Phoenix Rising

Chapter 6

Amara’s P.O.V

After letting the darkness consume me, I woke up feeling calm instead of overwhelmed. Still, my mind wandered about the same thoughts of why I even came back here. Deep down, I knew ShalderTown was my home, but I had this gut feeling everyone would’ve been better if I never came back. Either way, it was too late. Pyre and I couldn’t go back to living an everyday life, especially her.

Within a few minutes of me sitting up, I heard voices coming from the forest. I didn’t want to stay here in case it wasn’t someone I knew. Trying to regain my balance enough to stand up, I came to a stop when I heard the voices more clearly. Jay & Rue.

“How do we even know she’ll be here?” Rue’s voice held doubt as she questioned Jay, “We were supposed to wait for the rest of the group and leave together to find her.”

“This is Amara we’re talking about. I wasn’t going to wait even longer to see her, talk to her. Whatever reasons she had to stay away, we both know everyone else wouldn’t just forgive her right away. There will be some tension between them.” Jay said in response. There was some emotion in her voice I couldn’t quite believe. She wanted to be the first one to actually talk to me. The two of them slowly made their way closer to the waterfall. Anxious for this reunion, I hesitated and tried to hide. Jay continued to say, “We have to be the first ones here. To help her through whatever’s going on. She died, and came back… Phoenix magic may be different from the other species, but who knows what happens when they come back to life. Her teleporting out of the building is an example of new magic. Who knows better about this subject than us?”

“Yeah, you’re right about this. Let’s go find her then. She has to be here somewhere.” Rue finally gave in.

I had this feeling that I didn’t know what to do. Should I step out of the shadows? They were my best friends, the first family I gained after realizing who I was. Why am I still standing here? I should already be with them.

“Amara!” Jay shouted loud enough for anyone in the forest to hear, “We know you’re over here somewhere!”

Stepped out from behind a tree, I shouted to them, “Over here.” I heard a sigh of relief come from both of them as they finally spotted me. Taking a seat by the waterfall, I watched as they made their way over to me, “Don’t hate me… I don’t know what I was doing or even why I was doing it. So many things happened after the fight for ShalderTown and I was barely processing everything when I woke up…”

“Hey. It’s fine, we got it.” Rue put her hand on my shoulder as she sat beside me.

Jay followed her movements, “We all understand why you did what you did but, some of us will be more upset than others… You died, and we all had to watch that happen. We had to deal with grieving you. Then, all of a sudden, we find out you’re alive but have been living somewhere else for the last year. It’s hard. But, we still understand why you did it.”

“I wanted to come back, I really did. So many different times…” Sadness was clear in my voice, “Everyone would’ve reacted badly if I had come back out of nowhere, especially if I had no idea what was going on. That’s why I stayed with Pyre for the last year.”

“Why don’t we go back to camp?” Rue asked out of nowhere, “They might not have believed it was you at first but they do now. Everyone misses you and wants to see you.”

“Kai hates me. Doesn’t he?” I asked the one question which had been pondering in my mind this entire time, “I saw his expression before I disappeared, teleported, whatever you want to call it… He’s not going to want to see me. I shouldn’t have waited a year to come back.”

“He doesn’t hate you. In fact, I don’t think that’s possible for him. He just doesn’t understand the reasons behind what you did.” Jay tried to reassure me, “Give him some time. Try to talk to him, but if he walks away, let him. It broke him when you died. You might’ve only been back a year, but we’ve had to deal with the loss for four years.”

“I don’t know if I’m fully ready to face everyone after all this time.” I knew the twins understood what I was trying to say but they also made it seem like they wanted me to go back to the camp, “As for being gone for years, three of those I was stuck in some dark room with nobody there. I felt like I lost my mind.”

“Amara?” Jay’s voice held confusion and slight sadness.

“You don’t plan on coming back yet, do you?” Rue questioned, but wouldn’t look at me now. They were acting more surprised and shocked about this than I thought they would. I wanted a minute or so to think of what to say to everyone once I saw them.

“I can’t yet. Especially after the way I’ve been living for the last year, I don’t know if I’m ready to be hunted for more years of my life. I just, I need a minute…” I tried to respond but now, the twins seemed mad. Before I could say anything else, they both stood up.

“And we can’t just live ours knowing you're alive but don’t want to come home!” Jay said in anger and sadness. Waiting a minute, she calmed herself down and said one more thing before leaving, “We may be mad right this second, but we do understand. I’m sorry for snapping… Take all the time you need. You know where to find us once you’re ready.” With that, they were gone.

Jay’s P.O.V

I don’t even know why I stormed off the way I did. Amara did everything she could, including die, for us to get ShalderTown back and I blew up at her. For some reason, I still felt so mad at her.

“Jay. Calm down! You already know what happens when your magic gets out of hand when you get overwhelmed.” Rue tried to stop me. I know she was just trying to help me, but damn, she was pissing me off too. Sometimes, being a twin is both a curse and a blessing, especially in times like this.

“Stop telling me what to do!” I shouted in frustration. She jumped back, clearly startled by my sudden outburst, “s**t. I’m sorry. This is all so much. No wonder why Kai didn’t want to get involved yet.”

“Except, I am. Just like you two already did.” Kai came walking towards us. Nobody was with him, which was a slight surprise. He saw the confusion on our faces, “The others wanted to wait another hour till they came out here but I figured, I might as well, considering I was just roaming the forest… Where is she?”

“Not he…” I was about to say but got interrupted.

“Right here.” Amara came walking up to us now. Tension grew in the air, along with silence, seeing as all of us didn’t know what to say, “Before any of you say another word about how I didn’t come back for over a year, I had my reasons. Okay? You all have the right to be bad at me but stop acting like you know how it is. Only Erin has the right to say, considering he died too… But, I’m back now.”

Turning to fully face Kai, she said in a low tone, “Hi?”

“Hi…” Kai said back after a minute of silence. This has just gotten awkward.

“Uhm, maybe we should leave you two to catch up.” Rue suggested while tugging at my arm. Of course, I’m going to agree with that. I don’t think I could handle the awkwardness any longer.