Free Phoenix: The Rising by Bette Maybee Page B

whole new life.”
    Julie’s mind reeled. Her heart seemed to grow cold in her chest, like she had just died. This must be what a broken heart feels like. She swallowed the tears away, trying to calm the tremor she felt in her throat. “So, how many lives have you lived?”
    Eli brushed his raven hair away from his eyes. Julie thought she saw a flash of gold in it.
    “I’ve never taken the time to count. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t remember any of them. And I won’t remember this one.”
    Julie looked in Eli’s eyes. They looked sad ... distant. Could he be feeling the same way? She had to ask. “How much longer do you have?”
    Eli walked over and sat by her. “I don’t know, exactly. But it’s going to happen soon. I can feel it. I’ll know.” He sighed. “Kinda like how a salmon knows when it’s time to swim upstream to spawn, or how the swallows know when to fly to Capistrano. That’s why we moved back.”
    “We?” Julie’s brow furrowed. She hadn’t even thought about his family.
    Eli nodded. “My aunt and uncle. I mean, they’re not really my aunt and uncle. I just call them that. She’s a descendant of Laylah, the Numa woman who found me.” Eli’s eyes glistened. “My mother.”
    Julie reached out, hesitated then drew her hand back to her lap. She couldn’t lead him on, and her touch would do just that.
    “You must miss her.”
    Eli cleared his throat. “She raised me. Took care of me. Loved me. Like her own flesh and blood. Like the other children she had after me. I watched as they died, one by one, during childbirth. All except for one sister. She lived, and I’ve been living with her descendants ever since.”
    “What happened to your mother?”
    Eli hesitated and then looked into Julie’s eyes. “I watched her grow old, waste away, and die. Now that I look back on it, I’m figuring she had some type of cancer. I couldn’t fix that.”
    Julie’s heart lurched in her chest. “I’m so sorry.”
    Eli shook his head. “She was mortal. Mortals die. Everyone I’ve ever loved has died. Except for Liana. She and her husband, Simon, have been my family for the last fifty years.”
    Loved. He said everyone he’ d ever loved ha d died. Julie swallowed. “Have you ever been in love?”
    Eli’s eyes grew sad and distant once again. “After my mother died, I married a girl from a neighboring village. In human years, I was thirty years old, but my body stopped aging on my seventeenth birthday. I didn’t tell my young wife about my ... condition. I figured I’d do it when she noticed she was getting older, but I wasn’t . I didn’t get the chance. Two days after we were married, t here was a raid in our village when most of the men were out hunting. Many of the women and children were either killed or taken, including my wife and my sister. I found their bodies two days later, several miles outside our village. Too late to help either of them. I took my sister’s orphaned daughter and left. I’ve been on the move, first with my niece, and then with her descendants, for the last 270 years, until now. I’ve come full circle.”
    Julie’s cell phone beeped, startling the breath right out of her. Eli reached for it, but Julie snatched it up before he could get it. She slid it open, read the message, and then handed it to Eli.
    “It’s from Charsey. Kas must be with her. Sounds like they want to make amends.”
    Eli read the message out loud. “‘Sorry about the other night—Kas and I want to talk to you tomorrow. See you at school’.” He slid the cell phone shut. “You may be right.”
    “School! Crap, it’s after one and we both have school tomorrow!” Julie smiled and shook her head. “I just realized how long you’ve been going to school. Don’t you get tired of it?”
    Eli laughed. “Sometimes. But then again, sometimes I meet some very nice, very interesting people.” Eli smiled and raised an eyebrow. “At least it’s happened once in the last 30 0