gray light. Confusion and fear thrummed in her chest as she clawed around herself, searching for purchase, and her hands sank into sand. Disoriented, she blinked, realizing she was laying on her back, her wings sprawled underneath her as she stared up at a sky whitewashed with clouds. Slowly, she sat up, her bones creaking in protest, the tang of iron coating her tongue, her head pounding in tempo to her racing heart. Quinn looked down at herself, her eyebrows scrunching when she realized she was naked.
"What the hell?" she rasped, her nose wrinkling at the musk of the lake stretching in front of her, the water lapping a few feet from her toes. She jerked to her feet, stumbled, and regained her balance. Feathers speckled with sand, her wings and arms instinctively wrapped around herself as she looked around, her hair whipping in the wind and leaving stinging streaks against her skin.
She flinched as a cold raindrop pelted her bare skin, then another and another until she stood in a downpour. Through the smudge of rain she made out a barren landscape, the forest that once surrounded the lake now charred, the trees scattered like burned matchsticks. Shivering from fear and the cold, Quinn bit back a sob as flashes of the town hall assaulted her mind: Silas, Corvus, the demons, Steve, silver light as she burned from the inside out. This, opening her eyes and feeling the air rush into and out of her lungs, the thrum of her heart, was the worst punishment of all. Fingernails digging into her arms, she craned her neck to look at the sky, the heat of the tears rolling down her cheeks extinguished in an instant by the rain.
Quinn choked out, "What did I do to deserve to live?"
