Page 126 of Phoenix's Fire

The man moved forward, patting at the air. "You have the rest of today to make sure your supplies are full. Food, water, and anything else you'll need to pass the time will not be available tomorrow, because the store owners will be busy securing themselves. As always, the hospitals will be open, and emergency services will do their best without the militia members who staff many of those jobs. Now let's all head home and make sure we're ready for this!"

"I thought you didn't want to talk?" Zasen teased Ayla.

"She did good," I said before she could try to apologize. "That was exactly what they needed to hear."

"But what good does this really do?" Jerlis asked, turning those dark eyes of his on Ayla. "So we fight them out there. How is that going to stop them from coming back?"

"It stops us from dying," she said, "and will cost them more hunters. We will take their guns, which means they have to replace those weapons, and there's only so much in the compound. People, items, and everything else. It's not limitless!"

"So we become just like them?" he asked. "We exterminate them before they exterminate us?" The man shook his head. "There has to be a better way."

"We need to get back into the compound," Ayla said. "I just have to get a hunter to tell me how."

"What if they don't?" Jerlis asked. "What about the Dragon women trapped inside there? Are we killing our own families with this?"

"I hope not," Ayla said. "But do we risk the ones here or the ones down there?"

"I don't want to risk any of them!" Jerlis roared.

Ayla pulled into herself even as she leaned back, but then she did the last thing I expected. "Yelling doesn't make it stop!" she screamed at him. "Yelling doesn't change anything. All yelling does isscare the people who are just as worried as you are!"

That made Jerlis take a step back. "I'm... I'm sorry."

Ayla nodded as if she'd just made the point. "I don't like being scared. I'm tired of everyone thinking that terrorizing someone else will fix things. It doesn't with yelling, and it doesn't with hunting, and it doesn't with anything. So I'm doing my best, Mr. Mayor, and I'm sorry the men didn't tell me everything, but I'mnotlike them. I..." She pulled in a deep breath, then blurted out, "I don't feel bad aboutkilling them, but I didn't go looking for them. They came looking for my friends. I'm just not going to shut up and take it anymore. I'm not meek. I'm not subservient, and I'm certainly notsilent!"

"I'm sorry," Jerlis breathed.

But I was staring at Ayla in awe. Never before had I heard her lash out like that. "Go away, Jerlis," I said as I headed over to clasp her upper arms, rubbing them lightly. "Now that was a speech," I told her.

She ducked her head. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not," Zasen said. "And you're right, but so is he. It's easy to hate the Moles, but - "

"Rymar!"

My head snapped over to not only the sound of my name, but also the voice calling it. No, not now. Of all the times and places for my mom to push her way in, now was not a good one.

"Zasen, take her hom-"

"Rymar!" Mom called again as she jogged up the stairs. "You gave such a good speech, and this?" She turned to smile at Zasen, but her hand reached out to bat mine away from Ayla's arm. "So you're the girl who lives with my son, hm?"

"Cailyon..." My father groaned as he jogged up the steps to catch up. "Don't make a scene."

Ayla was looking at the tailless woman before her as if completely confused. Then again, the only thing my mother and I had in common was our hair. Hers was orangey-red, but pale streaks of grey swooped down from her temples. A few lighter strands were mixed in with the rest, but it only tamed the shocking color. It certainly didn't stand out enough to make her look anything but stunning.

"Mom," I said, guiding her back. "Let me introduce you to Ayla, the Phoenix. Ayla? This is my mom, Cailyon, and my father, Emerton." I turned to my father. "Where's Dad?"

"Talking to your papa. He's here with Farina."

Ayla just turned back to me. "Rymar, I'm confused."

"Yeah, I bet," I grumbled, because how the hell was I supposed to explain my parents to her? And why now?

Thirty-Nine

Ayla

Mother. I caught that word, and the woman standing before me was both everything I would expect from Rymar's mother, and yet nothing at all. For some reason, that she was tailless surprised me, even though I knew that was how it worked. Her hair, however, was exactly right.