Rise of the Phoenix novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Trade
"Where is she?" I said to the radio.
"Alive, and sleeping like a baby."
Rook's voice stayed warm.
"A very large baby. I did not harm her. I would never harm a mother of the house."
"I'll burn the whole mountain."
"I know you will. That is why I am being so careful."
Something clicked on his end, a pen set down on glass.
"Here is my offer, Forty."
"Tomorrow at midnight, you come to the Pyre Room."
"I will give you Hedda Wahlberg, whole and awake, in exchange for the thing under your ribs."
"Not a chance."
"You walk in, and I walk her out. Nobody else. Not the wolf."
"Why the Pyre Room?"
"Because it is built for the rising."
He sounded almost shy.
"I would like to see it done properly, once, before it is done wrong by someone else."
The sixteen stood in a half circle behind me in the snow, listening.
The tallest of them had stopped breathing.
I looked at their faces, the thin ones, the shaved ones, the ones with cuffs still hanging off one wrist.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Rise of the Phoenix are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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