Klutz: Phoenix Down (But Did You Die?, #1)

by Sedona Ashe

Part of the wing was missing, and what remained was on fire. The beautiful dance of fire had always calmed me, but not at that moment.

I closed my eyes. I really wasn’t looking forward to dying. Again.

Turning him over, I find the last guy, a hulking man with brilliant red hair. If he didn’t speak with a Scottish accent, I was going to be seriously disappointed.

I had always regenerated in the past, but I had never regenerated twice in the same day, let alone twice in less than an hour. I had also depleted my magic, something else I had never done. This might actually be the day I die. A scorching piece of metal slammed into my head, and silky darkness swallowed me.

Which is why this assignment was utterly ridiculous. It was a simple retrieval mission. A rumor had begun to circulate that a phoenix shifter was alive, and the directors had nearly lost their minds at the possibility. Phoenix shifters had been extinct for nearly 400 years. Our bosses had been desperate to bring this shifter into the safety of our compound.

I saw her look up and her spine stiffen as she saw the same thing I did. The flames were mere inches from the fuel. My stomach heaved and my throat constricted. They weren’t far enough away to survive an explosion. I was going to watch them die, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I wanted to close my eyes, but this stranger had risked so much to save us, and I felt I owed it to her to remember this final act of bravery.

My mate had existed, and I had watched helplessly as she saved my brothers and myself. A human had saved five of the most feared shifters on the planet, and I didn’t even know her name.

I am absolutely delightful company. Lifting my chin, I gave myself a mental pat on the back. That’s right, I am fan-freaking-tastic! I am—

My parents had died in a car accident when I was eight years old and I was placed with a friend of my dad. She kept me clothed and fed but considered that the end of her responsibilities. She was gone before I caught the bus in the morning and came home several hours after I went to bed. She never attended school functions, never took me shopping, and never helped with my homework. If my grades dropped, I would find a note on the kitchen table with a warning. No offer to help with whatever subject I was struggling to understand, just an impersonal note threatening punishment.

I had dealt with bullies my entire childhood. This was nothing new. But the pain I felt from each of their insults was unexpected. I was well past the point of words hurting me, but for some reason, my heart cracked a little more each time they spoke. My physical and emotional pain was at an all-time high.

I didn’t want to startle Anzac. If he turned, he would be bitten too, so I swallowed my scream of shock first, and then swallowed my scream of pain as the venom pumped into me like liquid lava. I used my arm and elbow to pin the snake against me, and as quietly as I could I moved toward the water and away from the guys.

“Told you we shouldn’t waste rations on her, she just vomits them back up.” The sound of laughter filled my ears.

“I always dreamed of flying,” I said before I turned and stepped off the cliff. As I fell, I stared at the brilliant blue sky and the white cotton candy clouds; it was such a beautiful day to die. I felt weightless and free. Air rushed around my body, cooling the feverish sweat on my skin, and my heartbeat slowed as the venom neared the end of its work. I stopped trying to take in labored breath, instead I simply relaxed. Relief and peace swelled in my chest. In mere moments I would be free of my agonizing pain. My eyes fluttered closed as I crashed against the jagged stones of the valley.

I watched in horror as the battered and bruised red head stepped backwards off the cliff, a heartbreakingly sad smile playing around her lips. Time seemed to slow, and my body felt frozen in time as I tried to process what had just happened.

“The little warrior is ours.” A shiver traveled up my spine. It was creepy when the jaguars spoke using human words, and even creepier when they did it in unison.

I also saw what she couldn’t see. Tears were sliding down Anzac’s face. The man who never cried, was crying. His voice was rough in the mental connection. “She just broke her cheekbone. If we don’t move faster and find a way to lose her, I won’t be able to hold my jaguar back. The bond will grow again. I allowed him to see her up close, but I held to our agreement to continue to drive a wedge between her and us. We better make this work, or all this pain we have caused her will be for nothing.”

“I did it because some pitiful part of my heart thought they were mine. Stupid, stupid girl.” Tears rolled down her face. My jaguar was pushing forward again, and I could hear her heartbeat. It was irregular, beating slower with each ragged breath she dragged into her lungs. The venom was shutting down her body. We couldn’t save our mate, even if we wanted to. Pain speared my heart as it shattered and white-hot grief filled my body. We could have carried her weight through the jungle without breaking a sweat. She shouldn’t have a mark on her skin, or a blister on her foot. She had five mates, and we were among the most powerful shifters alive, and yet she had been the one to protect us. “I always dreamed of flying.”

His joy in having his mate with him burst through me. A jaguar finding their true mate was rare, and it was a celebrated event among our kind. We should have spent that first day explaining the bond to her. It was obvious from her mumbling on the cliff that she must have felt the pull. That’s why she saved us; she knew we were hers.

Yep. I was going to add ‘eaten by jaguar’ to my list of ridiculous deaths. I decided that if he was going to eat me, I was going to die trying to pet him. Here kitty, kitty, kitty!

Sure, it was crazy, but let’s be real… I always knew I would die trying to pet something I shouldn’t. Actually, this wouldn’t even be the first time that had happened, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

“No,” Dagger growled. “I watched my heartbroken mate walk off a cliff, and my own heart shattered knowing I had lost her. By some miracle I have been given a second chance, and I won’t mess it up again.” “I agree with Dagger,” Knox added.

“However, nothing I read, or was taught, prepared me for this. I want to sink my teeth into your neck, and bury myself deep inside you, little mate. I want it more than anything I have ever wanted in my life.”

“You are the last phoenix.”

A tear slid down my cheek. I hadn’t even known I was crying. I pushed away from Dagger. Enough. This wasn’t the first time the Fates had cruelly dangled the promise of something wonderful in front of me, only to rip it away. I would survive, even if it killed me.

What did you do, Imp? Big bug. I zap.

Magic exploded out from me, raining down a sparkling shower of red and gold embers. Imp trilled enthusiastically. And I knew exactly how this had happened. Forget the cat that caught the canary, this phoenix had just caught her a jaguar. Let’s hope he wasn’t too mad…

My mind struggled to comprehend what had just happened. “You claimed me, and then threw magical confetti?” I gasped.

“Did I electrocute him with my vajingo?” Instead of answering me, Knox howled with laughter.

“Eat,” I demanded. “We will be in the city tomorrow, and we have plenty of rations to last until then.” I made sure my voice was rough and authoritative, but as I shoved several more packets of food at her, I thought I saw a smile play around her lips. I didn’t think it was possible for someone’s heart to soar and sink at the same time, but mine did. I wanted to please her, but I also knew that I needed her to hate me. If she didn’t, then leaving would hurt us both even more.

“Did you just—” Pop! Fiery confetti exploded, raining down around us in a shower of golden sparks. “IMP!”

My mate had marked me. She had forgiven everything that had happened in the jungle; even if she hadn’t purposely intended to claim me, her heart had known exactly what it was doing. She would have accepted me.

My heart shattered into a million pieces as my world collapsed around me. June sixteenth, two-thousand twenty-one. That was the day I had boarded the ill-fated plane. My parents were alive.