“Where are we heading?” she asks as she locks her door.
“I’ll drive us there,” I grin.
It isn’t a long drive, but neither of us wanted to toil several miles when we could easily drive it. Five minutes later, I reach a tall hill that plunges steeply over the other side, overlooking the bushland.
“Up to the top?” Luciana asks as she turns her face up and shields her eyes from the sun.
“All the way up,” I laugh. “It’s good exercise.”
I grab the bag before she can reply and head off, hearing her fall into step behind me seconds later. I’m excited and nervous. I don’t know how she’s going to look at me after this. It’s one thing for her to know that I’m not exactly human, and for her to see small parts of me that prove it. What I’m going to show her today, though, is a massive part of myself.
“So?” Luciana asks as we reach the top and I set the bag down. “Why did we come all the way up here?”
“Actually, I wanted to show you something,” I say, turning to look at her. “I know we’ve spoken a lot, recently, about what it means to be a phoenix. You’ve felt how heated my body is, and I even turned my hand into a talon when we took blood, remember?”
“Yes…” she says slowly, giving me a questioning look.
“There’s more I want to show you,” I reply quietly.
I unbutton my shirt and shrug it off. Dane and I are lucky that we’re able to hide our wings, tucking them away beneath our skin until we need to use them, because it helps us merge among the humans, only our increased temperature giving us away.
But, today, I want to show them. I close my eyes and concentrate, feeling something behind me unfurling carefully, each feather straightening and flaring out. I can’t hear anything from Luciana, and I don’t dare open my eyes as, bit by bit, my wings come into being.
Only when they reach their full span do I hear a little gasp from Luciana, and I open my eyes. She’s staring at my wings in awe, no fright or disgust on her face. I glance to the side. It’s been so long since I’ve seen my own wings, due to how dangerous it is. They gleam in the sunlight, yellows, reds and oranges glittering over them until they look like dancing flames every time I shift.
“Amazing,” Luciana breathes. “They’re beautiful, Warwick. Do you stretch them out often?”
“Not as much as I would like,” I say, relaxing; I’m more pleased than I can say by her reaction. “It’s too dangerous.”
She looks up sharply. “Is it dangerous now?”
“We’ve been at peace for years, Luciana; only those poachers have found us,” I assure her. “If the Supernaturals were going to find us, they would have already done so.”
Dane would say I’m being reckless. But I’m fairly confident, now, in our safety. It’s been so long since we settled down in Mundaring. Nothing is going to happen to us.
“Can I…?” Luciana asks, gesturing to the wings.
“You can touch them,” I say encouragingly.
Luciana steps forward, reaching out to gently brush her fingers down my left wing. The light touch of her fingers makes a shiver down my spine that surprises me. I didn’t know my wings were that sensitive. Or perhaps it’s just her touch that does it.
“They’re soft,” she says quietly, moving her hands further down. “Can they hold you?”
“My bone structure is a little different than yours,” I reply. “And my wings are strong. I can fly with them.”
There’s awe in her eyes. And, seeing the amazement and warmth on her face, the words leave my mouth before I can think more about it.
“I could carry you, too.”
Her head jerks up. For a moment, I wonder if I’ve gone too far. But then a smile spreads wide across her face.
“Can you?” she breathes.
In response, I step back. I hadn’t planned to fly today. Dane will be incredibly upset. But I need to. There’s no way I can refuse Luciana this, not now that I’ve put the offer on the table. I flare my wings wide.
“You’ll need to hold on,” I say, reaching out for her.
She steps willingly into my arms, her curves fitting perfectly into my body. For a single moment, I imagine what it would be like to stay here like this forever, holding her close and savouring the feelings that sweep me.
Then I wrap my arms around her as she loops her arms around my neck, and hold her as securely as I can. I have no intention of going too high or fast with a passenger, but that doesn’t mean it would be okay to drop her.
“Ready?” I murmur into her ear.
“Ready,” she says, breathless.
I start to flap my wings, slow, powerful beats that stirs the ground around us and makes the grass rustle. Luciana’s arms tighten as, carefully, we lift off the ground.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done this, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten. As a young phoenix, learning to fly was only secondary to learning to walk. Once, before the threat of the Supernaturals came into our lives, I spent my days swooping through forests, daring myself to go faster and faster without hitting any trees.
Flying after so long feels like coming home, and it’s even more perfect that I have Luciana with me, her breath on my neck as she looks down at the ground we’re slowly leaving behind.
“This is amazing!” she gasps. “You can really fly?”
“You thought I was joking?” I ask with a laugh.
She looks up at me.
“No,” she says. “But there’s so much about the world that I just didn’t know about, Warwick. Even though I travelled the world and did my best to help people, there’s an entire community, now. That would have stayed hidden to me for the rest of my life if it wasn’t for my father leaving me his property. How is it possible that it remains unseen?”
“We make it that way,” I say. “Because there are people in the world that would use our powers for greed and power, and those that would hunt us like dogs because we’re different. We can’t take that risk. So, we hide, and almost no one thinks to look for us.”
She sighs and lays her head on my shoulder. We’re several feet over the ground now and I hover there as we look down at the countryside, which seems so much smaller all of a sudden.
“I wonder how my father found it,” she says. “He was out here for almost as long as I knew him. How did he know to start his farm?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “And, knowing what I do about the farm, I wonder if he knew about us. He never came looking for the escaped phoenix creature, almost as though he knew it was safe.”
I think of the old man that once lived across the road. Dane and I kept our distance, but he had always been friendly. When Luciana smiles, I can see how she was related to him, and it’s strange to me to realise that I probably knew her father better than she did.
Then Luciana shifts, and I feel her eyelashes against my skin as she closes her eyes.
“Thank you for showing me,” she says.
I smile down at the top of her head. She has no idea just how special she is to me, not yet. But, one day, I hope I can tell her.
Luciana