SOPHIE

"Hey, Soph." Maria swooshed past me in the hallway. Her dark curls bobbed on her shoulder as she ran down the hall.

"Soph," Kevin from Projections yelled my name. He waved with a smile and walked on. I still kept staring at the cat-ears, and the tails and horns.

"Soph, wait up!" Damon rushed to catch up with me as I made my way to history. His father enrolled him two weeks after we got rescued. His cat ears disappeared, and I still did not know what triggered them to vanish. He was the second one now that magically lost their animal part. Xander, Brooke's boyfriend, was the first. One minute I saw him with a beak and the next time, nada. That one was still a mystery.

"Here," he said and handed me a daisy. The petite white petals and green centre had hardly the sweet fragrance that lingered on daisies as I brought it to my nostrils and took a big sniff.

"Thanks, Damon."

"Soph!" Brooke's voice came from up ahead and she pushed through the ocean of people in front of me.

"See you later," Damon said and rushed in the opposite direction. I watched him leave. His red hair bounced slightly as he rushed through the throng of students trying to get to their next classes. I was glad that he didn't become part of my thigh. That kid was so kind and sweet.

Brooke reached me and her eyebrow raised as she gawked at my daisy. "Another daisy from Damon?"

"He is just grateful for what I did that night, Brooke. He almost died."

"It's been like two months, Sophie, seriously? He's becoming annoying."

"Stop it." I slapped her shoulder.

She smiled all giddy and bounced slightly as she leaned in and whispered, "They are coming back today."

A gasp slipped past my lips. "You got word."

She nodded. "Alex texted me, said he will see me later."

"Awesome, I can't wait to see my Firebird."

Brooke chuckled as we walked toward class. She blabbered about Alex as my mind trailed off. Drake hadn't shown his dark fire, just like my ten little Sophie friends refused to make their appearance, no matter how hard Mavis pushed me.

I still couldn't believe that I was a shield. I mean, I got the visions; they were prominent and frequent, but since the Sophies made their appearance, I hadn't received a single peek of the future.

I made peace with being a shield. I mean, it was better than the visions and having projections. Projections came with loads of responsibility, and according to Mavis, the mysterious kind too.

I didn't know what she meant by that, but I didn't want to find out. I had too many things to dwell over in my mind at nights, stealing my sleep.

"Soph!" Brooke bumped me and I jumped out of my thoughts just as we were ready to step into Sovereign Danish's class. "Have you listened to a thing I've said?"

"Sorry," I whispered. "I struggled to sleep last night and my mind is just going haywire. Sorry. I promise to listen to everything later."

"You okay?" She looked worried, and my grin immediately appeared.

"Yeah, just tired. I don't sleep as well as I wanted to. Always worry about everything."

"I hear you. Two months ago was a huge thing. You really dealt with it like a star, Sophie."

"Yeah, well. I had Nadirah and Mavis. I mean, speaking about it helps."

Nadirah was the psychologist that they made all the survivors see at least once a week.

I saw her about once every two weeks. I mean, I was only there for like a few days, not even a week. The others needed her the most; they were much more traumatized than me, and Drake needed my support the most. Enzo hit him with a dark fire that I kept waiting in agony to jump out and yell boo.

I only saw a glimpse of Enzo's fire that night. The flames still had a bit of an orange hue to it, but the rest was dark. It was weird how I didn't even dream of it when I fell asleep.

Sovereign Danish started immediately with the class. We waited in anticipation for today. Some kids even marked it on their calendars. Today Sovereign Danish was going to start with the Phoenix lecture.

We took our seats as Sovereign Danish sat on the edge of his table. A huge smile adorned his face as we took our seats.

He was always so friendly.

Once everyone was seated, Sovereign Danish started. "I'm sure you are all aware what day this is."

The class sniggered.

"Before we started, I wanted to speak about one of the darkest times that Concordia ever faced. One brave soldier changed it. Who can tell me his name?"

Everyone lifted their hands, including me. We all know this story. Alex told it to me.

"Penny?"

"My uncle," she said, proud and loud.

"I'm afraid not."

Everyone gasped and half the class lowered their hands.

Chase was the only one who had his hand still raised, sort of.

"Mr. Evans."

"Bartolomeo."

"Right you are, Chase." Sovereign Danish hopped from his desk. "Miss Cavenagh, your uncle saved many people, but I was speaking about a time darker than what the Fae endured. The time I'm speaking about was the first dark ages. Who was Bartolomeo, Chase?"

"He was a Phoenix and became the first ruler of Concordia."

More gasps filled the classroom.

"We are covering the Phoenix, guys. You need to know where it all started. What they fought against not just to become the rulers, but why they earned the title. Why they banned magic and their motives behind the law that suppressed the faes and other beings whose lives depended on Magic. Not all of it is evil. I promise."

I looked at Brooke, who frowned. I knew she didn't like the Phoenix Monarchy, but she was just as curious as the rest of us to find out more about them.

"You know what? Better I show you, then tell you. If you are there, then maybe you might understand better than you think."

He swiped his left arm toward the windows and the blinds rolled down, and the orange curtains yanked close.

It became dark, and then a bright light popped in front of the classroom.

My heart pounded as animals and 3D figures of Fae ran out of the light and filled the classroom.

The light faded and transported us to a different scene. We weren't in the classroom anymore, or maybe we were. It was so hard to tell when magic was involved.

Voices seeped through. Women and children screaming, begging for their lives as dark cloaked figures plunder everything in front of them.

"During the dark ages, there was a rebellion known as the Scry. They were intelligent, ruthless and wanted more. More Magic, More Power and they didn't care how they were going to get it," Sovereign Danish spoke.

I watched with wide eyes at everything around me. It looked so real and it hit me full in the face what this was. It was a memory, stored inside a projection.

The only thing that was missing was the icy wind that howled, sensation. But the vibe of how dark those ages clung in the air. It made my heart beat faster and my gut turned in all directions.

Every single one of us turned our heads in all directions not to miss a beat of what was busy playing in front of us.

Dark cloaked figures killed Faes and creatures. They had some sort of necklace with a black stone that sucked up souls. Bright blue spirit figures, leaving the bodies of fae and creatures, seeped into the stone.

They didn't care whether the magic belonged to male, female, child or creature. They just wanted more.

The crying and screaming of the ones that were left behind as they plunder one village after another made me cover my ears. I couldn't handle the sadness and the evil that played off around me.

Then a giant Phoenix appeared on the screen.

Everyone gasped again. I've seen a picture in Father Matthew's book, but I didn't know if any of them saw what one looked like.

They had a panther-like face, was beautiful. This one's eyes were bright blue and his wings looked layered with bright blue fire protruding from it. He had the back of a lion or a panther. Its paws were huge, but it didn't have the front paws. Their wings were their front part.

It was the most beautiful and mesmerizing creature I'd ever seen; they looked nothing like the painting.

The phoenix with other Phoenixes, Spirit Faes, Phoenix Griffins, Chimera's and Manticores, filled the scene and fought against the hooded figures.

They killed every single hooded figure.

The scene changed into a man that had blonde hair with bright blue eyes and his wife next to him. She could almost be his twin, as they looked so similar.

The entire Concordia bowed in front of them as they sat on their thrones. Everything was peaceful again.

The images faded back into the bright light and the class walls seeped through again.

"It's over," Brooke whispered as she touched my arm. I glanced at her and her eyes glistened.

"Not what you expected them to be. The Phoenix wasn't evil, they just did what they thought was best. They banned magic because they know what the world can become if greed took over. Sure, the Scry are still active today, but not as much as they used to anymore."

My eyes glanced back at Brooke. She frowned as she listened to Sovereign Danish.

Chase lifted his arm.

"Chase?"

"So what you want us to believe is that the Phoenix did this for us, to keep us safe."

"I didn't say they were smart."

A group of sniggers roamed the class.

"They lived through one of the darkest times in Concordia's history. It wasn't wise to ban magic, but they weren't completely wrong to contain it a bit. I mean, after King Avery overpowered the Phoenix, we learned how to work with it in a symbiotic environment. We use it only when we need it. Do you think we would've done that if the Phoenix didn't put such a hard lid down on magic?"

Nobody answered.

"Just what I thought. I will assign you in groups of two and in the next three weeks I want you and your partner to write a full detailed report on the Phoenix, and how you would've done it differently."

The bell rang, and we all got up. I didn't know how to feel about the Phoenix after what I'd seen.

I wondered if Alex had seen that projection. The way he spoke about memories as a child, it sounded dark and twisted.

The first chapter of the second book. What do you guys think. Let me know.