Sofia: Phoenix Rising - Fire and Water Book 2
Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

“Hey babe, are you alright? You’ve been awfully quiet...” Ash looks over at me from the driver’s seat, worry in his eyes. He has just pulled into my human driveway and parked the Jeep. He turns as much as he can in his seat so that he is looking at me fully. Reaching out his arm, Ash brushes strands of hair from off my forehead and I lean the side of my face into his palm and sigh.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just have a thousand thoughts crossing my mind at the moment.” Ash nods his head and then hops out of his car, coming around to my side, he opens my door for me and pulls me out of the car.

“Leave your stuff. We’ll get it tomorrow,” he suggests as he shuts the door behind me. I say okay and wrap both of my arms around his left one as we walk up the steps and into my house.

“Oh my gosh,” I say shocked. “How is it just 9 o’clock?” I look at the clock baffled. “It feels like it’s freaking midnight,” I groan. I’m so tired I feel like I could sleep for a week.

Ash grins. “Does that mean you’re too tired to have any fun? You Just want to go to sleep?” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and slap my hand against his upper bicep and give him a tired laugh.

“Sadly, I really am too tired. Who knew that taking a boat ride, getting hit by a spell, and a two-hour drive home could be so exhausting?” Ash chuckles at me, takes my hand and leads me up to my bedroom. I change out of my clothes and into my tee-shirt and shorts, ‘pajama outfit’ and then crawl into my bed where Ash is already waiting for me with open arms. Snuggling up next to him I give him a quick kiss on the lips; “thank you for taking me up to that lighthouse. I love you.”

I am drifting fast asleep, but I do manage to hear him say, “you’re welcome. I love you too.”

We wake up to a cold but sunny Sunday morning. Yesterday feels like a dream as I stretch my arms and legs before rolling into Ash. I decide I will make up for not having energy enough to ‘play’ last night and climb on top of him, straddling my legs on either side of his waist, I lean forward to kiss him awake. “Well good morning,” Ash says against my lips causing me to grin.

I trail kisses along his jaw line and up to his ear before whispering, “good morning handsome.” As the last word is uttered, he flips us over so that he is on top of me causing me to giggle. He has his hands braced on either side of me as though he had just done a partial push-up. He looks at me with a Cheshire smile and then leans towards me to place kisses on my neck. Of course, as Ash begins to do this, his cell phone rings, and I make a mental note to make fun of him for the horrible country music that is playing as his ringtone.

Ash looks to the nightstand where his phone lays to see who would be calling this early in the morning and I hear him groan. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I swear she does this to us on purpose!” I look at him with arched eyebrows, so he picks up his phone to show me the name on the screen. I’ll give you one guess as to who would be calling us... yep, Charlie!

“Ugh. What does she want?” I say exasperated. Why can’t she just wait until we call her? Why does she need answers of our trip at the crack of dawn? “Are you going to answer it or let that atrocious country music continue to play?” Ash tosses the closest pillow to him at my face which makes me laugh out loud just as I hear him say hello.

“Yeah, we can be over there in about an hour. No, we just each need to take a shower and get ourselves some coffee before we leave her house. Okay, we will see you soon then.” He rolls his eyes but couldn’t keep the blush from his cheeks.

“What did she just say to you. You’re blushing...” I have a suspicion on what she must have said to make his cheeks flame red the way they are, but I want him to say it.

“Oh, uh, nothing. We better get moving before she decides we are taking too long and shows up on your doorstep.” Ash slides off the bed and then stretches his arm out to me, offering to help me get out of the bed. Is it wrong of me to say I don’t want to see her? I take his hand and allow him to pull me from the bed but try to move as slowly as possible. Ash looks behind him to see why I am taking so long. He turns on his foot and comes back to me, “seriously, hurry up slow-poke.” He tickles my sides causing me to squeal out. “Come on babe, I’ll even help you shower.” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively at me.

“Do you promise?” As he nods his head yes, I grab his hand and yank him into the bathroom with me.

I pull my car into Charlie’s driveway an hour and fifteen minutes later. Charlie is waiting at the entrance of her door as we walk up the stairs leading into her house. “Clouds in the sky! You two have no sense of time, do you?” I hear the anger in her voice, and it takes me by surprised that she is so with us.

“Oh, um, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was an urgency for us to be here at the exact hour.” I look at her baffled.

“No, no, it’s not. Of course not, it isn’t urgent or anything. I just assumed you would want to come over as quickly as possible to share the information you had learned about the area where your parents are being kept is all.” Charlie shrugs her shoulders in a nonchalant sort of movement, but the maneuver doesn’t reflect in her eyes. I gaze at her skeptically but take a seat at her kitchen table as she meanders over to the stove and removes her tea kettle from it. Her back is facing Ash and I as she pours us each a cup of tea and I glance to Ash; does she seem weirder than she normally is to you? He nods his head yes but before he can respond, Charlie has made her way to the table, placing a tray upon the clear glass of the table with three steaming cups of tea she seats herself and then nods her head indicating that we should grab a cup ourselves.

“So dear... What have you found out? Is the lighthouse spelled? Is it easy to gain access to the place? I await anxiously to hear your news.” As Charlie bombards me with questions, Ash and I sip on our tea. By the time I am able to answer her, I am feeling quite mellow, as though I am in a dream state. Honestly, I could drift off to sleep right at this moment which is odd because I slept really well last night and didn’t feel tired until we sat at the table with her.

“Well,” a yawn escapes me... “we can...” another yawn. “We are able to...” yet again, a yawn but now my eyes are starting to feel really heavy. With each blink they get heavier and before I know it, my entire body becomes numb, causing me to slump forward in my seat, asleep.

SOFIA! I hear Ash shout my name inside me head in an echoing effect but instead of being able to answer him, I slip into darkness.

Sofeee--ia, I hear phoenix say in a sing-song voice, come to me... I feel like I am drifting but being pulled in one specific direction of dark space within my mind. Slowly I come to stand in the center of the darkness where phoenix is floating, glowing in pale reds, oranges and yellows. She embraces me and makes me feel like I am sitting in front of a warm fire. A sigh of happiness escapes my lips as I return her embrace.

“Why did you reach out to me?” I tilt my head curiously at her. Her hair flows around her as though submerged in water but flickers like that of a burning candle flame. She tilts her head mirror image to mine.

“Someone close to us is trying to prevent us from rescuing your parents. Not only that, but this person is also slowly harming you, they are poisoning us from the inside. You must help us figure out who wants to hurt us before something awful happens.”

I stare at her shocked. “As far as I know, there is only one person trying to get me, but beyond that, I have no idea who would want to hurt me, us.”

“A drug was given to us within the last half hour or so. It is someone closer than you think. Be very careful who you allow around us, especially when we venture up to rescue your parents.” Phoenix drifts backwards from me as she says this to me or rather, I am being pulled away from her. Like a rubber band I snap back to reality. Blinking my eyes rapidly, I try to focus on my surroundings. The sun is really bright though, making it hard for me to see anything at all until Ash’s eyes come into view hovering over top of me.