"Hm…when was the first time you noticed this?"
"Only found out about it today because I was bending over to get something under the couch and Dyson noticed it and asked me when I got the new ink. I had no idea what he was talking about so he helped me position the mirrors so I could see it. It's not in an easily noticeable location." It wasn't technically a lie. Kenzi was not ready to tell Trick, of all people, that Dyson had found it when she was bending over to pick up the clothes that he had, hours before, unceremoniously ripped from her body.
She heard the slight cough and turned to see the shifter as he tried to hide a mischievous smile. Sure, it wasn't her best cover story, but she was thinking on her feet and the topic of her and Dyson and their downstairs body parts made her mind go a little fuzzy.
"So what's your diagnosis? Oh all knowing Trickster!" Keep things on topic…no see Dyson, no hear Dyson. "Was I drugged and Fae-napped; marked for some kind of sacrifice? What?"
The older man tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile at her overdramatic suspicions. "I don't think you have to worry about being sacrificed, Kenzi. Besides," he continued. "this symbol is a nimbus, or halo. It represents rebirth or resurrection." Trick frowned slightly and she knew what he was thinking.
"So maybe I got it while I was in Valhalla?" Kenzi couldn't help but try to lighten the mood. "Like a going away present or something?" She smiled, but couldn't help thinking that it had to be more than that.
"That might be true; it's not every day someone comes back from the dead. Especially not after almost a year. However," he hedged. "I'd like to have Lauren run some tests on you. There could be an entirely different explanation." Trick did not expound on that and Kenzi was about to let it go when Dyson cut in.
"You think she might be Fae. Don't you?"
Kenzi cut a look at the tall man. She hadn't specifically said not to tell Trick, but she felt she'd been pretty clear that she wasn't ready to come out to the world. She still hadn't wrapped her head around her new life herself.
Dyson acknowledged the look with a shrug. "I'm sorry Kenz, but I think we're at the point where you need some help, and who better than the Blood King."
They looked back to Trick to find his eyes narrowed at them. "What are you not telling me?" he demanded.
"She is Fae; I smelled it on her as soon as she reappeared." Dyson avoided eye contact, knowing the older man would be furious at being kept in the dark about something so serious. "And," he added, "I've seen her power."
The Blood King's eyebrows went sky high at that. "What power?" he asked, although it sounded more like a demand to Kenzi.
"Fire." She said quietly, feeling deflated by the turn in the conversation.
Trick too seemed to have been winded by this news. His shoulders slumped and she only barely heard him whisper, "Pheonix" as he turned and walked away.
"What?" She called after him. "What does that mean?" When she received no answer she turned to her friend recently turned … what was he? Her lover? "What did he mean? Is he sending me to Arizona?" She couldn't quite believe that, but he had looked pissed, and Kenzi couldn't think of a place that would be more of a punishment.
Dyson smiled at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. "No, little girl, he says you are a Pheonix."
"What? Like in Harry Potter? I come back from the dead, right?" This was totally awesome. She had always been the frail, weak human who always needed protecting. Now she had fire AND she would rise from the metaphorical ashes every time she bit it.
"Why aren't you psyched, D?"
"That's hardly the whole story Kenzi." Dyson let his body fall into the couch running his hands over his face. When it was clear that she was waiting on him to elaborate he added, "First off, the Pheonix are practically extinct. I haven't ever seen one, not alive anyway." He paused, took a deep breath and then continued. "That leads to the second issue. Pheonix were hunted for their skin, which was said to have healing properties."
A long moment passed and Kenzi was getting impatient. She knew expressing emotion wasn't one of the wolf's strong suites, but this was her life they were talking about. "Ok, I get it." She finally broke into the silence. "No one around to teach me how to be a Pheonix and the possibility of being hunted down and skinned. Not good! But I get the feeling you haven't told me everything."
His light blue eyes found her grey ones. He looked so sad. "What is it D?" She was getting worried.
"If the legends are true, Pheonix can live for thousands of years." Ok so what's the deal?
"If they are killed, their bodies must be burned so that they may rise from the ashes. But their past lives are gone. They start out a completely blank slate."
Kenzi felt her mouth go wide in astonishment. Not remember anything. Not herself, her past, her friends. Not Hale or Bo; not Dyson. It was unimaginable. In an effort to prove this impossible Kenzi brought up what experience she did have with resurrection. "What about when I came back from Valhalla? I mean there are a few blank spots and some blurry memories, but I am definitely Kenzi. No blank slate here."
Dyson must have sensed her despair. He had closed the distance between them in only two steps and held her shoulders in his large hands. She could feel his fingertips dig into her shoulder blades. He hunched down so as to look her straight in the eye. "You weren't the Pheonix when you died, Kenzi, and you weren't burned. This is the beginning of your first life as the Pheonix and by some wonderful hand of fate you have come back intact, but who knows what will happen if you do die. You may come back in the same body, but you might not be Kenzi anymore. You might be gone." As he spoke, she watched fear enter his gaze and a tear rolled down his cheek. He crushed her to him and she squeezed him back with all the strength she had, acknowledging that a future where she could not remember him would be a great loss indeed.