He nods, keeps quiet, and pockets all of it. We sit and talk a little while longer, but he’s too excited to stay for long. He heads on home, talking about some video he’s already got in the works. I nod him off as the sun starts to rise. It’s quiet now. Later today, the Ashlords who board their horses here will start to arrive. They’ll come to collect their phoenixes so that they can ride them into the kind of bloody battles this world hasn’t seen in decades.

There’s more than enough work to keep me busy, but I sit up on the nearest fence and watch the sunrise instead. I don’t know if Imelda’s alive. I really don’t. But today it’s enough to stand here watching the sunrise and hope that somewhere she’s setting out her ashes, adding all the right components, and resurrecting a beautiful new phoenix.

I like to think that someday she’ll ride it back to us.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have to start by thanking the Reintgen boys. I’m the middle child in a set of three boys. My dad was an ACC championship wrestler at UNC. It should come as no surprise that the four of us competed at everything. My earliest memories are of racing my brothers through grocery store parking lots, knowing the first one to touch the car could claim shotgun. We were each other’s test subjects for every soccer move, every fadeaway jumper, every new video game discovery. The fire and competition that this book is built around was learned through a lifetime with each of them. Which reminds me, any of you have a sheep for trade?

The second group that deserves thanks for this story is my writing group and beta readers. This particular story needed as much of their help as it could get. Back in 2013, I had an idea for a story about a young girl (you know her as Quinn) who has to race through four different dimensions to earn her freedom. It was a really fun story. When I finished, I sent it to my trusted writing group. Every early reader adored the phoenix horses. I’d always ask about the other races, and they’d shrug before continuing to praise the phoenixes. Eventually, I took the hint. With their advice guiding me, I cut the other races to focus on this world. This story would not be what it is without that brilliant group.