Free Flame of the Phoenix: Hades' Carnival, Book 6 by N.J. Walters Page B

to reach her friends and worried about Jessica. Would Mordecai and the others be able to find a way to thwart the angry god? It had taken the Lady of the Beasts and her warriors five thousand years to outsmart Hades. It didn’t look good for Jessica or herself.
    “What was it like to be held captive in your animal form all those years?” She’d never asked him before, not wanting to bring up bad memories for him. But they’d dug through her past, and he knew things about her very few others did. She wanted to know more about him.
    It would also serve to take her mind off her own problems.
    Phoenix stopped and tipped his head back toward the sun. The powerful rays seemed to soak into his tanned skin. His red-and-gold hair shone like a halo around his head. “I would not wish it on my worst enemy.” The quiet way he spoke gave his words more punch than if he’d yelled them.
    Tilly reached out and took his hand. It was warm and strong. “You don’t have to talk about it if it hurts you.” That was the last thing she wanted.
    He closed his fingers around hers and squeezed. “I don’t mind.” He led her back to the porch and they sat on the step. “Time passed differently during those years. A hundred years might pass in the blink of an eye and a single day might feel an eternity.”
    Tilly leaned against him, offering her silent comfort. He rested his forearms on his knees and clasped his hands together. “We could communicate in the most rudimentary way. Mostly in images or a single thought. But even that became more difficult as the years passed and we fell into despair.”
    “I can’t imagine being that alone.” Because even if they were in close proximity, the warriors might as well have been miles apart. “Never able to talk to anyone, to move.” Tilly shivered. “I’d have gone mad.”
    She wished she could call back the words as soon as she’d spoken them. But Phoenix took no offense. “At times it felt as though I might,” he conceded. “But there was always hope. And learning. We were able to absorb all the learning of the world from those around us.” He peered up at the sun, not needing to squint even though it was incredibly bright. “The world is an astounding place, and humans even more so.”
    Tilly asked the question that had been bothering her since she’d met Phoenix. “What happened to the woman who freed you?”
    Phoenix sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “I was able to save her. It took all the strength I had to get her away from Hades. I could only do it because I was touching her. Otherwise, she would have burned to a crisp when I shifted to my animal form.” He offered her a sad smile. “Because I’d gone up in flames, Hades assumed she was dead and never bothered to look for her. Once twenty-four hours had passed, she was safe from Hades’ wrath and no longer a part of the curse.”
    “Wow.” Tilly couldn’t imagine how scary that must have been for the woman.
    “I wasn’t able to rejuvenate my form for many years. It took a long time for the phoenix to be reborn. I checked on her once I was back in this realm and learned she’d married, had children and was living a good life.”
    Tilly let the subject drop. She could see it upset him to talk about it. “Could you communicate with your phoenix during your captivity?” From what she’d gathered from her friends, the warrior and the animal were interconnected, two sides of a whole.
    “Yes. I could still feel him at first, but that dimmed over time. Not being able to shift forms was hard on me.”
    “Do you want to shift now?” Tilly had glimpsed his animal side once before, during the last battle between Hades and the warriors, and she was more fascinated than afraid. She hadn’t been able to have a really good look at him at the time. An oversight she wanted to correct. “I don’t mind if you want to stretch a little.”
    He looked at her and she could see the longing in his eyes.
    “It’s not as