“There you are,” Doris exclaimed. “Do you want me to run to your house for anything? Joey said he’d drive after me, to make sure no one tails us.”
Jen was about to say yes, then gave a laugh. “Wait a minute. We’re thinking like people planning an airplane or car trip. I can’t carry anything extra this round. But I can always come back, and go straight to my place for whatever I need.”
Doris blinked. “You’re right. If that thing inside you lasts, it will let you go anywhere, any time.”
“As long as I can see exactly where I’m going,” Jen said, and a rush of joy burned through her as the possibilities began to whiz through her head. She could go back to that village to visit those children she’d spent all those weeks with, and had never forgotten since. She could go back to the marble streets of Dubrovnik, or take Nikos to her favorite restaurant in Paris . . .
Her head turned as she looked at Nikos. Happiness brimmed within her, but she consciously tried to breathe through it. Time to be practical, not blather about trips to Paris. He was facing trouble at home, a place she’d never seen, though it sounded awesome. There were people she was about to meet—equally awesome people, but they might look at her as an intruder.
Her life had taken a sharp turn into the unknown. As the melding shadows blurred Nikos’s beautiful coat, she met his steady gaze, recognizing him inside that marvelous beast, and she knew with every cell in her body that whatever happened, she was in it for the long haul.
Though the entire terrace stretched between them, she heard his Yes. Not with her ears, but with her heart.
“I think it’s almost sunset,” Bird whispered.
But Jen had already vaulted over the wall, and slid her arms tightly around Nikos’s neck. She put her mind firmly on the target: a mosaic made of pebbles depicting leaping dolphins.
There was a breathless moment when her arms closed around a living man, his own arms crushing her to him, and she felt that weird sensation that wasn’t the transfer. Then her arms were wings, and he gently stepped back as she shook her feathers out. She was a phoenix once more.
SIXTEEN
JEN
And Nikos was a man. She was still in the circle of his arms, but his grip had loosened. She closed her eyes until the longing began to ease. She had to think of that one moment when they stood together, man and woman, in each other’s arms, as a promise.
She opened her eyes to find that Nikos had sunk down to one knee, and was looking at her anxiously. Are you okay?
She heard the thought before he spoke. She shaped the word Yes and thought it at him. He blinked as if she’d shouted. Am I yelling?
The thought came out before she could form it and push it.
His instant smile was an answer.
You mean I’m doing it? The telepathy? She stared at him in surprise.
You’ve been doing it all yesterday. You don’t really need to be touching me—though I like it when you do, he responded.
The sound of many feet caused him to rise and turn, and a crowd of young people appeared in the archway. They were dressed in a variety of styles, from the belted tunic-shirts and loose pants stuffed into low boots that had been popular for centuries, to T-shirts and jeans.
These would be his hetairoi, Jen suspected. Cleo and Petra had described them all, but Jen still didn’t quite understand what hetairoi really meant. She guessed it was something like a martial arts school, but also like an honor guard.
Cleo pushed between them and burbled happily, “You made it!”
“Glad you’re back, boss,” someone said, and the others chimed in with greetings—all of which Jen discovered she understood.
She turned wonderingly to Nikos, who was watching her closely. “Did you get that?” he asked, low-voiced.
Yes. She tried saying it quietly in her mind, and his smile twitched into a brief grin before he said more seriously, “Many mythic shifters understand any language when they hear it. I guess phoenixes are among them. It might take you a little longer to catch on with speaking, but it’ll come.” And to his hetairoi, “Did Petra and Cleo brief you?”
“Yes.” A tall young man came forward. He had dark skin, tight curls, and a brilliant smile. He moved like a martial artist. They all did.
“This is Mateo,” Nikos said to Jen, and to Mateo, with pride and warmth in his voice, “This is Jen Carlsen. My mate. And here is Bryony.”
“So it really happened?” Bryony was a short, solid young woman with a lot of tats and piercings. Her hair was a brush cut dyed electric blue. She pushed forward to stand next to Mateo. “When will you be able to shift?” Her attention switched from Jen to Nikos.
“I don’t know. California is exactly ten hours behind us, but this time of year, daylight is nine and a half hours. So sunrise is very soon, and I expect we’ll be forced to shift again, and so on, sunrise, sunset, until we can fix this.”
Jen had been looking around at the pure white stone pillars surrounding her, age-old Doric columns, open to the bowl of the sky. It was that deep azure fading toward the light blue of impending dawn. Nikos, you didn’t tell me how beautiful it is here!