Infinity Reaper by Adam Silvera (new books to read .TXT) 📕

castle in Paris that tends to crowned elders so they’re comfortable in their immediate old age. I wonder what the New Ember Sanctuary looks like; I’m keeping myself in suspense since this may be the only time I’m ever personally welcomed inside of one.

“We should be pulling up soon, I think,” I tell Wesley as we drive through a clearing and a brown phoenix with emerald-colored wings and a scorched belly lands inside the nest of a tree. These evergreen blazers are true champions of nature, best known for swallowing any flames during forest fires as if it’s nothing but scorching hot food. If I weren’t on the phone I’d record this sighting. “I don’t know how long we’ll be here, but—”

“You have some nerve,” Iris says, surprising us all as her voice comes over the speaker. “Not only did you run away from safety at a time when your powers aren’t dependable and Brighton is new to his, you left Wesley, Ruth, and Esther vulnerable by letting them think you were home. What if they’d been discovered and needed your help while I was out looking for Eva and Carolina?!”

I must be so damn red in the face because I’m burning up. “I’m sorry, it all happened so quickly. This Halo Knight’s phoenix might be able to track down Ma and Eva; then we can all team up—”

“No! Teams are built on trust and communication, and you didn’t honor either of those when you all stole Wesley’s car without telling anyone.”

“You’re so right, Iris, we didn’t mean—”

Brighton turns around from the front seat and snatches the phone. “You’re one to talk! Don’t come down on us like we got Wesley’s family killed, when Atlas might be alive if you’d been honest with Maribelle about everything!”

We hear nothing but Iris breathing for a few moments. “I hope Maribelle’s hospitality will be as generous as ours. You’ve chosen your side. Don’t contact us.”

The line goes dead.

“Bright, why’d you have to swing at her like that?”

“She was acting all high and mighty, like we’re the bad guys!”

“Iris is grieving too,” Prudencia reminds him. “Maybe not as hard as Maribelle, but I’m sure she’s already blaming herself. You’re better than that, Brighton.”

It’s hard getting Brighton to stay quiet, but if he’s actually trying to make something work with Prudencia, he needs to get better at not lashing out at our friends and allies. I’m tempted to call Iris back, but I’m going to give her some space.

We drive around a mountain and there’s a drawbridge stretching toward a home fitting for Halo Knights—a two-story stone castle with turreted-observation towers that are reaching for the sky. If Iris doesn’t ever want to see us again at the cottage, hopefully we can all cram into a closet here or even the garden shed that overlooks the Hudson River. Wyatt, Tala, and Maribelle are waiting outside the Sanctuary’s front doors while Nox and Roxana bob for fish in the nearby stream.

“I’m not driving across that old-looking bridge,” Prudencia says as she parks the car off to the side.

We walk across with the river flowing beneath us. Roxana eyes us for a moment before swallowing another fish whole. All Halo Knights are vegans, but they don’t push that on the phoenixes in their care. While phoenixes are generous spirits to their companions, it’s the Halo Knight creed that they serve phoenixes, not the other way around.

“You made it,” Wyatt says. He checks his watch. “Good time too.”

“How’d you get here so fast?” Brighton asks Maribelle. He looks around. “Did you drive Atlas’s car?”

“I parked the car back at the loft last night after messaging you. I hitched a ride with Tala.”

“But she hit you!” Brighton says.

“Not as hard as she hit you,” Maribelle says.

Brighton’s black eye has darkened significantly in the past hour. Though nothing is more beat than his ego since he couldn’t overpower someone without any powers of her own. He looks as if he wants to challenge Tala to another round. She looks like she would welcome that.

Wyatt grabs the brass door knocker that’s shaped like an egg. “Before inviting you inside we must remind you that we are all guests on these sacred grounds.”

“Considerable exceptions are made for you specters.” Tala stares us down, lingering longer on Brighton. “Any harm that befalls the phoenixes will be paid for with your final breath.”

Wyatt scratches his head. “Uh, just be careful with the phoenixes, please.”

He pushes open the door and I don’t feel worthy of being within these walls or under this majestic sky. A rainbow of phoenixes are flying across the courtyard. The closest I’ve come to a sight like this is back at the museum where we had the model phoenixes hanging from the Sunroom’s ceiling. A sky swimmer dives into a lake, splashing a woman who is chasing after a little sun swallower.

“Quite the sight, yeah?” Wyatt asks.

“Yeah. Legit music to my ears too.” I wish I could understand all these squawks and chirps and get in on all of the conversations. “I’d listen to this any day instead of people cursing each other out on street corners.”

“We may not be able to understand them, but I’m positive the phoenixes are swearing up storms at each other too.”

The unity between phoenixes and people seems utopian, especially given everything going down in the city. I’m not likely to find a sun swallower’s ankles chained or beak sealed shut here like back at the Apollo Arena where that poor phoenix was forced to battle that golden-strand hydra. Watching that sun swallower fly away is a good reminder that I haven’t completely done harm in my time as a Spell Walker. But the lives I’ve saved don’t outnumber the ones I’ve lost.

“So what’s the deal with this place?” I ask Wyatt to distract myself. “Does the New Ember Sanctuary have a specialty?”

“It’s in the name, no? The Haloes tend to phoenixes upon their resurrections. Each breed has their own need, especially according to their True