The League

Chapter 22 - Frying Pans and Shattered Snakes

Phoenix froze, heart pounding. Azure stood still, too, but his posture was relaxed. He was so calm, he barely even seemed to be breathing.

"I forgot these," Azure said, taking the sunglasses from the table.

They were the same height, but somehow it felt like Azure was staring him down. Phoenix stayed silent, recovering too slowly from his shock.

"You must be Sharmistha's new addition." Azure tilted his head. "I'm guessing she doesn't know you work for the League?"

Phoenix's hand tightened around the salt crystals. His cover was blown: Azure recognized him, and he'd seen him with the Nameless. If Azure hadn't put on the sunglasses, Phoenix would've pulled a page from Dirt Man's book and thrown the salt in his eyes as a distraction. As it was, he didn't know how to escape.

"Come with me," Azure said.

Phoenix shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

"No?" Azure subtly gestured to their surroundings and lowered his voice. "Would you rather duke it out right here in the middle of all these people?"

Memories of Prague flashed across Phoenix's vision. The chaos, the damage. The pain. He imagined all of that happening here, in a poor little coffee shop full of innocent people, and he swallowed.

"I'll take your silence as a no," Azure said. "Follow me. Stay a few yards behind. Don't ditch me—I will find you."

He left. Phoenix counted to seven before following. He watched the black baseball cap weaving between people's heads and shuffled along, knowing he likely only had a few precious seconds to come up with something. He wouldn't ditch, he knew better than to dismiss a threat by a Snake. Walker would answer if he called, but his advice—or help—would take more time than Phoenix had.

He was on his own.

Azure turned into an alley, but when Phoenix got there, it was empty. He was about to call out when he heard a faint whistle from above, and he understood that he was expected to go up to the roof.

He raised his hand and used telekinesis to pull the first fire escape ladder down. It emitted an awful creak as it descended, and its rusted mechanism jammed halfway, so he jumped to reach the first rung. Phoenix climbed up the side of the building using the ladders and balconies, his heart beating faster the higher he went.

The window of the fourth-floor balcony was open, and he made eye contact with an old woman in her kitchen. She gasped, grabbed a frying pan, and swung it at him like a baseball bat. Phoenix leaned back and held up his hands.

"I'm not a robber!" he exclaimed. "I'm just going up to the—"

She swung again, and he scrambled to the next ladder. On the final step, he took a deep breath and climbed over the edge. Azure was on the other side of the roof, leaning over and observing the street. He turned to face Phoenix.

"I know from Prague that your telekinesis is pretty good," he said, "but there's nothing you can throw here, unless you plan to throw me off the building, which I suggest you don't try."

Phoenix quickly glanced around. There was nothing to grab—no water tank, no tools, no wood planks, not even a small rock. Telekinesis was suboptimal here, Azure was right about that, but he was falling victim to the same thing as the trackers.

Phoenix had more than one superpower.

The moment Azure opened his mouth to speak again, Phoenix made his move. He connected his mind to Azure's, ready to send a simple command, stand still with your hands in the air, but he was suddenly hit with a sensation that he could only describe as falling off a cliff and being impaled by spikes of rock.

The Snake's mind was like broken glass. Every sharp edge hurt Phoenix as he backed up wildly, his vision going murky. He heard Azure telling him to stop, he heard traffic below, but he heard dozens of mangled voices from memories, too, and he felt pinpricks in his skin as he tried to end the attempted mind control. Azure was approaching him, and he telekinetically shoved him away, and the few sparrows that were watching from an alley clothesline chirped at the spectacle. It took more effort than it should've for Phoenix to cut off, and when he finally did, he stumbled onto his knees.

"Mind control only works if there's an intact mind to control," Azure said calmly. "Mine is a bit...shattered."

Phoenix looked at him, breathing hard. "How did you—"

"Know that you have mind control?" Azure interrupted. "I could feel you digging around my head like a parasite, looking for strings to pull."

Phoenix took a shaky breath and stood. Shattered was the perfect way to describe it. How could Azure appear so collected when that was what he had going on?

"What do you want?" Phoenix asked tightly.

Azure slipped his hand into his pocket and took out a folded piece of paper. "I have information I need to pass along to someone. You work for the League—you can use your resources to tell me how I can find him. His name's Phoenix Anderson."

Phoenix had been eyeing the fire escape, wondering if he should shove Azure harder and then make a run for it, and after hearing his name, his attention snapped back to Azure with a jolt. It was too late to hide his reaction.

"Oh," Azure said quietly. "It's you, isn't it?"

"How do you know me?" Phoenix demanded.

Azure watched him for a moment. "There's a chance you'll have no idea what I'm referring to," he said finally, "but I'm going to try anyway."

He took off the sunglasses, and there was an emotion in his bright blue eyes that made Phoenix uneasy. Azure had made all his threats so far with the glasses on, but he was taking them off for this. What made this so important?

Azure looked down at the paper, brushing his thumb across it, and then looked at Phoenix. "I know where Jack and Eleanor are."