The Lost One: Chapter Two

The Legion of Thieves 

The Lost One

II

Anastasia Quinn

“Ow. We’re in a police station, Max!” Ania reminded—more like shouted at him. She could barely hear anything after that ear-piercing taxicab whistle Max made. She covered her ears, but there was still that ringing in her ears. Max’s mouth was moving; probably saying some clever joke in his British accent. She caught parts of what he was saying under the muffled sounds of his voice. “Calling... ride.... painful... face... funny.”

“What?” She yelled. Her hearing came back, and she realized how loud she was. Ania cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure the only cars you’re gonna get a ride from are these police cars.”

The ringing in her ear came back again and she silently cursed that darn whistle. They both looked at the array of police cars in the parking lot they were in. Most were unoccupied and she was pretty sure she felt a few of them being unlocked—a lovely reminder of how she was still Hermes's kid.

“How tempting.” He smirked at her. “But we’ll never get there in time.” True. He looked up in the sky, his features less shiny than in the morning. Ania, curious, looked up to where he was looking. There was nothing interesting about the moonless night sky. It was a bit chilly though, she regretted wearing a skirt that evening.

“So how do you expect us to travel all the way to the Washington Monument as fast as possible?” she asked. She didn’t have any cool travelling magic, so transportation for her was sticking with stolen cars. Max called her, and when she saw the flurry of red, gold and blue feathers sitting on his shoulder, stealing a police car and end up getting caught sounded much better for her.

“Oh, gods no.”

Five seconds later, Ania found herself thousands of feet above the ground with her life depending on the grip of Max’s phoenix on her denim jacket. To be honest, she was a fan of neither of plummeting to her death nor birds—she was leaning more on the former. The latter was an embarrassing fear she never wanted to admit.

“I’m gonna die!” Ania kept kicking the air, screaming and holding onto the bird’s claw for dear life.

“Relax! Myriah’s the strongest phoenix I’ve ever met!” He yelled over the rushing wind. That didn’t reassure her at all.

“Really?! And just how many other phoenixes have you met?” she said sarcastically.

“None!” He laughed. His smile was literally glowing, like a thousand watt light bulb. His aura was so light and friendly, it affected Ania. She almost caught herself enjoying the ride. Almost.

A silhouette of a man floated in the air a few feet away from them. He hovered the place like the whole place was a map and he was looking for something. It must’ve been Xaro because Max ordered Myriah to land near him. They landed near the strip of water, Ania couldn’t have been happier lying on the grass. Xaro floated down to them, still a few feet above the ground, and cut to the chase. Clearly, there was no time to lose.

“Ania, Max, just in time. I need you two to search those areas for Michael.” He pointed at the left side of the pond, covering the entire woods on the left. “I’m going above ground to get a better view, if you see anything suspicious, you contact me immediately.”

“Yes, sir,” Ania saluted.

“He can’t have run off too far.” He said as if he couldn’t believe it. “I’ve already sent the others to different areas. We need to find him as soon as possible.”

Xaro disappeared in the sky, leaving Max and Ania staring up in the sky.

“How hard is it to find one small missing boy?” Max asked.

Ania sighed, “Apparently hard.”

“C’mon, let’s go find this lost boy.” Max led them to the woods, where one boy could be anywhere.

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WIP